it was carefully revised
and approved by Lord Wensleydale and some of the most
eminent lawyers of the time when it was written. This
essay has therefore a substantial legal and historical
value. Moreover, its application is not exclusively
retrospective or confined to the peculiar case of the
precedency of the late Prince Consort at the time of his
marriage, which gave rise to warm debates, for it deals
with the precedency of the members of the Royal Family,
not being sons or daughters of a sovereign, or standing
in close propinquity to the throne. In the course of
years these personages have become numerous, and for the
first time in our history (at least, since the reign of
James I.), between twenty and thirty grandchildren and
great-grandchildren of the reigning sovereign are in
existence, whose claims to precedency will have to be
considered. By the 31st Henry VIII., which assigns places
in Parliament and Council to the sons, brothers, uncles,
and nephews of the king, after these degrees are past,
peers or others of the blood royal are entitled to no
place or precedence, except what belongs to them by their
personal rank or dignity. The mere fact of their descent,
in a more remote degree, from the sovereign, gives them
in law no precedency at all, although it may be conceded
to them by custom, and the respect willingly paid to
members of the Royal Family. Nor are they entitled to
bear the title of 'Royal Highness' unless it be conferred
upon them by the Crown. Thus, if I am not mistaken, the
late Duke of Gloucester, who was a nephew of George III.,
was not a 'Royal Highness' until he married the Princess
Mary, the king's daughter, when that distinction was
conferred upon him. In two or three generations from the
present time it is not improbable that the descendants of
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert will exceed a hundred
persons, and, although they will doubtless all look back
with pride to their illustrious ancestry, they will have
no rank or precedency, in the strict sense of the term,
except such as may be conferred upon them personally by
the Crown. For these reasons, it appears to me that Mr.
Greville's remarks on the subject may have some future
interest.--H.R.]

In the House of Lords on Tuesday, 4th February, when Prince
Albert's Naturalisati