president) of the House of Lords, and represents that body in their collective capacity, when holding intercourse with other public bodies, or with individuals. The speaker (or president) of the House of Commons is chosen from amongst its own members, subject to the approval of the crown, and holds his office till the dissolution of the parliament in which he is elected. The speaker is the executive officer of the house. The power of parliament is transcendent, and subject to no limitation whatever. An act of parliament binds every subject, and even the sovereign, when specially named therein; and no authority less than that of parliament (the assent of the crown, lords, and commons) can dispense with, or abrogate a statute. The Lords and Commons, acting concurrently, can assume the supreme power, whenever the throne is vacant, or the sovereign incapable of exercising the royal functions, as happened at the Revolution, and during the reign of George III. Before the Conquest, parliaments were held by the Saxons twice every year. There is also no doubt that they were occasionally held under the first Norman princes. In the 4th year of the reign of Edward III. (1330), it was enacted that a parliament should be holden once a-year, and oftener if necessary; and again, in 1362, that it should be held every year. But, by the means of Cardinal Wolsey, a parliament was held but once in fourteen years during the reign of Henry VIII. They were afterwards held at the pleasure of the sovereign. In 1664 (16, Charles II.), it was enacted that parliament should not be discontinued above three years. There appears to be no authority for supposing that members were elected to serve in more than one session or parliament (1, Blackstone, by Chitty, 154), until, in 1694 (6, William III.), it was continued for three years; which, in 1715 (1, George I.), was extended to seven years, unless dissolved by the authority of the sovereign, or by his death, when it continues in being for six months after, unless sooner prorogued or dissolved by the successor. And if not in session at the sovereign's death, it has the right immediately to assemble; and if no parliament is in being, then the members of the last parliament assemble, and become a parliament.]

9. The king is the most essential component part of parliament, because he alone has the power to convoke, prorogue, and dissolve it. He has likewise a negative on all its acts, which are invalid without his approbation; and each house has a negative on the decrees of the other. It is likewise competent to the king to propose any measure to be laid before the parliament.

10. All questions regarding public affairs and national measures, may originate in either house of parliament, except grants of money, which must take their rise in the House of Commons, and cannot be altered in any respect, though they may be rejected by the Lords.* The matter must be primarily

This right appears to have been the established law of parliament previous to 1407 (9th Henry IV.), as the Commons then complained that the Lords had pro

discussed in that house in which it originates, and, until there decided, cannot be received by the other, unless a conference should be demanded. A bill refused by either house, or, though passed by both, refused by the king, is utterly void.

11. The executive power of government is lodged in the king. 1.) The first branch of his office is the administration of justice. The judges of all courts of judicature are the king's substitutes. He is the prosecutor of all crimes, and has the power of pardoning and suspending the execution of all sentences. (2.) He is the fountain of all honour, the giver of all titles and dignities, and the disposer of all the offices of state. (3.) He is the superintendent of commerce, and has the power of regulating weights and measures, and of coining money. (4.) He is the head of the church, and names the archbishops and bishops. (5.) He is commander-in-chief of all the sea and land forces, and can alone equip fleets, levy armies, and appoint all their officers. (6.) He has the power of making war, peace, and alliance, and of sending and receiving ambassadors. (7.) He is above the reach of all courts of justice, and is not responsible to any judicature for his conduct in the administration of government.

12. These high powers of the sovereign, which, at first sight, would seem to render him an absolute monarch, are thus admirably controlled:-The king being now dependent on parliament for all subsidies, without which he can neither maintain his fleets and armies, nor pay the salaries of officers. The parliament, indeed, settles a revenue on the king for life; but this is merely sufficient for the maintenance of his household, and supporting a proper dignity of establishment; and as it must be renewed by parliament at the beginning of every reign, it is in the power of that body to withhold it till all abuses shall be remedied. Thus the constitution may be brought back at those periods to its first principles, and all encroachments of the prerogative restrained.

