On Mon, 16 Dec 2002 11:48:41 +0000, Don Aitken <don-ait...@freeuk.com>
wrote:

[snip]

I have now seen this, and my guess turns out to be right. Although the
Act is entitled "An Act to provide for the administration of the
Government in case the Crown should descend to her Royal Highness the
Princess Alexandrina Victoria, Daughter of His late Royal Higness the
Duke of Kent, being under the age of Eighteen years, and for the Care
and Guardianship of Her person", it actually deals with other matters,
contrary to the modern rule about long titles.

Section II provides: "And be it further enacted that if, at the Demise
of his said Majesty leaving her said Majesty him surviving, there
shall not be any Child of His said Majesty then living born of Her
said Majesty, and Her Royal Highness the Princess Alexandrina Victoria
shall be then living, the Privy Council shall forthwith cause Her said
Royal Highness the Princess Alexandrina Victoria to be openly and
solemnly proclaimed as Sovereign of this Realm in such Manner and Form
as the preceding Kings and Queens respectively have been usually
proclaimed after the demise of their respective predecessors, but
subject to and saving the Rights of any Issue of His said Majesty
which may afterwards be born of Her said Majesty; and in every case in
which by law an Oath or Declaration or Assurance of Allegience to the
Sovereign or asserting the Title of the Sovereign is required to be
taken, made, or subscribed there shall be added to such Oath,
Declaration, and Assurance the words following -- "Saving the Rights
of any Issue of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, which may be
born of His late Majesty's Consort;" which Addition shall be continued
until Parliament shall otherwise order.

This clearly covers what happened in 1837, and the Accession
Proclamation was made under the terms of this section. This
incidentally means that the statement in Halsbury's Laws that the
Accession Proclamation is based on no authority other than custom is
wrong, at least in this case.

The other provisions of the Act are -

Preamble. The Act is passed as recommended to Parliament by the King.

Section I. If no issue of the King at his death, and Pss AV is then
under 18, the Dss of Kent to be Regent, her regency to determine if a
posthomous child is born.

Section II. As above.

Section III. HM Queen Adelaide to be Regent for any posthumous child.

Section IV. On birth of such a posthumous child, he or she to be
proclaimed as Sovereign forthwith.

Section V. Accession of such child to be regarded as a demise of the
Crown, as if Victoria had died.

Section VI. All acts of regal authority with consent of the Regent to
be void.

Section VII. Oaths to be taken by the Regent.

Section VIII. The Regent to qualify by taking the Test Act oath and
producing a certificate of communion to the Privy Council.

Section IX. Marriage of the sovereign requires the consent of the
Regent; otherwise to be void, and the penalties of High Treason to
apply to the other party.

Section X. Regent cannot assent to Acts to change the succession, or
the Act of Uniformity, or the Act protecting the Scottish Church.

Section XI. Regent or prospective Regent to become ineligible, or to
cease to hold office, on marriage to a Papist or on marriage to anyone
not a natural-born subject without consent of King William, or, after
his death, of both Houses of Parliament.

Section XII. the whole Act to be void if the Queen dies and the King
remarries.

It is noteworthy that the Act does not create the rules about who
succeeds to the throne and when; it merely assumes them, and makes
consequential arrangements.

The corresponding legislation relating to the accession of
Elizabeth II is the regency Act 1937. Presumably the question of
whether to include similar provisions about the Accession proclamation
was considerd when that Act was drafted, but I do not know if any
mention was made of it in Parliament.

--
Don Aitken