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1769.

Vevers's Travelling Chaife defcribed.

409

THE converfation of the public having been fo greatly taken up with a machine to move without horfes, we are perfunded the preceding plate, with the following explanation, will be not a little agreeable to our readers. Mechanical Projections of the Travelling Chaife without Horfes, fbewing plainly by Infpection the Conflitution of thefe Machines,

By JOHN VEVERS, Mafter of the Boarding-School at Rygate in Surry.

IGNORANCE of mathematical fci

ences makes mechanical problems appear abstruse and aftonishing to those who are not exercised in mechanical ftudies.

For to find out an unknown bypothefis, required, amongst a confuled infinity of others, to be accustomed to difcern the proportions, and the force of mixtures; to take a right method in refolving the most intricate and perplexing propofitions, is to have the mind well cultivated and clear in geometry, arithmetic, aftronomy, and mechanics, which are keys to unlock the understanding and folve the greateft difficulties. Therefore, upon the above-mentioned principles, the conftruction of thefe carriages are here demonftrated.

A Defcription of the firft Scheme A. THE hinder wheels B, D must be large and firmly fixed to their common axletree E, F, that one cannot move without the other.

Put a trundle-head with strong and clofe fpindles round the middle of the axletree E, F, and near to that fix upon the beam a notched wheel G, the notches of which may catch the fpindles of the trundle-head, and fo in turning with the handle H, I, K, that wheel round its axletree K, L, which must be perpendicular to the horizon, it will turn the trundle M, N, and with that the axletree E, F, and the wheels B, D, which will thereupon fet forward the chaife without horses, or any other animal. Obferve the axletree must enter into the beam, in order to turn within it.

A Defcription of the second Scheme B.

The contrivance of this machine is as follows, but put in motion by a foot-man, who makes it go with his two feet alternately, by virtue of two little wheels hid in a box between the Auguft, 1769.

two hind wheels A B, figure C, and made faft to the axletree of the chaife.

The little wheels in the box are QQ,-in figure B, and B, P is a roller, the two ends of which are made faft to the box behind the chaife; R is a pulley, upon which runs the rope that faftens the end of the planks S, T, upon which the footman puts his feet.

W, W is a piece of wood that keeps faft the two planks at the other end, allowing them to move up and down by the two ropes P, T, and P, S, tied to their two ends.

X, X are two little plates of iron which ferve to turn the wheels Q & that are fixed to their axletree, which is likewife fixed to the two great wheels B, B.

Thus you will readily apprehend that the footman putting his feet alternately upon T, and S, one of the plates will turn one of the notched

wheels.

For example!

If he leans with his foot upon the plank T, it defcends and raises the plank S, which cannot rife but at the fame time the plate of iron that enters the notches of the wheel muft needs make it turn with its axletree, and confequently the great wheels.

Then the footman leaning upon the plank S, the weight of his body will make it defcend and raise the other plank T, which turns the wheel again; and to the motion will be continued.

You may easily imagine, that while the two hind wheels advance, the fore wheels must likewife advance; and that thefe will always advance traight, if the perfon that fits in the chaile manages them with reins made faft to the fore beam.

N. B. The velocity of thefe car riages depends upon the activity of the manager.

Fff

An

410 The Regal Eftate An Epitome of the British Conftitution, from the Fourth Volume of The Fool of Quality, just published, by the celebrated Henry Brooke, Efq, Author of Gustavus Vafa.

AT

Ta time when the nature of our conftitution is fo much the object of enquiry; and at a crifis alfo when there is perhaps an uncommon degree of propriety in being perfectly acquainted with its principles, the following epitome, which is written with no lefs precifion than candour, will, we are certain, give general fatisfaction to our readers.

The REGAL ESTATE. THE king, in the conftitution of Great Britain, is more properly the king of than a king over the people, united to them, one of them, and contained in them. At the fame time that he is acknowledged the head of their body, he is their principal fervant or minifter, being the deputee of their executive power.

His claim to the throne is not a claim as of fome matter of property or perfonal right; he doth not claim, but is claimed by the people in their parliament; and he is claimed or called upon, not to the inveftiture of poffeffions, but the performance of duties. He is called upon to govern the people according to the laws by which they themfelves have confented to be governed; to caufe juftice and mercy to be difpenfed throughout the realm; and, to his utmoft, to execute, protect, and maintain the laws of the Gofpel of God, and the rights and liberties of all the people without diftinction. And this he fwears on the Gofpel of God to perform. And thus, as all others owe allegiance to the king, the king himself oweth allegiance to the confiitution.

