Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/497

 ii8.ix.Jo2<utt4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

491

She bowed assent, placed the paper in his hands, and then retired." Greville's Journal,' 23 Nov., 1839.

Some interesting sidelights are seen in the following further extracts from Greville :

" When I was with the Chancellor the other day, he said a difficulty had been started about making Prince Albert a Privy Councillor before he was of age, and asked me if there was anything in it. I found, on looking into the books, that the Royal Dukes had not been brought into Council till they were of age, but probably that was because they could not take their seats in the House of Lords before ; but I also found very clear proofs that George III. 's sons had not been sworn, but introduced in his reign, and this puzzled me, for I remembered to have sworn several of them at different times during the present and two last reigns. I therefore wrote to the Duke of Sussex, and asked him what had occurred in his case. His reply cleared the matter up. He said the King's sons are born Privy Councillors, and that they are declared sworn by the King when- ever he pleases ; that accordingly he was merely introduced into Council in 1807 ; but after the death of George III., when he stood in, a different relation to the reigning Sovereign, he was sworn ; and again at the accessions of King William IV. und Queen Victoria. I found an account in the Council Books of- the form with which the Prince of Wales was introduced into Council in 1784, and this I sent to Melbourne to show to the Queen, suggesting that Prince Albert should be introduced upon the same terms as Prince George of Den- mark had been ; and with the same ceremonies as the Prince of Wales in 1784." Greville's ' Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria,' vol. i. p. 274.

Meetings of the Privy Council are usually held at intervals of three or four weeks, and six Privy Councillors at least with the Clerk of the Council constitute a meet- ing :

" The list of Privy Councillors now includes the members of the Royal Family, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishop of London, the great officers of State, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Lords Justices of the Court of Appeal, the President of the Pro- bate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, the law officers of the Crown, the members of the Judicial Committee, several of the Scotch judges, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Ambas- sadors, some of the Ministers Plenipotentiary and Governors of Colonies, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, the Paymaster of the Forces, &c., and necessarily all the members of the Cabinet. Members of the Council are in their collective capacity styled ' His (or Her) Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council ' ; individually, each member is styled ' Right Honourable.' (The Lord Mayor of London, although styled ' Most Honourable,' is not a Privy Councillor. See "* Notes and Queries,' first series, iii, 496 ; iv. 9, 28, 137, 157, 180, 236, 284 ; ix. 137, 158.) Under the authority of letters-patent dated 28th May, 10 James I., 1612, Privy Councillors take prece- dence after Knights of the Garter. Amongst themselves they take rank according to seniority of appointment when no other principle of classifi-

cation is applicable in the individual instances. Privy Councillors are appointed by the sovereign without either patent or grant, and are subject to removal at his discretion." Chambers's ' Ency- clopaedia.'

A list of the present members of the Privy Council is in ' Whitaker's Almanack.' Bibliographically, I would add that W. J. Thorns' s ' Book of the Court ' contains much valuable information. Mr. A. V. Dicey, when a young man of 25, gained the Arnold Prize Essay for his book on ' The Privy Council,' first issued in 1860, and since re- issued in 1887 by Macmillan, with a careful analysis at the beginning. Sir Francis Pal- grave published in 1834 his slender book, ' An Essay upon the Original Authority of the King's Council.' Sir Harris Nicholas published seven volumes of ' The Pro- ceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England,' 1834-7. Mr. J. B. Dasent published 'Acts of the Privy Council,' 6 vols., 1890-3. I mention these last two works chiefly in order to direct attention to the valuable articles on the Privy Council (based on the two works named) which appeared in The Edinburgh Review, January,

1892, and in The Quarterly Review, July,

1893. For the appellate jurisdiction and powers of the Privy Council there is a ' Beport of the Lords Committee on the Privy Council Bill,' 1844. Sir Bobert Stout, the Chief Justice of New Zealand, contributed to The Law Quarterly Review, vol. xxi. (1905), an article, ' Is the Privy Council a Legislative Body ? ' Mr. J. F. Baldwin has within the last few years written valuable historical articles on the subject : ' The Beginnings of the King's Council' ( Trans., Boyal Hist. Soc., vol. xix., 1905) ; ' Becords of the King's Council ' (American Hist. Review, October, 1905) ; ' Antiquities of the King's Council ' (English Hist. Review, January, 1906) ; ' The Privy Council of Bichard II.' (American Hist. Review, October, 1906); 'The King's Council from Edward I. to Edward III.' (English Hist. Review, January, 1908) ; ' The King's Council and the Chancery ' (American Hist. Review, April and July, 1910). All the best writers on constitutional history have numerous passages of note upon the Privy Council.

At a fire which occurred in Whitehall in 1618 the volumes of the Privy Council Begisters belonging to the preceding years of the reign of James I. were lost in the confusion, or possibly destroyed in the fire. An Order in Council was passed directing the clerks of the Council to recover posses- sion of these important records of State