K I 
• 
.niejlted at the top with fome figure ; commonly that of 
an eagle, as being the bird of Jove. 
Rome alfo was governed' at fir ft by kings, who were 
elected by the people, with the approbation of the fenate 
and concurrence of the augurs. Their power extended 
to religion, the revenues, the army, and the adminiftration 
of juftice. The monarchical form of government fub- 
fiftcd 2.44 years in Rome, under leven kings, the laft of 
whom was Tarquinius Superbus. See Rome. 
Among the Greeks, the king'of Perfia had anciently 
the appellation of the Great King ; the king of France had 
that of the Mofl Chrijlian King-, and the king of Spain that 
of Catholic King. The King of the Romans is a prince 
formerly chofen by the emperor of Germany as a coadju¬ 
tor in the government of the empire, (as praclifed in the 
Roman empire,) and is the perfon intended to fucceed. 
This title has been lately conferred by Bonaparte on his 
infant fon, and no doubt with the fame intent. The 
Hungarians formerly gave the name king to their queen 
Mary, to avoid the infamy which the laws of that coun¬ 
try call: upon thofe who are governed by women; accord¬ 
ingly file bore the title of King Mary till her marriage 
with Sigifmund, at which time fire took the title of queen. 
Leo the Great, emperor of the Weft, appears to be the 
firft monarch who received the crown from the hands of 
the patriarch or biftiop, a ceremony which all the Chrif- 
tian princes of the world have fmce adopted, and from 
which the ecclefiaftical ftate has deduced the moll impor¬ 
tant confequences. This happened A. D. 457. Theo- 
phanes is the authority, p. 95. Gibbon. 
Speaking of kings in general, Grotius obferves, that 
“ ftates are generally better governed under a prince of mo¬ 
derate abilities, who knows how to hear and follow good 
advice, than by a fovereign of a fuperior genius, who is 
attached to his own underftanding, and thinks liimfelf 
infallible.” War of the Netherlands, book vii. In this opi¬ 
nion we fully concur. It is our duty to tell all kings 
and rulers, that the general good is their intereft ; that 
they fhould not attend to the corrupt flatterers who fur- 
round them, and who infpire them with a jealoufy of each 
other that is unworthy of fupreme majefty, and has made 
them run the molt imminent rifles in order to humble 
each other; that they fhould not fuffer themfelves to be 
drawn into thofe wars of intereft, the foie objeft of which 
is to pillage each other, at the expence of the blood of 
their fubjefts, and of provinces laid wafte by fire and 
lword ; and, above all, that they fliould abjure the dark 
policy which has led them to favour the revolt of fubje&s, 
while their genuine interefts would have preferibed to 
them mutual afliitance againft fucli ferious calamities. 
What is this art of weakening a rival potentate, in order 
to reign with more extended power? It is that of plun¬ 
ging thoufands of men into mifery, of kindling in a ftate 
the flames of civil war, of caufing the ruin of fome and the 
profcrjption of others, of provoking inaflacres, pillage, 
conflagrations, and every kind of crime; of arming the 
fon againft the father, and the brother againft the filter ; 
of fluttering on all tides defpair, and the horrors of death; 
in a word, it is the abominable talent of deftroying the 
human fpecies. Is that the objedt of the inftitution of 
kings? The art of reigning, at this day, is that of car¬ 
rying troubles into other empires; a king cannot advance 
the good of his people, but by the facrifice of another na¬ 
tion ; he cannot fupport his crown, but by caufing that 
of his neighbour to fall. What has been, in the courfe of 
the laft twenty years, the confequence of this horrible 
policy ? Twenty kings and fovereign princes have been 
precipitated from the throne, and forced to wander as ex¬ 
iles from country to country; ftates have been confound¬ 
ed ; one knows no longer their names, their chiefs, nor 
their limits ; Europe is become a chaos, in which the 
ftrong raifes liimfelf by the deftrudlion of the weak, in 
order, in his turn, to be liimfelf fupplanted ; the rights 
of birth and election have been extinguifhed ; and thus 
have the coalitions of fovereigns laid wafte the world ; 
N G. 727 
each potentate having no other object than that of fliz- 
ing on the firft ftates of which he can lay hold, be they 
thofe of an ally or a relation, or of any other perfon united 
to him by ties equally binding. Thus will fovereigns, if 
they do not loon return to better principles, confummate 
the overthrow of the focial univerfe. It feems as if they 
laboured to juftify the opinion of them which was main¬ 
tained by the philofopher of Geneva, by whom they are 
reprefented as the deftroyers of humanity; and who fays 
that political focieties are flocks which have fliepherda 
who devour them. Principes du Droit politique. 
