groups of confederated states and the great executive officers in charge of Imperial interests.

The view presented in the preceding pages of the relations between the Colonies and the mother-country, and of the immediate possibilities of drawing them closer together, may appear disappointing to those who have been full fed on more ambitious schemes. But it is in keeping with the spirit of our institutions, and also with the lessons of our colonial experience. If we look back over the modern colonial history of Britain we shall perceive that two successive mistakes of policy have arisen from the inability of statesmen to grasp a great and governing idea. The idea was new in modern history, and it is the glory of Britain to have realised it. But it was long before it dawned upon the political consciousness, and even now it is perhaps only imperfectly seized. The idea is that of free colonies; of the union of liberty with empire; of states united by a tie (in a phrase of Sir Henry Parkes) as light as air, and yet as strong as steel. The statesmen of the eighteenth century could not perceive the possibility of such a connexion. They insisted on keeping it tight, and they lost the American colonies. The statesmen of the mid-nineteenth century could not perceive the possibility either. They made the connexion loose, and they expected, and even desired, the 'ripe fruit' to drop off the parent stem. There is some danger now of a third mistake from an imperfect grasp of the same principle. The ripe fruit has not dropped off, and does not seek to drop off. The connexion is loose, but it is strong and it is voluntary. Then why not, say some, tighten it once more? Closer, if not tighter, the connexion may well become; but it must be by following the laws of natural growth. The immediate object to be aimed at is not so much the creation of a single organ of sovereign will, but the concentration of the free-wills of the several states upon a common purpose. The federation thus attained may not be symmetrical or logical. It will conform to no known type; but it will realise a great ideal. It will establish an empire whose service is perfect freedom.

Art. XVI.-THE CORONATION OF THE KING OF

ENGLAND.

1. Missale ad Usum Ecclesie Westmonasteriensis nunc primum typis mandatum. Curante Johanne Wickham Legg. Three vols. London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1891, 1893, 1897.

2. The Manner of the Coronation of King Charles the First of England at Westminster, 2 Feb. 1626. Edited for the Henry Bradshaw Society by Christopher Wordsworth, M.A. London, 1892.

3. The Coronation Book of Charles V of France. (Cottonian MS. Tiberius, B. VIII.) Edited by E. S. Dewick, M.A., F.S.A. London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1899.

4. Three Coronation Orders. Edited by J. Wickham Legg. London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1900.

5. The Coronation Service according to the use of the Church of England. With notes and introduction. By the Rev. Joseph H. Pemberton. London: Skeffington, 1901. 6. English Coronation Records. Edited by Leopold G. Wickham Legg, B.A. Westminster: Constable, 1901. 7. The English Coronation Service, its History and Teaching. By F. C. Eeles. Oxford and London: Mowbray, 1902.

8. The Form and Order of the Service that is to be performed, and of the Ceremonies that are to be observed, in the Coronation of their Majesties King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, in the Abbey Church of S. Peter, Westminster, on Thursday, the 26th day of June, 1902. Cambridge, University Press; Oxford, University Press, 1902. UNTIL a few years ago the student who would know something of the ancient ceremonial of the coronation of the kings and queens of England had to be content with such information as he could extract from works like Selden's Titles of Honour,' the folios of Ogilby and Sandford, Arthur Taylor's 'Glory of Regality,' and Planche's 'Regal Records,' or the few surviving copies of the Form and Order of the Coronation of a particular sovereign. The Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicana' of Mr

* A second and greatly enlarged edition of Mr Maskell's work was issued in 1882.

William Maskell, first published in 1846-7, led the way to a more scientific study of the subject; and the issue of the full text of the manuscript known as 'Liber Regalis' to the Roxburghe Club in 1870 was a useful contribution, though the value of it is somewhat discounted by an inadequate introduction.

