warrant for issuing money from the exchequer. Exchequer, Jan. 3, 1811, 55 min. M. P. My lords, I had the honour to receive, yesterday evening, a letter from Mr. Harrison, transmitting to me the opinion of his majesty's attorney and solicitor-general, on the statement which I took the liberty of submitting to your lordships for the purpose of being laid before them; and I beg leave to express the due sense which I entertain of your lordships' ready compliance with my request. Having fully considered that opinion, I lose no time in humbly ap prizing your lordships of the final judgement which I have formed as to the line of my official duty on this occasion. It is matter of the deepest concern to me, to be made the involuntary cause of any even the shortest delay in an issue of his majesty's treasure, stated to me, from such high authority as that of your lordships, to be important to the public service. If I could be satisfied of the propriety of my doing what is required from me by the warrants which I have had the honour to receive from your lordships, there is no personal responsibility which I would not readily incur for the public interests; but I cannot persuade myself that I could obey those warrants without a breach of my official duty in that point which is above all others peculiarly obligatory on the person placed in the situation of auditor of the exchequer; nor without a high and criminal violation both of a positive statute, and also of the essential principles of our monarchical and parliamentary constitution. The act passed in the 8th and 9th of king William the third, cap. 28. entitled, "An act for the better ob servation of the course anciently used in the receipt of exchequer," prohibits the issue of the king's treasure, except in pursuance of the special provisions of an act of parliament, or under the authority of warrants under his majesty's great seal or privy seal, duly entered in the office of the auditor, who is thereupon to draw the necessary orders. In the present instance all these authorities are wanting; and it is proposed that 1,000, 0007, sterling of his majesty's treasure shall be issued on the sole ground of a warrant signed by your lordships. Every step taken towards such an issue by any officer of the exchequer, but more especially by the auditor, would be in open violation both of that statute and of the accustomed course of the exchequer; for such an act your lordships' warrants cannot, as I now learn from the highest authority, afford me any legal sanction. I must, I am told, act on my own discretion, for the exercise of which I must alone be responsible. This responsibility, if it legally attaches upon me, I certainly cannot transfer to any other persons, and least of all to your lordships, whatever willingness you have expressed to take it on yourselves. My attempting to do so would itself be criminal; tending to confound the official relations in which I have the honour to stand towards your lordships, and to annul those checks which the law has established to en sure the faithful discharge of our respective duties, and thereby the security of the public treasure. But I beg leave humbly to submit to your lordships, that the law has in truth invested me with no discretion on this question. The exigencies of the public service, which your lordships have condescended to detail to me in these your your warrants, are matters of state, of which, as auditor of the exchequer, I have no knowledge, and can take no cognizance; my official duty is strictly limited to an observance of the accustomed forms of the exchequer, and of the laws which have from time to time been passed for its regulation. To these I am bound to adhere; and it is on the fullest consideration which this pressure of time has permitted me to give to them, tha. I am compelled to decline, but with all due respect to your lordships, a compliance with the requisition contained in those warrants to which this letter refers. Perhaps, however, on an occasion of such high and urgent public interest, it may not be improper for me, before I close this letter, further to submit to your lordships my view of the mode in which all difficulties on this subject may be removed, in so far at least as any agency of mine may be required for the purpose of those issues a mode which I am happy to think may still be resorted to, even within the period which the right honourable the chancellor of the exchequer did me the honour to point cut to me, as that within which no serious inconvenience is to be apprehended to the public service. Your lordships have recited in your warrants, the resolution by which the two houses of parliament have declared the melancholy fact of the temporary incapacity of his majesty for the discharge of his high functions. If it be proper for me, in my official character, in any manner whatever to act on this declaration, I cannot separate my knowledge of it from that of the accompanying resolution by which the lords and commons did at the same time declare, that it was their right and duty to provide the means of 66 supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the royal authority arising from his majesty's said indisposition, in such manner as the exigency of the case may appear to them to require." To this resolution all the subjects of this realm owe submission and obedience; and while it presents on the one hand, in my judgement, a fresh and insuperable obstacle to my obeying your lordships' requisi tion, it does, I trust, afford, on the other hand, the means of obviating any inconvenience that could arise from my adherence to this my public duty. I should think myself doubly criminal, if, while the two houses are actually proceeding in the execution of such their right and duty, I were to take upon myself to decide, for them, in what manner the defect in the personal exercise of the king's authority shall be supplied, in so important a branch as that of the issue of his royal trea sure; much more, if I were to arrogate to myself the power of dispensing, for that purpose, with the express provisions of the laws by which my official duties are regula ted. But if your lordships shall think it proper to submit this difficulty to the consideration of the two houses of parliament, they have declared, that with them rests the right and duty to provide the means of remov ing it. With them resides, under the present exigency, the power to command those official seals, the use of which would constitute an imperative and unquestionable authority to the offices of the exchequer; with them rests the discretion of judgement in what other manner they may think it more fit to provide a sufficient warrant or sanction for anyissue which