THE SEALS OF ENGLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 15

THE SEALS OF ENGLAND

Whenever, after the formation of a new Cabinet in" England, its members are received by the King'before starting work, it is. officially announced, and ■was announced, as ÜBtia] the other day, that they "kissed hands" and received i from the Sovereign their seals of office, [saya the '^New.York Tiroes."

The second statement is true,, but not the^ first. No Cabinet Minister ever kisses the King's hand. What actually happens is that when the now Ministers are presented by tho Prime Minister, they kneel before the King and take his hand into their, own.. They make an. inclination of their head toward the royal hana, but do not attempt to kiss it, Having been1 warned iin advance by an usher not to do so.

But the seals of office do exist. Kept in small cases, they are handed personally by the King to Cabinet Ministers when the latter take office, and are returned into the King's own hands when a Minister resigns.

How seals came to figure prominently in the business of the State is not the least fascinating of the many traclitionladen studios provided by the British Government. Since early Norman times the wishes of the Sovereign of England, as indicated by charters, letters patent, and the like, carried no weight until tho royal seal was attached. • In fact, in Elizabethan times, the judges declared with emphasis that in their opinion no public expenditure could bo properly. incurred without a, royal warrant, and that sneh a warrant, even if it bore the royal signature, was invalid withont the imprint of the Great or the Privy Seal. • ' :

! The Great Seal has been called the "key of the realm" because it is the sign and token of executive sovereignty. It may bo said to date from the time of William the Conqueror, When, he

CUSTOMS OF OFFICE

was Duke of Normandy he had a seal which portrayed him seated on a horse ,and heavily armed. When; he became King:of England "if'evidently occurred to him that hia leal required some elaboration to mark his accession to royal power. So he adopted, as a counter-seal, to his equestrian syinboV a royal seal used by an early French King. Later the design of William's' seal was altered, but only to the extent that the seal, proper was interchanged, with the counter-seal. .; ■/■'. • '

Great in meaning and. great in. power,' the Great Seal of; England Is.yet, com-i paratively, a small thing. Made- of silver —a metal, easy ■■ to clean —it' is about seven inches in.' diameter arid weighs, twelve! porjnds. .' The. Lord Chancellor is its custodian and responsible for il,a safety, and it lies within his discretion to keep it where he thinks fit. ..' :. ■ .-■ ;.. ■ - .„.; .

In days:gone by those in. whose custody it lay have spent anxious moments* Lord Chancellor Eldon,-in the reign of George Hl'., used to sleep- with it under his pillow I One night his house caught fire and ho buried" it in his garden for safety. • Next day he 'had -forgotten where he had hidden it and could not recall for some time.

Whenever a new Great Seal is introduced'a special ceremony takes place. The new seal is Bent from the mint to the King. The Lord Chancellor, notii fied of this by writ, takes the old Great Seal to the palaco and hands it, in. two halves,1 to the King. The latter taps it three' times with a small, egg-shaped hammer, thus defacing the seal, which is ,of' Wry soft-motal. The old seal then bticomes the perquisite of • the Chancellor. In modern times it has become customary for him to send one half to his predecessor in office, as an act of courtesy*