13. The king can never reign without a parliament. It must by law be assembled once in three years, on a notice of forty days before its meeting; [but the annual assembling of parliament is now indispensable, as the supplies are only granted for one year, and other powers, as the Mutiny Act, which regulates the army and navy.] Although the head of the church, the king cannot alter the established religion, nor frame ecclesiastical regulations: these must be made by the assembly of the clergy. The king cannot interfere in the ordinary administration of jus

posed the amount of grant to be made. They said it was the business of the Lords to consent to the Commons' grant, and not the Commons to the Lords'! This jealousy probably arose, that the Lords might not have the power to exempt their own property from taxation, or to impose it unequally. And not without reason; for on the occasion complained of, the Lords proposed that a subsidy of one-tenth and a-half from cities and towns, and one-fifteenth and a-half from all other lay persons, should be granted to the king, which would have taxed the citizens and burghers at 9 per cent., and the landholders at only 6 per cent. of their moveable property. (See Hallam, Middle Ages, c. 8, part 2.)

tice, nor refuse his consent to the prosecution of crimes. He may pardon offences, but cannot exempt the offender from pecuniary compensation to the party injured. He cannot alter the standard of money, either in weight or alloy. He cannot raise an army without the consent of parliament; and though a moderate standing force is kept up with their consent, the funds for its payment require an annual renewal by parliament.

Finally, although the sovereign himself is not amenable to any judicature, his ministers are responsible for all the measures of government, and, are impeachable by the Commons at the bar of the House of Lords, for every species of misconduct or misdemeanour.

Moreover, the freedom of parliamentary discussion is secured, as no member can be questioned for any opinions or words, but in that house of parliament in which they were uttered.

14. The personal security, and the rights of the subjects, are farther guarded by these three peculiarities of the British constitution, the Habeas Corpus, Trial by Juries, and the Liberty of the Press. By the act of Habeas Corpus, every prisoner must be brought before a judge, the cause of his detainer certified, and the judge's authority interposed to it. The violation of this statute is punishable by the highest penalties. The Habeas Corpus may be suspended in times of danger to the state, as during the existence of a conspiracy or rebellion. Although this act does not extend to Scotland, the subjects of that part of the United Kingdom are equally secured by their own laws, particularly by the statute 1701, c. 6.

15. All crimes must be tried by a jury of twelve men in England and Ireland, and fifteen in Scotland: in the former, unanimity of opinion is necessary; in the latter, a majority only is required. The prisoner has a right of challenging or objecting to the jurors; and (except in Scotland), without showing any cause, he may challenge twenty successively in ordinary cases, and thirtyfive in cases of treason. The jury are judges both of the law and the fact; nor has the opinion of the court any weight in their decision, but such as they chose to give it.

16. The liberty of the press is in this respect a guardian of the constitution, that it is competent for any individual to convey to the public his opinion of the whole conduct of government, and the merits of its conductors; to canvass every counsel of state, and examine every public measure; thus forcibly restraining all ministers and magistrates within the limits of their duty. It is farther the guardian of injured innocence, and the redresser of all wrongs that evade the cognizance of law. Yet this most valuable right, if itself unrestrained, would be the source of the greatest mischief. If it were allowable with impunity to assail the established government, to convulse society, to disseminate Atheism, to injure the reputation or endanger the life and property of individuals by false accusations, there would be an end

of all liberty and civil happiness. The liberty of the press consists in this, that there is no examination of writings previous to their being printed and published; but, after publication, such writings as offend in any of the above particulars, are, on trial of the offence by jury, punishable by law. Thus the public is properly constituted the judge and censor of all writings addressed to itself.

17. Such are briefly the outlines of the admirable fabric of the British Constitution. Esto perpetua!

SECTION XXVI.

OF THE PUBLIC REVENUE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

1. THE property belonging to the crown of Great Britain, which was anciently very great, and fully adequate to the maintenance of government, consisted of domain lands, the first-fruits and tenths of church-benefices, the rents of vacant bishoprics and abbeys, the profits of military tenures, fines imposed in courts of justice, forfeitures, &c.* These are now, from alienations made by the sovereigns, and retrenchments of their prerogative, become so inconsiderable, that the king may be considered as entirely dependent on (the taxes levied from) the people for the support of his dignity, and the means of carrying on the business of the state. The public revenue, destined both for the former and latter purpose, arises new from the subsidies granted by the people. The supplies are voted by the Commons; and the means of furnishing them, by taxes proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, must receive their sanction.

