Anne restored to the church what had been thus indirectly taken from it. This fhe did, not by remitting the tenths and firstfruits entirely; but in a spirit of the trueft equity, by applying these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiences of the smaller. And to this end the granted her royal charter, which was confirmed by the ftatute 2 Ann. c. 11. whereby all the revenue of firft-fruits 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 still farther regulated by fubfequent ftatutes. V. THE next branch of the king's ordinary revenue (which, as well as the fubfequent branches, is of a lay or temporal nature) confifts in the rents and profits of the demefne lands of the crown. These demefne lands, terre dominicales regis, being either the fhare referved to the crown at the original distribution of landed property, or fuch as came to it afterwards by forfeitures or other means, were antiently very large and extenfive; comprizing divers manors, honors, and lordships; the tenants of which had very peculiar privileges, as will be fhewn in the fecond book of thefe commentaries, when we fpeak of the tenure in antient demefne. At present they are contracted within a very narrow compafs, having been almost entirely granted away to private fubjects. This has occafioned the parliament frequently to interpofe; and particularly, after king William III had greatly impoverished the crown, an act pafled', whereby all future grants or leafes from the crown for any longer term than thirty one years or three lives are declared to be void; except with regard to houfes, which may be granted for fifty years. And no reversionary leafe can be made, fo as to exceed, together with the eftate in being, the fame term of three lives or thirty one years: that is, where there is a fubfifting leafe, of which there are twenty years still to come, the king cannot grant a future intereft, to commence after the expiration of the former, for any longer term than eleven years. The tenant muft alfo be made liable to be punished for committing committing wafte; and the usual rent must be reserved, or, where there has ufually been no rent, one third of the clear yearly value. The misfortune is, that this act was made too late, after almost every valuable poffeffion of the crown had been granted away for ever, or else upon very long leafes; but may be of benefit to pofterity, when those leafes come to expire. VI. HITHER might have been referred the advantages which were used to arife to the king from the profits of his military tenures, to which moft lands in the kingdom were subject, till the ftatute 12 Car. II. c. 24. which in great measure abolished them all: the explication of the nature of which tenures muft be referred to the fecond book of these commentaries. Hither alfo might have been referred the profitable prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption: which was a right enjoyed by the crown of buying up provisions and other neceffaries, by the intervention of the king's purveyors for the ufe of his royal houfhold, at an. appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even without confent of the owner; and alfo of forcibly impreffing the carriages and horfes of the subject, to do the king's bufinefs on the public roads, in the conveyance of timber, baggage, and the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor, upon paying him a fettled price. A prerogative, which prevailed pretty generally throughout Europe, during the fcarcity of gold and filver, and the high valuation of money confequential thereupon. In thofe early times the king's houfhold (as well as thofe of inferior lords) were fupported by fpecific renders of corn, and other victuals, from the tenants of the refpective demefnes; and there was also a continual market kept at the palace gate to furnish viands for the royal use.' And this answered all purposes, in those ages of fimplicity, fo long as the king's court continued in any certain. place. But when it removed from one part of the kingdom to another (as was formerly very frequently done) it was found neceffary r 4 Inst. 273. q In like manner, by the civil law, the only let to farm. inheritances or fundi patrimoniales of the imFerial crown could not be alienated, but Cod. 1. 11. 1. 61. ceffary to fend purveyors beforehand, to get together a fufficient quantity of provifions and other neceffaries for the houfhold: and, left the unusual demand should raise them to an exorbitant price, the powers before-mentioned were vested in these purveyors : who in process of time very greatly abused their authority, and became a great oppreflion to the fubject, though of little advantage to the crown; ready money in open market (when the royal refidence was more permanent, and fpecie began to be plenty) being found upon experience to be the best proveditor of any. Wherefore by degrees the powers of purveyance have declined, in foreign countries as well as our own; and particularly were abolished in Sweden by Gustavus Adolphus, towards the beginning of the last century. And, with us in England, having fallen into difufe during the fufpenfion of monarchy, king Charles at his refloration confented, by the fame