provided by act of parliament, have, hold, and enjoy, place, pre-eminence, and precedence next to Her Majesty." According to the law of England, as is well known, no man's position in society is altered by any matrimonial alliance; and antecedently to the promulgation of the above ordinance, Prince Albert was entitled merely to the precedence of a Knight of the Garter, viz. No. LXXXIX. When his Royal Highness' naturalization bill first came under the consideration of parliament, it contained a clause conferring upon Prince Albert precedence next to Her Majesty; but after considerable discussion this provision of the bill was withdrawn; and in the month of March following the ordinance already set forth appeared in the Gazette; previous to which, however, the Duke of Cambridge, on his own behalf and in the name and on the behalf of the other members of the royal family, expressed his assent to the clause for granting the proposed precedence to the consort of the sovereign nevertheless, the adoption of it was considered to be inexpedient; but in compliance with the commands of the Queen, and in accordance with the unequivocally expressed wishes of the royal family, Prince Albert does in practice enjoy precedence next after Her Majesty: his position however is not fortified either by statute or common law; but there is no immediate probability of his royal highness's right to the place assigned him, being questioned by any of the distinguished individuals who are personally concerned.

III. PRINCE OF WALES.-The Prince of Wales has been at all times regarded as the first subject in the realm-the nearest to the throne-the most digni

fied of the peers of parliament, and, though not exercising any political power beyond his vote as a legislator, yet regarded by all men as the most eminent personage in the state next after the sovereign. The Prince of Wales is the heir apparent. The heir presumptive may be brother, uncle, nephew, niece, or even a more distant relative of the sovereign; but his prospect of eventually succeeding to the throne gives him no place in the scale of precedency the rank he holds is merely derived from consanguinity. Whatever his position as a member of the royal family might be, he enjoys that before he becomes heir presumptive, retains it while he continues heir presumptive, and does not lose it by the birth of an heir apparent. But the station of Prince of Wales is clearly and indisputably that of the first and highest of Her Majesty's subjects. The extract from the London Gazette, quoted in No. II., seems to intimate a wish on the part of the Queen, that no one should ever take precedence of Prince Albert ; and there is every probability that that intimation of the royal pleasure will not be disregarded.

IV. SONS OF THE SOVEREIGN.-The second son of the reigning monarch takes rank next after the eldest, and all the younger sons take precedence amongst each other according to priority of birth. They usually receive peerages as soon as they become of age; and in the House of Lords they would of course rank above all other peers, and take precedence amongst each other according to the dates of their respective patents; for example, if the fifth son received his dukedom previous to the fourth, then the younger would in all proceedings of the Upper

House take precedence of the elder: but this sort of anomaly is not likely to occur; for the practice is, to grant the peerages in the order of primogeniture, so that the precedence of those princes in the house of Lords should coincide with their stations in all other assemblies.

V. GRANDSONS OF THE SOVEREIGN.-Until the Crown of England became settled upon the Protestant issue of the Electress Sophia, the royal family comprehended a very numerous class: only those, however, who stood in a certain degree of propinquity to the throne enjoyed any especial precedence over other British subjects. By the act (10th of Anne, cap. 4) for settling the precedence of the Electress Sophia, it was declared that all her descendants being Protestants shall have rank and precedence before the Archbishop of Canterbury or any other subject of this realm; it therefore follows, that whether the descendants of the monarch possess or do not possess peerages, they are entitled to rank higher than other subjects. The rule appears to be, that every one who could in any event succeed to the throne, takes precedence of those subjects who are incapable of such succession.

VI. BROTHERS OF THE SOVEREIGN.—The royal family take precedence amongst each other according to their propinquity to the throne. As the remotest descendant of a reigning prince would succeed to the throne in preference to any collateral relative, so the grandson of the king would take precedence of his own great uncle. In the royal family the first class are the sons of the monarch, the second his grandsons, &c.; then would follow his brothers, his

The progress of civilization and the distribution of wealth have led to the establishment in British society of a vast number of artificial distinctions, which have naturally and gradually interwoven them. selves with the feudal institutions of our ancestors. A great body of complicated machinery, legislative, judicial, executive, diplomatic, ecclesiastical, naval, and military, must of course be called into active operation for the government of so highly civilized a country as England; a country affected by so many and such intricate foreign relations, holding colonies so numerous and so distant, maintaining a commercial and manufacturing system unparalleled in the previous history of mankind, and having preserved a social edifice as ancient, yet more frequently repaired than any other in Europe. A full understanding of the combined effects of these several causes may be somewhat aided by the outlines now offered, as introductory to a subject with which most people have some acquaintance, and but few possess clear and complete information.

At all periods of our history, but especially during the last 150 years, the aristocratic spirit of British society has presented a well-defined and ascertained character. From this source have sprung a variety of arrangements connected with court ceremonial as well as with the intercourse of private society, which are mingled with, but in some respects quite distinct from, the duties, privileges, and powers of those who are engaged in the public service. For example, though each rank in the peerage commands according to a certain graduated scale the respect of society, while it gratifies the ambition of its possessor

and his family, yet no one member of the House of Lords possesses in his political or judicial capacity any greater amount of power than his brethren; the vote of a duke reckons for no more than the vote of a viscount or baron.

The reader need scarcely be reminded, that in professions unconnected with the state, the esteem in which the members of them are held depends partly upon professional success, and partly upon personal character; not so, however, with the professions which are devoted to the maintenance of religion, the administration of justice, and the defence of the realm; we therefore find that in the Church and in the law, in the civil and military service of the country, rank and precedence generally, but not always, accompany power. The consideration of the several ranks, and of the principal public functionaries, in order of precedence, form the subject of this article, while for their privileges, duties, and other particulars, the reader is referred to the separate heads under which that branch of the subject is more especially noticed.

It is to be observed, that primogeniture and seniority are amongst the leading principles of our system of precedence. Priority of birth, and dates of patents and commissions, determine the precedence which individuals of the same rank take amongst each other, and thus the station and degree of each are ascertained by means which rarely admit of controversy or doubt.

In England all rank and honours are either hereditary, official, or personal. The order of baronets, the five ranks of the peerage, and the sovereignty of