[A dis olution is the civil death of the parliament; and this may be effected three ways (u).]

1. A parliament may be dissolved [by the sovereign's will, expressed either in person or by representation: for as he has the sole right of convening the parliament, so also it is a branch of the royal prerogative, that he may (whenever he pleases) prorogue the parliament for a time, or put a final period to its existence. If nothing had a right to prorogue or dissolve a parliament but itself, it might happen to become perpetual. And this would be extremely dangerous, if at any time it should attempt to encroach upon the executive power; as was fatally experienced by the unfortunate King Charles I., who, having unadvisedly passed an act to continue the parliament then in being till such time as it should please to dissolve itself, at last fell a sacrifice to that inordinate power which he himself had consented to give them.]

crown.

2. [A parliament may be dissolved by the demise of the This dissolution formerly happened immediately upon the death of the reigning sovereign; for he being considered in law as the head of the parliament (caput, principium, et finis), that failing, the whole body was held to be extinct (x). But the calling a new parliament immediately on the inauguration of the successor being found inconvenient, and dangers being apprehended from having no parliament in being, in case of a disputed succession, it was enacted by the statutes 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 15, 6 Ann. c. 7,] and 37 Geo. III. c. 127, that the parliament in being shall continue for six months after the demise of any king (or

(u) Com. Dig. Parl. 1, 2.

(x) So appointments held under the crown were at common law, in general, extinct on the demise of the crown, Bac. Ab. Courts, (C.); but by 1 Geo. 3, c. 23, the commissions of the judges are continued, notwithstanding that event; and by 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 27, s. 21; 1 Ann. st. 1,

c. 8, 4 Ann. c. 8, s. 8, 6 Ann. c. 7, s. 8, all appointments are in general now continued for six months after the demise; and by 11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4, c. 43, no fees or stamp duties shall be charged on the renewal of them. As to appointments in the British possessions abroad, see ] Will. 4, c. 4.

queen), unless sooner prorogued or dissolved by the successor; that if the parliament be, at the time of the demise of the sovereign, separated by adjournment or prorogation, it shall, notwithstanding, assemble immediately; that in case of the demise of the sovereign, between the dissolution of a parliament and the day appointed by the writs of summons for the meeting of a new one, the last preceding parliament shall immediately convene for six months, unless sooner prorogued or dissolved by the successor; and that in the event of the sovereign's demise on or after the day appointed for assembling the new parliament, but before it has assembled, then the new parliament shall in like manner convene for six months, unless sooner prorogued or dissolved.

3. [Lastly, a parliament may be dissolved or expire by length of time. For if either the legislative body were perpetual, or might last for the life of the prince who convened them, as formerly, and were so to be supplied by occasionally filling the vacancies with new representatives, —in these cases, if it were once corrupted, the evil would be past all remedy; but when different bodies succeed each other, if the people see cause to disapprove of the present, they may rectify its faults in the next. A legislative assembly, also, which is sure to be separated again (whereby its members will themselves become private men, and subject to the full extent of the laws which they have enacted for others), will think themselves bound, in interest as well as duty, to make only such laws as are good. The utmost extent of time that the same parliament was allowed to sit, by the statute 6 W. & M. c. 2, was three years (y); after the expiration of which, reckoning from the return of the first summons, the parliament was to have no longer continuance. But by the statute 1 Geo. I. st. 2, c. 38 (in order, professedly, to prevent the great and continued expenses of frequent elections, and the violent heats and ani

(y) Before this act the duration of parliament was only limited by

the pleasure or death of the king. (Christian's Blackstone.)

[mosities consequent thereupon, and for the peace and security of the government, then just recovering from the late rebellion), this term was prolonged to seven years; and, what alone is an instance of the vast authority of parliament, the very same house that was chosen for three years, enacted its own continuance for seven. So that, as our constitution now stands, the parliament must expire, or die a natural death, at the end of every seventh year, if not sooner dissolved by the royal prerogative.]

CHAPTER II.

OF THE SOVEREIGN, IN HIS GENERAL RELATION TO AND THE LAW OF SUBJECT AND

THE PEOPLE;

ALIEN.

[THE supreme executive power of this kingdom is vested by our laws in a single person, the king or queen; for it matters not to which sex the crown descends, but the person entitled to it, whether male or female, is immediately invested with all the ensigns, rights, and prerogatives of sovereign power, as is declared by statute 1 Mar. st. 3, c. 1.]

In discoursing of the royal rights and authority, it is proposed to consider the sovereign under several distinct views. First, With regard to the relation that he bears to his people in general. Secondly, With regard to the royal title. Thirdly, With regard to the royal family. Fourthly, With regard to the royal councils. Fifthly, With regard to the royal prerogative. Sixthly, With regard to the royal revenue. Seventhly, With regard to

the royal forces.

And first, with regard to the relation between the sovereign and the people; we may remark that there exist between them the mutual duties of protection and subjection.

[These reciprocal duties are what were meant by the convention in 1688, when they declared that King James had broken the original contract between king and people. But, however, as the terms of that original contract were in some measure disputed, being alleged to exist principally in theory, and to be only deducible by reason and the rules of natural law, (in which deduction different understandings

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D D

[might very considerably differ,) it was, after the Revolution,] judged proper (as we shall presently see,) to [declare these duties expressly, and to reduce that contract to a plain certainty. So that whatever doubts might be formerly raised by weak and scrupulous minds about the existence of such an original contract, they must now entirely cease; especially with regard to every prince who hath reigned since the year 1688.

The principal duty of the sovereign is to govern his people according to law. Nec regibus infinita aut libera potestus, was the constitution of our German ancestors on the continent (a). And this is not only consonant to the principles of nature, of liberty, of reason, and of society, but has always been esteemed an express part of the common law of England, even when prerogative was at the highest. "The king," saith Bracton (b), who wrote under Henry the third, "ought not to be subject to man, but to "God, and to the law; for the law maketh the king. Let "the king therefore render to the law, what the law has "invested in him with regard to others; dominion and "power: for he is not truly king, where will and pleasure rule, and not the law." And again (c), “the king also "hath a superior, namely God, and also the law, by which "he was made a king (d)." Thus Bracton: and Fortescue also (e), having first well distinguished between a monarchy absolutely and despotically regal, which is introduced by conquest and violence, and a political or civil monarchy, which arises from mutual consent; (of which last species he asserts the government of England to be), immediately lays it down as a principle, that "the king of England "must rule his people according to the decrees of the laws "thereof; insomuch that he is bound, by an oath at his

(a) Tac. de Mor. Germ. c. 7. (b) L. 1, c. 8.

(c) L. 2, c. 16, s, 3.

(d) This is also well and strongly expressed in the Year Books, "La ley est le plus haute inhéritance que le

roy ad; car par la ley il même et touts ses sujets sont rulés, et si la ley ne fuit, nul roi, et nul inhéritance sera."-19 Hen. 6, 63.

(e) C. 9 and c. 34.