184 MAXIMS OF THE LA\\ r . 



Therefore if I make my will, and in the end thereof do 

 add such like clause [Also my will is, if I shall revoke 

 this present will, or declare any new will, except the 

 same shall be in writing, subscribed with the hands of two 

 witnesses, that such revocation or new declaration shall 

 be utterly void; and by these presents I do declare the 

 same not to be my will, but this my former will to stand] 

 any such pretended will to the contrary notwithstanding ; 

 yet nevertheless this clause or any the like never so exactly 

 penned, and although it do restrain the revocation but in 

 circumstance and not altogether, is of no force or efficacy 

 to fortify the former will against the second ; but I may 

 by parole without writing repeal the same will and make 

 a new. 



28 Ed. 3. So if there be a statute made that no sheriff shall con- 



24 P f-M 3 tinue in his office above a year, and if any patent be made 



cap. 9. to tne contrary, it shall be void; and if there be any clau- 



2 II. 7. 6. sula de non obstante contained in such patent to dispense 



with this present act, that such clause also shall be void ; 



yet nevertheless a patent of the sheriff s office made by the 



king, with a non obstante, will be good in law contrary to 



such statute, which pretendeth to exclude non obstantes ; 



and the reason is, because it is an inseparable prerogative 



of the crown to dispense with politic statutes, and of that 



kind; and then the derogatory clause hurteth not. 



So if an act of parliament be made, wherein there is a 

 clause contained that it shall not be lawful for the king, 

 by authority of parliament, during the space of seven years, 

 to repeal and determine the same act, this is a void clause, 

 and such act may be repealed within the seven years ; 

 and yet if the parliament should enact in the nature of the 

 ancient lex regia, that there should be no more parliaments 

 held, but that the king should have the authority of the 

 parliament ; this act were good in law, quia potestas su- 

 prema seipsum dissolvere potest, ligare non potest ; for as it 

 is in the power of a man to kill a man, but it is not in his 

 power to save him alive, and to restrain him from breathing 

 or feeling ; so it is in the power of a parliament to extin 

 guish or transfer their own authority, but not, whilst the 

 authority remains entire, to restrain the functions and exer 

 cises of the same authority. 



So in the 28 of K. H. VIII. chap. 17, there was a statute 

 made, that all acts that passed in the minority of kings, 

 reckoning the same under the years of twenty-four, might 



