23. There is individual oppression, when one member of society is oppressed; there is also the oppression of a number, when the social body is oppressed. In these cases the laws are violated, and the citizens have a right to demand the observance of the laws. 24. The house of every citizen is an inviolable asylum. No one has a right to enter it violently; except in cases of conflagration, deluge, or application proceeding from the same house; or for objects of criminal proceedings in the cases and with the essentials determined by law, and under the responsibility of the constituted authorities who have issued the decree. Domiciliary visits, and civil executions, shall take place only in open day, in virtue of the law, and with respect to the person and object expressly pointed out in the act, authorising such visitation and execution. 25. Every foreigner, of whatever nation he may be, shall be received and admitted into the state of Venezuela. 26. The persons and properties of foreigners shall enjoy the same security as the native citizens, pro vided always that they acknowledge the sovereignty and independence, and respect the catholic re, ligion, the only one in this country. 27. The foreigners who reside in the state of the Caraccas, becoming naturalized and holding property, shall enjoy all the rights of citizen, ship. Duties of man in society. 1. The rights of others, in rela, tion to each individual, have their limit in the moral principle which determines their duties, the fulfilment whereof is the necessary effect of the respect due to the rights of each of the individuals. Their basis are these maxims :-"Render to others the good which you would they should render unto you." "Do not unto another that which you do not wish to be done unto you." 2. The duties of every individual with respect to society, are: to live in absolute submission to the laws-to obey and respect the legal acts of the constituted authoritiesto maintain liberty and equalityto contribute to the public expenses to serve the country in all its exigencies-and, if it becomes necessary, to render to it the sacrifice of property and life in the exercise of these virtues consists genuine patriotism. 3, Whoever openly does violence to the laws-whoever endea vours to clude them-declares himself an enemy to society. 4. No one can be a good citizen, unless he be a good parent, a good son, a good brother, a good friend, and a good husband. 5. No man can be a man of worth, unless he be a candid, faithful, and religious observer of the laws: the exercise of private and domestic virtues is the basis of public virtue. Duties of the social body. 1.The duty of society with respect to its individual members is the social guarantee. This consists in the obligation on the whole to secure to every individual the enjoyment and preservation of his rights, which is the foundation of the national sovereignty. 2. The social guarantee cannot exist, unless the law clearly determines the bounds of the powers vested in the functionaries; nor when the responsibility of the public functionaries has not been expressly determined and defined. 3. Public succour is a sacred duty of society; it ought to provide for LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREA- No. I. Warrant 500,000%. money were not made, that the sum of 500,000. should be forthwith issued for the service of the navy : And whereas during the continuance of his majesty's indisposition, and previous to any authority being obtained by act of parliament to authorize the signature of his majesty's name or the application of his privy seal, the ordinary and accustomed mode of issuing money out of the exchequer cannot be pursued: and whereas by the said recited act certain sums therein mentioned are directed to be issued and applied for and towards making good the supply granted to his majesty; and the commissioners of his majesty's treasury, now or for the time being, or any three or more of them, or the high treasurer for the time being, are or is thereby or by other acts therein recited, authorised and empowered to issue and apply the same accordingly: These are therefore, under the particular exigency of the case, to pray and require you to draw an order for paying under the governor and company of the bank of England, upon account of the right honourable George Rose, treasurer of his majesty's navy, or of the treasurer thereof for the time being, any sum or sums of money not exceeding in the whole the sum of five hundred thousand pounds, by way of imprest and upon account, for the service of the navy and the victualling thereof; and let the said order be satisfied out of any the treasure or revenue in the receipt of the exchequer, applicable to the uses and purposes above mentioned: for which this shall be your warrant. Whitehall treasury chambers, the 31st day of December, 1810. Sp. Perceval, W. Brodrick, W. Eliot, S. Barne, B. Paget. To the auditor of the receipt of his majesty's exchequer. No. 11. No II.-A like warrant for the same sum to be paid to Mr. Long and lord Charles Somerset, for army services. No. III.-Lord Grenville, auditor of the exchequer, on the subject of issuing money from the exchequer, for the service of the army and navy, under the warrants of the lords of the treasury. Camelford-house, Jan. 1, 1811, ·53 min. p. 11 A. M. Sir, Mr. Fisher has this moment brought to me two warrants from the lords commissioners of his majesty'streasury, under yesterday's date, by which I am required, in consideration of the circumstances therein stated, to draw an order for the issue of 500,0007, to the bank, on account of the paymaster-gen. of the forces, and also a like sum on account of the treasurer of the navy; for which issues no authority under his majesty's great seal, or privy seal, or sign manual, has as yet been presented, according to the accustomed mode and course of the exchequer in that behalf. I have been, up to this moment, totally unapprized of any intention on the part of their lordships to transmit to me any such warrants; but had on the contrary every reason to believe, from what you had stated to Mr. Fisher, that the officers of the exchequer were to be called upon to act on this occasion under the authority of his majesty's privy seal, which, however irregularly it might have been obtained, would have been, in my judgement, imperative upon them. It now becomes necessary for me to consider the nature and extent of the duties which this new and unexpected course of proceeding imposes No. IV.