Precedence

Some Criticisms.

It is manifest on even a cursory examina tion of the tables we have given that they are in many respects very imperfectly fitted to meet the circumstances and require ments of the present day. In both of them the limits prescribed to the royal family are inconveniently narrow, in contrast to the ample bounds through which the operation of the Royal Marriage Act (12 Geo. III. c. i 1) extends the disabilities but not the priv ileges of the sovereign's kindred. Otherwise the scale of general precedence for women compares favourably with the scale of general precedence for men, which is now in nearly the same con dition as that in which it has been for between two and three centuries, and the political, to say nothing of the social, arrange ments to which it was framed to apply have undergone an almost complete transformation. It is true that in the professional classes definite systems of subordination are established by either authority or usage, which are carefully observed and enforced in the particular areas and spheres to which they have reference. As an example of precedence, major-generals and rear-admirals are of equal rank, and with them are placed commissaries-general and inspectors-general of hospitals and fleets; in India along with civilians of 31 years' standing they immediately follow the vice-chancellors of the Indian universities, and in relation to the consular service they immediately precede agents-general and consuls-general. But there is nothing to aid us in determining whether in England they should be ranked with, before or after deans, king's counsel or doctors in divinity, who likewise are desti tute of any recognized general precedence, and, as matters now stand, would certainly have to give place to the younger sons of baronets and knights and the companions of the knightly orders.

No foreigner has any legal precedence in Great Britain, but it is suggested that it being proper courtesy to accord to guests the precedence due to the rank they bear in their own countries, they should rank in society with and immediately before those of the relative rank in England. It should, however, be remembered that the younger sons of counts and other nobles bear the title of count with the addition of the Christian name, and they should be ranked with younger sons of British earls, etc., whatever title

they bear.

It has now become usual to recognize ecclesiastical rank derived from the pope, even when held by subjects of the king. Cardinals, therefore, rank by international usage above archbishops, as princes of the blood royal, and in Ireland, Roman Catholic and Protestant bishops rank as such by warrants there in force.

An order respecting precedence was sent by the secretary of State for the colonies to the governor-general of Canada (July 24, 1868). Precedence in India is regulated by a Royal Warrant dated May 6, 1871.

See the peerages of Burke, Debrett etc.

Since there is no hereditary ranking in the United States prece dence in official functions and ceremonies is purely according to official position. No statutes determine the order, so courtesy is the only law which rules. Custom, however, has set an order generally as follows : The President, Vice-President, Ambassadors in order (i.e., according to the date when their credentials were presented), Chief Justice, Justices, Ministers in order, Speaker of the House of Representatives, The Cabinet in order (Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of War, Attorney General, Postmaster General, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, and Secretary of Labor), Senators, Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Operations of the Navy, Representatives, Charge d'Affaires, major-generals and rear-admirals, counsellors and mili tary and naval attaches, Solicitor General, foreign first secretaries, American under-secretaries and first-assistant secretaries, Federal Reserve Board members, Interstate Commerce Commission mem bers, members of other quasi-independent boards and commis sions, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and heads of other quasi-independent bureaus and institutions, foreign second and third secretaries, second and third secretaries of the United States.