ROYAL ORDER OF THE IMPERIAL CROWN TRIAL

has been acquiefced in by general confent and ripened by degrees into common law : the very fame title that every private man has to his own eftate. The founders of our Englifh monarchy might perhaps, if they had though proper, have made it an elective monarchy but they rather chofe, and upon good reafon, to eftablifh originally a fucceffion by inheritance. It has no relation to, nor depends upon, the civil laws of the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, or any other nation upon earth : the municipal laws of one fociety having no connexion with, or influence upon, the fundamental polity of another. The hereditary right, which the laws of England acknowlege, owes it's origin to the founders of our conftitution, and to them only. And when our kings have the fame warrant as the had, whether it be to fit upon the throne of their fathers, or to deftroy the houfe of the preceding fovereign, they will then, and not before, poffefs the crown of England by a right like theirs, immediately derived from heaven. Jure divino, as thofe of either Solomon or Ahab and yet David flew the fons of his predeceffor, and Jehu his predeceffor himfelf. The titles of David and Jehu were equally Nor indeed have a jure divino and an hereditary right any neceffary connexion with each other as fome have every weakly imagined. Such a title may be allowed to have fubfifted under the theocratic eftablifhments of the children of Ifrael in Paleftine : but is never yet fubfifted in any other country fave only fo far as kingdoms, like other human fabrics, are fubject to the general and ordinary difpenfations of providence. Yet while I affert an hereditary, It by on means intend a fure divino, title to the throne.

ROYAL ORDER OF THE IMPERIAL CROWN TRIAL

All regal governments muft be either hereditary or elective : and, as I believe there is no inftance wherein the crown of England has ever been afferted to be elective, except by the regicides at the infamous and unparalleled trial of king Charles I, it muft of confequence be hereditary. FIRST, it is in general hereditary, or defcendible to the next heir, on the death or demife of the laft proprietor. THE grand fundamental maxim upon which the jus coronae, or right of fucceffion to the throne of thefe kingdoms, depends, I take to be this : that the crown is, by common law and conftitutional cuftom, hereditary and this in a manner pecu- liar to itfelf : but that the right of inheritance may from time to time be changed or limited by act of parliament under which limitations the crown ftill continues hereditary. And this propofition it will be the bufinefs of this chapter to prove, in all it's branches : firft, that the crown is hereditary fecondly, that it is hereditary in a manner peculiar to itfelf thirdly, that this inheritance is fubject to limitation by parliament laftly, that when it is fo limited, it is hereditary in the new proprietor.ġ. It will therefore be the endeavour of this chapter to trace out the conftitutional doctrine of the royal fucceffion, with that freedom and regard to truth, yet mixed with that reverence and refpect, which the principles of liberty and the dignity of the fubject require. It is of the higheft importance to the public tranquillity, and to the con-įciences of private men, that this rule fhould be clear and indifputable : and our conftitution has not left us in the dark upon this material occafion. THE executive power of the Englifh nation being vefted in a fingle perfon, by the general confent of the people, the evidence of which general confent is long and immemorial ufage, it became neceffary to the freedom and peace of the ftate, that a rule fhould be laid down, uniform, univerfal, and permanent in order to mark out with precifion, who is that fingle perfon, to whom are committed (in fubfervience to the law of the land) the care and protection of the community and to whom, in return, the duty and allegiance of every individual are due.

IN difcourfing of the royal rights and authority, I fhall confider the king under fix diftinct views : 1. THE fupreme executive power of thefe kingdoms is vefted by our laws in a fingle perfon, the king or queen : for it matters not to which fex the crown defends but the perfon entitled to it, whether male or female, is immediately invefted with all the enfigns, rights, and prerogatives of fovereign power as is declared by ftatute 1 Mar.

Royal order of the imperial crown