clergy. I shall only here observe that this is now done in consequence of the statute 25 Hen. VIII, c. 20.

As head of the church, the king is likewise the dernier resort in all ecclesiastical causes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge: which right was restored to the crown by statute 25 Hen. VIII, c. 19, as will be more fully shown hereafter. (34)

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE KING'S REVENUE.

HAVING, in the preceding chapter, considered at large those branches of the king's prerogative, which contribute to his royal dignity, and constitute the executive power of the government, we proceed now to examine the king's fiscal prerogatives, or such as regard his revenue; which the British constitution hath vested in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power: being a portion which each subject contributes of his property, in order to secure the remainder.

This revenue is either ordinary or extraordinary. The king's ordinary revenue is such as has either subsisted time out of mind in the crown; or else has been granted by parliament by way of purchase or exchange for such of the king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconvenient to the subject.

When I say that it has subsisted time out of mind in the crown, I do not mean that the king is at present in the actual possession of the whole of this revenue. Much (nay, the greatest part) of it is at this day in the hands of subjects; to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England: which has rendered the crown in some measure dependent on the people for its ordinary support and subsistence. So that I must be obliged to recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors and other subjects *fre[*282] quently look upon to be their own absolute inherent rights; because they are and have been vested in them and their ancestors for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our ancient princes.

I. The first of the king's ordinary revenues which I shall take notice of is of an ecclesiastical kind; (as are also the three succeeding ones) viz.: the custody of the temporalties of bishops: by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands and tenements (in which is included his barony,) which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's see. And these, upon the vacancy of the bishopric, are immediately the right of the king, as a consequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is considered as the founder of all archbishoprics and bishoprics, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the same reason, before the dissolution of abbeys, the king had the custody of the temporalties of all such abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of those founded by subjects) on the death of the abbot or prior. (a) Another reason may also be given why the policy of the law hath vested this custody in the king; because, as the successor is not known, the lands and possessions of the see would be liable to spoil and devastation if no one had a property therein. Therefore, the law has given the king, not the temporalties themselves, but the custody of the temporalties, till such time as a successor is appointed; with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the successor; and with right of presenting (which the crown very frequently exercises)

(a) 2 Inst. 15,

(34) Appeals are now taken in these cases to the judicial committee of the privy council,

to such benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation. (b) This revenue is of so high a nature that it could not be granted out to a subject, before, or even after, it accrued: but now by the statute 15 Edw. III, st. 4, c. 4 and 5, the king may, after the vacancy, lease the temporalties to the dean and chapter; saving to himself all advowsons, escheats, and the like. Our ancient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bishoprics a long time *vacant, for the sake of enjoying [*283] the temporalties, but also committed horrible waste on the woods and other parts of the estate; and to crown all, would never, when the see was filled up, restore to the bishop his temporalties again, unless he purchased them at an exorbitant price. To remedy which, King Henry the First (c) granted a charter at the beginning of his reign, promising neither to sell, nor let to farm, nor take any thing from the domains of the church, till the successor was installed. (1) And it was made one of the articles of the great charter, (d) that no waste should be committed in the temporalties of bishoprics, neither should the custody of them be sold. The same is ordained by the statute of Westminster the first; (e) and the statute 14 Edw. III, st. 4, c. 4, (which permits, as we have seen, a lease to the dean and chapter,) is still more explicit in prohibiting the other exactions. It was also a frequent abuse that the king would, for trifling, or no causes, seize the temporalties of bishops, even during their lives, into his own hands: but this is guarded against by statute 1 Edw. III, st. 2, c. 2.

This revenue of the king, which was formerly very considerable, is now by a customary indulgence almost reduced to nothing: for, at present, as soon as the new bishop is consecrated and confirmed, he usually receives the restitution of his temporalties quite entire, and untouched, from the king; and at the same time does homage to his sovereign: and then, and not sooner, he has a fee simple in his bishopric, and may maintain an action for the profits. (ƒ)

II. The king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bishopric, that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. (g) This is also in the nature of an acknowledgment to the king, as founder of the see, since he had formerly the same corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation. (2) It is, I *apprehend, now fallen into total dis[*284] use; though Sir Matthew Hale says, (h) that it is due of common right, and that no prescription will discharge it.