ftatute, to refign intirely thefe branches of his revenue and power: and the parliament, in part of recompenfe, fettled on him, his heirs, and fucceffors, for ever, the hereditary excife of fifteen pence per barrel on all beer and ale fold in the kingdom, and a proportionable fum for certain other liquors. So that this hereditary excise, the nature of which fhall be farther explained in the fubfequent part of this chapter, now forms the fixth branch of his majesty's ordinary revenue. VII. A SEVENTH branch might alfo be computed to have arifen from wine licences; or the rents payable to the crown by fuch perfons as are licenfed to fell wine by retale throughout England, except in a few privileged places. These were first fettled on the crown by the ftatute 12 Car. II. c. 25. and, together with the hereditary excife, made up the equivalent in value for the lofs fuftained by the prerogative in the abolition of the military tenures, and the right of pre-emption and purveyance: but this revenue was abolithed by the ftatute 30 Geo. II. c. 19. and an annual fum of upwards of 7000l. per annum, iffuing out of the new flamp duties inipofed on wine licences, was fettled on the crown in it's ftead. s Mod. Un. Hift. xxxii. 210 VIII. AN VIII. AN eighth branch of the king's ordinary revenue is ufually reckoned to confift in the profits arifing from his foreils. Forefts are wafte grounds belonging to the king, replenished with all manner of beafts of chafe or venary; which are under the king's protection, for the fake of his royal recrcation and delight: and, to that end, and for prefervation of the king's game, there are particular laws, privileges, courts and oicers belonging to the king's forefts; all which will be, in their turns. plained in the subsequent books of these commenta.128. What we are now to confider are only the profits aring to the king from hence; which confift principally in ameresarents or fines levied for offences against the forett-laws. Dat as few, if any, courts of this kind for levying amer cements, have been held fince 1632, 8 Car, I. and as, from the accounts given of the proceedings in that court by our hittories and law books', nobody would now wish to fee them again revived, it is needleís (at least in this place) to purfue this enquiry any farther. IX. THE profits ariling from the king's ordinary courts of justice make a ninth branch of his revenue. And thefe conft not only in fines impofed upon offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters; but also in certain fees due to the crown in a variety of legal matters, as, for fetting the great seal to charters, original writs, and other torenfic proceedings, and for permitting unes to be levied of lands in order to bar entails, or otherwife to infure their title. As none of theic can be done without the immediate intervention of the king, by himself or his officers, the law allows him certain quifites and profits, as a recompenfe for the trouble he undertakes for the public. Thefe, in precefs of time, have been almof ail granted out to private perfons, or elfe appropriated to certaiy particular ufes: fo that, though our law proceedings are fill loaded Nn s Roger North, in his life of lord keeper Noth, (13, 44.) mentions in eye et ao, to have been held fouth of Trent foon after the t loration: but I have met with no sen pot of it's procedir{:s. t Jones 267--205 loaded with their payment, very little of them is now returned into the king's exchequer; for a part of whofe royal maintenance they were originally intended. All future grants of them however, by the statute 1 Ann. ft. 2. c. 7. are to endure for no longer time than the prince's life who grants them. I X. A TENTH branch of the king's ordinary revenue, faid to be grounded on the confideration of his guarding and protecting the feas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and fturgeon: and these, when either thrown afhore, or caught near the coafts, are the property of the king, on account of their fuperior excellence. Indeed our ancestors feem to have entertained a very high notion of the importance of this right; it being the prerogative of the kings of Denmark and the dukes of Normandy"; and from one of these it was probably derived to our princes. It is exprefsly claimed and allowed in the statute de praerogativa regis": and the most antient treatises of law now extant make mention of it; though they feem to have made a distinction between whale and sturgeon, as was incidentally observed in a former chapter'. XI. ANOTHER maritime revenue, and founded partly upon the fame reason, is that of fhipwrecks; which are alfo declared to be the king's property by the fame prerogative ftatute 17 Edw.II. c. 11. and were fo, long before, at the common law. It is worthy obfervation, how greatly the law of wrecks has been altered, and the rigour of it gradually foftened, in favour of the diftreffed proprictors. Wreck by the antient common law, was where any fhip was loft at sea,and the goods or cargo were thrown upon the land; in which cafe thefe goods, fo wrecked, were adjudged to belong to the king: for it was held, that, by the lofs of the flip, all property was gone out of the original owner. But this |