the subject is perfectly free; for every species of compulsive tyranny and oppression must act in opposition to one or other of these rights, having no other object upon which it can possibly be employed. To preserve these from violation, it is necessary that the constitution of parliament be supported in its full vigour and limits, certainly known, be set to the royal prerogative. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next, to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defence. And all these rights and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy entire; unless where the laws of our country have laid them under necessary restraints; restraints in themselves so gentle and moderate, as will appear upon farther inquiry, that no man of sense or probity would wish to see them slackened. For all of us have it in our choice to do every thing that a good man would desire to do; and are restrained from nothing, but what would be pernicious either to ourselves or our fellow citizens. So that this review of our situation may fully justify the observation of a learned French author, Montesquieu, who indeed generally both thought and wrote in the spirit of genuine freedom; and who hath not scrupled to profess, even in the very bosom of his native country, that the English is the only nation in the world where political or civil liberty is the direct end of its constitution. QUESTIONS. From whom was Magna Charta obtained, and how, and when? what did Henry the Third to the great charter? What was the opinion of Lord Coke concerning Magna Charta? What was the confirmatio chartarum? In what reign was it passed, and what did it enact? What was the Petition of Right? And when passed? E What is the right of personal security? Is homicide justifiable, if committed in defence of a party's life and limbs ? What is the distinction between civil and natural death? What is the right of personal liberty? What does Magna Charta enact concerning personal liberty? And what does the Habeas Corpus act? Who has the power of suspending the Habeas Corpus act, and what would be the effect of such suspension? What was done in ancient Rome under similar emergencies ? What is the only way in which an Englishman can be sent away from the country against his will? What do Magna Charta and the Habeas Corpus act enact concerning this? What is the penalty attached to an infraction of these statutes? Can the king make a man a lord lieutenant of Ireland, or an ambassador against his will? What does Magna Charta enact concerning the right of personal property? Could a new road be made through a person's grounds against his will? State the law of England on this point? Who imposes taxes? What was provided concerning taxation in the petition of right? What are the five auxiliary subordinate rights of the subject? What does Magna Charta say as to the right of the subject to obtain a redress of injury in the courts of justice? Has the subject the right to petition the king, or parliament, for the redress of grievances? What was the opinion of Montesquieu concerning the constitution of Great Britain? ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. THE most universal public relation, by which men are connected together, is that of government; namely, as governors and governed, or, in other words, as magistrates and people. Of magistrates some also are supreme, in whom the sovereign power of the state resides; others are subordinate, deriving all their authority from the supreme magistrate, accountable to him for their conduct, and acting in an inferior secondary sphere. In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. The magistrate may enact tyrannical laws, and execute them in a tyrannical manner, since he is possessed, in quality of dispenser of justice, with all the power which he as a legislator thinks proper to give himself. But, where the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with so large a power, as may tend to the subversion of its own independence, and therewith of the liberty of the subject. With us, therefore, in England, this supreme power is divided into two branches; the one legislative, to wit, the parliament, consisting of king, lords, and commons; the other executive, consisting of the king alone. We will here consider the British Parliament; in which the legislative power, and, of course, the supreme and absolute authority of the state, is vested by our constitution, Parliaments, or general councils, are coeval with the kingdom itself. How those parliaments were constituted and composed, is another question, which has been matter of great dispute among our learned antiquaries; and, particularly, whether the commons were summoned at all; or if summoned, at what period they began to form a distinct assembly. It is not necessary, however, here to enter into controversies of this sort. I hold it sufficient, that it is generally agreed, that in the main the constitution of parliament, as it now stands, was marked out so long ago as the seventeenth year of king John, A. D. 1215, in the great charter granted by that prince; wherein he promises to summon all archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, personally; and all other tenants in chief under the crown, by the sheriff and bailiffs; to meet at a certain place, with forty days' notice, to assess aids and scutages when necessary. And this constitution has subsisted in fact at least from the year 1266, 49 Hen. III. there being still extant writs of that date, to summon knights, citizens, and burgesses to parliament. I proceed, therefore, to inquire wherein consists this constitution of parliament, as it now stands, and has stood for the space of at least five hundred years. And in the prosecution of this inquiry, I shall consider, first, the manner and time of its assembling; secondly, its constituent parts; thirdly, the laws and customs relating to parliament, considered as one aggregate body; fourthly and fifthly, the laws and customs relating to each house separately and distinctly taken; sixthly, the methods of proceeding, and of making statutes, in both houses; and lastly, the manner of the parliament's adjournment, prorogation, and dissolution *. I. As to the manner and time of assembling. The parliament is regularly to be summoned by the king's writ or letter, issued out of chancery by advice of the privy council't, at least forty days before it begins to sit. It is a branch of the royal prerogative, that no parliament can be convened by its own authority, or by the authority of any except the king alone. And this prerogative is founded upon very good reason. For, supposing it had a right to meet spontaneously, without being called together, it is impossible to conceive that all the members, and each of the houses, would agree unanimously upon the proper time and place of meeting; and if half of the members met, and half *These subjects will be comprised in several of the succeeding extracts. And directed to the lord chancellor, commanding him to issue under the great seal, such and so many writs as have been usual and customary, for the purpose of calling a new parliament. The period adopted is generally fifty days. absented themselves, who shall determine which is really the legislative body, the part assembled, or that which stays away? It is therefore necessary that the parliament should be called together at a determinate time and place; and highly becoming its dignity and independence, that it should be called together by none but one of its own constituent parts; and, of the three constituent parts, this office can only appertain to the king; as he is a single person, whose will may be uniform and steady; the first person in the nation, being superior to both houses in dignity; and the only branch of the legislature that has a separate existence, and is capable of performing any act at a time when no parliament is in being. Nor is it an exception to this rule that, by some modern statutes, on the demise of a king or queen, if there be then no parliament in being, the last parliament revives, and is to sit again for six months, unless dissolved by the successor; for this revived parliament must have been originally summoned by the crown. And this summons, by the ancient statutes of the realm, the king is bound to issue every year, or oftener, if need be. Not that he is, or ever was, obliged by these statutes to call a new parliament every year; but, only to permit a parliament to sit annually for the redress of grievances, and despatch of business, if need be. These last words are so loose and vague, that such of our monarchs as were inclined to govern without parliaments, neglected the convoking them sometimes for a very considerable period, under the pre-' tence that there was no need of them. But to remedy this, by the statute 16 Car. II. c. 1, it is enacted, that the sitting and holding of parliaments shall not be intermitted above three years at the most. And by the statute 1 W. & M. st. 2. c. 2, it is declared to be one of the rights of the people, that for the redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently. And this indefinite frequency is again reduced to a certainty by statute 6 W. & M. c. 2, which enacts, as the statute of Charles the Second had done before, that a new parliament shall he called within three years after the determination of the former *. So many important statutes would expire with the expiration of the year, unless renewed by parliament, that it is practically impossible to omit the assembling of that body annually. |