The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-24 00:00:00

PRECEDENCE OF PRINCE ALBERT.

(From the Spectator.)
In the bill now prepared, or in preparation, for naturaliz-
ing the Queen's future husband, it is proposed to give sa power
for conferring precedence upon► Prince Albert above her Ma-
jesty's uncles, the Dukes of the Blood Royal. This, we
believe, would be not only unprecedented, but contrary to
all principle applicable to such matters. By the common law
the Sovereign might confer on his subjects whatsoever place
and precedency he thought proper; but it has been held that
the statute 31st Henry VIII. for " placing the lords," re-
strains the crown from granting to a peer a higher place than
the date of his patent would entitle him to claim ; and under
the Acts of Union with Scotland and Ireland, the crown can-
not, by its own authority, grant to persons not peers prece-
dency over peers, or assign to any .peer a place higher than
belongs to the date or his creation. An'•act of parliament,
therefore, becomes necessary to enabje.her Majesty to bestow
upon -Prince Albert the rank and precedence destined for.
him in the royal inclination.
Should parliament pass the bill for the purpose mentioned,
it will become a party to the degradation of the Blood Royal.
Next to the King, the Royal Family are held in highest
consideration by the law. Although the wives of the King's
sons, grandsons, brothers, and nephews, are held to be part
of the Royal Family, the law does not invest with the same
character the husband of any female relation whatever, not
even of the sovereign's only child, heiress presumptive to
the crown. The constitution takes no cognizance of any
male relation of the Royal Family by marriage; limiting its
regards to those who may succeed to the throne, or from
whom the right of succession may be derived. For these
reasons; members of the Blood Royal have'always occupied
a higher station in the country than. any other persons what-
soever save the sovereign, and have never been postponed in
rank to any others. By the common law and by the statute
their rank has been fixed ; and to place any person between
them and the throne is a violation of an established right, if
not inconsistent with the principles on which the English
monarchy is founded.
No similar usurpation to that now in contemplation has
ever. been attempted. The English history furnishes no in-
stance of any person not of the Blood Royal taking prece-
dence of the Blood Royal ; and we can only discover three
cases in which individuals have been placed above the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Great Officers of State. Prince
George of Denmark was invested by the statute Ist William
and Mary with that privilege; but his son, the young Dukre
of Gloucester, ranked before his own father, because he was
of the Blood Royal. After Queen Anne came to the throne,
Prince George, her husband, obtained no higher rank. The
Princess Sophia, her son, the Elector of Hanover, and the
Duke of Cambridge his son, were authorised to take place
before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Great Officers of
State, the Dukes and other Peers, by an act passed in the
10th of Anne. Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg obtained a
similar precedence by act of parliament—the exception of
the Dukes of the Blood Royal being especially named in his
case.

Thus it appears that there is neither principle, law, nor
practice in favour of the measure by which it is proposed to
thrust aside the Dukes of the Blood Royal to make a place
for Prince Albert nearest to a throne which his birth forbids
that he should ever inherit.

The thing may be done, nevertheless. The Whig minis-
ters are ready to gratify the Queen in this matter. Will they,
indeed, stick at any thing to retain the Royal favour? The
Duke of Sussex has been applied to for his consent ; his Royal
Highness has not refused, and it is thought that promise of
the additional income so shabbily denied to him last session
might, in a peat degree, overcome his scruples. The Duke
of Cambridge has undertaken to waive his claims ; and it is
not unlikely that his complaisance may be rewarded by the
command of the army. His Majesty the King of Hanover,
heir presumptive to the Crown of these realms, may not be
so easily sopped ; he is the person most particularly affronted
by the intrusion of a stranger into a place never before occu-
pied save by a prince or princess of the Royal Blood.
As to the House of Commons, their consent may be relied
upon ; a majority of five, or of two, will be sufficient. Our
curiosity is to see how the Lords will act. Will they agree
to degrade the Blood Royal of England ?—will they be won
over to sanction a violation of the principles of the monarchy?

If the Royal Dukes consent to be degraded, and Lords and
Commons are ready to aid in the Prince's elevation above
the children of George the Third, so be it. But let there be
no complaint in future of popular want of veneration for "il-
lustrious" blood. .