The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-04-03
Royal Precedence in Public Prayers.

To TIE Editor of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser q:
SIR The editorial in this months Ha1uaiian
Church Messenger is devoted to the question of pre-
cedence in the prayer for the Royal Family. There
are many who would repel any attempt to fasten on
the Anglican Mission a charge of disloyalty, but who
nevertheless venture to regard the system of prece-
dence adopted by the Bishop as incorrect And
there does not appear to be any real analogy between
the cases cited by the editor of the Ha,1afian Church
Messenger and the cases before us.
I'm the FIRST place, it needs neither precedent nor
argument to prove that a Prince or Princess cannot
take precedence Of a King or Queen; and the fact
that the Heir Apparent was declared Regent, during
the Kings absence, did not alter his status as a
Prince. If His Majesty had chosen to entrust the
Regency to the Chief Justice, l hardly think he
would have claimed precedence Of the Queen or
Prince; and unless the Prince were declared s. King
dd interim,' / contend that he could not properly
take the precedence accorded to him recently in the
prayer for the Royal Family. a
Next comes the question of precedence between
the Queen and the Queen Dowager, a question not
affected at all by the relative positions of an English
Queen DoWager and Prince CoDsort. No other order
was possible than Adelaide the Queen Dowager,
and Prince Albert simply because they were a
Queen and a Prince; but how does that regulate the
precedence between two Queensi
IF Alfonso of Spain were to marry to-day, Imagine
neither Queen Christina nor Queen Isabella would
take precedence of his Queen, who would, as the
Kings wife and equal, be the first lady in Spain. 1t
would introduce great confusion if the rank Of q wife
of a Sovereign or Peer depended on the life of the
widow or widows of former occupants of the Throne
or Peerage. In most minds there can, / think, be no
question about the proper order. The Kings wife
the land, and the widows of former Kings must, next
to the Queen ConsOrt, take precedence of every other
lady in the land.
Z The aWkWardness of the present arrangement in
the prayer is apparent in the very naming of " Emma,
the Queen DOwager, and Kapiolani, our Queen
Surely, if KapioIani is entitled to be called "Our
Queen" there is no room for further discussion.
But the great disadvantage of the present unset
tied order of precedence is that 1t creates an appear
ance of rivalry and contention between the authori-
ties of Church and State; for whilst the Queen Con-
sort is as 1 believe improperly placed second in the
prayer of the Church, the Queen Dowager is actually
placed seventh in the official calendar
Surely, proper respect for both Royal ladies de-
mands that steps be taken to relieve them from being
the subjects of such unseemly discussion. And as
there is clearly no one here who feels sufficiently in
formed to decide this question of Royal precedence, L
venture to suggest that application be made through
European officials here, or Hawaiian officials in
Europe. for an authoritative declaration of the rules
of foreign courts under similar circumstances