2. Of these taxes, some are voted annually, as the sugar duties and malt-tax; others are perpetual, unless modified or repealed, as the land-tax, customs, excise, post-office duty,

* Until the accession of Charles I., these sources of revenue were equal to the ordinary expenses of government: but the extensive sales and grants of the crown lands by Elizabeth and James, together with the rapidly decreasing value of money, whilst the revenue was collected on the old valuation, subjected Charles to great embarrassment, whilst parliament refused to provide a remedy, unless he made concessions of the prerogative, which he considered derogatory to his sovereignty.

The Restoration re-established the ancient feudal mona chy; but one of the first acts of parliament was the abolishing the feudal payments on the succession to estates, which diverted nearly one-half of the ancient revenue of the crown into the pockets of the landholders; and whilst they so acted, they confirmed to the lords of manors the payments arising from copyholds, which are still payable-in some manors, every new copyholder having to pay one or two years' rent, at what the property would let for, before he acquires a title to the property.

The land-tax was granted after the revolution, as a commutation for the abolition of the manorial profits formerly payable to the crown; and was fixed at 4s. in the pound, on the full true yearly rent at the time of making the assessment; but as no revaluation has been made since 1695, the assessment is now very unequal. In some places it is still nearly 4s in the pound, whilst in others it is less than one penny in the pound. If this cominutation of 4s. in the pound had been as strictly levied for the benefit of the revenue, as the manorial profits payable to the lords of manors, it would have formed a principal item in the national income.

stamps, window-tax, duties on servants, hackney-coaches, pensions, &c. The customs are a tax paid by the merchant on all imported and exported commodities; the excise, an inland imposition, laid sometimes on the consumer, and sometimes on the retail-seller.*

3. [After the revolution, the sovereignty was virtually in parliament, which was composed of the peers or great landholders, and the commons, or the deputies of the lesser landholders, who nominated the majority. As indirect taxation (customs and excise) was then loudly complained of as an innovation, and had been employed to direct public feeling against James II., the government was unable to raise an adequate revenue to carry on the war against Louis XIV., which William considered necessary to secure the peace of Europe; and as parliament objected to grant any further taxation on property, the system of borrowing money to carry on the war was resorted to, which formed the commencement of the National Debt; and additional taxes on articles of consumption were imposed, to pay the interest on these loans. At the death of William III. the funded and unfunded debt amounted to £16,394,702. In place of raising an adequate revenue to defray the expenses incurred within the year, or to repay any extraordinary expenditure within a limited number of years, by an equitable assessment on all existing property, the same system of raising money to carry on foreign wars was persevered in, which has subjected the nation to an extent of injustice that can scarcely be estimated, the industry of the country being burdened with the payment of the accumulated interest, whilst property is less burdened than in any other European kingdom. In 1760, at the accession of George III., the National Debt had increased to £88,341,268; at his death, in 1820, to £848,394,804; and at present to about £840,490,000; the interest payable, and the expense of management, being nearly £27,000,000.]

4. The produce of the taxes, originally separate funds, is now thrown into two or three capital funds, one of which is mortgaged by parliament for the maintenance of the king's household and the civil list, viz. the salaries of officers of state, judges, ambassadors, private expenses, pensions, &c.

5. Notwithstanding the little prospect of an extinction of the national debt, government maintains its credit, and will always find lenders, because the terms granted are beneficial, and the security is transferable; so that a lender can thus always obtain payment of his principal sum, and frequently make gain by the transference. The value of stock rises and falls from various

* Until the Restoration, except during the Commonwealth, the customs duties were levied, with few exceptions, at a uniform rate of 5 per cent.; but to make up for the loss of the manorial crown profits, they were greatly increased. The excise duties were first imposed during the civil wars. These also were continued and increased, although it had been solemnly declared, when they were imposed, that they would be abolished at the end of the war.