Denmark was the
only prince in England (all his children being dead), and no new
Act was necessary to give him precedence, if the Queen had
desired it, inasmuch as there was nobody for him to precede. The
condition of a Queen Consort is certainly very different from
that of a Prince Consort; but upon the broad principle of moral
fitness, there seems no reason why the husband of the Queen
regnant should not be invested, by virtue of his _consortium_,
with the highest dignity, over other men, just as the wife of the
king is participant by virtue of her marriage of divers
prerogatives over other women. For the prerogatives with which
the law invests her are allotted to her not upon her own account,
but upon that of the king; she is considered as a _feme sole_,
and has certain capacities and rights, 'in order that the king
whose continual care and study is for the public, should not be
troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic
affairs.' And the law, which out of respect to the king makes it
high treason to compass or imagine the death of his wife, when
she becomes a widow ceases to surround her with this protection.
It is the king alone, his dignity and his comfort, which the law
regards, and the privileges and pre-eminences of his family are
conferred or established in such modes and proportions as may be
most conducive thereto.

The principle on which precedence is established is that of
propinquity to the sovereign, and no propinquity can be so close
as that of the husband to the wife, nor does it seem unreasonable
that all other subjects should be required to yield the outward
forms of honour and respect to the man who is elevated to a
station so far above them, whom she is herself bound to 'love,
honour, serve, and obey,' and who is superior to her in their
natural, while still subordinate in their civil and political
relations. Many people who are not unwilling to concede a high
degree of precedence to the Prince, are very sensitive about the
dignity of the heir apparent, and while they are content that he
should precede his other children, would on no account allow him
to be superior in rank to a Prince of Wales. The difficulty in
these cases is to establish a principle; but that difficulty is
rendered much greater if, when the principle is once admitted, it
is not taken with all its legitimate and necessary consequences.
If the Prince is entitled to claim precedency over any of the
blood-royal o