1. The supreme executive power of this kingdom is lodged in a single person: the king or queen 2. This royal person may be considered with regard to, I. His title. II. His royal family. III. His councils. IV. His duties. V. His prerogative. VI. His revenue 3. With regard to his title; the crown of England, by the positive constitution of the kingdom, hath ever been descendible, and so continues 4. The crown is descendible in a course peculiar to itself 5. This course of descent is subject to limitation by Parliament 6. Notwithstanding such limitations, the crown retains its descendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the prince to whom it is limited 7. King Egbert, king Canute, and king William I., have been successively constituted the common stocks, or ancestors of this descent 8. At the revolution, the convention of estates, or representative body of the nation, declared, that the misconduct of king James II. amounted to an abdication of the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant 9. In consequence of this vacancy, and from a regard to the antient line, the convention appointed the next protestant heirs of the blood-royal of king Charles I. to fill the vacant throne, in the old order of succession; with a temporary exception, or preference, to the person of king William III. 10. On the impending failure of the protestant line of king Charles I., (whereby the throne might again have become vacant), the Parliament extended the settlement of the crown to the protestant line of king James I. viz. to the princess Sophia of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being protestants and she is now the common stock, from whom the heirs of the crown must descend CHAPTER IV. Page 227-230 Page 1. The king's councils are, I. The Parliament. II. The great council of peers. III. The judges, for matters of law. IV. The privy council 2. In privy counsellors may be consi dered, I. Their creation. II. Their qualifications. III. Their duties. IV. Their powers. V. Their privileges. VI. Their dissolution 190 190 190 193 195 196 198 213 214 215 CHAPTER VI. 230-232 OF THE KING'S PREROGATIVE 237 to 278 1. Prerogative is that special power and pre-eminence, which the king hath above other persons, and of the ordinary course of law, in right of his regal dignity 237-239 2. Such prerogatives are either direct, 3. The direct prerogatives regard, I. 239 240 241-249 253-261 6. In foreign concerns; the king, as the representative of the nation, has the right or prerogative, I. Of sending and receiving embassadors. II. Of making treaties. III. Of proclaiming war or peace. IV. Of issuing reprisals. V. Of granting safe-conducts 7. In domestic affairs; the king is, first, a constituent part of the supreme legislative power; hath a negative upon all new laws; and is bound by no statute, unless specially named therein 261 8. He is also considered as the general of the kingdom, and may raise fleets and armies, build forts, appoint havens, erect beacons, prohibit the exportation of arms and ammunition, and confine his subjects within the realm, or recall them from foreign parts 262-266 9. The king is also the fountain of justice, and general conservator of the peace; and therefore may erect courts (wherein he hath a legal ubiquity), prosecute offenders, pardon crimes, and issue proclamations 266 10. He is likewise the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege 11. He is also the arbiter of domestic commerce (not of foreign, which is regulated by the law of merchants); and is therefore entitled to the erection of publie marts, the regulation of weights and measures, and the coinage or legitimation of money 12. The king is, lastly, the supreme head of the church; and, as such, convenes, regulates, and dissolves synods, nominates bishops, and receives appeals in all ecclesiastical causes CHAPTER VIII. Page 271 273 278 3. The king's ordinary temporal revenue consists in, I. The demesne lands of the crown. II. The hereditary excise; being part of the consideration for the purchase of his feodal profits, and the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption. III. An annual sum issuing from the duty on wine licences; being the residue of the same consideration. IV. His forests. V. His courts of justice. VI. Royal fish. VII. Wrecks, and things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan. VIII. Royal mines. IX. Treasure trove. X. Waifs. XI. Estrays. XII. Forfeitures for offences, and deodands. XIII. Escheats of lands. XIV. The custody of idiots and lunatics 286-306 4 The king's extraordinary revenue consists in aids, subsidies, and supplies, granted to him by the commons in