they may determine to be requisite for the 1 interests; and I certainly should not I have the honour to be, &c. RETURN TO AN ORDER OF THE HO- Copy of a letter from the deputy clerks of the privy seal, of the 4th January, 1811; stating their reasons why they could not prepare letters to pass the privy seal, for the issue of certain sums of money for the service of the navy and army. GEO. HARRISON. Whitehall Treasury Chambers, Privy Seal Office, 4th Jan. 1811. Sir, In pursuance of your request, by command of the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury, that we should state, in writing, the reason which induced us to acquaint the lord keeper of the privy seal, that we could not execute the command to prepare letters to pass the privy seal, for the issue of certain sums of money for the navy and army; we have no difficulty in complying with your request. The course of official routine, before we present the letters of privy seal to the lord keeper, is as follows: A warrant, signed by the king, and countersigned by three lords of the treasury, is directed to the clerk of the signet, ordering him to prepare a bill for the royal signature, to cause letters of privy seal to pass. The clerk of the signet then prepares a transcript of this bill, which being signed with his "His majesty's warrant for issu- Our objection to signing the letters of privy seal, therefore, was, that we conceived it would be departing from the official line of our duty, and acting contrary to the express letter and spirit of our oath, if we signed these letters of privy seal prior to the usual docquet being returned to the office countersigned by three lords of the treasury. We considered this of the greater importance, as we have always conceived the docquet to be a certificate, under the hands of their lordships, that the royal signature had actually been affixed. Moreover, as the lord keeper always retains the signet, and docquet, as his vouchers for affixing the seal; and the entry of the docquet is the only record remaining in the office. The tenor of the oath is as follows: "You shall be true to our sovereign lord the king, his heirs and successors, kings and queens of the George, the said - We have the honour to be, &c. AGAINST THE ORDER TO ISSUE MONEY. Saturday, Jan. 5, 1811. ON THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE DISSENTIENT, united kingdoms of Great Britain George Harrison, esq. &c. &c. and Ireland, and them faithfully serve to the best of your power, as one of their clerks in the office of privy seal; and during the time you shall continue in the same, you shall not prefer nor colourably present to the keeper of the privy seal or commissioners for the execution of the office of keeper of the privy seal for the time being, any manner of thing to pass the seal, but such only as you shall have sufficient warrant for, by writing or by mouth granted or given by the king's majesty, or some of his highness's council in the court of requests.-You shall not disclose any of his majesty's causes to you commanded to be kept secret, until such time as publication be thereof made.-And you shall not seek to break any order used for the attendance of the clerks of the said office, or by colour thereof take any profits growing by the seal of the said office, and thereby defraud them of the whole due or any parcel thereof. 1. Because the principle on which the resolution is founded, would justify the assumption of all the executive powers of the crown by the two houses of parliament, during any suspension of the personal exercise of the royal authority. "So help you God, and by the holy evangelists." (Signed) By the clerk. This day ofin the -year of the reign of king • Clerk's name. keeper of the privy seal. 2. Because this unprecedented and unconstitutional measure might have been avoided without injury to the public service, by resorting (as was suggested in debate) to the mode of proceeding sanctioned by our ancestors in 1668, namely, an address to his royal highness the prince of Wales, to take upon him the civil and military administra tion of affairs, and the diposal of the public revenue, until the means of supplying the defect in the exer cise of the royal authority should be finally adjusted. Cambridge York Kent Clarence + Here insert the lord keeper's name. Holland By the lord This subject is of more importance than many persons at first sight may suppose. Whether the privilege be proper or not, is a question we shall not argue. But when it is wished to abolish it, we may ask, What body can abolish it? The house of lords? The privilege is one of the prerogatives ofthe crown, recognised as such in all our books upon the custom of parliament, and acted upon for centuries. If it be therefore one of the preroga tives of the crown, or a privilege which is derived from the crown, we shall ask, with all the due deference, whether it be competent for the house of peers to restrict or abolish it? All the authorities of the old books are clear upon the point of prerogative. The king has a right to command the service of all his barons. In ancient times they were bound to attend in person; but the crown afterwards mitigated the service, and commuted a personal service into a service by proxy. But the power of dispensing with the service, as well as of commuting it, flowed entirely from the crown. The sovereign, by not using and by patent, has given up the right of interference. But the barons being by their patents grant ed all the rights and privileges be. longing to the degree of barons, 1811. THE ANCIENT METHOD AND MANNER The ENGLAND BY HENRY ELSYNGE, CHAP. V. making of proxies proves the lords' right to be summoned. Those lords that could not appear according to their summons, made their proxies; and even this shows their right to be summoned, else what needed their proxies? But if they neither came, nor made proxies, then for the disobedience unto the king's writ they were amerced (viz.): anciently an earl at 100%. and a baron at 100 marks.-(Vide the ancient manuscript Modus tenendi parliament. cap. De inchoatione parliam.) Which since was qualified many times (viz.)-An. 31 H. VI. no. 46. A duke was taxed at 1007. an earl at 100 marks, and a baron at 40%. if he came not to parliament. Unto whom proxies may be made. A proxy cannot be made to a lord that is absent himself.-Vide An. 38 H. VIII. In fine libri Journal this entrance (viz.) : The lord Latimer sent his proxy, which the clerk received; but it was repealed by the lord chaneellor, for that the lord Latimer's deputies were not present. So if the lord unto whom the proxy is made be afterwards absent, the proxy is void: yea, although the procurator be absent ex licentia (P) regis, |