efterling or fterling metal; a name for which there are várious reasons given, but none of them entirely fatisfactory. And of this sterling or efterling metal all the coin of the kingdom must be made, by the ftatute 25 Edw. III. c. 13. So that the king's prerogative feemeth not to extend to the debasing or inhancing the value of the coin, below or above the sterling value: though fir Matthew Hale appears to be of another opinion (21). The king may alfo, by his proclama half of the prefent value of 215. each. And the pound troy of filver, confifting of eleven ounces and two-pennyweights pure, and eighteen pennyweights alloy, is divided into fixty-two fhillings. (See Folkes on English coins.) (19) y Spelm Gloff. 203. Dufresne, III. 165. The most plaufible opinion feems to be that adopted by those two etymo. logifts, that the name was derived from a Hal. P. C. 194. (19) Dr. Adam Smith, in his inestimable work, the Inquiry intə the Nature and Caufes of the Wealth of Nations, 1 vol. 39. tells us, that the English pound flerling in the time of Edw. I. contained a pound Tower-weight of filver of a known fineness. The "Tower pound feems to have been fomething more than the Roman "pound, and fomething lefs then the Troyes pound. This laft was not introduced into the mint of England till the 18th of Hen. «VIII. The French livre contained in the time of Charlemagne a pound Troyes weight of filver of a known finenefs. The "fair of Troyes in Champaign was at that time frequented by "all the nations of Europe, and the weights and measures of fo "famous a market were generally known and esteemed." (20) Camden, in his description of Scotland, fays, that it has been erroneously fuppofed that the word fterling comes from Stirling in Scotland. A Germanis enim, quos Angli Efterlingi ab orientali fitu vocarunt, falta eft appellatio, quos Jobannes rex ad argentum in fuam puritatem redigendum primus evocavit, et ejufmodi nummis Efterlingi in antiquis fcriptis femper concipiuntur. P. 11. (21) Lord Hale refers to the cafe of mixed money in Davies's Reports, 48. in fupport of his opinion. A perfon in Ireland had borrowed 100l. of fterling money, and had given a bond to repay it on a certain future day. In the mean time queen Eliz. for the purpose tion, legitimate foreign coin, and make it current here; declaring at what value it fhall be taken in payments. But this, I apprehend, ought to be by comparison with the ftandard of our own coin; otherwife the confent of parliament will be neceflary. There is at prefent no fuch legitimated money; Portugal coin being only current by private confent, so that any one who pleases may refuse to take it in pay- [ 279 1 ment. The king may also at any time decry, or cry down, any coin of the kingdom, and make it no longer current (22). V. THE king is, laftly, confidered by the laws of England as the head and fupreme governor of the national church. To enter into the reafons upon which this prerogative is founded is matter rather of divinity than of law. I fhall therefore only obferve that by ftatute 26 Hen. VIII. c. I. (reciting that the king's majefty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the fupreme head of the church of England; and fo had been recognized by the clergy of this kingdom in their convocation) it is enacted, that the king shall be reputed the c1 Hal. P. C. 197. b Ibid. 197. purpose of paying her armies and creditors in Ireland, had coined mixed or base money, and by her proclamation had ordered it to pass current, and had cried down the former coin. The debtor on the appointed day tendered 100/. in this base coin; and it was determined upon great confideration that it was a legal tender, and that the lender was obliged to receive it: natural equity would have given a different decifion. This act of queen Elizabeth does but ill correfpond with the flattering inscription upon her tomb: Religio reformata, pax fundata, moneta ad fuum valorem reducta, &c. 2 Inft. 578. (22) All officers of the revenue are required to cut every piece of gold coin tendered to them, if it is not of the current weight according to the king's proclamation 14 Geo. III. c. 70. And by 13 Geo. III. c. 71. any perfon may cut counterfeit gold money, or what has been unlawfully diminished. only fupreme head in earth of the church of England, and fhall have, annexed to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and ftile thereof, as all jurisdictions, authorities, and commodities, to the faid dignity of fupreme head of the church appertaining. And another ftatute to the fame purport was made, 1 Eliz. c. 1. (23) IN virtue of this authority the king convenes, prorogues, reftrains, regulates, and diffolves all ecclefiaftical fynods or convocations. This was an inherent prerogative of the crown, long before the time of Henry VIII. as appears by the statute 8 Hen. VI. c. 1. and the many authors, both lawyers and hiftorians, vouched by fir Edward Coke 1. So that the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. which restrains the convocation from making or putting in execution any canons repugnant to the king's prerogative, or the laws, customs, and statutes of the realm, was