parliament 5. Heretofore these were usually raised by grants of the (nominal) tenth or fifteenth part of the moveables in every township; or by scutages, hydages, and talliages; which were succeeded by subsidies assessed upon individuals, with respect to their lands and goods 6. A new system of taxation took place about the time of the revolution; our modern taxes are therefore, I. Annual. II. Perpetual 306 308 308 7. The annual taxes are, I. The land tax, or the antient subsidy raised upon a new assesment. II. The malt tax, being an annual excise on malt, mum, cyder, and perry 308-313 8. The perpetual taxes are, I. The customs, or tonnage and poundage of all merchandize exported or imported. II. The excise duty, or inland imposition, on a great variety of commodities. 10. The produce of these several taxes were originally separate and specific funds, to answer specific loans upon their respective credits; but are now consolidated by parliament into three principal funds, the aggregate, general, and south-sea funds, to answer all the debts of the nation: the public faith being also superadded, to supply deficiencies, and strengthen the security of the whole 11. The surpluses of these funds, after paying the interest of the national debt, are carried together, and denominated the sinking fund; which, unless otherwise appropriated by parliament, is annually to be applied towards paying off some part of the principal 12. But, previous to this, the aggregate fund is now charged with an annual sum for the civil list; which is the immediate proper revenue of the crown, settled by parliament on the king at his accession, for defraying the charges of civil government CHAPTER IX. 326 329 330 330 338 to 365 OF SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES 1. Subordinate magistrates, of the most general use and authority, are, I. Sheriffs. II. Coroners. III. Justices of the peace. IV. Constables. V. Surveyors of the highways. VI. Overseers of the poor 2. The sheriff is the keeper of each county, annually nominated in due form by the king; and is, (within his county) a judge, a conservator of the peace, a ministerial officer, and the king's bailiff 3. Coroners are permanent officers of the crown in each county, elected by the freeholders; whose office it is to make enquiry concerning the death of the king's subjects, and certain revenues of the crown; and also, in particular cases, to supply the office of sheriff 4. Justices of the peace are magistrates in each county, statutably qualified, and commissioned by the king's majesty; with authority to conserve the peace; to hear and determine felonies, and other misdemesnors; and to do many other acts, committed to their charge by particular statutes 5. Constables are officers of hundreds and townships, appointed at the leet, and empowered to preserve the peace, 338-9 339 346 349 to keep watch and ward, and to apprehend offenders 6. Surveyors of the highways are officers appointed annually in every parish; to remove annoyances in, and to direct the reparation of, the public roads 7. Overseers of the poor are officers appointed annually in every parish; to relieve such impotent, and employ such sturdy poor, as are settled in each parish,-by birth;-by parentage;-by marriage; or by forty days' residence, accompanied with, I. Notice. II. Renting a tenement of ten pounds annual value. III. Paying their assessed taxations. IV. Serving an annual office. V. Hiring and serving for a year. VI. Apprenticeship for seven years. VII. Having a sufficient estate in the parish CHAPTER X. Page 355 357 359-365 376 to 395 OF THE CLERGY 1. The people, whether aliens, denizens, or natives, are also either clergy, that is, all persons in holy orders, or in ecclesiastical offices; or laity, which comprehends the rest of the nation 2. The clerical part of the nation, thus defined, are, I. Archbishops and bishops; who are elected by their several chapters, at the nomination of the crown, and afterwards confirmed and consecrated by each other. II. Deans and chapters. III. Archdeacons. IV. Rural deans. V. Parsons, (under whom are included appropriators) and vicars; to whom there are generally requisite, holy orders, presentation, institution, and induction. VI. Curates. To which may be added, VII. Churchwardens. VIII. Parish clerks and sextons CHAPTER XII. 376 377-395 2. The civil state, which includes all the nation except the clergy, the army, and the navy; (and many individuals among them also); may be divided into the nobility, and the commonalty 3. The nobility are dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons. These had antiently duties annexed to their respective honours: they are