t.
Councils are now merely formal assemblies, for the expedition of
certain orders, which must emanate from the sovereign in person.

[22] Sir H. Nicholas' Preface to Council Register, vol. i.
p. 13.

When any of the Royal Dukes are present, they sit next the Queen
on her right hand, the Lord President always next her on her
left. And, although the Lord President and the Chancellor (when
present) sit on either side of the Queen, all the other officers
are indiscriminately placed. It would not probably be deemed
advisable to go back to the end of the seventeenth century for a
precedent, or it would be found that Prince George of Denmark sat
in council, without taking any oaths; not, therefore, as a Privy
Councillor, but _pro honoris causa_. He always, however, occupied
the place of honour, and his attendance was very regular, though
there is no record of his having ever taken the oaths; and, at
the accession of King William, when all the other Privy
Councillors were sworn, it is expressly stated that Prince George
was not.[23]

[23] He was first brought into Council by James II. in
person, and placed on his right hand, but not sworn.

It is much to be regretted that such heat and irritation have
been manifested in the discussion of this question, and certainly
between the proceedings in both Houses of Parliament. Prince
Albert may well have thought his reception neither cordial nor
flattering; but the truth is, that any mortification which either
the Prince or the Queen may have felt (and in her it is only
natural, whether just or not) is at least as attributable to the
really objectionable nature of the propositions which were made,
as to the opposition which they encountered.

Nothing herein is more to be deplored than that any mistaken zeal
should misrepresent the conduct, or any hasty impression
misconstrue the motives, of the Duke of Wellington. His whole
life has been a continual manifestation of loyalty and of
superiority to petty purposes, and unworthy inducements; but his
notions of loyalty are of a nature which mere courtiers are
unable to comprehend, because he always considers the honour and
the interests of the Crown, in preference to the personal
inclination of the sovereign.

Of all men who ever lived he has sought the least the popularity
he has so largely acquired--the tide of which, sometimes diverted
by transient causes, has always returned with accumulated force