would fail us. In thefe therefore, or other circumftances, which a fertile imagination may furnish, fince both law and history are filent, it becomes us to be filent too; leaving to future generations, whenever neceffity and the fafety of the whole fhall require it, the exertion of those inherent (though latent) powers of fociety, which no climate, no time, no conftitution, no contract, can ever deftroy or diminish. [246] II. BESIDES the attribute of fovereignty, the law alfo afcribes to the king, in his political capacity, abfolute perfection. The king can do no wrong. Which antient and fundamental maxim is not to be understood, as if every thing tranfacted by the government was of courfe just and lawful, but means only two things. First, that whatever is exceptionable in the conduct of public affairs is not to be imputed to the king, nor is he answerable for it perfonally to his people for this doctrine would totally destroy that conftitutional independence of the crown, which is neceffary for the balance of power in our free and active, and therefore compounded, conftitution. And, fecondly, it means that the prerogative of the crown extends not to do any injury; it is created for the benefit of the people, and there fore cannot be exerted to their prejudice " (2). THE king, moreover, is not only incapable of doing wrong, but even of thinking wrong; he can never mean to u Plowd. 487. (2) Or perhaps it means that, although the king is fubject to the paffions and infirmities of other men, the conftitution has prefcribed no mode by which he can be made perfonally amenable for any wrong that he may actually commit. The law will therefore prefume no wrong, where it has provided no remedy. The inviolability of the king is effentially neceffary to the free exercife of thofe high prerogatives, which are vefted in him, not for his own private splendour and gratification, as the vulgar and ignorant are too apt to imagine, but for the fecurity and prefervation of the real happiness and liberty of his fubjects, do 246 do an improper thing: in him is no folly or weakness. And therefore if the crown fhould be induced to grant any franchife or privilege to a fubject contrary to reafon, or in any wife prejudicial to the commonwealth, or a private perfon, the law will not fuppofe the king to have meant either an unwife or an injurious action, but declares that the king was deceived in his grant; and thereupon fuch grant is rendered void, merely upon the foundation of fraud and deception, either by or upon thofe agents, whom the crown has thought proper to employ. For the law will not cast an imputation on that magiftrate whom it intrufts with the executive power, as if he was capable of intentionally difregarding his trust: but attributes to mere impofition (to which the most perfect of fublunary beings must still continue liable) thofe little inadvertencies, which, if charged on the will of the prince, might leffen him in the eyes of his fubjects. YET ftill, notwithstanding this perfonal perfection, which [247] the law attributes to the fovereign, the conftitution has allowed a latitude of fuppofing the contrary, in respect to both houses of parliament; each of which, in it's turn, hath exerted the right of remonftrating and complaining to the king even of those acts of royalty, which are most properly and perfonally his own; fuch as meffages figned by himself, and speeches delivered from the throne. And yet, fuch is the reverence which is paid to the royal person, that though the two houses have an undoubted right to confider these acts of state in any light whatever, and accordingly treat them in their addreffes as perfonally proceeding from the prince, yet among themfelves, (to preserve the more perfect decency, and for the greater freedom of debate) they ufually suppose them to flow from the advice of the administration. But the privilege of canvaffing thus freely the personal acts of the fovereign (either directly, or even through the medium of his reputed advisers) belongs to no individual, but is confined to those auguft affemblies: and there too the objections must be propofed with the utmost refpect and deference. VOL. I. Y One. One member was fent to the tower", for fuggefting that his majesty's answer to the addrefs of the commons contained "high words to fright the members out of their duty;" and another, for faying that a part of the king's speech "feemed rather to be calculated for the meridian of Ger"many than Great Britain, and that the king was a ftran" ger to our language and conftitution." In farther pursuance of this principle, the law also determines that in the king can be no negligence, or laches, and therefore no delay will bar his right. Nullum tempus occurrit regi has been the standing maxim upon all occafions (3): for the law intends that the king is always bufied for the public good, and therefore has not leisure to affert his right within the times limited to fubjects. In the king alfo can be no [248] ftain or corruption of blood: for if the heir to the crown were attainted of treafon or felony, and afterwards the crown fhould defcend to him, this would purge the attainder ipfo facto. And therefore when Henry VII, who as earl of Richmond ftood attainted, came to the crown, it was not thought neceffary to pass an act of parliament to reverfe this attainder; because, as lord Bacon in his history of that prince informs us, it was agreed that the affumption of the crown had at once purged all attainders. Neither can the king in judg w Com. Journ. 