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

Regis* ewe Rego ate oordooodesst„
down that the -Bishop should give
Tben ewe the cerenodigalfor tie Qi

ad coreoanduss; evidently going ui
that the Queen should be crowned
its the red book of the Exchequer, th,
if Henry the Third's Queen, one t.
claimed, by ancient right of his progenitor, to be Chain,
borlain to the Quern, and to keep the door of her cham-
ber upon the day of her Coronation, and afterwards to
hare her bed, and all it% appurtenances, as the fees be-
longing to his office. This right was mentioned in
another place, where speaking of the same Gilbert de
Sandford. it was stated, that by virtue of his holding
certain manors—" lie be Chimherlain to the Lady the
Queen on that day ;" meaning the day of the Corona-
tion. It further appeared, in the red book of the Ex-
chequer, folio 232, that Robert Very, Earl of Oxford,
son of Alice de Vere, at the Coronation of the Queen of
Richard the Second, held this office from his ancestor,
Gilbert de Sandford. Similar rights were recognized by
the summonses and proelainatioes, which commanded
all those to attend who claimed services or appointments
at the Coronation of the Queens. This would be found
in the summons for the Coronation of Catherine, the
Queen of Edward the First, and of Phillippa, the Qesen
of Henry, the Third, who had been previously crown♦
alone. At the Coronation of Richard'i Queen, there
was also an order to the Sheriffs to make the same pro-
clamation. Another claim was also noticed here, namely.
*bat of Reginald Grey de Rao, to be Cuturer to the
Queen. The proclamation of the C%ronatio4 9i Elisabeth,
the Queen of Henry the Seventh, also rommiaded the at-
tendance of those who bad to perform.aeevices to the
Queen.
The LORD CHANCILI.OII.-IVhere do vou find that?
We have not a copy of it before us. 1 think.
Mr. Bnotatusn observed, that it was in Ruiner. It
was not the proclamation for the Coronation, but for the
attendance of all persons who had servitms to perform,
or otherwise bore parts in the solemnity. And their
Lordships would hear in mind, that in the case of the
last Queen, a second proclamation was issued for her
Coronation owing to the intervention of the Royal Nup-
tials. This Presiamation commanded the attendance
of all persons claiming the right of services, at such
Coronation, namely, the Coronation of the Queen
Consort.

The Earl of LivrarooL.—" Mr. Brougham, what is
the date of the earliest document you have regarding the
Coronation of a Queen Consort, and does it refer to a
separate one, or where the King and Queen were crowned
together ?
Mr. Baouoliast said lie could inform their Lordships
in a few moments, hut he was not prepared to frfive an
answer on the instant. At any rate it was as far back
as the coronation of Phillippa, Queen of Edward •the
Third. Whim it would be seen, that there were the rights
of others interwoven with the right of the Queen—
rights which they could only enjoy when the Queen ex-
ercised her right. There were the 'services, there were
the claims, and the separate and distinct proclamations ;
and could the whole mean nothing, absolutely nothing?
Was all unsubstantial form ? Was all hat might, or
might not, be performed ? Was that which had always
been an integral part of the Coronation, when the King
WAS married, unimportant and insignificant ? When the
Queen's right was connected with the legal rights of
other persons, could any one pronounce it to be possible
that a right so used and connected was absolutely no-
thing ? Of all suppositions, that be thought would be
the most violent one. He might not be able to divine
how the right bail originated—he might not be able to
show what was the intendment of a coronation—he
might not be able to pole,' it out as .a principle of the
Constitution, as far as deettnients •were concerned; bet
if be could demonstrate what had been the facts, the
presumption would be in favour of the principle. This
inability to adduce evidence on sonic points, ought to
be no argument against him here. He would therefore
again ask, could such a solemnity, which had been per-
formed with so little interruption, be a inatt.r to indif-
ferent as to render it of no conseipience whether it was
enjoyed or not ? They who denied the existence of such
a right, were hound to show how it had existed at all.
if it were optional with the King, whether the right
should be enjoyed or not, it meant nothing. This he
would lay down with the greatest confidence, as a
principle of Constitutional law. There was, he main-
tained, no usage of any magnitude that existed at the
Sovereign's pleasure. To assert the contrary would
be to say that the King reigned not fur the realm's
benefit; but fur his own private ends. The law held that
such important ceremonies were for the realm's benefit ;
and every solemnity, the origin of which was lost in an-
tiquity, and the observance of which occupied a great
share in the annals of the country must on that account
be considered a light of the realm and not an appendage
of the King. Ile held that a coronation was of this na-
ture. Long before the Art of William and Mary, re-
seeding the Coronation Oath, fire. it was taken to be a
high and ancient ceremony, with which the King could
not dispense. It was a right not of the person but of
the Sovereign, to be exercised fur the benefit of the
realm, and as a Sovereign only he was only known in
that solemnity. The Sovereign was the mere creature
of the law, as those solemnities were the creatures of
the creatures of the law; and the Sovereig, had only
to execute those solemnities of the realm for the benefit
of the realm. Those who said that the Queen's Coro-
nation depended upon the King's pleasure, must be pre-
pared to go another step, and say of the King's Coro-
nation that it also depended upon his will. and that it
was a mere vain and empty ceremony,—an insignificant,
an unmeaning pageant ; for it must be so, if it depended
upon his will whether it should be or not. He was at a
loss to know how this ceremony could he considered as
the mere personal right ; as bilongiim nthe man and
not to the Sovereign. How could It beklil that lie was
not there in his political capacity, wheirperhaps of all
other occasions, it was then that his political capacity
stood most forward, and that his personal existence was
most deeply merged. The Coronation of the Queen
rested precisely upon the same feeling.; it was a right
as ancient, and as constantly exercised as that of the
King. With respect to the principle itself, though
not bound to show it, still he would deal a little
with that part of the question, becomes he thought
that the reasoning would throw much light upon
the subject. It was, he said, likely that, in
ancient times, the Coronation was much more than a
ceremony,—it was an acknowledgement, or probably
the election of the Monarch—at which the King and
Queen were sitewn to the people for their approbation :
when the King was held up for the approbation of the
people. every one would discover a good reason for hold-
ing up the Queen also, on account of her place, her na-
tural connection with the King. The necessary connec-
tion with the rest of the Royal Family made her an im-
portant and necessary figure in the Royal ceremony. He
then referred to a Charter of the fifth year of the reign of
John, in which there was a grantor dower to his daugh-
ter Isabella, referring to the Coronation of his Queen.
It stated that she had been crowned with the common
comet of the Barons. Clergy and the People. He pro-
ceeded to show the importance of acknowledging in
every public manner the rights of the Queen of England
—tits necessity of holding her up not only as pure. but
with conduct above suspicion. It was from her that the
rightful successors of the Crown were to issue; and it
was above all things necessary that the legitimacy of
that issue should be without taint or suspicion, in
order to prevent the greatest domestic calamity-1-' adis-
rued Succession epos an undisputed Succession, the
peace and prosperity of the Crowudepeaded. It was with

