BOOK I.

OF THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE ABSOLUTE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS.

II.

1. THE objects of the laws of England are, I. Rights. Wrongs. 2. Rights are, the rights of persons, or the rights of things.

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3. The rights of persons are such as concern, and are annexed to, the persons of men: and, when the person to whom they are due is regarded, they are called (simply) rights; but when we consider the person from whom they are due, they are then denominated duties.

123

4. Persons are either natural, that is, such as they are formed by nature; or artificial, that is, created by human policy, as bodies politic or corporations.

123 5. The rights of natural persons are, I. Absolute, or such as belong to individuals. II. Relative, or such as regard members of society.

123

6. The absolute rights of individuals, regarded by the municipal laws, (which pay no attention to duties of the absolute kind), compose what is called political or civil liberty.

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7. Political or civil liberty is the natural liberty of mankind, so far restrained by human laws as is necessary for the good of society.

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8. The absolute rights, or civil liberties, of Englishmen as frequently declared in Parliament, are principally three: the right of personal security, of personal liberty, and of private property.

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9. The right of personal security consists in the legal enjoyment of life, limb, body, health, and reputation.

Page 129 10. The right of personal liberty consists in the free power of loco-motion, without illegal restraint or banishment.

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11. The right of private property consists in every man's free use and disposal of his own lawful acquisitions, without injury or illegal diminution.

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12. Besides these three primary rights, there are others which are secondary and subordinate; viz. (to preserve the former from unlawful attacks) I. The constitution and power of Parliaments: II. The limitation of the king's prerogative :-and (to vindicate them when actually violated): III. The regular administration of public justice: IV. The right of petitioning for redress of grievances: V. The right of having and using arms for selfdefence.

140-144

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PARLIAMENT.

The

1. THE relations of persons are, I. Public. II. Private. public relations are those of magistrates and people. Magistrates are supreme, or subordinate. And of supreme magistrates, in England, the Parliament is the supreme legislative, the king the supreme executive. 146

2. Parliaments, in some shape, are of as high antiquity as the Saxon government in this island; and have subsisted, in their present form, at least five hundred years.

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3. The parliament is assembled by the king's writs, and its sitting must not be intermitted above three years.

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4. Its constituent parts are the king's majesty, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons represented by their members each of which parts has a negative, or necessary, voice in making laws. 153-160

5. With regard to the general law of parliament;-its power is absolute: each house is the judge of its own privileges and all the members of either house are entitled to the privilege of speech, of person, of their domestics, and of their lands and goods.

160-167

6. The peculiar privileges of the lords (besides their judicial capacity) are to hunt in the king's forests; to be attended by the sages of the law; to make proxies; to enter protests; and to regulate the election of the sixteen peers of North-Britain.

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7. The peculiar privileges of the commons are to frame taxes for the subject; and to determine the merits of their own elections, with regard to the qualifications of the electors and elected, and the proceedings at elections themselves. Page 169-180

8. Bills are usually twice read in each house, committed, engrossed, and then read a third time; and when they have obtained the concurrence of both houses, and received the royal assent, they become acts of Parliament. 182-185 9. The houses may adjourn themselves; but the king only can prorogue the Parliament. 185-187 10. Parliaments are dissolved, I. At the king's will. II. By the demise of the crown; that is, within six months after. III. By length of time, or having sate for the space of seven years. 187-189

CHAPTER III.

OF THE KING, AND HIS TITLE.

1. THE supreme executive power of this kingdom is lodged in a single person: the king or queen.

190

2. This royal person may be considered with regard to, I. His title. II. His royal family. III. His councils. IV. His duties. V. His prerogative. VI. His revenue.

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3. With regard to his title; the crown of England, by the positive constitution of the kingdom, hath ever been descendible, and so continues.

190

4. The crown is descendible in a course peculiar to itself. 193 5. This course of descent is subject to limitation by Parlia

ment.

195

6. Notwithstanding such limitations, the crown retains its descendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the prince to whom it is limited.

196

7. King Egbert, king Canute, and king William I., have been successively constituted the common stocks, or ancestors, of this descent.

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8. At the revolution, the convention of estates, or representative body of the nation, declared, that the misconduct of king James II. amounted to an abdication of the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant.

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9. In consequence of this vacancy, and from a regard to the antient line, the convention appointed the next protestant heirs of the blood-royal of king Charles I. to fill the vacant throne, in the old order of succession; with a temporary exception, or preference, to the person of king William III.

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10. On the impending failure of the protestant line of king Charles I., (whereby the throne might again have become vacant), the Parliament extended the settlement of the crown to the protestant line of king James I. viz. to the princess Sophia of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being protestants: and she is now the common stock, from whom the heirs of the crown must descend. Page 215

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE KING'S ROYAL family.

1. THE king's royal family consists, first, of the queen: who is either regnant, consort, or dowager.

218

2. The queen consort is a public person; and hath many personal prerogatives and distinct revenues.

218

3. The prince and princess of Wales, and the princess-royal, are peculiarly regarded by the law.

223

4. The other princes of the blood-royal are only entitled to precedence.

224

CHAPTER V.

OF THE COUNCILS BELONGING TO THE KING.

1. The king's councils are, I. The Parliament. II. The great council of peers. III. The judges, for matters of law. IV. The privy council. 227-230

2. In privy counsellors may be considered, I. Their creation. II. Their qualifications. III. Their duties. IV. IV. Their powers. V. Their privileges. VI. Their dissolution.

230-232

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE KING'S DUTIES.

1. THE king's duties are to govern his people according to law, to execute judgment in mercy, and to maintain the established religion.

233

2. These are his part of the original contract between himself and the people; founded in the nature of society, and expressed in his oath at the coronation.

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CHAPTER VII..

OF THE KING'S PREROGATIVE.

1. PREROGATIVE is that special power and pre-eminence, which the king hath above other persons, and out of the ordinary course of law, in right of his regal dignity. Page 237-239 2. Such prerogatives are either direct, or incidental. The incidental, arising out of other matters, are considered as they arise: we now treat only of the direct.

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3. The direct prerogatives regard, I. The king's dignity, or royal character: II. His authority, or regal power: III. His revenue, or royal income.

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4. The king's dignity consists in the legal attributes of, I. Personal sovereignty. II. Absolute perfection. III. Political perpetuity.

241-249

5. In the king's authority, or regal power, consists the executive part of government.

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6. In foreign concerns; the king, as the representative of the nation, has the right or prerogative, I. Of sending and receiving ambassadors. II. Of making treaties. III. Of proclaiming war or peace. IV. Of issuing reprisals. V. Of granting safe-conducts.

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7. In domestic affairs; the king is, first, a constituent part of the supreme legislative power; hath a negative upon all new laws; and is bound by no statute, unless specially named therein.

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8. He is also considered as the general of the kingdom, and may raise fleets and armies, build forts, appoint havens, erect beacons, prohibit the exportation of arms and ammunition, and confine his subjects within the realm, or recall them from foreign parts. 262-266

9. The king is also the fountain of justice, and general conservator of the peace; and therefore may erect courts, (wherein he hath a legal ubiquity), prosecute offenders, pardon crimes, and issue proclamations.

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10. He is likewise the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege.

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11. He is also the arbiter of domestic commerce (not of foreign, which is regulated by the law of merchants); and is therefore entitled to the erection of public marts, the regulation of weights and measures, and the coinage or legitimation of

money.

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12. The king is, lastly, the supreme head of the church; and, as such, convenes, regulates, and dissolves synods, nominates bishops, and receives appeals in all ecclesiastical causes. 278