The first work undertaken by the society established in 1890 in memory of Henry Bradshaw, late University Librarian at Cambridge, 'for the editing of rare liturgical texts,' was the 'Missale ad Usum Ecclesie Westmonasteriensis,' from the splendid manuscript in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, written and illuminated during the abbacy of Nicholas Lytlington in 1384. This includes the 'Ordo Consecracionis Regis' and the Ordo Consecracionis Regine Sole,' which have now, under the editorship of Dr Wickham Legg, for the first time, been properly collated and annotated with the version given in 'Liber Regalis.' In 1892 the Henry Bradshaw Society issued to its members another important work, 'The Manner of the Coronation of King Charles the First, 1626,' under the editorship of the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth. This contains, besides a full and annotated text of the coronation service, a valuable historical introduction, together with a series of appendixes of illustrative documents. The Coronation Book of Charles V,' also edited for the Henry Bradshaw Society in 1899 by the Rev. E. S. Dewick, is of interest, not only from the exceeding beauty of the manuscript in question, now preserved in the British Museum, but for the interesting evidence it affords of the close correspondence in early times of the coronation offices of the English and French kings. By the further publication in 1900 of Three Coronation Orders,' viz. (1) the Coronation Order of William and Mary, (2) an Anglo-French version of Liber Regalis,' and (3) the Consecration of an Anglo-Saxon King, the Henry Bradshaw Society has conferred upon students the boon of a fairly complete series of texts of the coronation office. The value of this last volume, which has been issued under the competent editorship of Dr Wickham Legg, is enhanced by a number of useful appendixes and notes.

The accession in 1901 of His Majesty King Edward VII has produced, as was to be expected, a flood of literature

relating to coronations. The first of such works to make its appearance was the Rev. J. H. Pemberton's Coronation Service according to the use of the Church of England.' The text is that used at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, prefaced by a series of notes, which, however, do not seem to have involved much original research. The popularity of the book is nevertheless attested by its having reached a fourth edition and been doubled in bulk, with an additional series of illustrations, copied from old prints.

But by far the best of recent works is Mr Leopold G. Wickham Legg's English Coronation Records.' The object of the author has been 'to gather into one volume a series of documents which will give the consecutive history of the coronation in England, from the earliest time down to the coronation of Queen Victoria,' and right well has the author fulfilled his task. The result is a book of five hundred pages, of which eighty-eight are devoted to a lucid introduction. The documents have been selected with judgment, and include a chronological series of the various recensions of the coronation order, accompanied by such detailed accounts of the rites as illustrate the coronation ceremonies during each dynasty. Mr Legg apologises for having added translations to the French and Latin documents. But surely no apology is needed. The documents printed contain many words and phrases intelligible only to an expert, and the student, for whom the book is written, will be saved much trouble and investigation by their being thus presented to him in an English dress. One useful feature of Mr Legg's work is a comparative table showing the changes that have taken place from time to time in the coronation ceremonies; and there are other tables showing the changes in the coronation oath and in the form for the coronation of the queenconsort. A number of appropriate illustrations are included, with a reproduction in gold and colours, as a frontispiece, of a remarkable illumination of an English coronation of the fourteenth century.

The ceremony of the coronation of the King of England is one of high antiquity, as well as of the greatest historical importance. It has come down to us with all its essential parts unchanged from certainly the ninth century,

and is thus at least a thousand years old. It is also of importance historically, because until the king had been, in the coronation service, elected, anointed, and crowned, of old time he was not king.

For this reason the coronation of the king took place as soon as possible after his accession. From the Conquest to the coronation of George II the interval has varied from four days, as in the case of Henry I, to as many as nineteen weeks in the case of Mary I; but the usual practice has been not to allow more than a few weeks to elapse. The few exceptions can be explained on reasonable grounds. Thus Edward I succeeded his father in November 1272, but, being on crusade, he was not crowned until August 1274. Henry VI was a child of nine months old at his accession in 1422, and still but a child when he was crowned in 1429. In the case of Charles I the coronation was postponed for forty-four weeks on account of the plague. The long interval at the Restoration was no doubt due to the necessity for making new ornaments and regalia owing to the destruction of the old ones by order of the Parliament; for in the five succeeding reigns the interval varied from six weeks only in 1714 to seventeen weeks in 1727. Owing partly to the growing disregard of the religious and constitutional side of the ceremony, and a corresponding increase in the importance attached to the accompanying pageant, the last five coronations have been postponed for as many as eleven, eighteen, fifteen, twelve, and seventeen months respectively after the accession of the sovereign. Another cause of this delay, which in the present instance has had such regrettable consequences, has been the mistaken idea that the formal mourning for the late sovereign should not be interrupted by a national act which, if it is of importance at all, should be done as soon as possible after the king's accession. Another distinctive feature of recent coronations has been the enormous concourse of persons, due to greatly increased facilities for travel, which has led, among other things, to the effort to crowd into the Abbey Church of Westminster many more people than it can conveniently hold, and has necessitated the

This refers to the date (July) originally fixed for the coronation of King Edward VII.