The above refleftions arofe from a confideration of the 
dreadful changes which have been caufed by the revolu¬ 
tion in France. Let us revert to the character of a good 
king. Pliny, in fpeaking to the fenate of the emperor 
Trajan, fays, Unum illeJ'e cx nobis, et hoc tnagis exce/let atquc 
eminct, quod unum ex nobis putat ; nec minus hominem J'e, quant 
kominibus prapjfe meminit. “He is more exalted above us 
becaufe he accounts liimfelf our equal; and, wliilft he re¬ 
members that he rules mankind, forgets not that lie him-- 
felf is but a man.” 
We cannot refill the pleafure of adding a few line# 
upon the charadler of a prince yet living. The occa- 
fion and the circumftances are fo familiar to the mind of 
every Englifliman, that no explanation can be required. 
“ He has undertaken the duties of royalty, without re¬ 
quiring its powers.. He has fubmitted to govern, with¬ 
out demanding to reign. He has pioufly obeyed what he 
knew to be his father’s wifti. He has duteoully oblerved 
what he knew to be his father principles. He has ho¬ 
nourably fulfilled what he knew to be his father’s purpofe. 
In the hour of weaknefs, he has made himfelf his mo¬ 
narch’s ftrength. In the hour of forrow, he has made 
liimfelf his monarch’s confolation ; and therefore, in the 
hour of fovereignty, he will make himfelf his people’s 
protection. The hope, therefore, which we once cherifhed 
in the prince, is now our confidence in the regent, and 
will be our lecurity in the king.” Irijh Patriot, Aug. 1811. 
Of the Title, Duties, and Prerogatives, of the King or Queen 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
I. The fupreme executive power of thefe kingdoms is 
vetted by the Englifli laws in a Angle perfon, the king or 
queen ; for it matters not to which fex the crown de- 
feends; but the perfon entitled to it, whether male or fe¬ 
male, is immediately invefted with all the enligns, rights, 
and prerogatives, of fovereign power ; as is declared by 1 
Mary, flat. 3. c. 1. 
The executive power of the Englifli nation being thus 
veiled in a tingle perfon, by the general confent of the 
people, the evidence of which general confent is long and 
immemorial ulage, it became neceftary to the freedom and 
peace of the ftate, that a rule fiiould be laid down uni¬ 
form, univerfal, and permanent; in order to mark out 
with precilion who is that Angle perfon, to whom are 
committed (in fubfervience to the law of the land) the 
care and protection of the community ; and to whom in 
return the duty and allegiance of every individual are due. 
The grand fundamental maxim upon which theyas co- 
ron*, or right of fucceflion to the throne of Britain, de¬ 
pends, fir William Biackftone takes to be this: That the 
crown is, by common law and conftitutional cuftom, he¬ 
reditary; and this in a manner peculiar to itfelf; but that 
the right of inheritance may from time to time be changed 
or limited by aril of parliament; under which limitations 
the crown ft ill continues hereditary. 
1. The crown is in general hereditary, or defcendible to 
the next heir, on the death or deinife of the laft proprie¬ 
tor. All legal governments mull be either hereditary or 
elective; and, as there is no inftance wherein the crown 
of England has ever been afferted to be elective, except by 
the regicides at the infamous and unparalleled trial of 
king Charles I. it mull of confequence be hereditary. Yet 
in thus aflerting an hereditary right, a jure-divino title to 
the throne is by no means intended. Such a title may be- 
s allowed-' 
