Britain: An official handbook > 1956

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BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
holders of office at home and overseas, receives accounts of Cabinet decisions, reads
dispatches and signs innumerable State papers.
Such is the significance attached to these royal functions that provision has been
made by Acts of Parliament for a Regent to be appointed to fulfil them if the
Sovereign is totally incapacitated, or if the Heir Apparent or the Heir Presumptive
is under the age of eighteen on accession to the throne. In the event of the
Sovereign’s partial incapacity or absence abroad, provision is made for the appoint¬
ment of Counsellors of State to carry out those of the royal functions which are
delegated to them. The latest of these Acts—the Regency Act, 1953—laid down
that the first potential Regent should be the Duke of Edinburgh and thereafter
the Princess Margaret and then those in succession to the throne who are of age.
Ceremonial
Ceremonial has always been associated with the kings and queens of the British
Isles, and in spite of the changes that have taken place with the altered outlook of
both the Sovereign and the people, certain customs and usages are the same today
as they were many centuries ago.
The formal ceremony of Presentation still takes place, although now at the After¬
noon Presentation Parties held by the Queen, which have superseded the former
Courts. Royal marriages, the birth of royal children and royal funerals are still
marked by ancient ceremonial, although to a lesser degree than in former days.
The birthday of the Sovereign, formerly the occasion of many royal and public
functions, is today officially celebrated early in June by Trooping the Colour on
the Horse Guards Parade.
State banquets still take place when a foreign monarch or head of State pays
a visit to the United Kingdom; investitures are still held at Buckingham Palace,
although today honours may be bestowed without the personal attendance of the
recipient upon the Sovereign. State processions are still an integral part of royal
ceremonial; they grace such social occasions as the Ascot Race Meeting, known as
Royal Ascot; and they add significance to the opening of Parliament, when the
Queen drives in state from Buckingham Palace.
The Sovereign is the leader of society by order of general precedence dating from
the fourteenth century and sustained until the present day by royal ordinances,
ancient usage, established custom and the public will. The Queen’s presence at
the inauguration of scientific, artistic, industrial, and charitable works of national
importance ensures nation-wide interest and support.
PARLIAMENT
The supreme legislative authority in the United Kingdom is the Queen in
Parliament, that is to say the Queen and the two Houses of Parliament—the House
of Lords and the House of Commons—which together represent all the elements
in the nation.
The three sections of ‘ Parliament ’ in this sense are outwardly separate: they are
constituted on entirely different principles; they do different work in different
places and they meet only on occasions of great symbolic significance such as the
Coronation or the opening of Parliament by the Queen in person, when the
Commons are summoned by the Queen to the House of Lords. As a law-making
organ of State, however, Parliament is a corporate body and cannot legislate with¬
out the concurrence of all its parts, except in the case of measures passed under
the Parliament Act, 1949.1
1 See p. 32.