to naturalize the Prince was, of course, indispensable.  But into it the ministers, without any notice, had introduced a clause enabling him “during his life to take precedence in rank after her Majesty in Parliament and elsewhere as her Majesty might think fit and proper, any law, statute, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.”  It was admitted that no such precedence had been given to Prince George of Denmark, nor to Prince Leopold.  And there were obvious difficulties in the way of conferring such a life-long precedence, because, as Lord Brougham had pointed out, it was possible that the Queen might die without issue, in which case the King of Hanover would become King of England also, and his son the Prince of Wales; and it would have been an inconceivable anomaly that a foreign naturalized prince should take precedence of the Prince of Wales, whose special rank and importance was recognized in many acts of Parliament.  This objection was so clearly insuperable, that Lord Melbourne consented to alter the clause so as to give the Prince precedence only “after the heir-apparent.”  But even this concession failed to satisfy the objectors, the King of Hanover, among others, positively refusing to waive his precedence over any foreign prince.  And eventually the minister withdrew the clause altogether, and the bill, as it was passed, was confined to the naturalization of the Prince.  Lord Melbourne had thus contrived to make the Queen and Prince appear as if they were desirous to induce the two Houses by a sort of trick to confer on the Prince a precedence and dignity to which he was not entitled, and to render the refusal of Parliament to be so cajoled a fresh cause of mortification to the royal pair.  The course that was eventually adopted is understood to have been suggested by the Duke of Wellington—­to withdraw the affair altogether from the cognizance of Parliament, and to leave it to the Queen to confer on the Prince whatever precedence she might choose, as it was certainly within her right to do.  And so, a few days after the bill had passed, she did by letters-patent give him precedence next to herself “on all occasions and in all meetings, except when otherwise provided by act of Parliament,” as, seventeen years later, she, in the same way, with the cordial approval of the whole nation, conferred on him the title of Prince Consort.  And apart from its convenience, as avoiding all unseemly discussions, this would seem to have been the most natural and proper mode of settling such a matter.  The Queen is the fountain of honor in this kingdom, and at her own court she can certainly confer on any of her own subjects whatever precedence she may think fit, while it may be doubted whether any act of a British Parliament could give precedence at a foreign court.  It was, probably, not in his character of Duke of Cumberland, but as an independent sovereign, that the King of Hanover maintained his claim to superior precedence; and it was plain that the most illustrious subject could