The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-02-27
The ossa. Seal of England.
lNew YoSk oNssrver.I


 The mere holding of the great seal oi England eotitles the fortunate custodian 10 some $6o GOO year. to immense pat. ronage in church and state, to be speaker In the house of lords, . privy counsellor, and the head of all judicial authority in the kingdom, to be designated lord high chancellor ot Great Britain, and keeper of the royal conscience, and 10 rank (next the royal family) the second subject n the realm. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to say when England frs, had a great seal. Seals were not much used by our Angio-Saxon ancestors, but came largely into fashion during the Norman reiguS. The gilt roses, or marks of Ed kings can scarcely be called seals, and partook more of the character of sigua- lures of an illiterase age; but grand and perfect seal of William the Conc ueror exists, having the monarch crowned and throned ou the one side aud mounted on horseback on the other-a attitudes which have been invariably observed to the present day. One remarkable circnm- stance connected with the great seal Is its progressive growth in sise as time ad. vanced. Originally, 500 years since, not larger than the top of an ordinary mod. ern teacup, it has been gradually en. larged from age to age, till 1t offers nov the size and appearance of a muffin, and requires to be enclosed in a tin box for protection. Indeed, so cumbrous aud nnwieldiy had the great seal become that some three or four years since au act of parliament passed -containlng very ex traordinary provisions directing that all the minor and many, even, of the more important documents passing under it, should for the future be authenticated by paper wafer, of moderate size, which should be gummed on the instrument, and be d:emed and taken to be the great seal itself
 The great seal has only three times been lost-twice temporarily and once permanently. lmes H., on leaving the kingdom on his abdication, threw the seal into the Thames, whence, however, 1t was next morning 6shed up aud brought to Whitehall Lord Eldon buried 1t in his garden in Q ieen square during one uight when his house caught fire aud he thought in the confusion 1t might be sto- len. And" writes the chancellor in hts diary, "when the fire was extinguished quite forgot h the morning where ! had buried it, and while the carriage waited to take me to court, my lady and and all the household were dig ging with pieces of stick till we luckily found It" Lord Thurlow, who always held It during the night 10 his bedroom, had 1t actually carried of by burglars, from whom it was never re- covered. A nrivy council was called the next day, new seal was rapidly made, and daring the remainder of his con0nu snce in, office Lord Thurlow invariably deposited tt of night under his pillow.
 Down to 1918 the great seal itsel was made of copper since then slver has been the metal employed. It Is in two halves, somewhat like two very thick bright tin saucepan lids fitting closely together, their inner surfaces deeply sealptured with the royal devices intsaded to be formed on the wax when squeez cd between them. Instruments having Inn tied duration are sealed with yellow wax Others, supposed to exist in perpetui,y such as patents of peexage, etc, are ex emplifed under green wax; and in the case of some letters patent, likely to bs exposed to a great deal of knocking about or journeying from place to place such as were the assIze commissions, the wax seal was stamped atser being ipgeu iously inclosed in cream colored leather