BRITAIN. 



699 



circumstances ; first, thallfte aristocracy depends on 

 these institutions as a protection against the encroach- 

 ments of the royal power ; and, secondly, the danger 

 that an attempt to abolish them (we speak of the trial 

 by jury, the liberty of the press, &c.) would lead to 

 popular encroachments on the privileges of the aris- 

 tocracy. The royal power still bears the traces of 

 the old German constitutions. From leaders of a free 

 military community, the kings have become feudal 

 superiors of the country, lawgivers (the royal sanction 

 being necessary to the passage of a law) and judges 

 (the superior judges in Westminster were for a long 

 time removable at the royal pleasure, and, by a legal 

 fiction, the king is always considered to be present) ; 

 but the royal power has been restricted by a great 

 number of express acts and usages. The powers of 

 parliament are limited only by natural impossibilities, 

 and have often sufficed to overthrow the royal prero- 

 gatives. Yet it can do nothing against a decided 

 public opinion ; so that it is very justly said, that 

 there are three things in the British constitution whose 

 nature and extent cannot be accurately defined the 

 privileges of parliament, the prerogatives of the crown, 

 and the liberties of the people. The Anglo-Saxon 

 constitution, as modified (though but little changed 

 in its essential features) by the Norman conquest 

 (1066), is the basis of the English constitution. The 

 general adoption of the feudal system, a greater 

 extension of the seignorial rights, and the introduc- 

 tion of the usages of the Norman court, with which 

 was connected the establishment of the superior judi- 

 cial and administrative offices, were the principal 

 changes. But the most important features of the 

 Anglo-Saxon institutions the legislative power of 

 the nation exercised in the wittenagemote (assembly 

 of wise men, i. e., bishops and nobles) and the mickel- 

 zetnote (great assembly), or general assembly of the 

 nation, and the judicial power of the nation exercised 

 in the court- baron and court-leet over the inhabitants 

 of a manor, in the county court and the sheriffs-tourn, 

 or criminal tribunal of the county, in the assizes and 

 the jury, and finally in the house of lords over the 

 peers are preserved, and the extravagant extension 

 of feudal rights was gradually curtailed by royal 

 charters to the time of Henry III.* 



A. The King. (See Chitty's Treatise on the Prero- 

 gatives of the Crown, and the relative Duties and 

 Rights of the Subject.) The fundamental maxim, upon 

 which the right of succession to the throne depends, 

 is, that the crown is, by common law and constitu- 

 tional custom, hereditary, but in a peculiar manner, 

 and that the right of inheritance may from time to 

 time be changed or limited by parliament ; under 

 which limitations the crown still continues hereditary. 

 It descends to the males in preference to the females, 

 strictly adhering to the rule of primogeniture. On 

 failure of lineal descendants, it goes to the next col- 

 lateral relations of the deceased king, without distinc- 

 tion of whole or half blood, provided they are lineally 

 descended from the royal stock that originally ac- 

 quired the crown. The order of descent in the lat- 

 ter case is strictly lineal, so that the female de- 

 scendants of an elder line have the preference to the 

 male descendants of a younger line ; but among 

 brothers and sisters, the males have always the pre- 

 ference. The crown vests immediately in the suc- 



* The chief documents of the British constitution are, 1. 

 The old Charter of Henry I. (Charta libertatum) ; 2. Mag- 

 na Charta (q. v.) ; 3. the Petition of Rights (q. v.) ; 4. the 

 Habeas Corpus Bill (q. v.) ; 5. the Declaration of Rights to 

 which William III. was obliged to accede as the condition 

 of his ascending the throne ; 6. the Acts of Succession of 

 1701 and 1705; 7. the Act of Union with Scotland, 1707; 8. 

 that with Ireland, 1801 ; . the bills for amending the re- 

 presentation of the people in parliament, generally called 

 e Reform Bills, 1832. 



cessor, on the death of the reigning king, without 

 any formal act of taking possession. There is, there- 

 fore, no interregnum; hence the maxim, the king 

 never dies. The statutes passed in the first year 

 after the restoration of Charles II., are called the acts 

 of the twelfth year of his reign, dated from the death 

 of Charles I. The king is of age at eighteen years : 

 the regency, during the minority, is either settled by 

 the late king's will, or by act of parliament. The 

 heir to the crown has, since the time of Edward III., 

 inherited the title of duke of Cornwall, and receives 

 that of prince of Wales by letters patent. The coro- 

 nation takes place in Westminster-abbey ; the arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury has the right of crowning the 

 king, the archbishop of York the right of crowning 

 the queen. For the support of the royal dignity, &c., 

 the civil list (q. v.) is granted by parliament. The 

 great offices of state, with the exception of two, which 

 are hereditary, are held at the pleasure of the king. 

 The officers who hold them are, 1. the lord high 

 chancellor, who is also keeper of the great seal ; 2. 

 the lord high treasurer, or president of the treasury 

 (since the time of George I., this office has been ad- 

 ministered by five commissioners, called lords of the 

 treasury ; the first lord of the treasury is the prime 

 minister) ; 3. the lord president of the privy council ; 

 4. the lord privy seal, who affixes the privy seal to 

 royal grants and documents, &c., before they pass 

 the great seal, in case the latter is affixed ; 5. lord 

 high chamberlain ; 6. lord earl marshal, also chief 

 judge of the court of chivalry (this office is hereditary 

 in the dukes of Norfolk, who, being Catholics, have 

 exercised it by deputy) ; 7. the lord high admiral, or 

 chief judge of all cases arising upon the sea. This 

 office is also administered by commissioners, whose 

 president is styled first lord of the admiralty. In 

 Scotland, since the union, there have been five great 

 offices of state and of the crown. The king, with his 

 predecessors and successors, constitutes a body politic 

 or sole corporation. The power of changing the 

 succession to the throne has been exercised by parlia- 

 ment on various occasions, as in the wars of York and 

 Lancaster, and more particularly in 1688, when it 

 declared king James II., and his successors for ever, 

 to have forfeited the crown, and by the act of settle- 

 ment (1700), when it restricted the succession to the 

 Protestant descendants of the princess Sophia, young- 

 est daughter of the princess palatine Elizabeth 

 (daughter of James I.). The power of the king is 

 limited by the laws, and is constitutionally derived 

 from a fundamental compact between him and the 

 nation. The divine right, so obstinately maintained 

 by the Stuarts, was never recognised by the nation, 

 and William III., Mary, and Anne, ascended the 

 throne, according to express declarations, only by 

 virtue of a transmission of the crown to them by the 

 nation. But the maxim has been acknowledged, 

 particularly since the restoration, that there is no 

 power in the state superior to the royal prerogatives : 

 the acts of the king are therefore subject to no exa- 

 mination, and the king is not personally responsible 

 to any tribunal : hence the maxim, The king can do 

 no wrong. Yet there is sufficient provision for con- 

 fining the exercise of the royal power within the legal 

 limits. 1 . All royal acts are construed in accordance 

 with the laws, and it is taken for granted that the 

 king can never intend any thing contrary to law. 2. 

 The counsellors of the king are responsible for the 

 royal acts, and, as well all as those who are concerned 

 in the execution of them, are liable to impeachment 

 and examination, without the right of defending 

 themselves by pleading the royal commands. This 

 system of responsibilities is the main pillar of the 

 British constitution, and no where is respect for the 

 person of the monarch so admirably united with 

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