judicial power. Hence his legal ubiquity. In law he is present in all his courts, though he cannot personally distribute justice. And from this ubiquity it follows, that he can never be nonsuit: for a nonsuit is the desertion of the action by the non-appearance of the plaintiff in court.

In prosecutions for offences, the sovereign appears in another capacity, that of prosecutor; for all offences are theoretically against either his peace, or crown and dignity. As the public has delegated its power, with regard to the execution of the laws, to one visible magistrate, all affronts to that power are offences against him to whom they are so delegated. And he is therefore the proper person to prosecute for all offences. Hence also the prerogative of pardoning offences; for it is reasonable that he only who is injured should have the power of forgiving.

From the same theory of the sovereign being the fountain of justice, may be deduced the prerogative of issuing proclamations; which have a binding force only when grounded upon the laws. The making of laws is the work of the legislature; yet the manner, time, and circumstances of putting those laws in execution are frequently left to the discretion of the executive magistrate.

4. The sovereign is the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege; the constitution entrusting him with the sole power of conferring dignities and honours, in confidence that he will bestow them upon none but such as deserve them. And therefore all degrees of nobility, of knighthood, and other titles, are by grant from the crown; and he can erect corporations, whereby a number of private persons are united together, and enjoy many powers and immunities in their political, of which they were incapable in their natural, capacity.

5. The sovereign is the arbiter of commerce, the affairs of which are regulated by the law merchant, or lex mercatoria, which all nations take notice of. Our law, therefore, decides general rules which obtain

the causes of merchants by the in commercial countries; and that even in matters relating to domestic trade, as, for instance, with regard to the drawing, the acceptance, and transfer of bills of exchange.

In exercise of this branch of the prerogative the sovereign

appoints the Board of Trade, which superintends all government measures brought before parliament relating to trade and commerce; exercises a general superintendence over merchant ships and seamen; lays down rules as to the examination and qualification of masters and mates; investigates cases of incompetency and misconduct on the part of masters, and appoints officers to report on the condition and efficiency of steam-vessels and their machinery. It exercises a supervision also over railways and railway companies, not only with respect to their original formation, but also as to their subsequent working; inquires into the circumstances of accidents, and provides, if need be, for the greater safety of the public. This board also registers all joint-stock companies. A similar duty with respect to copyright in designs is imposed on it; and under its immediate control are placed the schools of design. One of its departments is charged with the publication of information with respect to the revenue, trade, commerce, wealth, population, and statistics of the realm; and another department collects and prepares the tables of the prices of corn which regulate the rent-charges now paid in lieu of tithes.

Under this branch of the prerogative fell formerly the establishment of public marts, or places of buying and selling; such as markets and fairs, with the tolls thereunto belonging;-and the regulation of weights and measures; but neither can now with propriety be referred simply to the prerogative, any more than the ancient prerogative to give money authority, or make it current. The regulation of the coinage is now within the domain of Parliament only.

6. The sovereign is the general conservator of his people, and as such is guardian of all infants and lunatics, an authority exercised by his judges. In this capacity, also, he is guardian of the Public Health, and appoints the Local Government Board,—to which is committed its protection, by means of the powers conferred on them to regulate the proceedings of the local authorities, whose duty it is to carry out the provisions of the Public Health Act. On the crown in council also is devolved the duty of protecting the public safety, by laying down rules for the storage, carriage, and sale of gunpowder and other explosive and dangerous substances.

7. The sovereign is, lastly, the head and supreme governor of the national church.

To enter into the reasons upon which this prerogative is founded, is matter rather of divinity than of law. I shall therefore only observe, that it is in virtue of this authority that the crown convenes, prorogues, restrains, regulates, and dissolves all ecclesiastical synods or convocations;-nominates to vacant bishoprics, and certain other ecclesiastical preferments; and is the dernier ressort in all ecclesiastical causes, an appeal lying ultimately to him from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge. In the sovereign in council is also vested the power of giving effect to any scheme or recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE ROYAL REVENUE.

