Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/687

Rh PRECEDENCE 663 quesses; (21) dukes eldest sons; 1 (22) earls; (23) mar quesses eldest sons ; (24) dukes younger sons ; (25) vis counts ; (26) earls eldest sons ; (27) marquesses younger sons; (28) bishops; (29) barons; 2 (30) speaker of the House of Commons; (31) commissioners of the great seal; 3 (32) treasurer of the household ; (33) comptroller of the household ; (34) master of the horse ; (35) vice-chamber lain of the household; (36) secretaries of state; 4 (37) as shall happen to be the king s son, the king s brother, the king s uncle, the king s nephew, or the king s brother s or sister s son, &quot;Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons, not having any of the offices aforesaid, shall sit and be placed after their ancienty as it hath been accustomed.&quot; As Lord Chief Justice Coke and Mr Justice Black- stone observe, the degrees of consanguinity with the sovereign to which precedence is given by 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10 are the same as those within which it was made high treason by 28 Hen. VIII. c. 18 for any man to contract marriage without the consent of the king. Queen Victoria, by letters patent under the great seal in 1865, ordained that, &quot; besides the children of Sovereigns of these realms, the children of the sons of any of the Sovereigns of Great Britain and Ireland shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess pre fixed to their respective Christian names, or with their other titles of honour.&quot; But, notwithstanding this, their rank and place are still governed by the Act for the placing of the Lords. Thus the duke of Cambridge, although he is, as the son of a son of George III., pro perly designated &quot; Royal Highness &quot; under the letters patent of 1865, has no precedence as the first cousin of the sovereign under the statute of 1539. In the same way the duke of Cumberland has no precedence as the first cousin once removed of Queen Victoria, and being the grandson only of a son of George III. would not be a &quot;Royal Highness&quot; at all if his father had not been, like his grandfather, king of Hanover. In Garter s Roll of Uie Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the official list of the House of Lords, the duke of Cambridge is entered before the archbishop of Canterbury, instead of in the precedence of his dukedom after the duke of Leinster, while the duke of Cumberland is entered in the precedence of his dukedom after the duke of Northumberland. By the etiquette of society, however, both of them are regarded and treated as royal dukes, and even in parliament they are always alluded to not as &quot;noble&quot; but as &quot;illustrious.&quot; Under the combined opera tion of the Act for the placing of the Lords and the Acts of Union with Scotland (art. 23) and with Ireland (art. 4), peers of the same degrees, as dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons, severally, have precedence according to priority in the creation of their respective peerages. But peerages of England created before 1707 precede peer ages of Scotland created before 1707, peerages.of Great Britain created between 1707 and 1801 precede peerages of Ireland created before 1801, and peerages of Ireland created before 1801 precede peerages of the United Kingdom and of Ireland created after 1801, which take precedence in common. The relative precedence of the members of the House of Lords, including the representative peers of Scotland and Ireland, is officially set forth in Garter s Roll, which is prepared by the Garter king of arms at the commencement of each session of parliament, that of the Scottish peers generally in the Union Roll, and that of the Irish peers generally in Ulster s Roll, a record which is under the charge of and is periodically corrected by the Ulster king of arms. The Union Roll is founded on the &quot;Decreet of Ranking&quot; pronounced and promulgated by a royal commission in 1606, which, in the words of an eminent authority in such matters, &quot;was adopted at once as the roll of the peers in Parliament, convention, and all public meetings, and continued to be called uninterruptedly with such alterations upon it as judgments of the Court of Session upon appeal in modification of the precedency of certain peers rendered necessary, with the omission of such dignities as became extinct and with the addition from time to time of newly created peerages down to the last sitting of the Scottish Parliament on the 1st May 1707&quot; (The Earldom of Mar, &c., by the earl of Crawford (25th) and Balcarres (8th), vol. ii. p. 16). As the crown was precluded by the Act of Union from creating peerages of Scotland after the Union, all Scottish peers in their several degrees have rank and place before all peers of Great Britain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. 1 Eldest sous of peers of any given degree are of the same rank as, but are to be placed immediately after, peers of the first degree under that of their fathers ; and the younger sons of peers of any given degree are of the same rank, but are to be placed immediately after peers of the second degree and the eldest sons of peers of the first degree under that of their fathers. 2 Secretaries of state, if they are barons, precede all other barons under 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10. But if they are of any higher degree their rank is not influenced by their official position. 