event
that the crown should devolve upon any person not a
native of England the nation should not be obliged
to engage in any war for the defense of any
dominions or territories not belonging to the crown
of England, without consent of Parliament.]

[Footnote 61: Lowell, Government of England, I.,
17.]

[Footnote 62: This title was created by Edward I.
in 1301. Its possession has never involved the
exercise of any measure of political power.]

[Footnote 63: The words to be employed were
prescribed originally in the Act for Establishing
the Coronation Oath, passed in the first year of
William and Mary. For the text see Robertson,
Select Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 65-68. An
historical sketch of some value is A. Bailey, The
Succession to the English Crown (London, 1879).]

*50. Regencies.*--The age of majority of the sovereign is eighteen. The
constitutions of most monarchical states contain more or less
elaborate stipulations respecting the establishment of a regency in
the event of the sovereign's minority or incapacitation. In Great
Britain, on the contrary, the practice has been to make provision for
each such contingency when it should arise. A regency can be created
and a regent designated only by act of Parliament. Parliamentary
enactments, however, become operative only upon receiving the assent
of the crown, and it has sometimes happened that the sovereign for
whom a regent was required to be appointed was incapable of performing
any governmental act. In such a case, there has been resort usually to
some legal fiction by which the appearance, at least, of regularity
has been preserved. A regency act regularly defines the limits of the
regent's powers and establishes specific safeguards in respect to the
interests of both the sovereign and the nation.[64]

[Footnote 64: For the text of the Regency Act of
1811, passed by reason of the incapacitation of
George III., see Robertson, Statutes, Cases and
Documents, 171-182. For an excellent survey of the
general subject see May and Holland, Constitut