III. The king also, as was formerly observed, (i) is entitled to all the tithes arising in extraparochial places: (k) though perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the last, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; since a corody supports only his chaplains, and these extraparo chial tythes are held under an implied trust, that the king will distribute them for the good of the clergy in general.

IV. The next branch consists in the first-fruits, and tenths, of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom; both of which I shall consider together.

These were originally a part of the papal usurpations over the clergy of this kingdom; first introduced by Pandulph, the pope's legate, during the reigns of King John and Henry the Third, in the see of Norwich; and afterwards attempted to be made universal by the popes Clement V and John XXII, about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The first-fruits, primitæ, or annates,

(1) [But Queen Elizabeth kept the see of Ely vacant nineteen years, in order to retain the revenue. Strype, vol. 4, 351.]

(2) [So where the foundation was not royal, it was usual for the founders to give their heirs a corody, viz. a charge upon the particular monastery or abbey sufficient to prevent them from starving. And those persons, disinherited of the lands by their relations, were there subsisted during life.]

were the first year's whole profits of the spiritual preferment, according to a rate or valor made under the direction of Pope Innocent IV, by Walter, bishop of Norwich, in 38 Hen. III, and afterwards advanced in value by commission from Pope Nicholas III, A. D. 1292, 20 Edw. I; (7) which valuation of Pope Nicholas is still preserved in the exchequer. (m) (3) The tenths, or decimae, were the tenth part of the annual profit of each living by the same valuation; which was also claimed by the holy see, under no better pretence than a strange misapplication of that precept of the Levitical law, which directs (n) that the Levites "should offer the tenth part of their tithes as a heave-offering to the Lord, and give it to Aaron the high priest." But this claim of the pope [285] met with a vigorous resistance from the English parliament; and a variety of acts were passed to prevent and restrain it, particularly the statute of 6 Hen. IV, c. 1, which calls it a horrible mischief and a damnable custom. But the popish clergy, blindly devoted to the will of a foreign master, still kept it on foot; sometimes more secretly, sometimes more openly and avowedly: so that in the reign of Henry VIII it was computed, that in the compass of fifty years 800,000 ducats had been sent to Rome for first-fruits only. And, as the clergy expressed this willingness to contribute so much of their income to the head of the church, it was thought proper (when in the same reign the papal power was abolished, and the king was declared the head of the church of England,) to annex this revenue to the crown; which was done by statute 26 Hen. VIII, c. 3, (confirmed by statute 1 Eliz. c. 4,) and a new valor beneficiorum was then made, by which the clergy are at present rated.

By these last mentioned statutes all vicarages under ten pounds a year, and all rectories under ten marks, are discharged from the payment of first-fruits; and if, in such livings as continue chargeable with this payment, the incumbent lives but half a year, he shall pay only one-quarter of his first-fruits; if but one whole year, then half of them; if a year and a half, three-quarters; and if two years, then the whole; and not otherwise. Likewise by the statute 27 Hen. VIII, c. 8, no tenths are to be paid for the first year, for then the firstfruits are due: and by other statutes of Queen Anne, in the fifth and sixth years of her reign, if a benefice be under fifty pounds per annum clear yearly value, it shall be discharged of the payment of first-fruits and tenths. (4)

Thus the richer clergy, being, by the criminal bigotry of their popish predecessors, subjected at first to a foreign exaction, were afterwards, when that yoke was shaken off, liable to a like misapplication of their revenues, through the rapacious disposition of the then reigning monarch: till at length the piety of Queen Anne restored to the church what had been *thus indirectly taken [*286] from it. This she did, not by remitting the tenths and first-fruits entirely; but, in a spirit of the truest equity, by applying these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiencies of the smaller. And to this end she granted her royal charter, which was confirmed by the statute 2 Ann. c. (n) Numb. xviii. 26.

