, 1886-06-10
THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND.


Rank and Money.
The mere holding of tho great seal OF
England entitle the fortunate custodian
to 800, 900 n year., to immense patronage
in church and state. to be speaker of the
house of lords, IA private counselor, and
the head of all Judiciary authority in the
kingdom of Great Britain, and keeper OF
the royal conscience, and to rank next
to the royal family the second subject in
the realm. 1t is very difficult, if not inn
possible, to say when England first had
a great seal. Seals were not much used
by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, but came
largely into fashion during the Norman
reigns. The gilt crosses or marks of Ed
ward the Confessor, and other Saxon
kings, can scarcely be called seals, ant
partook more of the character of sigma.
lures of an illiterate age; but a grand ant
perfect seal OF William the Conquerol
exists, having the monarch crowned anc
throned on the one side and mounted on
horseback on the other-attitudes which
have been invariably observed to the
present day.
One remarkable circumstance con
nected with the great seal is its pro
gressive growth in size rs time advanced.
Originally. 800 years since, not larger
than the top of an ordinary modern tea.
cup. it has beel gradually enlarged from
age TO age, till it offers now the size and
appearance of a muffin, and requires to
be enclosed in a tin box for protection.
Indeed, so cumberous and unwieldy had
the great seal become that some three OF
four years since an act Of parliament
passed-containing very extraordinary
provisions-directing that all the minoi
and many, W of the more important
documents passing under it should, fol
the future, be authenticated by a paper
wafer, Of moderate size, which should b,
gummed ON the instrument, and b,
deemed and taken to be the great sea
itself.
The great seas has only three times
been lost-twice temporarily and once
permanently. james III, on leaving the
kingdom on his a~bdication, threw the
seal into the Thames, whence, however,
it was next morning fisied up and
brought to Whitehall. Lord Eldon bur
led it in his garden in Queen square,
during n night when his house caught
fire, as he thought in the confusion il
might be stolen. And writes the
chancellor in his diary, when the fire
was extinguished l quite forgot in the
morning where | had buried it, and
while the carriage waited to take me to
court, my lady and | and all the house
hold were digging with pieces of stick
till We luckily found it," Lord Thurlow,
who always held it during the night in
his bedroom, had it actually carried off
by burglars, from whom it Y never re-
covered. A privy council was called the
next day, a new seal was rapidly made,
and during the remainder of his ~continu.
ance in office Lord Thurlow invariably
deposited it under his pillow.
Down to 1917 the great seal itself was
made of copper, since then silver has
beer the metal employed. 1t is in two
halves, somewhat like two very thick
bright TIN saucepan lids fitting closely
together, their inner surfaces deeoly
sculptured with the royal devices in
tended to be formed on the wax when
squeezed between them. instruments
having a limited duration are sealed with
yellow wax. Others supposed to exist in
perpetuity, such as patents of peerage.
etc, are exempliiied under green wax
and in the case of some letters patent
likely to be exposed to II good deal o
knocking about or journeying from plac,
to place, such as We're the assize commits
sions, the wax seal was stamped after be
ing ingeniously inclosed in cream-colored