We proceed now to examine the fiscal prerogatives of the sovereign, or such as regard his revenue; that portion which each subject contributes of his property in order to secure the remainder.

This is either ordinary or extraordinary. The 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 exchange for such of the sovereign's inherent hereditary revenues as were found inconvenient to the subject. Not that the crown is at present in possession of the whole of this revenue. Much, nay the greatest part, of it is in the hands of subjects; so that I must recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors look upon to be their own absolute rights; because they have been vested in them and their ancestors for ages, though originally derived from our ancient princes.

I. The custody of the temporalities of bishops, means the lay revenues, which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's see; and which, upon a vacancy, are immediately the right of the sovereign, as a consequence of his prerogative in church matters. But this revenue, formerly considerable, is now reduced to

nothing for as soon as the new bishop is consecrated and confirmed, he receives restitution of his temporalities entire and untouched.

II. The sovereign is entitled to a corody out of every bishopric; that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. This is now fallen into disuse.

III. The sovereign is entitled to the tithes arising in extraparochial places. It may be doubted how far either this or the last can be considered revenue: since a corody supports a chaplain, and these tithes ought to be distributed for the good of the clergy.

IV. The first-fruits and tenths of all spiritual preferments, that is, the first year's profits, were formerly part of the royal revenue. The tenths, or decimo, that is the tenth part of the annual profit of each living, was originally claimed by the pope, under the Levitical law, 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 met with a vigorous resistance from parliament; and a variety of acts were passed to restrain it, particularly 6 Hen. IV. c. 1, which calls it a horrible mischief, and damnable custom. But the clergy still kept it on foot; and, as they thus expressed their willingness to contribute so much to the head of the church, it was thought proper, when the king was declared to be so, to annex this revenue to the crown and so it remained till Queen Anne restored it; not by remitting the tenths and first-fruits entirely, but by applying these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiencies of the smaller. This is usually called Queen Anne's Bounty.

V. The next branch of the ordinary revenue is the rents and profits of the demesne lands of the crown. These lands were anciently very extensive, comprising divers manors, honours, and lordships. But at present they are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. The management of what remains is vested in the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues. The parks to which the public has access, are managed by the Commissioners of Works and Public Buildings

VI. The profits of the military tenures, to which most lands in the kingdom were subject, were till abolished by 12 Car. II. c. 24, a part of the royal revenue; and under this head might have been placed the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption : a right of buying up provisions for the royal household, at a valuation, in preference to all others: and also of impressing carriages and horses to do the sovereign's business, in the conveyance of baggage, and the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor, upon paying him a settled price. Having fallen into disuse during the Commonwealth, Charles II. at his restoration consented to resign them entirely; and parliament, in recompense, settled on the crown the hereditary excise on all beer and ale sold in the kingdom, and a proportionable sum for certain other liquors.

VII. A revenue formerly arose from wine licences, first settled on the crown by 12 Car. II. c. 25, to make up for the loss sustained in the abolition of the military tenures. Abolished in the reign of George II., these licences have been recently revived as a source of revenue by 23 Vict. c. 27.

VIII. The profits arising from the royal forests was a branch of revenue consisting principally in amercements levied for offences against the forest laws. But as few, if any, forest courts have been held since 1632, this revenue is practically extinct.

IX. The profits arising from the ordinary courts of justice make a ninth branch of the royal revenue. These consist in fines imposed upon offenders, and in fees payable in a variety of legal matters. As none of these can be done without the intervention of the sovereign, or his officers, the law allows him certain profits, as a recompense for his trouble. These, in process of time, were almost all granted out to private persons; so that, though our law proceedings were long loaded with their payment, very little of them was ever returned into the Exchequer.* The judges and officers of the court are now aimost universally paid by salary out of the consolidated fund.

X. A tenth branch of the royal revenue, the right to mines

* The late Earl of Ellenborough had 77007. per annum, as compensation for his office of chief clerk of the Court of Queen's Bench,