St. Michael and St. George, Knights Grand Cross ....CXI.

Speaker of the House of Commons

Steward of the Household, XXII. XXXII. XLIII. LIV.

.LXXIX.

PART II.

HEREDITARY DIGNITIES.

THE THRONE, THE PEERAGE.

THE BARONETAGE, &c.

SECTION I.

THE THRONE.

SUCCESSION TO THE THRONE.

And, countrymen, my loving followers,

Plead my successive title with your swords;
I am his first-born son, that was the last
That ware the imperial diadem of Rome;
Then let my father's honours live in me."

Titus Andronicus, act i. sc. 1.

THE main foundation upon which the right of succession to the throne in these realms appears to rest is, that the Crown by custom and common law is hereditary, with some peculiarities of descent; but that the right of inheritance may be modified by act of parliament, under which modifications the Crown still continues hereditary.

The succession to freehold estates very nearly corresponds with the course in which the Crown is inherited: thus there is a preference of males to females, and a right of primogeniture among the males; on failure of the male issue, too, the throne is filled by the issue female. But amongst the peculiarities of this inheritance, is one respecting the title of the female lines. On failure of the male line in ordinary inheritances, the title becomes vested in all the daughters at once; but with the Crown, the right of