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

FIRE AT NEW ORLEINS.

By the Emma which arrived yesterday after a short
passage, we learn that a lire broke out at New Orleans
on the morning of the lttli inst., which destroyed seve-
ral buildings and MO bales of cotton. The whole
amount of the loss sustained in cotton and buildings is
not short of 100,000 dollars; all destroyed in the space
of one hour.

A statement has been iatinstriously propagated re
'Ave to the proximate cause of BONAPARTE'S de-
cease, with a view to relieve compassionate minds from
the apprehension that the place or circumstances of his
confinement were accessories or accelerators of that
event. That the disease assigned could have been
hereditary :we will not presume to deny ; but this we will
venture to assert, that previous to the circulation of the
report to which we allude, a different disease from
that of cancer bad been stated to have been the
fatal cause. The complaint was alleged to have been
an affection of the liver; and it was affirmed that on
examination of the body after death, that viscus was
found to be adhering to the side. We do not pretend
that this statement is more correct than that in com-
mon currency, but we can declare that it proceeded
from as high authority as the other. The circulation
of these different stories only proves the extreme soli-
citude of the parties by whom they were issued
to remove, if possible, all grounds of painful reflection.

The French Minister has declared his intention of
makings lean immediately of ten millions of rentes.
We state from authority that Parliament is to be
prorogued by Commissioners, and not by his Majesty
in person. Wednesday is mentioned u the day on
which the prorogation is to take place.
The Marquess of Anglesea had an audience of the
King yesterday.
The following are to be British Peen :—Lord J.
Murray, Sir Thomas Liddell, Bart., Sir Thomas Free.
man Heathcote, Bart., Right Hon. W. Wellesley Pole,
Cecil Weld Forrester, Esq., Mr. Cholmondeley, (Che-
shire,) the Marquess of Conyngham, Lady Charlotte
Strutt to bea Baroness, the Earl of Aylesbury to be a
Marquess. Sir W. Wynn has declined a Barony.
INSTALLATION.—Orden have been received, we on-
dentand, to make the most immediate and speedy pre-
parations fur an Installation of the Knights of St.
Patrick, during his Majesty's stay in Dublin.—(Duh-
lin Morning Post.)
LUCCA, Juz 17.- -News from Malta, dated the 24th of
~May, which was received in Leghorn on the 10th of
June, states, that eleven thousand English troops have
arrived in that island, to reinforce the garrisons of the
lonian Islands.

THE QUEEN'S CASE.

-.....a1w.--

PRIVY COUNCIL.-Thu DAT.