created either by writ, that is, by summons to parliament; or by the king's letters patent, that is, by royal grant: and they enjoy many privileges, exclusive of their senatorial capacity Page 396 396-402 4. The commonalty consist of knights of the garter, knights bannerets, baronets, knights of the bath, knights bachelors, esquires, gentlemen, yeomen, tradesmen, artificers, and labourers. CHAPTER XIII. 403-407 408 to 417 OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME STATES 1. The military state, by the standing constitutional law, consists of the militia of each county, raised from among the people by lot, officered by the principal landholders, and commanded by the lord lieutenant 2. The more disciplined occasional troops of the kingdom are kept on foot only from year to year, by parliament; and, during that period, are governed by martial law, or arbitrary articles of war, formed at the pleasure of the crown 3. The maritime state consists of the officers and mariners of the British navy; who are governed by express and permanent laws, or the articles of the navy, established by act of parliament CHAPTER XIV. 408 412 417 422 to 431 OF MASTER AND SERVANT 1. The private, œconomical, relations of persons are those of, I. Master and servant. II. Husband and wife. III. Parent and child. IV. Guardian and ward 2. The first relation may subsist between a master and four species of servants (for slavery is unknown to our laws): viz. I. Menial servants, who are hired. II. Apprentices, who are bound by indentures. III. Labourers, who are casually employed. IV. Stewards, bailiffs, and faetors; who are rather in a ministerial state 4. The master hath a property in the service of his servant; and must be answerable for such acts as the servant does by his express, or implied command 431 433-440 2. Marriage is duly contracted between persons, I. Consenting. II. Free from canonical impediments which make it voidable. III. Free also from the civil impediments,-of prior marrage of want of age;-of non-consent of parents or guardians, where requisite-and of want of reason; either of which make it totally void. And it must be celebrated by a clergyman in due form and place 3 Marriage is dissolved, I. By death. II. By divorce in the spiritual court; not a mensa et thoro only, but a vinculo matrimonii, for canonical cause existing previous to the contract. III. By act of parliament, as, for adultery 4 By marriage the husband and wife become one person in law; which unity is the principal foundation of their respective rights, duties, and disabili ties CHAPTER XVI. 440 442 446 to 459 OF PARENT AND CHILD 1. The third, and most universal prirate relation is that of parent and child 446 2. Children are, I. Legitimate; being those who are born in lawful wedlock, or within a competent time after. II. Bastards, being those who are not so 3. The duties of parents to legitimate children are, I. Maintenance. II. Protection. III. Education 4 The power of parents consists principally in correction, and consent to marriage. Both may, after death, be delegated by will to a guardian; and the former also, living the parent, to a tutor or master 5. The duties of legitimate children to parents are obedience, protection, and maintenance 6. The duty of parents to bastards is only that of maintenance 7 The rights of a bastard are such only as he can acquire; for he is incapable of inheriting any thing CHAPTER XVII. 446 447 452 453 II. Guardians for nurture, assigned by the ordinary, III. Guardians in socage, assigned by the common law. IV. Guardians by statute, assigned by the father's will. All subject to the superintendence of the Court of Chancery 3. Full age in male or female, for al purposes, is the age of twenty-one years (different ages being allowed for different purposes); till which age the person is an infant 4. An infant, in respect to his tender years, hath various privileges, and various disabilities in law; chiefly with regard to suits, crimes, estates, and contracts CHAPTER XVIII. OF CORPORATIONS Page 461 463 464 467 to 484 3. Corporations are also either spiritual, 5. The powers incident to all corpora- 459 460 to 464 OF GUARDIAN AND WARD 1. The fourth private relation is that of guardian and ward, which is plainly derived from the preceding; these being, during the continuance of their relation, reciprocally subject to the same nights and duties 2 Guardians are of divers sorts; I. Guardians by nature, or the parents. VOL. I. 460 8. Corporations may be dissolved, I. By act of parliament. II. By the natural death of all their members. III. By surrender of their franchises. IV. By forfeiture of their charter 472 475 479 480 484 |