merely declaratory of the old common law that part of it only being new, which makes the king's royal affent actually necessary to the validity of every canon. The convocation or ecclefiaftical fynod, in England, differs confiderably in it's conftitution from the fynods of other chriftian kingdoms: thofe confifting wholly of bishops; whereas with us the convocation is the miniature of a parliament, wherein the archbishop prefides with regal state; 280] the upper houfe of bishops represents the house of lords; and the lower house, compofed of representatives of the several (23) As queen Mary by 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 8. had repealed all the statutes made in the time of her father derogatory to the fee of Rome, and had fully reinstated the pope in all his former power and jurifdiction in this country; queen Elizabeth, to fhew her attachment to the proteftant caufe, by the firft parliamentary act of her reign repealed this ftatute of queen Mary, and revived all the ftatutes relating to the church paffed in the time of Henry VIII. This proves how little at that time depended upon the authority of parliament, which could accede to fuch immenfe revolutions in the courfe of four or five years. 280 diocefes at large, and of each particular chapter therein, refembles the house of commons with it's knights of the shire and burgeffes. This conftitution is faid to be owing to the policy of Edward I: who thereby at one and the fame time let in the inferior clergy to the privileges of forming ecclefi aftical canons, (which before they had not,) and also introduced a method of taxing ecclefiaftical benefices, by confent of convocation (24). f In the diet of Sweden, where the exclefiaftics form one of the branches of the legislature, the chamber of the clergy refembles the convocation of England. It is composed of the bishops and super intendants; and also of deputies, one of which is chofen by every ten parishes or rural deanry. Mod. Un. Hift. xxxiii. 18. g Gilb. Hitt. of Exch. c. 4. (24) From the learned Commentator's text, the student would perhaps be apt to fuppofe that there is only one convocation at a But the king, before the meeting of every new parliament, directs his writ to each archbishop, to fummon a convocation in his peculiar province. Godolphin fays, that the convocation of the province of York conftantly correfponds, debates, and concludes the fame matters. with the provincial fynod of Canterbury, God. 99. But they are certainly distinct and independent of each other; and when they ufed to tax the clergy, the different convocations fometimes granted different fubfidies. In the 22 Hen. VIII. the convocation of Canterbury had granted the king one hundred thousand pounds; in confideration of which an act of parliament was paffed, granting a free pardon to the clergy for all spiritual offences, but with a proviso that it should not extend to the province of York, unless its convocation would grant a fubfidy in proportion, or unless it's clergy would bind themselves individually to contribute as bountifully. This ftatute is recited at large in Gib. Cod. 77. All deans and archdeacons are members of the convocation of their province; each chapter fends one proctor or representative, and the parochial clergy in each diocefe in Canterbury two proctors; but on account of the small number of dioceses in the province of York, each archdeaconry elects two proctors. In York the convocation confifts only of one houfe; but in Canterbury there are two houfes, of which the twenty-two bishops form the upper house; and before the reformation, abbots, priors, and other FROM this prerogativé alfo, of being the head of the church, arifes the king's right of nomination to vacant bishopricks, and certain other ecclefiaftical preferments; which will more properly be confidered when we come to treat of the clergy. I fhall only here observe, that this is now done in confequence of the ftatute 25 Hen. VIII. Č. 20. As head of the church, the king is likewife the dernier refort in all ecclefiaftical caufes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the fentence of every ecclefiaftical judge which right was restored to the crown by ftatute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. as will more fully be fhewn hereafter (25). mitred prelates, fat with the bishops. The lower house of convocation in the province of Canterbury confifts of twenty-two deans, fifty-three archdeacons, twenty-four proctors for the chapters, and forty-four proctors for the parochial clergy. By 8 Hen. VI. c. 1. the clergy in their attendance upon the convocation have the fame privilege in freedom from arreft as the members of the house of commons in their attendance upon parliament. Burn. Conʊ, 1 Bac, Abr. 610. (25) By that ftatute it is declared, that for the future no appeals from the ecclefiaftical courts of this realm fhould be made to the pope, but that an appeal from the archbishop's courts fhould lie to the king in chancery; upon which the king, as in appeals from the admiral's court, fhould by a commiflion appoint certain judges or delegates finally to determine fuch appeals. 3 vol. 66. |