daughter of James I, was the neareft of the ancient blood royal, who was not incapacitated by profeffing the popish religion. On her, therefore, and the heirs of her body, being Proteftants, the remainder of the crown expectant on the death of King William and Queen Anne without iffue, was fettled by ftatute 12 and 18 W. III. c. 2, And at the fame time it was enacted, that whofoever fhould hereafter come to the poffeffion of the crown fhould join in the communion of the church of England as by law established. This is the last limitation of the crown that has been made by parliament: And these feveral actual limitations, from the time of Henry IV to the prefent, do clearly prove the power of the king and parliament to new model or alter the fucceffion. And indeed it is now again made highly penal to difpute it: For by the ftatute 6 Ann. c. 7. it is enacted, that if any person maliciously, advisedly, and directly, fhall maintain by writing or printing, that the kings of this realm, with the authority of parliament, are not able to make laws to bind the crown and the defcent thereof, he fhall be guilty of high treafon ; or if he maintains the fame by only preaching, teaching, or advised fpeaking, he fhall incur the penalties of a praemunire. The Princels Sophia dying before Queen Anne, the inheritance, thus limited, defcended on her fon and heir King George I; and having, on the death of the queen, taken effect in his perfon, from him it defcended to his late majefty King George II; and from him to his grandfon and heir, our present gracious fovereign, King George III. Hence it is easy to collect, that the title to the crown is at present hereditary, though not quite fo abfolutely hereditary as formerly: And the common stock or anceftor, from whom the descent must be derived, is also different. Formerly the common stock was King Egbert, then William the Conqueror; afterwards in James the firft's time the two common stocks united, and fo continued till the vacancy of the throne in 1688: Now it is the Princess Sophia, in whom the inheritance was vested by the new king and parliainent. Formerly the. P defcent descent was absolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any restriction: But now, upon the new fettlement, the inheritance is conditional; being limited to fuch heirs only, of the body of the Princess Sophia, as are Protestant members of the church of England, and are married to none but Protestants. And in this due medium confifts, I apprehend, the true conftitutional notion of the right of fucceffion to the imperial crown of thefe kingdoms. The extremes between which it fteers are each of them equally deftructive of those ends for which focieties were formed, and are kept on foot. Where the magiftrate, upon veery fucceffion, is elected by the people, and may, by the exprefs provifion of the laws, be depofed (if not punifhed) by his fubjects, this may found like the perfection of liberty, and look well enough when delineated on paper; but in practice will be ever productive of tumult, contention, and anarchy. And on the other hand, divine indefeasible hereditary right, when coupled with the doctrine of unlimited paffive obedience is furely of all conftitutions the most thoroughly flavish and dreadful. But when fuch an hereditary right as our laws have created and vested in the royal stock, is closely interwoven with those liberties, which we have seen in a former chapter, are equally the inheritance of the fubject; this union will form a conftitution, in theory the most beautiful of any, in practice the most approved, and, I trust, in duration the most permanent. It was the duty of an expounder of our laws to lay this conftitution before the ftudent in its true and genuine light: It is the duty of every good Englishman to understand, to revere, to defend it. 8 *74、 CHAPTER CHAPTER THE FOURTH. F THE KING's ROYAL FAMILY. THE first and most confiderable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the Queen. ...The Queen of England is either queen regent, queen confort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or fovereign, is the who holds the crown in her own right; as the firft (and perhaps the fecond) Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne; and fuch a one has the fame powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if the had been a king. This was obferved in the entrance of the laft chapter, and is exprefsly declared by ftatute 1 Mar. I. ft. 3. c. 1. the queen confort is the wife of the reigning king; and fhe, by virtue of her marriage, is participant of vers prerogatives above other women a Finch, L. 86. But And And firft, fhe is a publick perfon, exempt and diftin&t from the king; and not like other married women, so clofely connected as to have loft all legal or separate exiftence fo long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of ability to purchase lands, and to convey them, to make leafes, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can do b: A privilege as old as the Saxon era c. She is alfo capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her husband; and in this particular fhe agrees with the Augufta, or piiffima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Juftinian d, was equally capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from the Emperor. The queen of England hath separate courts and officers diftinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and folicitor general are entitled to a place within the bar of his Majefty's courts, together with the king's council She may likewife fue and be fued alone, without joining her husband. She may also have a feparate property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to difpofe of them by will. In fhort fhe is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme fole, and not as a feme covert; as a fingle, not as a married woman f. For which the reason given by Sir Edward Coke is this: Because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king (whose continual care and study is for the publick and circa ardua regni) to be troubled and difquieted on account of his wife's domestick affairs ; and therefore it vefts in the queen a power of tranfacting her own concerns without the intervention of the king, as if fhe was an unmarried woman. The queen hath also many exemptions, and minute prerogatives. For inftance: She pays no toll 8 the liable to any amercement in any court. b 4 Rep. 23. d Cod. 5. 16. 26. 4f Finch. L. 86. Co. Litt. 133. h Finch. L. 185. 1 hot is But in general, c Seld. Jan. Angl. 1. 42. e Seld. tit. hon. 1. 6. 7. g Co. Litt. 133. general, unlefs where the law has exprefsly declared her exempted, the is upon the fame footing with other subjects; being to all intents and purpofes the king's fubject, and not his equal: In like manner as in the imperial law, Augufta legibus foluta non eft i." The queen hath alfo fome pecuniary advantages, which form her a diftinct revenue: As, in the firft place, fhe is entitled to an ancient perquifite called queen gold, or aurum reginae; which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen confort during her marriage with the king, and due from every person who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in confideration of any privileges, grants, licenfes, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king: And it is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the entire offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majesty by the mere recording of the fine k. As if an hundred marks of filver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chase, or free warren: There the queen is entitled to ten marks in filver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold by the name of queen gold, or aurum reginae. But no fuch payment is due for any aids or fubfidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines impofed by courts on of fenders, against their will; nor for voluntary prefents to the king, without any confideration moving from him to the fubject; nor for any fale or contract whereby the prefent revenues or poffeffions of the crown are granted away or diminished in. The original revenue of our ancient queens, before and foon after the conqueft, feems to have confifted in certain reservations or rents out of the demefne lands of* the crown, which were exprefsly appropriated to her majefty, diftin&t from the king. It is frequent in domesday book, after specifying the rent due to the iFf. 3. 31. རོ ཕྱོགས crown, k Pryn. Aur. Reg. 2.. 112 Rep. 21. 4 Inft. 358. |