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present reign, a Civil List was granted to, and settled on, his Majesty for life, to the amount of 470,000l. per annum, payable quarterly out of the Consolidated Fund; of which sum, 110,000l. is assigned for their Majesties' privy purse, and the remainder is applicable chiefly to the salaries and expenses connected with their household (g). As above noticed, Civil List pensions are no longer chargeable on the Civil List. In return for that grant, it was at the same time provided, that the hereditary revenues of the Crown should, during the present reign, be carried to, and form part of, the Consolidated Fund (r). The Civil List, therefore, now stands in the same place as the hereditary income did formerly, but with this great difference, namely, that it is not chargeable, as the hereditary income was, with the general and public expenses of the government. [The whole revenue of Queen Elizabeth amounted to 600,000l. a year (s); that of King Charles the First was 800,000l. (t); and the revenue voted for King Charles the Second was 1,200,000l. (u). But under these sums were included all manner of public expenses; and Lord Clarendon computed, that the charge of the navy and land forces alone amounted annually, soon after the Restoration, to 800,000l. (a). The same revenue, subject to the same charges, was settled on King James the Second (y); but, through the increase of trade and by more frugal management, it amounted on an average to a million and a half per annum, (besides other additional customs granted by parliament, which produced an annual revenue of 400,000l. (z),) out of which his fleet and army were maintained at a yearly expense of 1,100,000l. (a).]

(9) The Act for this purpose is the Civil List Act, 1901.

(r) Civil List Act, 1901.

(8) Lord Clar. Continuation, 163. (t) Com. Journ. 4th Sept. 1660. (u) Ibid. 13th Sept. 1660.

(x) Lord Clar. Continuation, 165. (y) 1 Jac. 2 (1685), c. 1.

(z) Caps, 3, 4.

(a) Com. Journ. 1st March and 20th March, 1688.

Upon the whole, it is doubtless much better for the Crown, and also for the people, to have the revenue settled on the modern rather than on the antient footing. For the Crown, because it is more certain, and collected with greater ease; and for the people, because they are now delivered from the feudal hardships, and other odious branches of the prerogative.

CHAPER VIII.

OF THE ROYAL FORCES.

We now come to consider the royal forces, and the manner in which these forces are raised and maintained; and we shall make some preliminary remarks on the history of the army and navy.

[In the time of our Saxon ancestors, as appears from Edward the Confessor's laws (a), the military force of this kingdom was in the hands of the dukes, or heretochs, who were constituted through every province and county in the kingdom; and as they were invested with unlimited power, therefore they were elected by the people in their full assembly, or folkmote, in accordance with the fundamental maxim of the Saxon constitution, that where any officer was entrusted with unlimited power, that power should be delegated to him by the vote of the people themselves (b).

It seems to be universally agreed, that King Alfred first settled a national militia in this kingdom, but he possibly left too large a power in the hands of the dukes or heretochs, whereby he enabled Duke Harold, on the death of Edward the Confessor, to mount the throne of this kingdom, in prejudice of Edgar Atheling, the rightful heir. At the Norman conquest, when the feudal system was developed (which system was essentially military), all the land in

(a) Schmidt, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, c. 32a. [The meaning of the passage is very doubtful, and, in any case, it is poor evidence of Anglo-Saxon usage. E.J.]

(b) "Isti vero veri eligebantur per commune consilium, pro communi

utilitate regni, per provincias et patrias universas, et per singulos comitatus, in pleno folkmote, sicut et vicecomites, provinciarum et comitatuum, eligi debent.". LI. Edw. Confess. ubi sup. See also Bede, Eccl. Hist. 1. 5, ch. 10.

[the kingdom, held by tenure in chivalry, was divided into what were called knights' fees, of which the traditional number was sixty thousand, though modern investigation suggests five thousand as a more probable number (c). For every knight's fee, a knight or soldier (miles) was bound (as we have said) to attend the king in his wars for forty days in the year; and by these means, the king had, without any expense, a fighting force always ready at his command. In addition, the Assize of Arms (27 Hen. II.) (1181), and afterwards the Statute of Winchester, under Edward the First (1285), obliged every man, according to his estate and degree, to provide a determinate quantity of such arms as were then in use, in order to keep the peace. By the latter statute, constables were appointed in all hundreds to see that such arms were provided; and by the 4 & 5 Ph. & M. (1558), c. 2, these weapons were changed into others of more modern service. While these provisions continued in force (that is, until the reign of James the First, when they were repealed), it was usual from time to time for our princes to issue commissions of of array, and to send into every county officers in whom they could confide, to muster and array (or set in military order) the inhabitants of every district. But in the fourth year of Henry the Fourth (1402), it was provided, that no man should be compelled to go out of the kingdom at any rate, nor out of his shire, unless in cases of urgent necessity; nor to provide soldiers, unless by consent of parliament (d). About the reign of King Henry the Eighth, however, lieutenants of counties began to be introduced, as standing representatives of the Crown, in military matters (e), Camden describing them (f), in the time of Queen Elizabeth, as extraordinary magistrates constituted in times of difficulty and danger. These commissions of

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[lieutenancy gradually superseded the old commissions of array; and King Charles the First having, during his northern expedition, issued these commissions of lieutenancy, it was made a question with the Long Parliament, how far the power of the militia did inherently reside in the king. Eventually, the parliament denied this prerogative of the Crown, and also seized into their own hands the entire power of the militia.

At the restoration of King Charles the Second, however, when the military tenures were abolished, it was thought proper to ascertain the power of the militia, to recognize the sole right of the Crown to govern and command them. and to put the whole upon a more regular military footing;] and the legal position of the militia, at the present day, is principally built upon the statutes which were then enacted-viz., the 13 Car. II. (1661), st. 1, c. 6, which declared that the supreme command of all the militia of the realm is, and ever was, the undoubted right of the king (g), the 14 Car. II. (1662), c. 3, and the 15 Car. II. (1663), c. 4. It is true that these statutes have been in part repealed (h); but, by the subsequent Militia Acts, many of their provisions are re-enacted, with the addition of new regulations. The present system is chiefly governed by the provisions of the general Militia Act, 1802, and the Militia Act, 1882, which latter statute repealed and re-enacted with amendments the Militia (Voluntary Enlistment) Act, 1875, and has been itself amended by the Reserve Forces and Militia Act, 1898, and the Militia and Yeomanry Acts, 1901 and 1902. The scheme of the present system is to train, at stated periods of the year, for the internal defence of the country, a certain number of the inhabitants of every county, who are enlisted for a period not exceeding six years, and officered by gentlemen commissioned by the Crown for that purpose. Although thus periodically called together for the purpose of being trained, (h) Statute Law Revision Act, 1863.

(g) See the Regulation of the Forces Act, 1871, Part II.

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