CHAPTER THE EIGHT H.

OF THE KING's REVENUE.

H

́AVING, in the preceding chapter, confidered at large those branches of the king's prerogative, which contribute to his royal dignity, and constitute the executive power of the government, we proceed now to examine the king's fifcal prerogatives, or fuch as regard his revenue; which the British constitution hath vefted in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power: being a portion which each fubject contributes of his property, in order to fecure the remainder.

THIS revenue is either ordinary, or extraordinary. The king's ordinary revenue is fuch, as has either fubfifted time out of mind in the crown; or else has been granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for fuch of the king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconvenient to the fubject.

WHEN I say that it has fubfifted time out of mind in the crown, I do not mean that the king is at present in the actual poffeffion of the whole of this revenue. Much (nay, the greatest part) of it is at this day in the hands of subjects; to whom it has been granted out from time to time by the kings of England; which has rendered the crown in fome measure dependent on the people for it's ordinary support and fubfiftence. So that I must be obliged to recount, as part of the royal revenue, what lords of manors and other fubjects frequently look upon to be their own abfolute inherent rights; because they are and have been vested in them and their ancestors for ages, though in reality originally derived from the grants of our antient princes.

2

1. THE

I. THE firft of the king's ordinary revenues, which I shall take notice of, is of an ecclefiaftical kind; (as are also the three fucceeding ones) viz. the custody of the temporalties of bishops by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands, and tenements, (in which is included his barony) which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's fee. And these upon the vacancy of the bishoprick are immediately the right of the king, as a consequence of his prerogative in church matters; whereby he is confidered as the founder of all archbishopricks and bifhopricks, to whom during the vacancy they revert. And for the fame reason, before the diffolution of abbeys, the king had the custody of the temporalties of all such abbeys and priories as were of royal foundation (but not of those founded by fubjects) on the death of the abbot or prior". Another reafon may also be given, why the policy of the law hath vefted this cuftody in the king; because as the fucceffor is not known, the lands and poffeffions of the fee would be liable to fpoil and devaftation, if no one had a property therein. Therefore the law has given the king, not the temporalties themselves, but the cuftody of the temporalties, till such time as a fucceffor is appointed; with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the fucceffor; and with the right of presenting (which the crown very frequently exercises) to fuch benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation". This revenue is granted out to a but now by the

of fo high a nature, that it could not be fubject, before, or even after, it accrued: ftatute 15 Edw. III. ft. 4. c. 4 & 5. the king may, after the vacancy, leafe the temporalties to the dean and chapter; faving to himself all advowfons, efcheats, and the like. Our antient kings, and particularly William Rufus, were not only remarkable for keeping the bishopricks a long time vacant, for the fake of enjoying the temporalties, but also committed horrible wafte on the woods and other parts of the eftate; and to crown all, would never, when the fee was filled up, reftore to the bifhop his temporalties again unlefs he purchased them at an exorbitant price. To remedy b Stat. 17 Edw. II. c. 14. F. N. B. 32.

a 2 Inft. 15.

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which, king Henry the first granted a charter at the beginning of his reign, promifing neither to fell, nor let to farm, nor take any thing from, the domains of the church, till the fucceffor was inftalled. And it was made one of the articles of the great charter, that no wafte fhould be committed in the temporalties of bishopricks, neither should the custody of them be fold. The fame is ordained by the statute of Weftminster the firft; and the ftatute 14 Edw. III. ft. 4. c. 4. (which permits, as we have feen, a leafe to the dean and chapter) is ftill more explicit in prohibiting the other exactions. It was also a frequent abufe, that the king would for trifling, or no causes, seise the temporalties of bishops, even during their lives, into his own hands: but this is guarded against by ftatute 1 Edw. III. ft. 2. c. 2.

THIS revenue of the king, which was formerly very confiderable, is now by a customary indulgence almost reduced to nothing for, at prefent, as foon as the new bishop is confecrated and confirmed, he ufually receives the reftitution of his temporalties quite entire, and untouched, from the king; and at the fame time does homage to his fovereign: and then, and not fooner, he has a fee simple in his bishoprick, and may maintain an action for the profits f.

