It is, perhaps, interesting to note that neither the Proclamation, Accession, Declaration, or Coronation, of a King in any way improves his legal kingship: he is King from the moment his predecessor’s life is extinct. Hence the legal saying, “The King never dies.” It was anomalous for certain official persons in the City of London to address his Majesty the King as “Prince,” in condoling with him on the death of King Edward VII., immediately after the event. It was likewise technically incorrect to refer to the decease of “the King of Portugal and of the Crown Prince”--at the time of the assassinations. The latter survived his father by a minute or so, and he, therefore, died a King. * * * * * The accompanying paragraph from the _Coronation Service_, by the Rev. Joseph H. Pemberton, contains some information: “As to the authority by which the Coronation Service is from time to time revised. An order is made by the King in Council directing the Archbishop of Canterbury to prepare a ‘Form and Order,’ due attention being given to the wishes of the Sovereign on points of detail. But the Archbishop has also a duty to perform to the Church, that nothing shall be omitted which through many generations has been held as essential to the validity of the Service, a Service by which, through the administration of the outward and visible sign of Holy Unction, the inward and spiritual grace of the Holy Spirit is conveyed to the Sovereign for the office and work of a King or Queen in this realm under the Catholic Church of Christ. For it cannot be too often repeated in these days that the Coronation of a King is not a civil ceremony, but a religious service, for the purpose of the setting apart of a person for a particular and holy office. The King at his Accession becomes the people’s accepted Sovereign, at his Coronation he becomes the Lord’s Anointed, holding his divine office as the representative, the agent, to the people of this realm, of the King of kings and Lord of lords.” APPENDIX H THE POOR PRISONERS’ DEFENCE ACT, THE PERJURY BILL, AND THE CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT I. THE POOR PRISONERS’ DEFENCE ACT An extremely short enactment, interesting from several points of view, is that which deals with the defence of poor prisoners. In itself it is scarcely anomalous, though the necessity for a poor prisoner to satisfy the committing justices or the judge of a court of assize, or chairman of a court of quarter sessions that he, the prisoner, comes within the meaning of the Act, sometimes tends to produce difficulty and obstruction. The Act reads:-- AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR THE DEFENCE OF POOR PRISONERS. (14th August, 1903)