-Mr. Perceval to lord Grenville, stating the period when an issue should be made from the exchequer, in pursuance of the treasury warrant. Downing-street, 1st Jan. 1811, before 3 P.M. My lord-I have had the honour of receiving your lordship's letter of this day's date, desiring to know within what time it will be necessary, for avoiding those inconveniencies to the public service which are specified in the warrants to which your lordship's letter relates, that the order for issuing the money under such warrants should be transmitted to their lordships? and I have to state to your lordship, that according to the usual course of supplying the weekly issues, both to the navy and the army, it would be necessary that sums should be issued to both services, beyond the amount of the existing credits at the exchequer, either tomorrow or the next day at furthest: but although such is the usual practice, which I should regret the necessity of departing from, yet if the orders could be so furnished as to admit of an actual issue being made upon them by Monday next, I do not apprehend any serious inconvenience to the pub lic lic service from such a short delay. SP. PERCEVAL. The lord Grenville. No. V. Lord Grenville, auditor of the exchequer, transmitting a case on the subject of issuing money from the exchequer under treasury warrants, and requesting the same might be submitted to the attorney and solicitor general. Exchequer, Jan. 1, 1811. My lords, I have been informed by a letter of this date from the right honourable the chancellor of the exchequer, that it is desirable the orders required by your lordships' warrants of yesterday's date should be transmitted to your lordship either to-morrow or next day at furthest, and that serious inconvenience is apprehended to the public service, unless the actual issue can be made upon them by Monday next. Under this pressure, I have thought it my indispensable duty to lose no time in drawing up such a statement of the case as my general knowledge of the subject enables me to do on the sudden. If there should appear to your lordships any deficiency or error in this statement, I beg leave to request that your lordships will have the goodness to direct that the same should be supplied by your lordships' officers; and I cannot doubt that your lordships will then, in compliance with this my humble request, direct that the case should be immediately submitted, by your lordships' orders, to the attorney and solicitor general, in order that I may have the sanction of their legal advice and authority in a matter of such novel and unprecedented difficulty. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) GRENVILLE, auditor. The lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury. No. VI.-Case for the opinion of his majesty's attorney and solicitor general-1 January 1811. The auditor of the exchequer is appointed by a constitution from the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury; his office is generally described by lord Coke, Inst. 106. His appointmentstates his duty to be, that of writing all and. every the tallies and counter tallies of all whatsoever the bills to be made hereafter at the exchequer of our lord the king, on all and every the payments and assignments to be there made; and of doing and exercising all other things to that office belonging. He has no general instructions accompanying his appointment. Special provisions relative to his office and duties are contained in the eighth and ninth W. III. c. 28. particularly in sections 6. 8. and 10. to which your attention is desired, as well as to the general tenor of the several statutes for the regulation of the exchequer, and also to the stat. 50 Geo. III. c. 115. f. 6. Copies of the several forms of the warrants under privy seal and sign manual, and of the usual warrant from the lords commissioners of the treasury to the auditor, for drawing orders for the issue of money, according to the accustomed course of the exchequer, are transmitted herewith. And Mr. Fisher, the auditor's chief clerk, an officer of long experience in the exchequer, will attend you, for the purpose of supplying any explanation of these instruments, or any other information which you may require. A copy is herewith inclosed of two warrants from the lords commissioners of the treasury, dated December 31, 1810; and requiring the auditor, under the circumstances therein described, to draw orders for for the issue of one million of the king's treasure, for the issue of which no authority under his majesty's great seal, privy seal, or sign manual, has been presented, according to the accustomed course of the exchequer in that behalf. Your opinion is requested, by the auditor, whether the aforesaid warrant of the lords commissioners of the treasury is a sufficient authority imperative on him, and therefore a legal sanction for his proceeding to obey the same; or whether any and what discretion is left to him on this occasion, for the exercise of which he may be responsible in any court of law, or to the two houses of parliament: they having resolved that it is their right and duty to provide the means of supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the royal authority arising from his majesty's indisposition, in such manner as the exigency of the case may appear to them to require. Having considered the several statutes and documents to which we are referred, and the general practice which we understand to have prevailed in the exchequer, as well before as since appropriation acts similar to the 50th Geo. III. c. 115, have been annually passed, we do not think that the warrant of the lords commissioners of the treasury is in law a suffi. cient authority, imperative upon the auditor, nor consequently a legal sanction for his proceeding to obey the same, nor that any discretion is left to him by the law on this occasion, for the exercise of which he will not be responsi ble. (Signed) V. GIBBS, T. PLUMER, Lincoln's Inn, 2d Jan. 1811. the opinion of the attorney and solicitor-general on the case submitted by him; and stating the urgent necessity of his complying with the treasury warrant of the 31st December, 1810. My lord,—I am commanded by the lords commissioners of his ma jesty's treasury to acknowledge the receipt of your lordship's letter of yesterday, requesting that the case, therein transmitted, should be immediately submitted to the attorney and solicitor general, in order that you may have the sanction of their legal advice and authority in a matter of such novel and unprecedented difficulty; and to acquaint your lordship, that they lost no time in complying with your request. And I am now commanded to transmit to you a copy of the opinion which they have just received from the attorney and solicitor general, stat ing, that they do not think that the warrant of the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury is, in law, a sufficient authority imperative upon the auditor, nor consequently a legal sanction for his proceeding to obey the same. My lords direct me to add, that their sense of the mischief to the public service, which would arise if any delay should take place in the issues of the moneys required by their warrants of the 31st December, appears to render it indispensa bly necessary that those warrants should be forthwith complied with ; and that they are consequently ready to take upon themselves the responsibility of any act which may be essesntial for that purpose. I am, &c. Jan, 2, 1811. GEO. HARRISON, No. VIII.-Lord Grenville, stating his reasons for not complying with the directions of the treasury warrant |