(2) F. N. B. 176.

(m) 3 Inst. 154.

(3) [There are several errors in the text, which Mr. Justice Coleridge has pointed out. The correct account is as follows: In 1253, Pope Innocent IV granted all the first fruits and tenths to Henry III for three years, which occasioned a taxation in the following year, sometimes called the Norwich taxation, and sometimes Innocent's valuation. In 1288, Innocent IV (not III as stated in the text,) granted the tenths to Edward I for six years; and a new valuation was commenced in the same year by the king's precept, which valuation was, so far as it extended over the province of Canterbury, finished in 1291, and as to York, also, in the following year: the whole being under the direction of John, bishop of Winton, and Oliver, bishop of Lincoln. In 1318 a third taxation, entitled nova taxatio was made, but this only extended over some part of the province of York.]

(4) The commissioners for the administration of what is known as Queen Anne's bounty are incorporated, and they are pursuing a scheme for the augmentation of small livings, by which an annual net income as nearly as may be of 1501. will be secured to the incumbent of every benefice or church with cure of souls, being either a parish, church or chapel, with a district legally assigned thereto, and having a population of 2000, and not being in the patronage of lay proprietors.

11, whereby all the revenue of first-fruits and tenths is vested in trustees forever, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings. This is usually called Queen Anne's bounty; which has been still farther regulated by subsequent statutes. (0)

V. The next branch of the king's ordinary revenue (which, as well as the subsequent branches, is of a lay or temporal nature,) consists in the rents and profits of the demesne lands of the crown. These demesne lands, terræ dominicales regis, being either the share reserved to the crown at the original distribution of landed property, or such as came to it afterwards by forfeitures or other means, were anciently very large and extensive; comprising divers manors, honors, and lordships; the tenants of which had very peculiar privileges, as will be shewn in the second book of these commentaries, when we speak of the tenure in ancient demesne. At present they are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. This has occasioned the parliament frequently to interpose; and particularly, after King William III had greatly impoverished the crown, an act passed, (p) whereby all future grants or leases from the crown for any longer term than thirty-one years, or three lives, are declared to be void; except with regard to houses which may be granted for fifty years. And no reversionary lease can be made, so as to exceed, together with the estate in being, the same term of three lives, or thirty-one years; that is, where there is a subsisting lease of which there are twenty years still to come, the king cannot grant a future interest, to commence after the expiration of the former, for any longer term than eleven years. The tenant must also be made liable to be punished for committing waste; *and the usual rent must be reserved, or, where there has usually [*287] been no rent, one-third of the clear yearly value. (q) The misfortune is, that this act was made too late, after almost every valuable possession of the crown had been granted away forever, or else upon very long leases; but may be of some benefit to posterity, when those leases come to expire.

VI. Hither might have been referred the advantages which used to arise to the king from the profits of his military tenures, to which most lands in the kingdom were subject, till the statute 12 Car. II, c. 24, which in great measure abolished them all: the explication of the nature of which tenures must be postponed to the second book of these commentaries. Hither also might have been referred the profitable prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption: which was a right enjoyed by the crown of buying up provisions and other necessaries, by the intervention of the king's purveyors, for the use of his royal household, at an appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even without consent of the owner; and also of forcibly impressing the carriages and horses of the subject, to do the king's business on the public roads, in the conveyance of timber, baggage, and the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor, upon paying him a settled price. (5) A prerogative, which prevailed pretty generally throughout Europe, during the scarcity of gold and silver, and the high valuation of money consequential thereupon. In those early times the king's household (as well as those of inferior lords) were supported by specific renders of corn, and other victuals, from the tenants of the respective demesnes; and there was also a continual market kept at the palace gate to furnish viands for the royal use. (r) And this answered all purposes, in those ages of simplicity, so long as the king's court continued in any certain place. But when it removed from one part of the kingdom to another, as was formerly very frequently done,

(0) 5 Ann. c. 24. 6 Ann. c. 27. 1 Geo. 1. st. 2, c. 10. 3 Geo. I. c. 10. (p) 1 Ann. st. 1, c. 7. (9) In like manner by the civil law, the inheritance or fundi patrimonales of the imperial crown could not be alienated, but only let to farm. Cod. l. 11, t. 61. (r) 4 Inst. 273.

