1 901-2 TRANSACTIONS. '85 



saying, " and your claim will be allowed. Take a writ 

 against him, and you may 1-ose it in litigation." Certain it is, 

 that the remedy by petition shortly after became the only 

 method used for obtaining redress for the peccancies of the 

 impeccable King ; but it must be remembered that there is no 

 ■enactment of the English Parliament depriving the subject 

 of anv remedy he may have anciently exercised The Act 

 23 & 24 Vict, does not not do so, it being limited to amend- 

 ing the procedure on petitions of right (i). 



Before leaving this subject, I must not omit to mention 

 the important fact that in Prynne's Plea for the Lords (2) the 

 Patent Rolls of 43 Hen. III. are cited as giving power to 

 every man injured " freely to sue against, or arrest the 

 King." 



After all said and done there is practically little diflference 

 between the modern Petition of Right and a Writ of Summons 

 so far as getting the King into court is concerned, for the 

 constitutional rule is that the Executive should never capri- 

 ciously withhold a fiat for a petition to be filed in the 

 courts. (3). So it would appear that the history of this 

 matter of procedure unfolds but a weak foundation for the 

 theory of the legal sinlessness of the King. 



On the other hand, when we turn to the repositories of 

 the law of the Constitution we find that they are almost un- 

 animous in maintaining that the King is subject to the law 

 of the land. Furthermore, English Constitutional history 

 repeatedly shows that the people have not scrupled on great 

 occasions to assert their sovereignty over the person of the 

 King. I have already given instances where the Witenagemot 

 deposed him, and shall supplement them with instances 

 where the people exercised the same and also cognate powers 

 later on in history. Suffice to say here that both constit- 

 utional theory and practice show very conclusively that the 



(1) See Clode on Pet. of Right, p. 157. 



(2) P. 97, 



(3) Clode on Pet. of Right. 166, 