•

as related to the
.4 made no distinc
Queen advanced in
nd of eighty Tsars
anxiety the Royal
existence. The
. proceeded to combat .he
argument that the Coronation of the Queen depended en-
tirely upon the Proclamation of the King—the right of
the subject depended upon the Crown, issuing a writ of
right in some cases, a Royal Proclantationt in others.—
Here he referred to the usual gammons issued to an'
Barl's el.lest son, to the issuing ofa Proclamation in the
case of prizes, and lastly, to the issuing of a Proclama-
tion for the calling of Parliaments.- These different
rights depended upon the Crown issuing its Proclama-
tion ; they could not be excused or enjoyed without that
Proclamation or summons ; but then the question was,
was the Crown bound to issue Proclamations in the one
case, or its writ, or its summons in the other ? He con-
tended that it would be monstrous to say that the Crown
was not bound, strictly bound, to issue such writ, sum-
mons, or Proclamation. In case the Crown delayed, or
refused to do so, he was not bound to say what mode
was to be taken by the aggrieved subjects. Possibly
impeachment would bh the remedy. It was enough
for him to say that the Crown was bound—that it could
not refuse to issue its Writ or its Proclamation ; and
that with respect to the Coronation of bey Majesty, the
right was equally clear,and the necessity equally obvious
and imperative. Put the Queen's Claims upon the same
grounds as the rights of the people, and he was satisfied.
He had heard it said that the Queen was no corporation,
and had no right of prescription. Sbe was as much
a corporation as the King. And be would say that
she could prescribe as a functionary, and by virtue of
the dignity and authority of her office. Lord Chief
Baron Comyn laid it down that officers could prescribe,
and instanced the right ofa Chancellor so to do. In the
Second Roll, 264, it was also laid down that a Sergeant,
Attorney, and Under Sheriff, might prescribe as for
themsels es, and all persons holding such offices. He
should not now detain their Lordships further. These
were the legal arguments which he had to submit to
the Council as to the rights of the Queen. With all
the questions connected with the facts, he had now no
concern. All the circumstances of the times he had
carefully avoided. Ile had confined himself strictly to
the legal question, and he had been happy to know that
he was addressing himself to lawyers. The circumstances
under which their Lordships decision would he given,
and the various contentions by which the country had
been distracted, would hereafter cease to operate upon
men's minds; unless, indeed, they should be resorted
to, to explain an otherwise inexplicable judgment.—
In distant ages men might be occupied, as they had
been, in searching into all the monuments of Saxon jus-
tice, and in endeavouring to penetrate the feudal obscu-
rities of Norinlin tyranny; and then they would also sit
in judgment tipon the great Lawyers of the 19th cen-
tury. And it was his earnest hope, that finding no
difficulty, they would not have to seek as we had done,
but to took to the first decision that will have Seen
given, with all that confidence which the great names
that must descend with it were calculated to inspire;
and most anxiously did he hope that there would be no-
thing in that judgment which would tend to derogate
from their confidence, or to lessen its authority.
Mr. !UNMAN said, if it had fallen to his lot to have
first addressed their Lordships in support of the claim of
his Royal Mistress, be should have feared to have left
any thing untouched; hut coining as he did after his
Learned Friend, the fear he then entertained was of a
quite opposite nature, as he now feared to attempt to
throw light on what was already sufficiently clear. Bat
in a rase of so momentous, so great, so important a na-
ture, so interwoven in the venerable institutions of the
land, so intcrestiug as affecting kingly government and
privileges, and so sure to guide the decisions of all
iuture questions of the same description, it would be
inexcusable in him if he did not make those observations
which suggested themselves to him even under the disad-
