SECT. IV. Adjournment, Prorogation, and Dissolution of Parliament. It remains, lastly, to describe the method of adjourning, proroguing, and dissolving parliament. An adjournment, as the name imports, is nothing more than a continuance of the session from one day to another, and is done by the authority of each house separately every day, and sometimes for a fortnight or month together, as at Christmas or Easter; but the adjournment of one house is no adjournment of the other. A prorogation, on the other hand, is the continuance of a parliament from one session to another: after a prorogation all bills that are only begun but not perfected, must be resumed de novo (if at all) in a subsequent session; but after an adjournment all things continue in the same state as at the time of the adjournment made, and may be proceeded on without any fresh commencement. A prorogation is either by the King's command pronounced in his presence by the Lord Chancellor to both houses; or, 2. by writ under the great seal, directed to the Lords and Commons; or, 3. by commissioners appointed under a special commission for the purpose. The first is the usual way of proceeding, when the parliament is prorogued at the close of the session. Prorogation by writ does not take place, except upon the meeting of a new parliament, after a general election, and before a speaker of the House of Commons is chosen on this occasion, when the members of the House of Commons come to the place appointed for administering the oaths by the Lord Steward or his deputies, they are informed that the parliament is to be prorogued by writ, directed to the Lords and Commons. They then proceed directly without entering their own house, or awaiting any message from the Lords, to the House of Peers, where the writ for proroguing the parliament is read. Proroguing by special commissioners is the usual way, when parliament meets from time to time during the recess. Parliament is never prorogued during the whole of the recess, but for about a couple of months only; when, unless any thing particular occurs, it is again prorogued for a similar period and so from time to time, until it meets for the usual yearly business. In times of actual rebellion, or imminent danger of invasion, if the parliament be separated by adjournment or prorogation, the King is empowered to call them together by proclamation, with 14 days' notice of the time appointed for their reassembling. A dissolution is the civil death of parliament, and may be effected in three ways: 1. By the King's pleasure; 2. by the demise of the Crown; and, 3. by efflux of time. 1. It is the acknowledged prerogative of the sovereign to dissolve parliament at his pleasure, and this as well during an actual session as during an adjournment or prorogation. Since the Revolution, the unvaried practice has been to prorogue the parliament in the first instance to a certain day, and then, before the time of meeting arrives, to issue a proclamation declaring it dissolved. This is adopted as the most delicate and indirect mode of executing an unpleasant measure, which a dissolution is supposed to be. 2. The other method of dissolution, viz., by demise of the Crown, formerly happened immediately on the death of the reigning monarch; but this being found inconvenient, it was enacted by the statutes 7 & 8 Will. III., and 6 Anne, that the parliament in being should continue for six months after the death of any king or queen, unless sooner prorogued by the successor; that, if the parliament be at the King's death separated by adjournment or prorogation, it should, notwithstanding, assemble immediately; and that, if no parliament be then in existence, the members of the last parliament should assemble and be again a parliament. 3. A parliament may expire by length of time. By the act of the 1st of George I. the Crown is restrained from continuing the existence of a parliament for a longer term than seven years, to be calculated from the day on which, by the writs of summons, they were appointed to meet. This law, commonly called the Septennial Act, extended the duration of parliaments to seven years, which, by the 6th of William & Mary, had been limited to three. Before the act of William & Mary, which passed in 1694, there was by law no limitation of time for the duration of parliaments; the Crown might have extended the duration of parliament for any term; and, in fact, the parliament which was elected in 1661, soon after the Restoration, was not dissolved till January 1678-9, having continued nearly eighteen years. The acts in force before the reign of William did not limit the duration of each parliament to three years, but provided only that their sittings should not be suspended beyond that term. TABLE of the Duration of Parliaments from the 1st of Henry VIII., when long parliaments were first introduced, to the end of William IV. 19 May, 1761 10 May, 1768 31 October, 1780 (United Kingdom 24 November, 1812 4 August, 1818 23 April, 1820 14 November, 1816 084 18 January, 1681 28 March, 1681 15 November, 1837. JAMES II. Dissolved. WILLIAM III. 11 October, 1695 5 April, 1705 10 March, 1721 11 March, 1768 20 May, 1796 31 December, 1800 29 September, 1812 2 June, 1826 3 December, 1832 30 December, 1834 17 July, 1837 VICTORIA. Acts of Parliament being quoted by the year of the King's reign, we subjoin, for the convenience of the reader, the following TABLE, showing the Commencement, Length, and Termination of the Reigns of the various Kings and Queens of England, since the Conquest, with the Date of their respective Births, and their Ages. CHAPTER III.-OF THE EXECUTIVE. SECT. I. The King, his Duties and Prerogatives. THE executive power according to the British constitution, both as it relates to foreign and domestic affairs, belongs to the King or Queen regnant for the time being; males and females being equally capable of ascending the throne of these realms. In all acts of parliament, indeed, the term king is taken as including equally that of queen. It must be observed, however, that the King performs all executive acts through the medium of responsible advisers or recognised officers and agents. His most important acts of state are done with the advice and sanction of his council, so that his regal power is exercised, not in any act of direct personal intervention, but in the selection of his instruments and advisers. The right of succession to the crown according to common law and constitutional custom is hereditary; subject, nevertheless, to be controlled and limited by authority of parliament. But the descent of the crown differs in several respects from the rules of inheritance in ordinary cases. The crown, for instance, descends to an eldest daughter and her issue, in preference to her sisters. Neither is there any legal infancy in the case of an heir to the crown; whenever, therefore, such an event as the devolution of the crown on a minor is likely to occur, it is usual for parliament, in the lifetime of the ancestor, or predecessor, to make a special provision to meet the contingency, by appointing a regency until the Sovereign shall have attained a suitable age. The crown, as limited by the Act of Settlement, 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2., is now vested in the descendants of the Princess Sophia, youngest daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, and grand-daughter of James I., being Protestants; and it is enjoined in the above act, that the possessor of the crown shall join in the communion of the Church of England. On the accession of every prince he is solemnly crowned; on which occasion he is formally invested with the office, and the oath prescribed by the act of 1 W. & M. is administered to him. By this oath the Sovereign is bound "to govern the people of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the same; to cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all his judgments; to maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by law; and to preserve to the bishops and clergy of this realm, and the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as do or shall appertain unto them." This oath, if the coronation has not taken place previously, the Act of Settlement requires every King of the age of 12 to take on the first day of the first parliament after his accession in the House of Peers, and at the same time to repeat and subscribe the declaration against popery. |