The attendance of the Privy Councillors this morning
was numerous, and consisted nearly of the same Mem-
bers as we announced yesterday. At a quarter put ten,
strangers Were allowed to enter, and the Attorney-Ge-
neral was requested to proceed with his reply to the ar-
guments of her Majesty's Counsel.
He commenced by stating, that he should submit to their
Lordships attention such observations as had occurred
to him after a diligent consideration of the subject of
her Majesty's Claim to be Crowned. In his opinion
this claim clearly originated in no known principle, and
was not recognised by any known law. The right of
a Queen Consort to be crowned had not been mentioned
by any writer on the law of the country, or by any per-
son who had made the rights and privileges of the
people the subject of their investigation. The grounds
on which the present right was attempted to be found-
ed was, the usage which had taken place.—
Now the circumstances attending the exercise of
that right must be taken into consideration ; in
his opinion it might clearly be shewn that those
circumstances were of a mature to prove that the
usage in this case was materially different from thao
usage which established other rights, such as thi
right of way, &c. If it appeared by the argu-
ments that he intended to adduce, that the right
of a Queen Consort to be crowned had been exer-
t cised by licence, then there would be an end of the in-
ference arsing from usage. It would be necessary, there-
fore, to enquire what way it had been exercised in this
case. He contended that the usage, as it had existed,
tended directly to show that a Coronation with respect
'to a Queen Consort was a mere ceremony, performed by
I permission of the King. The ceremony with regard
I to the King and a Queen Consort was different in its ori-
gin. As to the King, a Coronation was political. As to
the Queen, a mere ceremony. It was a solemn re-
cognition of his claim to the throne on the part
of the people; and on his part, a solemn compactk
to preserve inviolate the laws and institutions of thi
country. It was then more than mere ceremony, be-
cause thus accompanied bye political act, viz. the recog-
nition and compact also invariably directed the time and
place of the ceremony. But the Queen Consort filled
no political character, there was not so much as a re-
cognition from the people, or a compact on her side.
The King might abstain at will altogether from
the ceremony, but which no monarch ought to be
advised to do. Most of the great Law writers
maintained that it was not necessary with regard to the
King. Lord Coke said that it was not necessary, but
that it added to the strength of the reigning monarch.
Henry VI. was not crowned till the 6th year of hisreign.
Lord Hale followed the opinion laid down by Lord Coke
in Calvin's case : in his pleas of the Crown, he asserts
that the Coronation is only a ceremony to be performed
or abstained from, at the pleasure of the King. If then
the Coronation of the King rested with himself, it fol-
lows ofisrtiori that it mast depend on hie will whether
the Queen were entwine or not. These wee no trace
of a right of a Queen Consort to be crowned, to be
found in any law book. The Statute of First William
and Mary was important; it clearly applied to a Queen
Regnant, not a Queen Consort. A distinction had
been attempted to be made between the right of a
Queen who was married after a Coronation, and a
Queen married previously to it; but it clearly rip-
peered that if a right existed in the latter case, it would
be acquired in the former. It appeared from Seldon that
the usage was against &Queen Consort, for he considered
that the Coronation altogether proceeded from the will
of the King. One of the Roman Customs was
somewhat similar to the usage in this case, for
the title of Augustus being conferred on an Emperor
did not give • participation of the honor to
his Consort, unless it coincided with his will and plea-
sure, that it should. Selden, in treating of the customs
of the West Saxons, mentions an instance where a
Queen Consort was deprived of the honor of being
crowned, owing to some misconduct. He (the
Attorney-General) then took a short review of the
practice in early times, and proceeded to state that
if the Queen Consort could come with a memorial
to the King, praying that she should be crowned, she
could also come with a memorial demanding that be
should himself be crowned, in order that her coronation
might form an adjunct or accessary part of the cere-
mony. In most states it had been the custom for the
monarch to honour his consort with a participa•
tion in the coronation; but this honour proceeded en-
tirely from the will and pleasure of the monarch
It bad been attempted to be shewn by an old Statute is
the History of Scotland, that a Queen Consort receZ
an oath of allegiance. The Statute referred to
dated 1429, and evidently referred to a Queen Regailt;
and had been published at the time with reference
to that particular Queen, and not to act in perpetuaate.
That kingdom was then in a state of great trouble, and
the King probably having had the Oath of Allegiance
taken to him previously, wished to establish his right to
the Throne in case his Consort should die drat. There
was another Statute dated 1436, of the same Monarch,
wherein the words our Lady the Queen,' evidently re-
ferred to a Queen Regnant. Mr. Pinkerton had given
the same reading to it as he (the Attorney-General) had.
All legal writers, he continued, were silent upon the
subject of the Coronation. Bretton, who is precise, was
silent as to any ceremony in reference to the Queen
Consort. How then, were they to menet for the absence
of all authority attributing the privilege to her. The Chief
Baron Cummins spoke Other ceremony only is regard
to the King. He treated separately of the Queen, men-
tions all her privileges, but is wholly silent with respect
to her Coronation. Not one word of such right, either
as a personal or public right, nor of the rights of those
persons claiming to perform services. Blackstose has
a chapter on the Queen, bat not a word about Coronation.
Her Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor General bad
taken a review of the different Coronations. They bad
begun with William the Conqueror. The reason why
his Queen was not crowned were satisfactory. William
Wes was not married. No argument is that cam
was furnished either way. Hwy 1. was not married