THE GOVERNMENT' OF ENGLAND. 255 



government ; the monarchy, residing in the king • the aris- 

 tocracy in the house of lords ; and the republic being repre- 

 sented by the house of commons. The crown of the united 

 kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is hereditary, and its 

 rightful inheritor is bound, by the cotiditions of his inheri- 

 tance, to the discharge of certain duties, as well as vested 

 with certain povvers and privileges. By the oath adminis- 

 tered to the sovereign at his coronation, he solemnly engages 

 to govern according to law, to execute judgment in mercy, 

 and to maintain the established religion. To the king be- 

 longs the sole power of sending and receiving ambassadors ; 

 and it is his prerogative also to enter into treaties, and to 

 form alliances with foreign princes and states, to make war 

 or peace, to raise and regulate fleets and armies, to erect 

 fortifications, to coin money, to regulate commerce, and to 

 establish courts of judicature. He is the fountain of honour, 

 office, and privilege, and he can grant letters of nobility and 

 erect corporations. The king has an absolute negative upon 

 the acts of parliament, his person is sacred, and he is not 

 accountable for misconduct. It is a principle of the consti- 

 tutional law that " the king can do no wrong ;" but it is pro- 

 vided, that for all his public acts, his ministers and advisers 

 are responsible to the nation at large by the medium of the 

 parliament, and other legally constituted assemblies. 



The house of peers is composed of the lords spiritual and 

 the lords temporal. The former consist of two archbishops, 

 and twenty- four bishops, who are a kind of representatives 

 of the clergy of England and Wales ; and of four b'shops, 

 who are taken by rotation from the eighteen bishops of Ire- 

 land. With regard to England the number of temporal 

 peers is unlimited. The Scotch peers are sixteen in num- 

 ber, and are elected by their own body for one parliament 

 only. The lords temporal are divided into dukes, marquises, 

 earls, viscounts, and barons, who hold their respective ranks 

 in the foregoing order, by hereditary descent or by creation. 

 In its aggregate capacity, the house of peers has a right to a 

 negative upon all legislative proposals. 



The representatives, who constitute the hpuse of com- 

 mons, or the lower house of parliament, are divided into two 

 classes, knights of the shire, or representatives of counties ; 

 and citizens and burgesses, or representa-tives of cities and 

 boroughs. The qualification for voting for county members, 



