THE SOVEREIGN. THE office of the Sovereign of England, whether held by a King or a Queen Regnant, is, in the words of the Coronation oath, "To govern the people of this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in Parliament agreed on, and the respective laws and customs of the same; to his power to cause law and justice in mercy to be executed in all his judgments; to the utmost of his power to maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by law; to maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the United Church of England and Ireland, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established within England and Ireland, and the territories thereunto belonging; and to preserve unto the bishops and clergy of England and Ireland, and to the united church committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them." To enable the Sovereign to execute the duties of this great office, the law has surrounded the throne by a variety of counsellors, and clothed its occupant with many high attributes and prerogatives. It attributes to the Sovereign imperial dignity and perfection; and, because the rule and government established in this kingdom cannot be maintained, even for an instant, without a person filling the office of sovereign, and able to execute its duties, the law ascribes to that person a never-ceasing existence. The imperial dignity of the Sovereign is equivalent to a declaration that the Crown of England owes no kind of subjection to any power * State Trials, xxiv. p. 246. on earth. The ascribed perfection which is expressed in the well known legal apophthegm," the king can do no wrong," simply means that if any wrong be committed in the name of the chief magistrate, it is chargeable upon the responsible advisers of the Crown, and not upon the Sovereign, from whom all our courts derive their authority, in whose name they act, and over whom, consequently, none of them can have any jurisdiction. The perpetuity of the Crown, expressed in the quaint maxim that "the king never dies," indicates that upon the demise of a monarch all the powers and authorities of the head of the state vest instantly in his legitimate successor without a moment's interregnum. The day on which a Sovereign dies is therefore the day of the accession of his suc cessor. The prerogatives of the Crown are certain high authorities vested in the Sovereign, either as incident to his pre-eminent station, or as necessary for the preservation of order, and the maintenance of the civil liberties of the people. They are as widely spread as his authority, which pervades and animates the whole frame This has been the practice from the death of Henry VIII. Before that time, the reigns of our monarchs were reckoned from their coronations, or from some other day subsequent to the death of the predecessor. When the accession was reckoned from the coronation, the new monarch was recognised as chief magistrate, but was styled "Dominus," and not king, during the period which intervened between the death of his predecessor and his own coronation. A charter of Richard I., dated nearly a month after his father's death, and in which he styles himself " Lord of England, (Ricardus Dei Gratiâ Dominus Angliæ,)" was recently communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, by Mr. William Hardy, and is printed in the Archæologia (xxvii. p. 109). That the same title was used by John before his coronation, is fully proved by Sir. F. Palgrave, in his Introductions to Vols. I. and II. of the Rotuli Curice Regis; and an earlier instance occurs in the Fœdera, in a charter of the Empress Maud, in which she styles herself " Anglorum Domina.” (I. 14.) Maud was at that time in possession of the royal authority, but was never crowned Queen. See upon this subject Nicolas's "Chronology of History," p. 272. et seq. work of our government, but are susceptible of division as having reference to the Sovereign, principally in two characters; as the head and representative of the state, and as the head of the legislature, the church, and other privileged bodies. As the representative of the state, the Sovereign has the supreme exclusive management of transactions between the United Kingdom and all foreign powers. He has the sole power of sending ambassadors and other ministers abroad, and of receiving ambassadors from foreign states. He alone can enter into treaties, can declare war or make peace, and, as necessarily incident to the prerogative which assigns to the Sovereign the management of a war, he alone is the head of the army and navy, is alone entitled to direct their operations, to regulate their discipline, and increase or diminish their numbers. On similar grounds, the Sovereign alone is entitled to erect and govern castles, and other places of strength within his dominions. In cases of actual or threatened invasion, or of rebellion, or insurrection, the Sovereign may require the personal service of every man able to bear arms, and even in time of peace, seafaring men may be compelled to enter the navy by forcible impressment.* As incident also to his war-prerogative, the Sovereign may promulgate blockades, lay on embargoes, or prohibit the exportation of arms or ammunition. He may also order aliens to leave the country, or prevent their coming into it at his pleasure. The right of the Sovereign to the personal services of the people was formerly far more extensive than it is at present. A proof of this may be seen in the right of purveyance, which was an ancient prerogative by which the officers of the crown were empowered to take at pleasure provisions for the household from all the neighbouring counties, and also to press into their service such carts and carriages as were required. Though payment was always made for the same, it was not only at a rate below the market price, but also very uncertain. Under these circumstances it can well be conceived what an intolerable grievance it was felt to be, and to what abuses, from its very nature, it was subject. Purveyance has now fallen into desuetude, except in so far as relates to the im |