[in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty; which cannot subsist long in any state unless the administration of common justice be rendered secure from the improper influence of the executive power. A danger which (as shown by the history of the Court of Star Chamber) is not by any means imaginary (≈). 3. The right of petitioning the sovereign, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievances. In Russia (we are told) the Czar Peter established a law, that no subject might petition the throne till he had first petitioned two different ministers of state. In case he obtained justice from neither, he might then present a third petition to the prince; but upon pain of death if found to be in the wrong (a). The consequence of which was, that no one dared to offer such third petition: and grievances seldom falling under the notice of the sovereign, he had little opportunity to redress them. The restrictions (for some there are) which are laid upon petitioning in England, are of a nature extremely different; and while they promote the spirit of peace, they are no check upon that of liberty. Care only must be taken, lest, under the pretence of petitioning, the subject be guilty of any riot or tumult; as happened in the opening of the memorable parliament in 1640.] And the provisions made by the legislature to restrain the abuse of this privilege of the subject, will be noticed when the offence of tumultuous petitioning comes under our consideration hereafter (b). We will now proceed to consider the proper nature of that prerogative, against the excesses of which the law has so carefully guarded. Prerogatives-for by this plural use of the word, we commonly express the different branches of that prerogative of which a definition was given at the outset of the () Vide sup. p. 463. (a) Montesq. Sp. L. xii. 26. (b) Vide post, bk. vi. chapter-are either by way of exception or are direct. Those by way of exception, are such as exempt the crown from some general rules established for the rest of the community-as, for example, that costs shall be recovered against the crown only in certain proceedings (c); and that his debt shall be preferred before a debt to any of his subjects. These maxims, however, and others of the same class, will be better understood in connection with the rules themselves, to which these prerogatives are exceptions. And, therefore, we will at present only dwell upon the sovereign's direct prerogatives. [The direct (or substantive) prerogatives again may be divided into three kinds; being such as regard, firstly, the royal character; secondly, the royal authority; and, lastly, the royal income. These are necessary, to secure reverence to the sovereign's person, obedience to his commands, and an affluent supply for the ordinary expenses of government; without all of which it is impossible to maintain the executive power in due independence and vigour. In the present chapter we shall only consider the two first of these divisions; those, namely, which relate to the sovereign's political character and authority. The other division, which forms the royal revenue, will require a distinct examination; according to the known distribution of the feudal writers, who distinguish the royal prerogatives into the majora and minora regalia, in the latter of which classes the rights of the revenue are ranked. For, to use their own words, "majora regalia imperii præ-eminentiam spectant; minora vero ad commodum pecuniarium immediatè attinent; et hæc propriè fiscalia sunt, et ad jus fisci pertinent” (d). First, then, as to the political character of the sovereign. (c) By 18 & 19 Vict. c. 90, ss. 1, 2; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 14; and 40 & 41 Vict. c. 13, s. 5, the subject is now allowed his costs from the crown in proceedings under the Acts relating to the public revenue ; and by 23 & 24 Vict. c. 34, s. 12, in a petition of right, under that Act. And see the provisions generally of the Crown Suits Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 104), as modified by Ord. LXII. rr. 1-6, of April, 1880, issued under the Judicature Acts, 1873, &c. (d) Peregrin. de Jure Fisc. 1. 1, c. 1, num. 9. nence. [1. It comprises the attribute of sovereignty or pre-emi"Rex est vicarius," says Bracton, "et minister Dei, in terrâ omnis quidem sub eo est, et ipse sub nullo, nisi tantum sub Deo" (e). The king is said to have imperial dignity; and in charters before the Conquest is frequently styled basileus and imperator, the titles respectively assumed by the emperors of the east and west (f). His realm is declared to be an empire, and his crown imperial, by many acts of parliament, particularly the statutes 24 Henry VIII. c. 12, and 25 Henry VIII. c. 22: which at the same time declare the king to be the supreme head of the realm, in matters both civil and ecclesiastical; and of consequence inferior to no man upon earth, dependent on no man, accountable to no man. Formerly there prevailed a ridiculous notion, propagated by the German and Italian civilians, that an emperor could do many things which a king could not, (as the creation of notaries and the