The existence of a king, as one of the three eftates, is immutable, indifpenfable, and indefeatible. The conftitution cannot fubfift without a king. But then his perfonal claim of poffeffion, and of hereditary fucceffion to the throne, is, in feveral inftances, precarious and defeasible. As in cafe of any natural incapacity to govern; or of an open avowal of principles incompatible with the constitution;

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or in cafe of overt-ads demonstrative of fuch principles; or of any attempt to fap or overthrow a fundamental part of that fyftem, which he was called in, and conftituted, and (worn to maintain,

Though the claim of all kings to the throne of Great Britain is a limited and defeasible claim, yet the world can afford no rival, in power or glory, to a conftitutional fovereign of these free dominions.

For the honour of their own body, they have invefted this their head with all poffible illuftration. He concentrates the rays of many nations. They have clothed him in royal robes, and circled his head with a diadem, and inthroned him on high., And they bow down before the mirror of their own majesty.

Neither are his the mere en figns or external fhews of regency. He is invefted alfo with powers much more real than if they were absolute.

There are three capital prerogatives with which the king is intrufted, which, at first fight, appear of fearful and dangerous tendency; and which muft infallibly and quickly end in arbitrary dominion, if they were not counterpoifed and counteracted.

His principal prerogative is to make war or peace, as also treaties, leagues, and alliances, with foreign potentates.

His fecond prerogrative is to nomi. nate and appoint all minifters and fervants of ftate, all judges and adminiftrators of justice, and officers, civil or military, throughout thefe realms.

His third capital prerogative is, that he should have the whole executive power of the government of these nations, by his faid minifters and officers, both civil and military.

I might here alfo have added a fourth prerogative, which must have been capitally everfive of the conftitution, had it not been limited in the original truft, I mean a power of granting pardon to criminals. Had this power been unreftrained, all ob ligations to juftice might be abfolved at the king pleafure. An evil king might even encourage the breach of law. He mult, unquestionably, have difpenfed with all illicit acts that were perpetrated by his own orders; and

1769.

The Regal Eftate of Great-Britain.

this affurance of pardon muft as unquestionably have encouraged all his minifters and officers to execute his will as the only rule of their obedience. But, God and our glorious ancestors be praised! be is reftrained from protecting his best beloved minifters, when they have effected, or even imagined, the damage of the conftitution. He is alfo limited in appeals brought by the fubject for murder or robbery. But, on indictments in his own name, for offences against his proper perfon and government, fuch as rebellion, infurrection, riot, and breaches of the peace, by murder, maim, or robbery, &c. here he is at liberty to extend the arm of his mercy; forafmuch as there are many cafes fo circumftanced, fo admiffive of pitiable and palliating confiderations, that fummum jus, or ftrict justice, might prove fumma injuria, or extreme injuftice.

All pardonable offences are diftin. guished by the title of crimina læfæ majeftatis, fins against the king. All unpardonable offences are diftinguished by the title of crimina læfæ libertatis, fins against the conftitution. In the firit cafe the injury is prefumed to extend no further than to one or a few individuals; in the fecond it is charged as a fin against the public, against the collective body of the whole people. Of the latter kind are nuifances that may indanger the lives of travellers on the highway; but, more capitally, any imagination, proved by overt.act or evil advice, tending to change the nature or form of any one of the three eftates; or tending to veft the government, or the administration thereof, in any one or any two of the faid eftates independent of the other; or tending to raife armies, or to contine them in time of peace without the content of parliament; or tending to give any foreign ftate an advantage over thefe realms by fea or by land, &c.

The king hath alfo annexed to his dignity many further very important powers and prerogatives; though they do not fo intimately interfere with the conftitution as the capital prerogatives above recited.

He is first confidered as the original proprietor of all the lands in thefe kingdoms; and he founds this claim, as well on the conqueft by William

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the Norman, as by the limited kings, or leaders, of our Gothic ancestors,

Hence it comes to pafs that all lands, to which no fubject can prove a title, are supposed to be in their original owner, and are therefore, by the conftitution, vefted in the crown. On the fame principle alfo the king is intitled to the lands of all perfons who die without heirs; as alfo to the poffeffions of all who are convicted of crimes fubverfive of the conftitution or public weal.

His perfon, while he is king, or inclufive of the first estate, is conftitutionally facred, and exempted from all acts of violence or constraint. As one of the eftates alfo he is conftituted a corporation, and his tefte meipfo, or written teftimony, amounts to a matter of record. He alfo exercises, at prefent, the independent province of fupplying members to the fecond eftate by a new creation, a very large acceffion to his original powers. Bishops alfo are now appointed and nominated by the king, another confiderable addition to the royal prerogative. His is the fole prerogative to coin or imprefs money, and to fpecify, change, or determine the current value thereof; and for this purpose he is fuppofed to have referved, from his original grants of lands, a property in mines of gold and fiver, which are therefore called royalties.

