TITLE TO THE CROWN

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 5

TITLE TO THE CROWN

CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION. PARLIAMENT FINAL AUTHORITY. That Princess Elizabeth takes precedence of her sister is the reading of the law given, by Mr. L. K. Munro, lecturer in constitutional law at Auckland University College, but he points out that if necessary any question regar’ing the succession can be settled by Parliament. “The title to the English Crown depends both upon the unwritten or uncommon law of England and upon statutory law,” Mr. Munro said recently. “The common law makes it clear that the feudal, rules of hereditary descent with reference to land govern the succession to the Crown, with, however, one very important exception. Consequently, in the first place, the Crown descends to the eldest son of the sovereign, and, if lie dies without issue, then to the next son. If that son is dead the Crown devolves upon his eldest son. “Thus, if the Prince of Wales were to become Sovereign and to die without issue, the title would devolve upon the Duke of York. Were the Duke already dead, leaving no son surviving him, Princess Elizabeth, subject to a doubt to be mentioned later, would become Queen. 'She has priority overany surviving brothers of the Duke of York. “The doubt mentioned is this. In the ease of land, where the only successors are daughters, they take jointly as coparceners, to use the legal expression. It is suggested that this would be the case in connection with the Duke of York’s two daughters. But the author of the article on constitutional law in Efalsbury’s ‘Laws of England,’ following Blackstone, says that this is not so, and that in the case of females the tit' devolves upon the eldest daughter alone and her issue.”

History did not provide any previous instances which were very helpful. It was true that Henry VIII. left two daughters, Mary ai»d Elizabeth, who succeeded to the Throne in that order ftcthe death without issue of their brother. But in this instance the succession was regulated by Henry’s will, in accordance with a Parliamentary Act. Also James 11. left two daughters, Mary and Anne, who became Queens of England in that urder. Their succession again was regu-

lated by Parliamentary enactment. “These examples merely show that if there is any doubt it can be easily cleared up by statute,” Mr. Munro added. “At one ■ time the" Sovereign was elective, and’the remnants of this principle can still be traced in the coronation ceremony. This alone would’ possibly entitle the nation to choose as its Sovereign Princess Elizabeth iu preference to the impracticable alternative of two joint Queens.”