like,) and that all kings were in some degree subordinate and subject to the emperor of Germany or Rome. The meaning therefore of the legislature, when it useth these terms of empire and imperial, and applies them to the realm and crown of England, is only to assert that our sovereign is equally supreme and independent within these his dominions, as any emperor is in his empire; and owes no kind of subjection to any other potentate upon earth (g).] With the sovereignty of pre-eminence to which we have referred, is connected the exemption from certain disabilities. Thus it was a maxim (even while the now abolished doctrine of corruption of blood on attainder flourished in full vigour) that in the sovereign there could be no stain or corruption of blood; for if the heir to the crown were attainted of treason or felony, and afterwards the crown should descend to him, this ipso facto (e) L. i. c. 8. (ƒ) Seld. Tit. of Hon. 1, 2. omnes libertates haberet in regno suo, quas imperator vindicabat in imperio."-M. Paris, A.D. 1095. would purge the attainder (h). [And therefore when Henry the seventh, who, as Earl of Richmond, stood attainted, came to the crown, it was not thought necessary to pass an act of parliament to reverse this attainder; because, as Lord Bacon, in his history of that prince, informs us, it was agreed that the assumption of the crown had at once purged all attainders. Neither can the sovereign, in judgment of the common law, as sovereign, ever be a minor or under age; and therefore his royal grants and assents to acts of parliament are good, though he has not, in his natural capacity, attained the legal age of twenty-one (i). It is true, that by 28 Hen. VIII. c. 17, power was given to future kings to rescind and revoke all acts of parliament that should be assented to by them while under the age of twenty-four; but this was repealed by 1 Edward VI. c. 11, so far as related to that prince; and both statutes are declared to be determined by 24 Geo. II. c. 24. It hath, however, been usually thought prudent, when the heir apparent has been very young, to appoint a protector, guardian or regent for a limited time; but the very necessity of such extraordinary provision is sufficient to demonstrate the truth of that maxim of the common law, that in the king is no minority; and therefore he hath no legal guardian (k).] And the appointment of a regent is to be considered only as an expedient devised to meet a particular contingency, -like the statute in the present reign, which provides for the administration of government by lords justices, in case of the next successor to the crown being out of the realm at the time of the demise of her Majesty (); or that in a former reign, which appointed the heir apparent to the (h) Finch, L. 82. (i) Co. Litt. 43; 2 Inst. proëm. 3. (k) The methods of appointing this guardian or regent have been so various, and the duration of his power so uncertain, that from hence alone it may be collected that his office is unknown to the common law; and therefore (says Sir Edward Coke), the surest way is to have him made by authority of the great council in parliament. (4 Inst. 58.) (1) 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 72. regency, while the sovereign was disabled, by a severe visitation of Providence, from conducting affairs of state (m). [Another principle referable to the pre-eminence of the sovereign is, that the law ascribes to him, in his political capacity, an absolute immortality. The king never dies. Henry, Edward or George may die, but the king survives them all. For immediately upon the decease of the reigning prince in his natural capacity, his kingship or imperial dignity, by act of law, without any interregnum or interval, is vested at once in his heir, who is, eo instanti, king to all intents and purposes. And so tender is the law of supposing even a possibility of his death, that his natural dissolution is generally called his demise, an expression which signifies merely a transfer of property. For, as is observed in Plowden (n), when we say the demise of the crown, (demissio regis, vel coronæ,) we mean only that, in consequence of the disunion of the sovereign's natural body from his body politic, the kingdom is transferred or demised to his successor; and so the royal dignity remains perpetual. Thus, too, when Edward the fourth, in the tenth year of his reign, was driven from his throne for a few months by the house of Lancaster, this temporary transfer of his dignity was denominated his demise; and all process was held to be discontinued, as upon the natural death of the king (0).] 2. Another attribute of the royal character is irrespon sibility; it being an antient fundamental maxim, that the king can do no wrong (p). This is not to be understood as if every thing transacted by the government was of course just and lawful. Its proper meaning is only this,that no crime or other misconduct must ever be imputed to the sovereign personally. However tyrannical or arbitrary, therefore, may be the measures pursued or sanctioned by him, he is himself sacred from punishment of every description. [If any foreign jurisdiction had the |