The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 8, July, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 8, July, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Chapter II is occupied with the forms, rules, regulations, &c. of the
House, and is also very entertaining. Among other things, we have here
a denial of the common assertion that the Lord Chancellor carries the
Great Seal before him when advancing to the Bar of the House to
receive a bill sent up by the Commons. His Lordship, we are told, very
gravely, merely carries before him the bag in which it is deposited
when he receives it from the King, or when, on his retirement from
office, he delivers it up into his Majesty's hands. This bag, we are
farther informed, is about twelve inches square, is embroidered with
tassels of gold, silver, and silk, and has his Majesty's arms on both
sides. The Great Seal itself is made of silver, and is seven inches in
diameter. We do not understand the manner in which the Seal is said to
be divided into two parts, and attached to the letters patent. The
impression is six inches in diameter, and three quarters of an inch
thick. On every new accession we learn that a new Seal is struck, and
the old one cut into four pieces and deposited in the Tower. In this
chapter we have the following characteristic anecdote of King William.
The _empressement_ with which the narrator dwells upon the wonderful
circumstance of the monarch's actually reading a letter “without
embarrassment, or the mistake of a single word,” is an amusing
instance of the mystifying influence of “the divine right” and its
accompaniments, upon the noddles of its devotees. The idea, too, of
the King's asking what are the words in his own speech, is
sufficiently burlesque.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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