The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-07
GREAT SEAL HAS HAD
QUEER ADVENTURES
England's Authority Now
in Commission
THROWN In THAMES
Cardinal Wolsey Carried 1t to France
With Him and It Has on More
Than One Occasion
Been Lost

London, September 6.-(Special still
another chapter has been added to the
already checquered history of the great
seal of England when its official custo-
dian the lord chancellor, Viscount Hal
dane, left for New York on his way tc
the American Bar association meeting al
Montreal. In his absence the great seal
which was thrown into the Thames by
James III, lost and found again in a game
of blind mans buff by Lord Brougham,
and, in defiance of all precedent carried
off to France by Cardinal Wolsey will be
placed ''in commission as the phrase
goes, three lords commissioners-nam
Lord Morley, Lord Beauchamp and the
master of the rolls-having been chosen
this week, who will administer the seal
until the lord chancellor's return from his
brief visit to Colum bias Shores
This is by no means the first time that
the great seal-which Macdonough de-
scribed as 'round and as thick and as
large as muffin which bears the royal
arms and, as the specific emblem of sow
erelgnty, is attached only to the most
important but it is the first occasion
since the Inflated Wolseys time that its
official custodian has quilted England
Vtt4hS LIS lti III VI UIlce. IN early times.
be it explained, the seal Invariably was
entrusted to some famous. and powerful
ecclesiastic and was perquisite which
brought with it substantial gain In after
years a lord keeper of the seal came into
being, but eventually it became the special
charge of the lord chancellor AS head of
the British judiciary he receives the seal
wnlch reposes in a morocco case, on his
appointment and he never is supposed to
nj hiS ne. A..
necessity which arose when Lord Haldane
was invited to visit America, of getting
The Kings formal permission for him
to make the trip.
Took It to France
Cardinal Wolsey, around whose neck the
seal had been hung by his master Henry
VIII, with the injunction that he was ito
use it to the honor of God and his SOW
ereign' calmly popped it into his grip
or whatever took the place of a grip in
those days-when he went on his famous
embassy to France, and actually sealed
wits with 1t at Calais. So grave de-
parture from privilege was this regarded
that 1t was made one of the grounds of
Impeachment of the famous cardinal
Lord Brougham, who gave his name to
an afistocratic conveyance, and was lord
chancellor to King George w, was even
more careless with the great seal than
Wolsey. Brougham was what, in these
days, would be termed a nut" and his
goings on during a visit to Scotland are
said to have given the final stroke to the
Kings confidence in him. For not only
did his lordship indulge in carouse with
the bar mess at Lanca ster on his way to
the north but at the country house Of the
Duchess of Bedford ne even let this ia :
nous royal emblem be got away from him.
The account of this incident is well worth
reproducing from Atlays Victorian
Chancellors':
AT Rothiemurchus, where a large party
of southrons Were the guests Of the Dow
agor Duchess of Bedford, he 'romped so
famliarly with the ladies that to be re-
venged on him they stole the great seal
and hid it in a tea chest in the drawing
room, where he was compelled to discover
1T blind-folded and guided by the music
of the piano, which rose loud or sank ac-
cording as he was hot or cold The
King had been furious with the chancellor
for conveying the great seal across the
border, an act which he genuinely be-
lieved to partake of the nature of high
treason, and an exaggerated account OF
the romp at Rothiemurchus did not tend
to calm him. Nor was he in any way
soothed by the bulletins in which Broug-
ham assured him of their joint popularity
In the north.
Threw Seal in<Thames
King James II, when flying from the
country, threw the great seal into the
Thames at lambeth but it was soon re-
covered. Perhaps the time when its loss
gave most trouble was during the strug-
gle between King Charles and his Par
Lament. when Littleton, who at the time
as lord keeper of the great seal, suddenly
transferred his allegiance from the side of
parliament to that of the King, and
brought the great seal along with him. 1t is
interesting to recall that so generally was
the seal regarded as the emblem of regal
power and authority, that the parliament
tarians were more dismayed over the logs