PREROGATIVE. 
®f the owner, by statute 12 Charles II. 
C. 24. 
The eustoms upon merehandise exported 
and imported, are the ancient inheritance 
of the crown, wliich, it is said, were origi- 
nally by act of Pa'rliaraent ; they were dis- 
tinguished into custmna tnagna, et parva, to 
which were added prisage, or a duty of two 
tons out of every ship laden with twenty 
tons of wine ; and butlerage, or a levy of 2s. 
per ton, for every ton of wine of a merchant 
stranger. The citizens of London were ex- 
empt from this duty in the port of London. 
These duties, it seems, are now repealed by 
statute 27 George III. c. 13, called the 
Consolidation act, which affixes a certain 
rate to the commodities therein enume- 
rated, and 271. 10s. per cent, with a draw- 
back of 251. per cent., on exportation, upon 
every other commodity. We^ have, how- 
ever, read in the public prints during this 
year, (1807) of the claim of prisage being 
made in Ireland, by one of the grantees of 
the crown, and allowed ; but we presume, 
so heavy a tax, if it can be claimed, in addi- 
tion to the duty on wines, must be repealed 
by Parliament. Customs are not paid 
where the King has granted goods of a pi- 
rate to a patentee, for the King shall not 
pay custom to himself; and it is said, the 
King may grant to an alien to pay no more 
customs than a subject ; but this must be 
subject to the Consolidation act. 
The King may, by his prerogative, charge 
an imposition upon the subject for his bene- 
fit, as he may grant a certain rate for things 
sold in a town, for the walls of the town, 'or 
repairing the bridge, or the security of those 
parts. Or that a man may build a wall, or 
keep a ferry, and take toll for the support 
of it. But he cannot charge the subject 
where he has no benefit from it, or a quid 
pro quo, nor levy new customs, &c. Nor 
can the merchants, by their consent, grant 
to the King a tax upon their goods, for their 
wares would thereby be sold the dearer. 
Upon all which we must observe that it 
should appear this branch of the preroga- 
tive is fallen into disuse, and can scarcely 
now be claimed as being altogether incon- 
sistent with the spirit of the revolution in 
1688. And we now see that in all cases 
W'here a pier is to be built, ora turnpike- 
road made, or improvements are made in 
cities, application is had to Parliament, and 
a bill is passed. This, it is true, may be 
partly, because it is often necessary, to bor- 
row large sums of money, ,and to purchase 
lands by compulsion, &c. ; but we still may 
venture to question this prerogative, al- 
though we find it in books of great autho- 
rity previously to the reigns of Charle.s the 
First and Second. 
As to casual profits, the King is entitled 
to all goods which have no owner, as wreck, 
fldlsan, jetsan, and ligan, waifs, strays, 
goods of felons, deodands, treasure-troves, 
escheats, and lands forfeited. He is en- 
titled also to royal mines, and the fishery of 
every navigable river, as high as the sea 
flows: but every one may fish in the sea 
of a common-right, although foreign nations 
cannot fish in the British Seas without the 
King’s licence. There are also certain fines, 
upon legal proceedings, which the King 
claims by his prerogative ; and anciently, a 
fine was paid for liberty to have right and 
justice, which is now abolished by Magna 
Cliarta 29, nulli vendemus, &c. So fines for 
beau pleader, for grants of liberties, and 
for misdemeanors, with all armerciaments 
which are levied by the Sheriff and estreat- 
ed into the Exchequer. 
All the lands in the kingdom, it is said, 
are holden mediately, or immediately, of 
the King, who has no superior; arid this is 
the foundation of the law of forfeiture and 
escheats : but this, however in practice it 
may be harmless, is a principle rather derived 
from the divine right of kings, than the spirit 
of the revolution, which considers the King 
rather as deriving every thing from the peo- 
ple, and holding the throne itself in trust. 
Whatsoever lands, or tenements, the 
King has, belong to him in right ofi his 
crown, and are called the sacred patrimony, 
or demesnes of the crown, says Lord Coke ; 
and whether lands descend, or are devised, 
or given to him and his heirs by statute, or 
otherwise, they go as parcel of the crown. 
The King, therefore, it seems, cannot divest 
himself of his public character, but has all 
his real possessions, for it does not seem to 
extend to money, merely as king. 
All conveyances to the King ought to be, 
by deed, enrolled ; and where a subject 
would not have possession without entry, 
there the King has it not without office 
found, or other record. But if the King’s 
title is so found upon an inquisition, he is 
in possession without seisure ; and where a 
common person cannot enter without an 
action, there the King ought to have a seire 
facias. But no office is necessary where 
the King’s title appears by other matter of 
record, and where he is so seised he can 
never be ejected, or disseised ; but every 
one who enters upon his possessions is call- 