18 Nov. 1685- y Finch. L. 82. Co. Litt. 90 (3) In civil actions relating to landed property by the 9 Geo. III. c.16. the king like a fubject is limited to fixty years. See 3 vol. 307. This maxim applies alfo to criminal profecutions, which are brought in the name of the king, and therefore by the common law there is no limitation in treasons, felonies, or misdemeanors. By the 7 W. III. c. 7. an indictment for treafon, except for an attempt to affaffinate the king, must be found within three years after the commiffion of the treasonable act. 4 Vol. 351. But where the legiflature has fixed no limit, nullum tempus occurrit regi holds true; thus a man may be convicted of murder at any distance of time within his life after the commiffion of the crime. This maxim obtains fill in full force in Ireland. 1 Ld. Mountm. 365. ment ment of law, as king, ever be a minor or under age; and therefore his royal grants and affents to acts of parliament are good, though he has not in his natural capacity attained the legal age of twenty-one". By a ftatute indeed, 28 Hen. VIII. c. 17. power was given to future kings to refcind and revoke all acts of parliament that should be made while they were under the age of twenty-four: but this was repealed by the statute i Edw. VI. c. 11. fo far as related to that prince; and both ftatutes are declared to be determined by 24 Geo. II. c. 24. It hath also been usually thought prudent, when the heir apparent has been very young, to appoint a protector, guardian, or regent, for a limited time: but the very neceffity of fuch extraordinary provifion is fufficient to demonftrate the truth of that maxim of the common law, that in the king is no minority; and therefore he hath no legal guardian ». a Co. Litt. 43. 2 Inft. proëm. 3. The methods of appointing this guardian or regent have been so various, and the duration of his power fo uncertain, that from hence alone it may be collected that his office is unknown to the common law; and therefore (as fir Edward Coke fays, 4 Inft. 58.) the surest way is to have him made by authority, of the great council in parliament. The earl of Pembroke, by his own authority, affumed in very troublefome times the regency of Hen. III, who was then only nine years old; but was declared of full age by the pope at feventeen, confirmed the great charter at eighteen, and took upon him the administration of the government at twenty. A guardian and council of regency were named for Edward III, by the parliament, which depofed his father; the young king being then fifteen, and not affuming the government till three years after. When Richard II fucceeded at the age of eleven, .he duke of Lancaster took upon him the management of the kingdom, till the parliament met, which appointed a nominal council to affift him. Henry V on his death-bed named a regent and a guardian for his infant fon Henry VI then nine months old: but the parlia ment altered his difpofition, and appointed a protector and council, with a special limited authority. Both thefe princes remained in a state of pupilage till the age of twenty-three. Edward V, at the age of thirteen, was recommended by his father to the care of the duke of Glocefter; who was declared protector by the privy council. The ftatutes 25 Hen. VIII. c. 12. and 28 Hen. VIII. c. 7. provided, that the fucceffor, if a male, and under eighteen, or if a female and under sixteen, should be till fuch age in the government of his or her natural mother, (if approved by the king) and fuch other counsellors as his majesty should by will or otherwise appoint: and he accordingly appointed his Gixteen executors to have the government of his fon Edward VI, and the kingdom, which exe cutors elected the earl of Hertford pro tcctor. The statute 24 Geo. II. c. 24. in cafe the crown should defcend to any of the children of Frederic late prince of Wales under the age of eighteen, apY 2 pointed BOOK I. III. A THIRD attribute of the king's majesty is his perpetuity. The law ascribes to him, in his political capacity, an abfolute immortality. The king never dies. Henry, Edward, or George may die; but the king furvives them all. For immediately upon the decease of the reigning prince in his natural capacity, his kingfhip or imperial dignity, by act of law, without any interregnum or interval, is vested at once in his heir; who is, eo inflanti, king to all intents and purposes. And fo tender is the law of fuppofing even a poffibility of his death, that his natural diffolution is generally called his demife; demissio regis, vel coronae: an expreffion which fignifies merely a transfer of property; for, as is obferved in Plowden, when we say the demife of the crown, we mean only that, in confequence of the difunion of the king's natural body from his body politic, the kingdom is transferred or demifed to his fucceffor; and fo the royal dignity remains perpetual. Thus too, when Edward the fourth, in the tenth year of his reign, was driven from his throne for a few months by the house of Lancaster, this temporary transfer of his dignity was denominated his demife; and all procefs was held to be discontinued, as upon a natural death of the king". We are next to confider those branches of the royal prero[250]gative, which invest thus our sovereign lord, thus all-perfect and immortal in his kingly capacity, with a number of authorities and powers; in the exertion whereof confifts the executive part of government. This is wifely placed in a fingle hand by the British constitution, for the fake of unanimity, ftrength, and dispatch. Were it placed in many hands, it would be fubject to many wills: many wills, if difunited and drawing different ways, create weakness in a pointed the princefs dowager ;-and that and regent, till the fucceffor attains fuch age, affifted by a council of regency: the powers of them all being expressly defined and fet down in the feveral acts.. c Plowd. 177. 234. & M. 49 Hen. VI. pl. 1-8. government; |