3 Under 1 Will, and Mary c. 21, being the only commissioners for the execution of any office who have precedence assigned to them. 4 The officers of the household who, under Henry VIII. s warrant of 1540, precede the secretaries of state have been for a long time viscounts eldest sons ; (38) earls younger sons ; (39) barons eldest sons; (40) knights of the Garter; 5 (41) privy councillors ; 6 (42) chancellor of the exchequer ; (43) chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster ; (44) lord chief justice of England ; (45) master of the rolls ; (46) lords justices of appeal; 7 (47) judges of the High Court of Justice; 8 (48) knights bannerets made by the sovereign in person; (49) viscounts younger sons; (50) barons younger sons; (51) baronets; 9 (52) knights bannerets not made by the sovereign in person ; (53) knights of the first class of the Bath, the Star of India, and St Michael and St George ; 10 (54) knights of the second class of the Bath, the Star of India, and St Michael and St George ; n (55) knights bachelors ; 12 (56) eldest sons of the younger sons of peers ; (57) baronets eldest sons ; (58) knights eldest sons ; (59) baronets younger sons ; (60) knights younger always peers or the sons of peers, with personal rank higher, and usually far higher, than their official rank. The practical result is, seeing also that the great seal is only very rarely indeed in commission, that the secretaries of state, when they are commoners whose personal precedence is below a baron s, have official precedence immediately after the speaker of the House of Commons. The principal secretaries, for so they are all designated, are officially equal to one another in dignity, and are placed among themselves according to seniority of appointment. 5 During more than two centuries only one commoner has been indebted for his precedence to his election into the order, and that was Sir Robert Walpole, the minister, who at the coronation of George II. in 1727 was placed as a knight of the Garter immediately before privy councillors. The proper precedence of both knights of the Thistle and knights of St Patrick is undecided. 6 Privy councillors of Great Britain and of Ireland take precedence in common according to priority of admission. The chancellors of the exchequer and of the duchy of Lancaster, the lord chief justice of England, the master of the rolls, and the lords justices of appeal are always members of the privy council, and have rank and place as privy councillors, if they are not also peers. 7 The lords justices of appeal have precedence among themselves according to seniority of appointment. Until recently they were pre ceded by the lord chief justice of the Common Pleas and the lord chief baron of the Exchequer (divisions of the High Court of Justice). But under existing arrangements these offices have fallen into abeyance, although they have not been formally abolished. The vice-chancellors used to follow the lords justices of appeal ; but, in spite of the fact that there is still one vice-chancellor remaining, the office of vice- chancellor is practically extinct and will altogether disappear on his decease. In Ireland all these offices are in existence ; but they have no precedence allotted to them in England ; as the judges holding them are invariably privy councillors, however, they are ranked accordingly. And it is the same with regard to the lord justice- general and the lord justice-clerk in Scotland. 8 The judges of all the divisions of the High Court of Justice are ranked together according to seniority of appointment. Neither the senators of the College of Justice in Scotland nor the judges of the various divisions of the High Court in Ireland have any precedence in England. The precedence of the Scottish judges among themselves is settled by a royal warrant of 1729, which is printed in full by Nisbet in his System of Heraldry (vol. ii. p. 277). The precedence of the Irish judges among themselves is the same as the precedence of the English judges among themselves used to be before the offices of chief justice of the Common Pleas and chief baron of the Exchequer were suspended. 9 It is a question whether baronets ought or ought not to have pre cedence, like peers, according as they are of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland, or the United Kingdom. Baronets are not referred to in either the Scottish or the Irish Act of Union ; and Sir Bernard Burke contends that, since the Acts of Union are silent with regard to them, they are still entitled to whatever precedence was originally conferred on them. He therefore places the whole body of the baronets together in the order merely of the dates of their several creations, and in this he appears to us to have both law and reason on his side. 10 These knights consist of grand crosses of the first, grand com manders of the second, and grand crosses of the third order, and have precedence in their respective orders according to seniority of creation. By the statutes of the order of the Bath as revised in 1847 it is ordained that the knights grand crosses are to be placed &quot; next to and immediately after baronets,&quot; thus superseding knights bannerets not created by the sovereign in person. 11 Knights commanders of all three orders are placed in each order according to seniority of creation. 12 Knights bachelors are ranked together according to seniority of creation, whether they are made by the sovereign or the lord lieutenant of Ireland.