THE PRINCE OP WALES' ELDEST SON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3264, 13 March 1885, Page 3

THE PRINCE OP WALES' ELDEST SON.

(Law Journal). The law is singularly bare m its recognition of the second generation of the Royal family, even m the case of its senior male representative, when the first generation includes his father. He is not even entitled m strictness to be called heir presumptive to the Crown, because there can be no heir presumptive when there is an heir apparent, and his father's titles admit of no courtesy title customarily borne by the heir apparent to them. His place m point of precedence is after his uncles, as was settled m 1760, when the Duke of York, m the lifetime of George 11. , took his seat m the House of Lords. Nothing remains . except the comparatively modern, title of Prince, to which must be added the first Christian name, as m point of law the first Christian name is the only Christian name, no one being entitled to more than one. Even the position during the minority of a son of the Prince of Wales is rather vaguely defined by the law. In 1718 it was decided by a majority of ten judges to two that the education and the care of the sovereign's grandchildren belong to the sovereign during the lifetime of their father, but the decision of the majority has had doubts thrown upon it. It has never been doubted that, at common law, the approval of the marriage of the sovereign's grandchildren belongs to the sovereign, and now by statute control is given to the Crown over the marriage of all the English descendants of George 11. It is a popular error that a prince m the direct line of the throne comes of age, m the sense of the capacity of reigning, before he attains twenty-one. The fact is that the heir to the throne is always capable of reigning, as the sovereign is never a minor. In the case of sovereigns of tender : years, regents have been appointed ; but the age at which sovereigns irho were minors began to act for themselves has varied from time to time. Henry 111. and Edward 111. were conlidered at full age to act as kings it eighteen ; Richard 11. and Henry VI. lot till twenty-three ; and by the statute )f Henry VIII. his successor, if a male, vas to be under guardianship until tighteen, and, if a female, until sixteen, fho modern practice has been to make sighteen the full age of a sovereign, as !videnced by the statute m regard to the ihildreh of Frederick, Prince of Wales, m egard to the children of George 111., and n regard to the children of her present Majesty and the late Prince Consort, m he event of that Prince surviving Her kfajesty, and the heir to the throne being inder that age. No age, however, is low fixed by law before attaining which he sovereign cannot reign - without a egent. The attainment by Prince Albert f Wales of the age of twenty-one has jgally even less significance than m the ase of an ordinary subject. Although he ), like others, no longer under pupilage a the general sense, he, unlike them, is till not master of himself m regard to larriage.