THE SEALS OF ENGLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1932, Page 7

THE SEALS OF ENGLAND

CUSTOMS OF OFFICE. Whenever, after the formation of a new Cabinet in England, its members are received by Die King before starting work, it is officially announced, and was announced as usual the other day, that they “kissed hands” and received from the Sovereign their seals of office (says the New Yoik Times). The second statement is true, but not the first. No Cabinet Minister ever kisses the King’s hand. What actually happens is that when the new Ministers are presented by the Prime Minister, they kneel before the King and take his hand into their own. They make an inclination of their head toward the royal hand, but do not attempt to kiss it, having been warned in advance by an usher not to do so. But the seals of office do exist. Kept in small cases, they are handed personally by the King to Cabinet Ministers when the latter take office, and are returned into the King’s own hands when a Minister resigns. How seals came to figure prominently in the business of the State is not the least fascinating of the many tfa'ditioii laden studies provided by the British Government. Since early Norman times the wishes of the Sovereign of England, as indicated by charters, letters patent, and the like, carried no weight until the royal seal was ‘.attached. In fact, in Elizabethan times, the judges declared with emphasis that in their opinion no public expenditure could be properly incurred without a royal warrant, and that such a warrant, even if it bore the royal signature, was invalid without the imprint of the Great or the Privy Seal. The Great Steal has been call d the “key of the realm” because it is the sign and token of executive sovereignity. It may he said to date from the time of William the Conqueror. When he was Duke of Normandy he had a seal which portrayed him seated on a horse and heavily armed. When he became King of England it evidently occurred to him that his seal required some elaboration to mark fiis accession to royal power. .So he adopted, as a counter-seal to his equestrian symbol. a royal seal used by an early French King. Later the design of William’s seal was altered, hut only to the extent that the seal proper was interchanged with the counterseal. Great in meaning and great in power, the Great Seal of England is vet. comparatively, a small thing. Made of silver—a metal easy to clean —it Is about seven inches in diameter and weighs 12 pounds. Tlte Lofd Chancellor is its custodian dift. responsible for its safety, find it Hed within Ills discretion to keep it where he thinks fit. In days gone by those in. whose custody it lay have spent anxious moments.' Lord Chancellor Eldon, in the reign of George 111, used to sleep with it under his pollow! One night his house caught fire nad lie buried it,in his garden for safety. 2sext day he had forgotten where he had hidden it and could not recall for some time. Whenever » new Great Seal is introduced a .special ceremony takes place. The new seal is sent from the mint to the King. The Lord Chancellor, notified of this writ, takes the old Great Seal to the palace and hands it, in two halves, to the King. The latter taps three times with a small egg-shaped hammer, thus defacing the .--rial, which is of very soft metal. The old seal then becomes the perquisite of the Chancellor. In modern times it has become customary for mm to send one half to his p-edecessor m office, as an act of ecu tesy.