As he is one of the three conftitutional estates, no action can lie against him in any court; neither can he be barred of his title by length of time or entry. And thefe illuftrations of his dignity caft rays of anfwerable privileges on his royal confort, heir apparent, and eldest daughter.

The king hath alfo fome other inferior and conditional powers, fuch as of inftituting fairs and markets; and of iffuing patents for fpecial or perfonal purposes, provided they shall not be found to infringe on the rights of others. He is alfo intrufted with the guardianship of the perfons and poffeffions of idiots and lunatics with

out account.

I leave his majefty's prerogative of a negative voice in the legislature; as alfo his prerogative (or rather duty) frequently to call the two other eftates to parliament, and duly to continue, prorogus, and diffolve the fame; till Fff2 I come

412

The Ariftocratical Eftate of Great-Britain.

I come to speak of the three eftates, when in fuch parliament aflembled.

Here then we find that a king of Great Britain is conftitutionally invefted with every power that can poffibly be exerted in acts of beneficence. And that, while he continues to move within the fphere of his beuign appointment, he continues to be conftituted the moft worthy, moft mighty, and most glorious reprefen. tative of omnipotence upon earth.

IN treating of the fecond and third, eftate, I come naturally to confider what thofe reftraints are, which, while they are preferved inviolate, have fo happy a tendency to the mutual profperity of prince and people.

The ARISTOCRATICAL, or SECOND
ESTATE.

THE

HE nobility, or fecond eftate, in the conftitution of Great Britain, is originally reprefentative. The members were ennobled by tenure, and not by writ or patent; and they were holden in fervice to the crown and kingdom, for the refpective provinces, counties, or baronies, whofe name they bore, and which they reprefented.

A title to be a member of this fecond eftate was from the beginning hereditary. The king could not anciently either create or defeat a title to nobility. Their titles were not forfeitable, fave by the judgment of their peers upon legal trial; and, when any were fo deprived, or happened to die without heirs, the fucceffion was deemed too important to be otherwife filled, than by the concurrence of the three eftates, by the joint and folemn act of the Parliament, or commune concilium regni.

Thefe truths are attefted by many ancient records and parliamentary acts. And although this moft highly ennobling custom was, at particular times, infringed by particular tyrants, it was inviolably adhered to by the belt of our English kings, and was obferved even by the worst, excepting a few inftances, till the reign of Henry VII. who wished to give confequence to the third efiate, by deducting from the honours and powers of the fecond.

In truth, it is not to be wondered that any kings, who were ambitious, of extending their own power, should

Aug.

with to break and weaken that of the nobility, who had diftinguished themfeves by fo many glorious ftands for maintenance of liberty and the conftitution, more particularly during the reigns of John, Henry III, Edward II, and Richard II.

Till Henry VII, the nobles were looked upon as fo many pillars whereon the people refted their rights. Accordingly we find that, in the coalition or grand compact between John and the collective body of the nation, the king and people jointly agree to confide to the nobles the fuperinten dance of the execution of the great charter, with authority to them, and their fucceffors, to enforce the due performance of the covenants therein comprized.

What an illuftrating diftinction muft it have been, when patriot-excellence alone (approved before the country in the field or the council) could give a claim to nobility, and compel, as it were, the united eftates of kings, lords, and commons, to call a man up to the second seat in the government and fteerage of the na

tion!

Such a preference must have proved an unremitting incitement to the cultivation and exercises of every virtue, and to fuch exertions, atchievements, and acts of public beneficence, as fhould draw a man forth to fo fhining a point of light, and fet him like a gem in the gold of the conftitution.

The crown did not at once affume the independent right of conferring nobility. Henry III. firft omitted to call fome of the barons to parliament who were perfonally obnoxious to him, and he iffued his writs, or written letters to fome others who were not ba. rons, but from whom he expected greater conformity to arbitrary mea Tures. These writs, however, did not ennoble the party till he was ad mitted, by the fecond eftate, to a feat in parliament; neither was fuch nobi lity, by writ, hereditary.

To fupply thefe defects, the arbi trary miniftry of Richard II. invented the method of ennobling by letters patent, at the king's pleafure, whe ther for years or for life, or in fpecial or general tail, or in fee-fimple to a man and his heirs at large. This prerogative, however, was thereafter,

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