BIL 



B1L 



Lords. But when an act of grace, or par- 

 don, is passed, it is first signed by his Ma- 

 jesty, and then read once only in each of 

 the Houses, without any new engrossing 

 or amendment. And when both Houses 

 have done with any bill, it always is de- 

 posited in the House of Peers, to wait the 

 royal assent ; except in the case of a bill 

 of supply, which, after receiving the con- 

 currence of the Lords, is sent back to the 

 House of Commons. The royal assent 

 may be given two ways : 1. In person ; 

 when the King comes to the House of 

 Peers, in his crown and royal robes, and 

 sending for the Commons to the bar, the 

 titles of all the bills that have passed both 

 Houses are read, and the King's answer is 

 declared by the clerk of the parliament 

 in Norman French : a badge, it must be 

 owned (now the only one remaining) of 

 conquest ; and which one could wish to 

 see fall into total oblivion ; unless it be 

 reserved as a solemn memento, to remind 

 us that our liberties are mortal, having 

 been once destroyed by a foreign force. 

 If the King consents to a public bill, the 

 clerk usually declares, " Le roy le veut." 

 " The King wills it so to be;" if to a pri- 

 vate bill, " Soit fait comme il est desire;" 

 " Be it as it is desired." If the king re- 

 fuses his assent, it is in the gentle lan- 

 guage of " Le roy s'avisera :" " The 

 King will advise upon it." When a bill of 

 supply is passed, it is carried up and pre- 

 sented to the King by the Speaker of the 

 House of Commons, and the royal assent 

 is thus expressed; ' Le roy remercie ses 

 loyal subjects, accepte leur benevolence, 

 et aussi le veut ;" " The King thanks his 

 loyal subjects, accepts their benevolence, 

 and wills it so to be." In case of an act 

 of grace, which originally proceeds from 

 the crown, and has the royal assent in the 

 first stage of it, the clerk of the parlia- 

 ment thus pronounces the gratitude of 

 the subject: " Les Prelats, Seigneurs, et 

 Commons, en ce present parliament as- 

 semblees, au nom de touts vous autres 

 subjects^emercient tres humblement vo- 

 tre Majeste, et prient a Dieu vousdonner 

 en sante bone vie et longue;" " The Pre- 

 lates, Lords, and Commons, in this pre- 

 sent Parliament assembled, in the name of 

 ell your other subjects, most humbly 

 thank your Majesty, and pray to God to 

 grant you in health long to live." 



2. By the stat. 33. Hen. III. c. 21, the 

 King may give his assent by letters pa- 

 tent under his great seal, signed with his 

 hand, and notified in his absence to both 

 Houses assembled together in the High 

 "House. And when the bill has received 



the royal assent in either of these ways, 

 it is then, and not before, a statute or act 

 of parliament. This statute or act is plac- 

 ed among the records of the kingdom ; 

 there needing no formal promulgation to 

 give it the force of a law, as was necessa- 

 ry by the civil law with regard to the 

 emperor's edicts ; because every man in 

 Britain is,in judgment of law, party to the 

 making of an edict of parliament, being 

 present thereat by his representatives. 

 However, a copy thereof is usually print- 

 ed at the King's press, for the information 

 of the whole land. And formerly, before 

 the invention of printing, it was used to 

 be published by the sheriff of every coun- 

 ty : the King's writ being sent to him at 

 the end of every session, together with a 

 transcript of all the acts made at that ses- 

 sion, commanding him, * ut statuta ilia, 

 et omnes articulos in eisdem contentos, 

 insingulis locis ubi expedire vident, pub- 

 lice proclamari, et firmiter teraeri ,-et ob- 

 servari faciat." And the usage was, to 

 proclaim them at his county court, and 

 there to keep them, that whoever would 

 might read or take copies thereof; which 

 custom continued till the reign of Henry 

 VII. An act of parliament thus made is 

 the exercise of the highest authority that 

 this kingdom acknowledges upon earth. 

 It hath powerto bind every subject in the 

 land, and the dominions thereunto be- 

 longing ; nay, even the King himself, if 

 particularly named therein. And it can- 

 not be altered, amended, dispensed with, 

 suspended, or repealed, but in the same 

 forms, and by the same authority of par- 

 liament : for it is a maxim in law, that it 

 requires the same strength to dissolve as 

 to create an obligation. It is true, it was 

 formerly held that the King might in ma- 

 ny cases dispense with penal statutes ; 

 but now, by statute 1 Wil. and M. st. 2, c. 

 2, it is declared, that the suspending or 

 dispensing with laws by regal authority, 

 without consent of parliament, is illegal. 

 See ACTS. 



B1LLARDIERA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Petals five, alternating with the 

 leaflets of the calyx ; stigma simple ; no 

 nectary ; berries superior ; many seeded. 

 One species, found at New-Holland. 



BILLET, in heraldry, a bearing in form 

 of a long square. They are supposed to 

 represent pieces of cloth of gold or silver, 

 but Guillim thinks they represent a letter 

 sealed up ; and other authors take them 

 for bricks. 



BILLET wood, small wood for fuel, cut 

 three feet and four inches long, and seven 



