of Lords, and are there informed by the Lord Chancellor that the cause of summons will be declared by the Crown as soon as the members of both Houses are sworn, and a Speaker of the House of Commons chosen.

Every other session than the first is opened at once by the Sovereign's Speech.

This Speech is prepared by the Sovereign's Ministers, and gives a general, though not very definite, sketch of the sort of measures which the Ministers, or the so-called "Government," will introduce into Parliament in the course of the Session. It also notices briefly any important facts in current Foreign politics or in the domestic annals of the Royal family, especially when either of these classes of facts are likely to give rise to an application to Parliament for a grant of money.

The Speech is delivered either by the Sovereign in person or by one of a small body of Commissioners, among whom the Lord Chancellor is generally included. The terms of the Speech usually form the first subject of earnest discussion between the rival political parties in the House, a complimentary Address to the Queen being first moved in each House. Each House usually proceeds, for form's sake, with some other business, such as having a Bill read, before taking into consideration the Sovereign's Speech, in order to insist on their privilege of discussing other matters than those included in the cause of summons.

The Houses of Parliament are very jealous of any attempted interference with or restriction of their freedom of Debate on the part of the Crown. It is one of the clauses of the Bill of Rights* that "the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament."

The assent of the Sovereign is indispensable for any Bill

* See Appendix A.

(or proposed Law) to become actual Law. The Royal assent can be given either in person or by Commission in the Lords' House, to which the House of Commons is on such occasions summoned.

The Sovereign's power of refusing assent to a Bill was last exercised in 1707, when Queen Anne refused her assent to a Bill for settling the militia in Scotland.

When no date for the commencement of an Act is provided in the body of the Act itself, the day at which it receives the Royal assent is the date of that commencement. The "Clerk assistant" is required to endorse, in English, on every Act of Parliament, immediately after the title, the day, month, and year when the same shall have received the Royal assent.

In some cases a Bill cannot be introduced or read a first time without a previous announcement of the Sovereign's consent. Bills for the restitution of honours, or the granting of precedency, must be introduced into the Lords' House by the Sovereign's command, and cannot be read a first time in the House of Commons till the Sovereign's "consent" is signified.

In the case of Bills presented to the Commons involving any public expenditure not included in the annual estimates, or having the effect of releasing or compounding any sum of money owing to the Crown, a recommendation from the Crown must be signified by a Minister before the Bill can be introduced.

In the case of Bills concerning the Royal Prerogative or the hereditary revenues of the Crown, the Royal consent must be signified before the Bill pass either House, but this consent can be signified at any and even at the final stage. A Bill for a general pardon is first signed by the Queen, and is read only once in each House; after which it receives the Royal assent in the ordinary form. The Bill cannot be amended in either House, but must be accepted or rejected as a whole.

The members of the House of Commons, as a body, accompanied by their Speaker, have at all times the right of access to the Sovereign in order to present Addresses, or to deliver answers to questions propounded to them. The members of the House of Lords have individually the right of audience by the Sovereign.

Though the Sovereign is, by a fiction, always supposed to be present in Parliament and is entitled to be personally present in the House of Lords without taking part in its proceedings, yet according to modern practice he is not so except on its opening and prorogation, and occasionally for the purpose of giving the Royal assent to Bills during a

Session.

The Sovereign communicates with the two Houses of Parliament in many ways, such as by a Speech in opening or proroguing Parliament; by a message under his sign-manual, delivered in the House of Lords by a Peer, and in the House of Commons by a member of the House who is also a Minister of the Crown; by a verbal message delivered by a Minister of the Crown to the House of which he is a member; by the signification in reference to proposed legislation of the Royal "pleasure," "recommendation," or "consent;" and, lastly, by a signification conveyed through a Minister that the Crown " places its interests at the disposal of Parliament.”

These communications are never made except on such subjects as require the attention of Parliament; the prerogatives or property of the Crown; provision for the Royal family; the arrest of a member of either House for a crime; the introduction of a Bill in which the interests of the Crown are, or are supposed to be, personally affected.

The Houses of Parliament communicate with the Sovereign by Addresses conveying resolutions of either House. The Addresses are sometimes joint from both Houses, but more often separately confined to each House. The members of the two Houses, or of either House con

cerned, attend personally to present the Address, which when joint is read by the Lord Chancellor, and when separate either by the Lord Chancellor or by the Speaker of the House of Commons, according as the Address is presented by one House or by the other.

The subjects of Addresses are such as the expression of congratulation or condolence; the administration of justice; the action of the Crown in reference to foreign policy; the appointment of Royal Commissions; and the thankful acknowledgment of the communications from the Crown.

II. THE SOVEREIGN'S EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS.

(1) In respect of the Execution of the Laws.

The Sovereign is said to be the "Fountain of Justice." This means that, with the advice of his responsible Ministers

1. The Sovereign appoints, either directly or by delegation, all Fudges of all sorts and degrees, who are held to be his deputies. In the case of the Judges of the superior courts, excepting the Lord Chancellor, the appointment can only be made for life, and a Judge can be removed only in the case of misbehaviour, on an address to the Crown by both Houses of Parliament.

2. All prosecutions for crimes are conducted in the name of the Sovereign, and it is his officers who carry on the proceedings to their close, with or without the help of the person directly injured by the crime.

3. The Sovereign can, with a few exceptions, pardon all offenders against the Criminal Law either before or after conviction, but this prerogative is, in practice, seldom exercised. The following are the exceptions: namely,

First, that no "pardon under the Great Seal of England

is pleadable to an Impeachment by the Commons in Parliament." The proceeding called "Impeachment" will be described presently. Except in cases of felony, when a warrant under the Sovereign's sign-manual countersigned by a principal Secretary of State suffices, a Royal Pardon can be certified only by the Great Seal affixed by the Lord Chancellor.

Secondly, that the committing of any person to prison out of the realm, is by the Habeas Corpus Act "unpardonable even by the King."

A third exception is when the pardon would inflict an injury on an innocent person, as in the case of a nuisance yet unredressed, or of a breach of certain statutes after an informer has become entitled to a reward payable out of the penalty.

Any abuse of the prerogative of pardon by the Sovereign's responsible advisers is visited with severe public censure. The following are the only cases in which the prerogative is, in practice, exercised at the present day, that is to say :--

i. Offences, as to which fresh evidence tending to excuse the prisoner, turns up after the trial.

ii. Offences, as to which it appears that untrustworthy evidence was relied on at the trial and led to conviction, or in which some grave miscarriage of justice, not otherwise remediable, has occurred.

iii. Offences as to which the evidence is of that dubious or complicated nature that the Jury accompany their verdict by some such qualifying language as a "recommendation to mercy" on some ground or other, or in which the Judge specially reports to the Home Secretary that he himself is dissatisfied with the verdict.

iv. Political offences, where the object of the offender was not to inflict injury on any particular person or persons, and no other offences were superadded. Such offences are those sorts of Treason in which the acts are directed