II. THE king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bishoprick, that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. This is also in the nature of an acknowlegement to the king, as founder of the fee, fince he had formerly the fame corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation. It is, I apprehend, now fallen into total difufe; though fir Matthew Hale fays, that it is due of common right, and that no prefcription will discharge it.

III. THE king alfo (as was formerly observed i) is entitled to all the tithes arifing in extraparochial places *: though

perhaps it may be doubted how far this article, as well as the last, can be properly reckoned a part of the king's own royal revenue; fince a corody fupports only his chaplains, and these extraparochial tithes are held under an implied trust, that the king will distribute them for the good of the clergy in general.

IV. THE next branch confifts in the first-fruits, and tenths, of all fpiritual preferments in the kingdom; both of which I fhall confider together.

THESE were originally a part of the papal ufurpations over the clergy of this kingdom; first introduced by Pandulph the pope's legate, during the reigns of king John and Henry the third, in the fee of Norwich; and afterwards attempted to be made univerfal by the popes Clement V and John XXII, about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The firftfruits, primitiae, or annates, were the first year's whole profits of the fpiritual preferment, according to a rate or valor made under the direction of pope Innocent IV by Walter bifhop of Norwich in 38 Hen. III, and afterwards advanced in value by commiffion from pope Nicholas III. A. D. 1292, 20 Edw. I1; which valuation of pope Nicholas is ftill preserved in the exchequer m. The tenths, or decimae, were the tenth part of the annual profit of each living by the fame valuation; which was alfo claimed by the holy fee, under no better pretence than a ftrange mifapplication of that precept of the Levitical law, which directs", that the Levites "should offer the tenth part of their tithes as a heave-offer"ing to the Lord, and give it to Aaron the high priest." But this claim of the pope met with a vigorous resistance from the English parliament; and a variety of acts were paffed to prevent and restrain it, particularly the statute 6 Hen. IV. c. 1. which calls it a horrible mischief and damnable custom. But the popish clergy, blindly devoted to the will of a foreign master, ftill kept it on foot; sometimes more fecretly, fometimes more openly and avowedly: fo that in the reign of Henry VIII, it was computed, that in the compass of fifty

1 E, N. B. 176.

m3 Inft. 154.

n Numb. xviii. 26.

years

years 800,000 ducats had been fent to Rome for firft-fruits only. And, as the clergy expreffed this willingness to contribute fo much of their income to the head of the church, it was thought proper (when in the fame reign the papal power was abolished, and the king was declared the head of the church of England) to annex this revenue to the crown; which was done by ftatute 26 Hen. VIII. c. 3. (confirmed by ftatute Eliz. c. 4.) and a new valor beneficiorum was then made, by which the clergy are at present rated.

By these last mentioned ftatutes all vicarages under ten pounds a year, and all rectories under ten marks, are difcharged from the payment of first-fruits: and if, in such livings as continue chargeable with this payment, the incumbent lives but half a year, he shall pay only one quarter of his first-fruits; if but one whole year, then half of them; if a year and a half, three quarters; and if two years, then the whole; and not otherwife. Likewife by the ftatute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 8. no tenths are to be paid for the first year, for then the first-fruits are due: and by other ftatutes of queen Anne, in the fifth and fixth years of her reign, if a benefice be under fifty pounds per annum clear yearly value, it shall be discharged of the payment of firft-fruits and tenths.

THUS the richer clergy, being, by the criminal bigotry of their popish predeceffors, subjected at first to a foreign exaction, were afterwards, when that yoke was fhaken off, liable to a like mifapplication of their revenues, through the rapacious disposition of the then reigning monarch: till at length the piety of queen Anne restored to the church what had been thus indirectly taken from it. This she did, not by remitting the tenths and first-fruits entirely; but, in a spirit of the trueft equity, by applying these fuperfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiencies of the smaller. And to this end the granted her royal charter, which was confirmed by the statute 2 Ann. c. 11. whereby all the revenue of firstfruits and tenths is vefted in trustees for ever, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings. This is ufually called queen Anne's bounty; which has been ftill farther regulated by subsequent statutes °.

5 Ann. c. 24. 6 Ann. c. 27. I Geo. I. ft. 2. c. 12. 3 Geo. I. c. 10.