vantages with which he had to contend. To their Lord-
ships, lie had only to premi,e that he was afraid he should
eisher compromise the cke.r right of his illustrious client
if Ise urged. her claim as if it were favour, and resorted to
the language of deprecation ; or that if he stated her claim
with the boldness which an undoubted right inspired,
he should seem wanting in respect to their Lordships,
when he anticipated too confidently the judgment they
must give. lie prefaced, therefore, his argument by
protesting, that neither would he be understood to com-
promise the:right of the Queen of England if be spoki
too humbly, nor that he should be considered disre-
spectful toward their Lordships, if be confidently urged
them to vindicate that clear right by their judgment.—
The ceremonial of the Coronation of the Kings and
Queens of England might be considered in various
lights, as an ancient custom, as a solemn compact with
the people, as a religions ceseinony, or as an august ex-
hibition ; and in all that fell from him in considering
its more solemn character, lie considered no reflection
on what was mere ceremonial or nothing more than ex-
hibition. Those who supported the claim of her Mr
jests hail neither there nor elsewhere spoken of disre-
spect of the ceremony of the Coronation. Much de-
pended in a free state on the long train of recollections
which connected the people with the origin of their insti-
tutions ; there was something, too, in such a ceremonial
which gave every individual pride in the sense of the
security of Isis own rights, and of the stability of the
social state, by seine the rights of others, his fellow-
subjects and Lis Sovereign, upheld in the integrity ,
their rights from the time of the darkest antiquity.
To be without the feelings derived from such recollec-
tions of antiquity, was no small disadvantage. It was
observed by an knglish traveller in America, who spoke
with rapture of the state of comfort and abundance in
which the people lived, that there was one defect Which
time only could supply,—the recollections of ;antiquity.
That disadvantage was not overlooked by that illus-
trious individual whose death had been recently an-
nounced, who crowned with the splendour of great&
exploits than ever surrounded any man in the occupa-
tion of a soldier, was yet unable to create without
burrowing from the recollection of the past, that no-
bility which he conceived to be essential to the exist-
ence of monarchy in France. He (Mr. D.)spoke there-
fore with the reverence due to long established cere-
mony and to custom, but it would strip the ceremony
of its highest value if it was disconnected with its po-
litical uses, the ends fur which it was instituted, and
with reference to which, it must be solemnised. He
would venture to apply to it lines well known to all
their Lordships—
" This is the English not the Turkish Court,
Not Amuratlu to Ainurath succeeds,
But Harry, Harry."
They had therefore, to consider the situation in which
the Monarch of this State Was placed, and to trace what
might now appear a mere theatrical exhibition to the
principles of the Constitution of the nation, and thence
to the principles which were found in the Constitution
and nature of men. The Coronatioas of the Kings and
Queens of Knitted rested on custom and melon; alone.
here was no positive law which authorised the King -
call the people to witness the placing of the Crown
his head. It was a ceremonial which derived the fol e
of law from its great antiquity, and from the same .
liquify the Crowning of the Queen was derived as well
as that of the King, and wherever a Queen Consort
isted at the time of . the King's Csaroaation, never
froia that high antiquity was the King crowned without
bar being crowned also, except from ctrammtaaoss of
resistible necessity.

1" STATE,SIMA:
andshere it was laid that view that the Law Of Treason. %%far
the gospel to each. conduct of the Qualm depended. The law
lueen,—ii Si Refine ►ion between a yeiag Quesa awl a Qut
upon the supposition life—between a Queen of eighteen and
alone. It appeared of age—the law-goarded with equal aw
tint at the Coronat►on bed to the last hoar of the Queen's e
Gallire de Sandford Learned Gentleman then next proceeds