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of the realm, in matters both civil and ecclesiastical, owing no kind of subjection to any other potentate upon earth. No suit or action, therefore, can be brought against the King, even in civil matters; because no court can have jurisdiction over him. But the law hath not left the subject without remedy; for as to private injuries, in respect of property or contract, if any person has a just demand upon the King, he may petition him in his court of Chancery, where his Chancellor will administer right as a matter of grace, though not upon compulsion (g). As to public oppression, as the King cannot misuse his power without the advice of evil councillors, and the assistance of wicked ministers, the constitution has provided, by means of indictments and parliamentary impeachments, that no man shall dare to assist the Crown in contradiction to the law of the land. Therefore, although it is a maxim that "the King can do no wrong," yet his ministers and councillors may be punished. The King, also, is not only incapable of doing wrong, but of thinking wrong; for, in his political character, the law will not suppose that any folly or weakness can exist, or that he can ever mean to do an improper thing; and, therefore, if the Crown should be induced to grant any franchise or privilege to a subject, contrary to reason, or in anywise prejudicial to the commonwealth or to a private person, the law declares that the King was deceived in his grant, and will render such grant void (h). The law also formerly was, that as the King cannot be guilty of negligence or laches, so no delay should bar his right. The maxim was, "Nullum tempus occurrit Regi," which was grounded on this, namely, that the law intends that the King is always busied for the public good, and therefore has not leisure to

assert his right within the times limited to subjects. From this doctrine it followed, not only that the civil claims of the Crown received no prejudice by the lapse of time, but that criminal prosecutions for felonies or misdemeanors (which are always brought in the Sovereign's name) might be commenced at any distance of time from the commission of the offence. And all this is in general still law; but by statute it has been in modern times largely qualified, for by 9 Geo. 3, c. 16, the Crown is now barred from its civil right in suits relating to landed property by the lapse of sixty years, and by 32 Geo. 3, c. 58, is barred in informations for usurping corporate offices or franchises, by the lapse of six years, and by 7 Will. 3, c. 3, an indictment for treason (except for an attempt to assassinate the King) must be found within three years after the commission of the act of treason. It is, however, to be remarked that the Crown is not bound by the important modern act for the limitation of suits and actions, which is the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 27 (i). In the King, also, can be no stain or corruption of blood; for if the next heir to the Crown were attainted of treason and felony, and afterwards the Crown should descend to him, this would purge the attainder ipso facto. The King cannot, in judgment of law, ever be a minor, or under age; and therefore his royal grants and assents to acts of Parliament are good, though he has not, in his natural capacity, attained the legal age of twenty-one. The King never dies; for the law ascribes to him, in his political capacity, an absolute immortality; and therefore, although Henry, Edward, or George may die, yet the King survives them all; for immediately upon the decease of the reigning prince in his natural capacity, his kingship or imperial dignity, by act of law, without

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any interregnum or interval, is vested at once in his heir, who is eo instanti King to all intents and purposes. The King is the sole magistrate of the nation, all others acting by commission from and in due subordination to him. The King may reject what bills, may make what treaties, may coin what money, may create what peers, may pardon (except in two or three instances) what offences he pleases. With regard to foreign concerns, the King is the delegate or representative of his people; and what is done by the royal authority with regard to foreign powers is the act of the whole nation. Considered, therefore, as the representative of his people, the King has the sole power of sending ambassadors to foreign states, and receiving ambassadors at home. It is also the King's prerogative to make treaties, leagues, and alliances with foreign states and princes, of declaring war and peace, of issuing letters of marque and reprisal, of granting safeconducts, without which, by the law of nations, no member of one society has a right to intrude into another. The King is considered as the generalissimo, or the first in military command within the kingdom, and in this capacity has the sole power of raising and regulating fleets and armies; of erecting, and manning, and governing all forts and other places of strength within the realm, so that no subject can build a castle, or house of strength embattled, or other fortress defensible, without his license. He has also the prerogative of appointing ports and havens, or such places only for persons and merchandise to pass into and out of the realm as he sees proper; but he cannot narrow or confine their limits when once established (j). The direction of beacons, light-houses, and sea-marks, is also a branch of the royal prerogative; and the King hath the exclusive power, by commission

under his great seal, to cause them to be erected in fit and convenient places, as well upon the land of the subject as upon the demesnes of the Crown, which power is usually vested by letters patent in the Lord High Admiral. By 8 Eliz. c. 13, and 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 79, the corporation of the Trinity House are empowered to set up any beacons or sea-marks wherever they shall think them necessary, and the several light-houses on the coasts are placed under their supervision. By 12 Car. 2, c. 4, and 29 Geo. 3, c. 16, the King may prohibit the exportation of arms or ammunition out of the kingdom, under severe penalties (k). He may also, whenever he sees proper, confine his subjects to stay within the realm, or recal them when beyond the seas. The King is the fountain of justice, and general conservator of the peace of the kingdom, and has alone the right of erecting courts of judicature; but he cannot administer justice personally,. for he has delegated that power exclusively to his judges (7). Criminal proceedings or prosecutions for offences are either against the King's peace or his crown and dignity, and he is, therefore, always nominally the prosecutor. The King is likewise the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege, and this in a different sense from that in which he is styled the fountain of justice; for here he is really the parent of them, and therefore all degrees of nobility, of knighthood, and other titles, are received by immediate grant from the Crown, either expressed in writing by writs or letters patent, as in the creation of peers and baronets; or by corporeal investiture, as in the creation of a simple knight. From the same principle also arises the prerogative of erecting and disposing of offices, for honours and offices are in their nature convertible and synonimous. Upon a like reason, the King has

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also the prerogative of conferring privileges on private persons, such as granting place or precedence to any of his subjects; so he has the prerogative of erecting corporations, whereby a number of private persons are united and knit together, and enjoy many liberties, powers, and immunities, in their politic capacity, which they were utterly incapable of in their natural (m). Another light in which the laws of England consider the King, is as the arbiter of domestic commerce, and he is therefore invested with the prerogative of establishing public marts or places of buying and selling, such as markets and fairs, with the tolls thereunto belonging, for these can only be set up by virtue of the King's grant, or by long and immemorial usage and prescription, which prescriptions presuppose grants (n), of regulating weights and measures, and of giving authenticity to his coin, or making it current as a universal medium of traffic. Lastly, the King is considered as the head and supreme Governor of the national Church; and in virtue of this authority he convenes, prorogues, restrains, regulates, and dissolves, all ecclesiastical synods or convocations. From this prerogative also arises the King's right of nomination to vacant bishoprics, and certain other ecclesiastical preferments. As the head of the Church, likewise, the King is the dernier ressort in all ecclesiastical causes, an appeal lying ultimately to him in council from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge (0).