(5) [Purveyance seems to have been little less than a royal right of spoil, and was a very ancient topic of remonstrance from the house of commons. Not less than thirty-six statutes had been directed against it before the reign of James I. Hallam, Const. Hist. i, 414; see also Vattel's Law of Nations, 115, 116.]

it was found necessary to send *purveyors beforehand to get together a sufficient quantity of provisions and other necessaries for the household: [*288] and, lest the unusual demand should raise them to an exorbitant price, the powers before mentioned were vested in these purveyors: who in process of time very greatly abused their authority, and became a great oppression to the subject, though of little advantage to the crown; ready money in open market (when the royal residence was more permanent, and specie began to be plenty) being found upon experience to be the best proveditor of any. Wherefore by degrees the powers of purveyance have declined, in foreign countries as well as our own: and particularly were abolished in Sweden by Gustavus Adolphus, towards the beginning of the last century. (8) And, with us in England, having fallen into disuse during the suspension of monarchy, King Charles at his restoration consented, by the same statute, to resign entirely these branches of his revenue and power: and the parliament, in part of recompense, settled on him, his heirs and successors, forever, the hereditary excise of fifteen pence per barrel on all beer and ale sold in the kingdom, and a proportionable sum for certain other liquors. So that this hereditary excise, the nature of which shall be farther explained in the subsequent part of this chapter, now forms the sixth branch of his majesty's ordinary revenue.

VII. A seventh branch might also be computed to have arisen from wine licenses: or the rents payable to the crown by such persons as are licensed to sell wine by retail throughout England, except in a few privileged places. These were first settled on the crown by the statute 12 Car. II, c. 25; and, together with the hereditary excise, made up the equivalent in value for the loss sustained by the prerogative in the abolition of the military tenures, and the right of pre-emption and purveyance: but this revenue was abolished by the statute 30 Geo. II, c. 19, and an annual sum of upwards of 7,000l. per annum, issuing out of the new stamp duties imposed on wine licenses, was settled on the crown instead.

*VIII. An eighth branch of the king's ordinary revenue is usually reckoned to consist in the profits arising from his forests. Forests [ *289 ] are waste grounds belonging to the king, replenished with all manner of beasts of chase or venary: which are under the king's protection, for the sake of his royal recreation and delight; and, to that end, and for preservation of the king's game, there are particular laws, privileges, courts and offices belonging to the king's forests; all which will be, in their turns, explained in the subsequent books of these commentaries. What we are now to consider are only the profits arising to the king from hence, which consist principally in amercements or fines levied for offences against the forest-laws. But as few, if any, courts of this kind for levying amercements (t) have been held since 1632, 8 Car. I, and as, from the accounts given of the proceedings in that court by our histories and law books, (u) nobody would now wish to see them again revived, it is needless, at least in this place, to pursue this inquiry any farther.

IX. The profits arising from the king's ordinary courts of justice make a ninth branch of his revenue. And these consist not only in fines imposed upon offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters; but also in certain fees due to the crown in a variety of legal matters, as, for setting the great seal to charters, original writs, and other forensic proceedings, and for permitting fines to be levied of lands in order to bar entails or otherwise to insure their title. As none of these can be done without the immediate intervention of the king, by himself or his officers, the law allows him certain perquisites and profits, as a recompence for the trouble he undertakes for the public. These, in process of time, have been almost all granted out to private persons. or else appropriated to certain particular uses: so that, though our law proceedings are still loaded with their payment, very little of them is now returned

(8) Mod. Un. Hist. xxxiii. 220.

(t) Roger North, in his life of Lord Keeper North (43, 44) mentions an eyre, or iter, to have been held south of Trent soon after the restoration; but I have met with no report of its proceedings. (u)1 Jones, 267, 298.