CROWNING OF THE KING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 15

CROWNING OF THE KING.

CURIOUS CLAIMS. "LORD MARCHER 01' THE BARONY OF KEMES." Tho claims of those v;Iio desire to render services at the Coronation of Kins Georgo V. were considered the other day by a solemn court, held in the offices of tho Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The visitor who left the motor-omni-buses and the taxicabs of Whitehall, with all the clamour of the prosy modern clays, found, in passing the swing-doors that led to tho court, that he had stepped across tho abyss of the years. The very atmosphere was of the middle ages. Even tho noble lords who composed tho court look mediaeval in their costumes of blue or' scarlet, smothered with gold braiding. Lord Loreburn, the Lord Chancellor, sat at the head of a long table, his large wig framing a judicial and spectacled face; on his right sat tho Earl Marshal, the Duko of Norfolk, in his scarlet and gold dress,- the ribbon of the Garter across his breast, with many medals glittering below his bushy black beard. Opposite, spick and .span,-with shining hair and perfectly groomed moustache, sat the Lord Chamberlain, "Earl Spencer, and by him Lord Macnaghten, next to the neSv. Lord .Shaw,'.who. faced tho keen handsome Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England. Lord Ashbourne and Sir Herbert Cozens-Hardv, Master of the Rolls, completed tho Court. There were'twenty-three claims in all, and most of them were allowed without much discussion. The precedent established at the Coronation of King Edward w;as followed. Whenever a claim was allowed Lord' Loreburn' said:' "The' Court m ?, le sarap order as before." _ '°£ Erroll claimed to walk as p3rd High Constable of Scotland, and to have -a. silver ...baton .or .staff,- of. twelve ounces weight, tipped with gold at each end,- with -his -Majesty's.'Royal Arms on one end and the Petitioner's on the other end. - ■ ■ ■ • Thero was a little argument oyer this claim. "On tho last occasion the baton was not forthcoming," Mr. J. H. Lindsaj said for the petitioner. seems "*at his'lordship is entitled to "On the last occasion,"'replied the Lord v!l\ c , ' " t ' le court, judged that he was entitled to attend and bear the baton, but (lid not say wlio was to' provide it. Your point 13 now that .you want an order that some one should provide the baton." , believe,' Mr. Lindsay explained, it has been the practice to make an allowance from tho J.ord-Chamberlain's ,in° ol \ ■ warra,l t is before." 1/ie claim was allowed as before, but the question of who will provido tho silver baton remains unsettled. sir Martoine Lloyd's claim "to have a P « 1? , Procession of their Majesties alter the lords and preceding the baronV an , ( U° e , arl 'y t]le King's silver harp , as Lord Marcher of tho Barony of Kernes'' wasdisallowed. « I ne .^i oD I3 >" said Lord Loreburn, whether this gentleman is entitled to b-ar a silver harp. Have you any evidence that his predecessors ever exercised thc ; right he claims?". Mr. M illiains replied that lie had 110 evidence, aiid the court ruled that the claim had not been established. Iho claims for tho right to carry, tho ureat Spurs were disputed for three hours belore a settlement was arrived at.The claimants were Lord Grey ;,de .ltnthpi"'the "EarJ ' of Xou'doiin, and Lord Hastings, who claimed to carry the second sword as well. None of (hem succeeded ill establishing their rights at tho last Coronation. Ihe arguments were-of a very complicated kind, in which history and legal points were interwoven, but fresh evidence was brought forward by counsel. Xs3¥LSß ur^ W! V i c ' car pd, while tlic—<]ecisioil was "Ifpin'K considered,"and TWlTen it re-assembled the claims of Lord 'Grey de Ruthyn and tho Earl of Lodoun wore allowed. "Jt will bo referred (0 the; pleasure of his Majesty how such service shall be performed," said the Lord Chancellor. Lord naslings's claim was not allowed. '■ WILL THE BISHOPS WEAR MITRES? A Midland Member of the Canterbury House of Laymen writes as follows to "The Times":— Sir,—A largo proportion of the Bishops of the. Church; of England now J:egularly use the .rnitro tor its legitimate purpose as a headdress, and are not content, as 'most'of"'their- post-Reformation prodeces'-' sors have been, with its use as a mere emblepi of oliice. Bishop Creighton once remarked that a mitre was a thing to be worn on a Bislmp's head, and not 011 his teaspoons. In the dioceses of London-and .Southirark it is in regular use, and at least 011 one occasion tlie Bishop of London has worn a mitre in his Cathedral when royalty has been present. It does .not appear to be seemly that Bishops should minister with less dignity at the : Coronation of tho King than at other times, and, may I add. in many a humble parish church. Even if not generally used on other occasions, at a Coronation, when their brother peers assume their otherwise merely emblematical coronets, as the , King docs his crown, the Bishops should surely appear in their corresponding insignia. :• . There is some little post-Reformation evidence of tho use of the initrc—experts could tell us how much—but not apparently at Coronations, other than those of Edwrtrd VI and Elizabeth. At these two Coronations, however, tho J.atin rites :w_ero still in. use. ..At one later Coronation with the English rites I believe that there was a reference made to the 1 "Bishops being covered;" but this probably .referred to their caps. Tho bestknown post-Reformation instance of the use of tho mitre, but not in England, Js associated with tho consecration- at Aberdeen in 1784 of Dr. Seabury as the first Bishop of tho American Church. _ His mitre, which was presented to him at Aberdeen is still carefully preserved at Trinity College, Connecticut. The Bishops rightly wear copes at tho Coronation, but such are not distinctively episcopat or even clerical vestments, ns they are sometimes worn by the lay cantors of a choir. Tho mitre is surely needed if the episcopal office is to be properly dignified. From what appears in his Life, Archbishop Benson expected that lie would wear tho mitre if he survived to officiate at the next Coronation. Perhaps the members of the Provincial Houses of Laymen might be willing to present to such of tho officiating prelates at the Coronation as do not possess mitres their appropriat6 emblems of office. Lord Oranmore and Brown sends, in reply to the foregoing,- the following extract, giving an instance of mitres having been, at nny rate, borne by Prelates at a later date: "A foreign view of England in tho reigns of George I and George 11, by Cesar do Saiissure. translated and edited by Mme. van Muyden" contains an account of -the nroeession of Peers find Peeresses to Westminster Abbey on the occasion of tho Coronation of King Georgo 11. in which the following occurs:— "The Bishops,, all excepting those who carried the regalia or royal ornaments. They wore their rochets and big cloaks and conos. All their pnrments were of silver cloth brocaded with flowers of divers colours, and in their hands thev carried mitres of the same cloth of silver."