THE Southland Times PUBLISHED _EVERY_ MORNING. Luceo Non Uro SATURDAY, 28th JUNE, 1902. THE CORONATION CEREMONY.

Southland Times, Issue 16075, 28 June 1902, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED _EVERY_ MORN ING. Luceo Non Uro SATURDAY, 28th JUNE, 1902. THE CORONATION CEREMONY.

Early in the month, while dealing with the preparations for the Coronation, we mentioned casually that we intended to write upon the constitutional importance and significance Ol the ceremony. When the disastrous illness of his Majesty necessitated the postponement of the Coronation for an indefinite but probably long period we abandoned oar mtention, thinking that a more opportune time for the article we had in view would arise. It has been suggested to us, however, that as the Coronation is " the talk of the hour," and its history is known to but few people, such an article as we indicated would serve a purpose at the present time. We have decided therefore, to accede to these requests and we do so the more readily as the origin and character of the ceremony have been most erroneously described in our correspondence columns. Of course we do not feel any apprehension that our correspondent's letter will lead many of o_r readers seriously astray. The inter' nai evidence of gross inaccuracy must obtrude itself upon every reader with even an elementary knowledge of English history, and in these days an elementary knowledge with English history is pretty generally diffused. A writer who while pretending " to know what significance coronations were intended to have at the time of their institution, deliberately connects their oUgin with "the Divine HRln cf Kings dogma " must bave a peculiar idea either of British history or of the credulity of the average man in the twentieth century. Every schoolboy knows that the doctrine of the Divine right of Kings was begot in the folly of the Stuarts in the early part of the seventeenth century, and that it perished lgnominiously and for ever in the Revolution of 1688. Every schoolboy also knows that the Coronation is as old as the Teutonic conquest of Britain, and dates back almost 1000 years before the jure Divine was ever heard of "To attribute the ideas of the seventeenth century," says Stubbs, " to the ages of St. Gregory, Aoselra and Becket seems an excess of absurdity " and yet it is in this excessive absurdity that our correspondent invites readers to put belief. We might go on exposing the worthlessness of our correspondent's remarkable dissertation by an analysis of its history, ethics and economics. But it would prove a superfluous work, and we pass on to treat of the Coronation. The chief value of the Coronation lies in the fact that it keeps alive the elective character of the kingship and for that reason it should be celebrated by a free and democratic people more scrupulously than by any other. In olden days the King was actually elected by the people of the realm— he was the minister and not the master of the people. The Norman Conquest, which introduced a new dynasty, also brought with it a devalopment in the ideas of kingship. But election by the National Assembly wa» still necessary to the King's title, and the right conferred by election was subsequently perfected by the ecclesiastical ceremony of inunction and coronation. Later still the succession to the throne passed through times of varying vicissitude. The doctrine of the hereditary descent of the Crown gradually grew up, and by degrees the interregnum which occurred between the death of one sovereign and the ascension of another was curtailed until, In 1307, Edward II- succeeded to the kingship immediately on the death of his predecessor. It was not, however, until the House of York came to the throne that the doctrine of indefeasible hereditary right was promulgated, and it was to fortify this doctrine that the Stuarts vigorously asserted the " Divine right " of kings. Parliament varied in the strength of its independence. At times its submission to the King was almost absolute, and at other times it stoutly resisted the attempts of the monarch to. usurp the rights of the people. The history of tbe succession to the throne, as we bave said, is a cheque.cd history, but the power of Parliament to regulate the succession was finally vindicated by tbe >. eposition of James 11. and the election of William of Orange in 1688. The Act of Settlement for ever decided the question of the source from which the right to the kindly of. cc is _erived. "In that Act," tays an authority, " Parliament for the last time in our histovy, exercised its paramount right to settle the succession to the Crown ; a right .'orinded not only in reason, bu - in the ancient principles of our Constitution, and supported by long usage and a uniformity of theory an*l practice for centuries prior to the Revolution." , , The people do not now, through their Parliament, insist upon electing their sovereign periodically as the throne becomes vacant, Hereditary succession has become the normal rule. But the right is not dead. It lives in the statute of Great Britain, and, as keeping it before the people, the ceremony of the Coronation is one upon which the people cannot set too high a value. By their acclamations on that 4ay the people signify their assent to bestowal of the Crown, and where it is in their power io give their assent it is also in their power to withhold It. The Coronation pageantry never hid anything of tbe barbarous in its charac-

tw. It was understood as bestowing bog. divine ratification on tbt el#o tl bt^wtleh had preceded lt. It rv>m- « pietW the august act of the nation, « »nd no nation which was great ana * powerful could perform such an act ft ; without clothing it in those attributes of splendour and wealth which f< are becoming to such acts. Some t of the stormiest chapters in tnglish t history have for their theme tbe sue- n cession, to the Crown. The right j o which is now vested in Parliament, i though it is an inherent and essen- o tial right, was not establisned with- 1 out a prolonged and dramatic dis- c pute, involving England in some of 3 her most perilous and critical ex- _ periences, and the people not do 1 too much to show their appreciation r , of the centuries of struggle and ipso-, < lution which endowed them with the < privileges they enjoy so tranquilly. , The Coronation is the outward cere- i mony which typifies the people's , power, and, therefore, the people do : well to mark the Coronation with 1 pageantries and rejoicings, showing forth to the world on the one hand 1 the magnificence with which they choose to surround their chosen Royal house, and on the other hand the pricelessness of the heritage of liberty and self-government which has come down to them frora their forefathers. The Coronation is essentially a people's demonstration. _____________M__-»>