DE LOLME. indefeasable right of kings-in a word, the whole scaf folding of false and superstitious notions, by which the royal authority had till then been supported, fell to the ground; and in the room of it were substituted the more solid and durable foundations of the love of order, and a sense of the necessity of civil government among mankind 50. 50 Vide ante, 472-487. CHAPTER IV. Of the Legislative Power. IN almost all the states of Europe, the will of the prince holds the place of law; and custom has so confounded the matter of right with the matter of fact, that their lawyers generally represent the legislative authority as essentially attached to the character of king; and the plenitude of his power seems to them necessarily to flow from the very definition of his title. The English, placed in more favourable circumstances, have judged differently: they could not believe that the destiny of mankind ought to depend on a play of words, and on scholastic subtilties; they have therefore annexed no other idea to the word king, or roy, a word known also to their laws, than that which the Latins annexed to the word rex, and the Northern nations to cyning. In limiting therefore the power of their king, they have acted more consistently with the etymology of the word; they have acted also more consistently with reason, in not leaving the laws to the disposal of the person who is already invested with the public power of the state, that is, of the person who lies under the greatest and most important temptations to set himself above them. The basis of the English constitution, the capital principle on which all others depend, is, that the legislative power belongs to parliament alone: that is to say, the power of establishing laws, and of abrogating, changing, or explaining them. DE LOLME. The limited prekings of England. rogative of the Legislative power liament alone. belongs to par The constituent parts of parliament are, the king, Constituent the House of Lords, and the House of Commons'. Vide ante, 134, 135. parts of parliament. DE LOLME. of the House of Commons. The House of Commons, otherwise the assembly of Component parts the representatives of the nation, is composed of the deputies of the different counties, each of which sends two; of the deputies of certain towns, of which London (including Westminster and Southwark) sends eightother towns, two or one'; and of the deputies of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, each of which sends two. Qualifications for being a mem of Commons. Lastly, since the act of union, Scotland sends fortyfive deputies', who, added to those just mentioned, make up the whole number five hundred and fiftyeight. Those deputies, though separately elected, do not solely represent the town or county that sends them, as is the case with the deputies of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or of the Swiss Cantons; but, when they are once admitted, they represent the whole body of the nation'. The qualifications required for being a member of ber of the House the House of Commons are, for representing a county, to be born a subject of Great Britain, and to be possessed of a landed estate of six hundred pounds a-year; and of three hundred, for representing a town or borough'. Qualifications for being a county elector. The qualifications required for being an elector in a county are to be possessed, in that county, of a freehold of forty shillings a year*7. With regard to electors in towns and boroughs, they must be freemen of them ";-a word which now signifies certain qualifications expressed in the particular charters. 8 * This freehold must have been possessed by the elector one whole year at least before the time of election, except it has devolved to him by inheritance, by marriage, by a last will, or by promotion to an office. 5 Vide ante, 133, 283. 7 Ibid. (5,) p. 543. ' Vide ante, 12—15, 58–65, 149, 150, 259, 260, 274-281, 316-320. Ibid. (3,) p. 538. When the king has determined to assemble a parliament, he sends an order for that purpose to the lord-chancellor 10; who, after receiving the same, sends a writ ", under the great seal of England, to the sheriff of every county, directing him to take the necessary steps for the election of members for the county, and the towns and boroughs contained in it. Three days after the reception of the writ, the sheriff must, in his turn, send his precept to the magistrates of the towns and boroughs, to order them to make their election within eight days after the receipt of the precept, giving four days' notice of the same. And the sheriff himself must proceed to the election for the county, not sooner than ten days after the receipt of the writ, nor later than sixteen 12. 13 DE LOLME. Mode in which convoked. parliament is bribery. The principal precautions, taken by the law, to Treating and ensure the freedom of elections, are, that any candidate, who, after the date of the writ, or even after the vacancy, shall have given entertainments to the electors of a place, or to any of them, in order to his being elected, shall be incapable of serving for that place in parliament "; and that if any person gives or promises to give, any money, employment, or reward, to a voter, in order to influence his vote, he, as well as the voter himself, shall be condemned to pay a fine of five hundred pounds, and for ever disqualified to vote, and hold any office in a corporation,-the faculty, however, being reserved to both, of procuring indemnity for their own offence, by discovering some other offender of the same kind". peers. It has been moreover established, that no lord of Interference by parliament, or lord-lieutenant of a county, has any 10 Vide Note (7,) p. 549. 13 Ibid. (10,) p. 551. 11 Ibid. (8,) p. 549. 12 Ibid. (9,) p. 550. 15 DE LOLME. right to interfere in the elections of member "; that any officer of the excise, customs, &c. who shall presume to intermeddle in elections, by influencing any voter to give or withhold his vote, shall forfeit one hundred pounds, and be disabled to hold any office. Removal of the Lastly, all soldiers quartered in a place where an election is to be made must move from it, at least one day before the election, to the distance of two miles or more, and return not till one day after the election is finished 10. military. Component parts of the House of Peers. Meeting of parliament. 16 The House of Peers, or Lords, is composed of the lords spiritual, who are the Archbishops of Canterbury and of York, and the twenty-four bishops; and of the lords temporal, whatever may be their respective titles, such as dukes, marquesses, earls, &c." Lastly, the king is the third constitutive part of parliament": it is even he alone who can convoke it; and he alone can dissolve or prorogue it. The effect of a dissolution is, that from that moment the parliament completely ceases to exist; the commission, given to the members by their constituents, is at an end; and, whenever a new meeting of parliament shall happen, they must be elected anew. A prorogation is an adjournment to a term appointed by the king; till which the existence of parliament is simply interrupted, and the function of the deputies suspended. When the parliament meets, whether it be by virtue of new summons, or whether, being composed of members formerly elected, it meets again at the expiration of the term for which it had been prorogued, the king either goes to it in person, invested with the insignia of his dignity, or appoints proper persons to represent him on that occasion, and opens the session by laying before the parliament the state of the public affairs, 15 Vide Note (12,) p. 556. 16 Ibid. (13,) p. 556. 18 Vide ante, 134, 135. |