The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-07-06 00:00:00

be taken with all its incidents and all its inconveni.
encee ; and that no rile of law was so clear as th
which laid down that no man could take the benefit
without the conviction. 'I o shew that the Coro-
nation of the Queen Consort came nithin this position,
the Learned Gentleman went Into an elaborate examl•
nation of the English History, from the earliest Saxon
accounts. The great body of authority oa this 11.•a•t
was, he contended, in favour of the right.
From the conquest he cited twenty-seven instances
of the Coronation of English Queens ; and
in remarking upon the instances where a married
King of England was crowned without his wife. h •
sliest ed some circumstances explanatory of the omission.
The case of Henn• VIII. for instance he II ht
not an adriseable precedent to he cited nit!' respell
tea Ki•ig's conduct towards his wife. Resides three of has
four wives, after the beheading of .% 1:91 Boleyn were
his subjects before marriage, and they might feel dis •
posed not to insist upon the right. The fon: th (Anne
of Cleves) was his wife for a very short time, and
was glad to give up the office. There was,
however, an earlier instance of Otis omission
In the case of the first wife of Kirg John, who cer-
tainly was not crowned with him; hut this was ex-
pleined from the circumstance of an Archbishop bay-
ing declared the marriage illegal on the ground of
consanguinity. The case of Henrietta Maria, the
wife of Charles the First, was easily explained—
she was included in the Proclamation; but she was a
Catholic ; she was unpopular ; she waived the right,
and the waiver was a powerful argument to shen• the
existence of the right. It was the misfortune of he-
present Majesty that sbe could not waive this right wit h
out submitting to ungrounded imputations on her honor.
The case of the wife of George the First, was entirely
out of the question. She was divorced before the Co-
ronation of her husband ; but had that King married
again with any continental Princess, there was no
doubt that her relatives would have insisted on
her public Coronation to remove all doubt.—
Much might be said in this part of the case upon the
propriety of crowning her Majesty, not, indeed, to r:'-
wore doubts, but to remove surmises. It sometimes
happened that rumours of an unhappy nature were dis-
seminated among the common people, he felt unwilling
to allude to those rumours, but wherever they did ex-
ist it was at all times necessary to act, so as effectually
to remove them. If it were said rt. instance
that a private marriage existed in such a case
this ceremony of Coronation became the more ne-
cessary, to shew dearly which was the lawful wife.
la further support of the right the Learned Gentleman
referred to Selden's Titles of Honour, Rolle's Abridg-
ment, Conlyn's Digest, and other works of celebrity
in the English law. On the first he relied, from e
minuteness with which the Learned Author had de-
scribed the right of the Queen Cousort, and the
part she took in the ceremony of the Coronation ;
and he referred to the others to shew, that
assuming (for the argumeats sake) that the Queen
was not a Corporation, yet that her station was that of
a public functionary, with privileges and offices
attached to it by prescription, and which privileges
and offices, though obtainable only through
the Crown, could not be taken away. if the
right in question existed, a refusal to grant it
would destroy the force of the approaching ceremony,
and weaken that allegiance which it was intended to
strengthen ; because the refusal would be a violation
of that very custom upon which the Coronation was
justified, and from which it derived much
of its effect. Suppose for instance, the King were
to make an order to exclude all Peers from the
ceremony. Would not this be a violation of the
established custom, and consequently render nu-
gatory a proceeding which derived its force
front that previously established custom ?—Yet,
was the right of her Majesty, he contended, as
clear as that of any Peer of the Realm. It was custom
alone which enabled Jurors in many cases to sit in
Judgment upon the lives of their fellow subjects ; and
it was custom alone which ensured to every subject
the possession and enjoyment of his property. Upon
custom, therefore, I oig established, and enjoyo►ctnt
rarely interrupted, did he found his claim on the part
of his illustrious client, contending that where this
enjoyment was interrupted, it was capable of explana-
tion, and that this explanation gave increased weight
to the claim of right. It was demanded as a right;
because if it was a favour her Majesty could neither
ask nor accept. " Would to God," said the Learned
Gentleman, " that her Majesty was in a situation
either to give up the right or accept the fsvone
It was impossible for a moment to suppose that be-
cause most of her illustrious relatives were dead, be-
cause her father-in-law could no longer take her under
his protection, and because no earthly power existed
to enforce her claims that Englishmen were less alive to
her interests, or less disposed to do her justice. If
her rights are in this instance to be set aside, what
are the evils likely to result from such a decision ?
It is obvious that the Coronation rests on custom only.
Why! the Crown itself rests on custom. Why do we
submit to be governed by a King ? because that office
has existed time immemorial. Ent then we must take
the office with all that belongs to it ; with all the dip-
skies and rights it confers. Why do Juries dispose
of the property and persons of the County ; the right
is only derived from custom. All property Is
derived from prescription or prescriptive rights.—
It was the duty of the Queen not to let the rights of
Queen Consort to suffer, not only on her ou•n ac-
count, but on account of those who have to come after
her; and no injury can be sustained by her which
may not, in some degree, refer to any individual in
the realm. He submitted that he bad made out such
a ease as could nut be got over by any Court of Justice.
—The claim was put forth by her Majesty in
self-defence; because she could not forego it without
sacrificing her honour ; dearer to her than life itself.
Had she been content to purchase tranquillity with the
loss of that honour,she might have done so ; but she re-
fused with that magnanimity so peculiar tuber character.
Ho rested her case with confidence in the hands of
their Lordships. Her Majesty /poked forward to
thee decision with equal confidence, and without me-
picion ; and she would at all events meet their jadg- •
meat with perfect resignation.
The Court was then adjourned un►il to-morrow ; it
being first understood that lathe Interim her .Majesty's
Counsel were to be furnished with copies of certain
search, the inspection of whkh they considered neees-
eery.