CHAP. XI] HONOURS 
Governors to grant naval and military decorations on con- 
ditions approved by the Admiralty and War Office. 
1309 
§ 4. PRECEDENCE 
Precedence is, as a rule, not regulated by legislation, and 
can be expressed in any form that is thought fit by the 
royal authority, whether by letters patent or by warrant, or 
by royal instructions, or by the signification of His Majesty's 
pleasure through the Secretary of State. 
Thus, for example, the precedence of the Puisne Judges of 
the Supreme Court of Canada was regulated by one dispatch 
of October 31, 1878, and it was altered and considerably 
modified by another dispatch of November 3, 1879. More- 
over, the tables of precedence which now regulate precedence 
in the Colonies have as a general rule been drawn up and 
formally approved by the Crown; if they have not been 
formally approved they have been sanctioned by practice 
and custom, and in the absence of special instructions from 
the King, the precedence can be regulated by the Governor, 
aot in virtue of the automatic exercise of the prerogative, 
but in virtue of the Colonial Regulations. 
A General Table of Precedence is laid down in Colonial 
Regulations, No. 138, but the general table is varied con- 
siderably in each of the Dominions.? It is provided also in 
Regulation No. 142 that members of the Royal Family take 
precedence next after the Governor of the Colony, and that 
persons entitled to official precedence in the United Kingdom 
or in foreign countries or in any particular Colony are not 
entitled as of right to the same precedence elsewhere. Inthe 
absence of any special instructions from the King the pre- 
sedence of such persons will be determined by the Governor. 
! See e.g. New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1902, A. 1, p. 26; 1903, A. 2, p. 10; 
1910, A. 2, p. 72; Royal Warrant, May 21, 1895. 
* The approved list for Canada, as settled in 1893, will be found in the 
Colonial Office List, 1904, p- 479. That for the Commonwealth was pub- 
lished in the Commonwealth Gazette, December 30, 1905; that for the 
Union in the Gazette, September 30, 1910. For Sir J. Macdonald’s views, 
of. Pope, ii. 240, 330, 331. The question of consular precedence has been 
raised in Canada recently; see Sir W, Laurier’s views, House of Commons 
Debates, 1909-10, pp. 853-5; 1910-1, pp. 973 seq. 
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