tion has been made fince the revolution, is proved by the actual poffeffion of the throne by king James II. before that event; the reafons of it were fully canvaffed and fubmitted to even in thofe times of animofity and heat. # "But when these prerogatives are afferted to a prince, who is of a contrary religion to that established by law, there would be always danger of their being abufed to the prejudice or destruction of the eftablished religion; to which it cannot be forgotten, that the promoters of the bill of exclufion ufed the fame argument; if you leave him king, fay they, he will have all the prerogatives of a king, and those prerogatives may be made inflrumental to the ruin of your religion; which could not be denied by the gentlemen on the other fide, who oppofed that bill. Their only reply was, fat juftitia, ruat cælum; it is his right, and we must not do evil, that good may come; we must not do wrong, no, not to promote the intereft of religion itself." Nothing but an alteration in the conftitution could prevent the poffibility of the like event happening again.

* Lord Chief Justice Herbert's Reafons for the Judgment in the Cafe of Sir Edward Hales, p. 32.

*"With regard to foreign concerns, the

king is the delegate or reprefentative of his people. It is impoffible, that the individuals of a state in their collective capacity can tranfact the affairs of that ftate with another community equally numerous as themselves. Unanimity must be wanting to their meafures, and ftrength to the execution of their counfels. In the king therefore, as in a center, all the rays of his people are united, and form by that union a confiftency, fplendor, and power, that make him feared and refpected by foreign potentates, who would fcruple to enter into any engagement, that muft afterwards be revised and ratified by a popular affembly. What is done by the royal authority with regard to foreign powers, is the act of the whole nation; what is done without the king's concurrence, is the act only of private men.”

t "The king has the military power; but still with refpect to this, he is not abfolute. It is true, in regard to the fea-forces, as there is in them this very great advantage,

that they cannot be turned against the liberty of the nation, at the fame time that they are the fureft bulwark of the island, the

King complete of the nation in

reprefentative

foreign treaties.

King can keep

forces he

up what fea

pleafes.

king may keep them as he thinks proper; and in this respect he lies only under the general restraint of applying to parliament for obtaining the means of doing it. But in regard to land forces, as they may become an confent of par- immediate weapon in the hands of power,

But cannot raife

land forces without the

liament.

The nature of
Qur prefent

for throwing down all the barriers of public liberty, the king cannot raise them with out the confent of parliament. The guards of Charles II. were declared anti-conftitutional; and James's army was one of the causes of his being at length dethroned.

"In these times, however, when it is tanding army. become a custom with princes to keep those numerous armies, which ferve as a pretext and means of oppreffing the people, a state, that would maintain its independence is obliged in great measure to do the fame. The parliament has therefore thought proper to establish a standing body of troops, which amounts to about thirty thousand men, of which the king has the command.

"But this army is only established for one year; at the end of that term it is (unless re-established) to be ipfo facto difbanded ; and as the queftion, which then lies before parliament is not whether the army shall be diffolved, but whether it fhall be established anew, as if it had never exifted, any one of

the

the three branches of the legislature may, by its diffent, hinder its continuance.

Befides, the funds for the payment of this body of troops are to be raised by taxes, that never are established for more than one year; and it becomes likewife neceffary, at. the end of this term again to establish them."

Against any abuses of the king's prerogative in commencing, carrying on, or concluding wars, or in making treaties, leagues, or alliances with foreign ftates, is the constitutional fecurity of parliamentary impeachments of the minifters, who fhall have advised or induced the crown to an imprudent, detrimental, or injurious exertion of the prerogative.

*«Another capacity, in which the king is confidered in domestic affairs, is as the foun

tain of justice, and general confervator of the peace of the kingdom. By the fountain of juftice the law does not mean the author or original, but only the diftributor. Juftice is not derived from the king, as from his free gift; but he is the fteward of the public, to dispense it to whom it is due. He is not the fpring, but the refervoir, from whence

Independence of the judges.

right and equity are conducted, by a thoufand channels, to every individual. And hence it is, that all jurifdictions of courts are either mediately or immediately derived from the crown, their proceedings run generally in the king's name, they pass under his seal, and are executed by his officers.

"It is probable, and almost certain, that in very early times, before our conftitution arrived at its full perfection, our kings in perfon often heard and determined caufes between party and party; but at present, by the long and uniform ufage of many ages, our kings have delegated their whole judicial power to the judges of their feveral courts, which are the grand depofitory of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and have gained a known and stated jurifdiction, regulated by certain and established rules, which the crown itself cannot now alter but by act of parliament. And, in order to maintain both the dignity and independence of the judges in the fuperior courts, it is enacted by the ftatute 13 W. III. c. 2. that their commiffions fhall be made (not as formerly, durante bene placito, but) quamdiu bene fe gefferint, and their falaries afcertained and eftablished; but that it may be lawful to remove them on the addrefs of both houfes

"

of