ance was vefted by the new king and parliament. Formerly the defcent was abfolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any restriction: but now, upon the new settlement, the inheritance is conditional; being limited to fuch heirs only, of the body of the princess Sophia, as are protestant members of the church of England, and are married to none but protestants. AND in this due medium confifts, I apprehend, the true constitutional notion of the right of fucceffion to the imperial crown of these kingdoms. The extremes, between which it fteers, are each of them equally deftructive of thofe ends for which focieties were formed and are kept on foot. Where the magiftrate, upon every fucceffion, is elected by the people, and may by the express provifion of the laws be deposed (if not punished) by his fubjects, this may found like the perfection of liberty, and look well enough when delineated on paper; but in practice will be ever productive of tumult, contention, and anarchy. And, on the other hand, divine indefeasible hereditary right, when coupled with the doctrine of unlimited paffive obedience, is furely of all conftitutions the most thoroughly flavish and dreadful. But when fuch an hereditary right, as our laws have created and vested in the royal ftock, is closely interwoven with those liberties, which, we have seen in a former chapter, are equally the inheritance of the subject; this union will form a constitution, in theory the most beautiful of any, in practice the most approved, and, I trust, in duration the most permanent. It was the duty of an expounder of our laws to lay this conftitution before the ftudent in it's true and genuine light: it is the duty of every good Englishman to understand, to revere, to defend it. CHAPTER THE FOURTH. OF THE THE HE firft and most confiderable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen. THE queen of England is either queen regent, queen conJort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or fo◄ vereign, is the who holds the crown in her own right; as the firft (and perhaps the fecond) queen Mary, queen Elizabeth, and queen Anne; and such a one has the fame powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if the had been a king. This was observed in the entrance of the last chapter, and is expressly declared by statute i Mar. I. ft. 3. c. 1. But the queen confort is the wife of the reigning king; and fhe, by virtue of her marriage, is participant of divers prerogatives above other women 2. a Finch. L. 86. AND, AND, firft, fhe is a public perfon, exempt and distinct from the king; and not, like other married women, fo closely connected as to have loft all legal or separate existence fo long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of ability to purchafe lands, and to convey them, to make leases, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the 'concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can do a privilege as old as the Saxon aera c. She is alfo capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her husband; and in this particular fhe agrees with the Augufta, or piiffima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Justinian, was equally capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath separate courts and officers diftinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and folicitor general are entitled to a place within the bar of his majesty's courts, together with the king's counfel. She may likewise sue and be fued alone, without joining her husband. She may also have a separate property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to dispose of them by will. In short, she is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme fole, and not as a feme covert; as a fingle, not as a married woman f. For which the reason given by fir Edward Coke is this: because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king (whose continual care and study is for the public, and circa ardua regni) to be troubled and difquieted on account of his wife's domeftic affairs; and therefore it vefts in the queen a power of tranfacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if she was an unmarried woman. THE queen hath also many exemptions, and minute prerogatives. For inftance: fhe pays no toll; nor is fhe liable to any amercement in any court". But in general, un b 4 Rep. 23. e Seld. Jan. Angl. 1, 42, d Cod. 5. 16. 26. e Seld. tit. hon. 1. 6. 7. f Finch. L. 86. Co: Litt. 133. g Co. Litt. 133. h Finch. L. 185. lefs lefs where the law has exprefsly declared her exempted, fhe is upon the fame footing with other fubjects; being to all intents and purposes the king's fubject, and not his equal: in like manner as, in the imperial law, "Augufta legibus foluta "non efti.". THE queen hath also fome pecuniary advantages, which form her a distinct revenue: as, in the first place, she is entitled to an antient perquifite called queen-gold, or aurum reginae; which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen confort during her marriage with the king, and due from every person who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in confideration of any privileges, grants, licences, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king : and it is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the entire offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majesty by the mere recording of the fine *. As, if an hundred marks of filver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chafe, or free-warren: there the queen is entitled to ten marks in filver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum reginae1. But no fuch payment is due for any aids or subsidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines imposed by courts on offenders, against their will; nor for voluntary prefents to the king, without any confideration moving from him to the subject; nor for any fale or contract whereby the prefent revenues or poffeffions of the crown are granted away or diminished". THE original revenue of our antient queens, before and foon after the conqueft, feems to have confifted in certain refervations or rents out of the demefne lands of the i Ff. i. 3. 31. k Pryn. Aur. Reg, 2. 1 12 Rep. 21. 4 inft. 358. crown, m Ibid. Pryn. 6. Madox. hift. exch. 242. 6 which which were expressly appropriated to her majesty, diflinct from the king. It is frequent in domesday book, after specifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewife the quantity of gold or other renders reserved to the queen". Thefe were frequently appropriated to particular purposes; to buy wool for her majesty's use o, to purchase oil for her lamps P, or to furnish her attire from head to foot, which was frequently. very coftly, as one fingle robe in the fifth year of Henry II ftood the city of London in upwards of fourfcore pounds! A practice fomewhat fimilar to that of the eastern countries, where whole cities and provinces were fpecifically affigned to purchase particular parts of the queen's apparels. And, for a farther addition to her income, this duty of queen-gold is fupposed to have been originally granted; those matters of grace and favour, out of which it arose, being frequently obtained from the crown by the powerful interceffion of the queen. There are traces of it's payment, though obfcure ones, in the book of domesday and in the great pipe-roll of Henry the firft. In the reign of Henry the fecond the manner of collecting it appears to have been well understood, and it forms a distinct head in the antient dialogue of the exchequer" written in the time of that prince, and usually attributed to Gervafe of Tilbury. From that time downwards it was regularly claimed and enjoyed by all the queen conforts of England till the death of Henry VIII; though after the acceflion of the Tudor family the collecting of it seems n Bedefordfeire Maner. Leftcne redd. · per annum xxii lib. &c.: ad opus reginae ii uncias auri. Herefordfcire. In Lene, &c. confuetud. ut praepofitus manerii veniente domina fua (regina) in ma•praefentaret eixviii oras denar, ut effet ipfa laeto animo. Pryn. Append. to Aur. Reg. 2, 3. ner. II. ibid.) Civitas Lund. cordubanario reginae xx s. (Mag. rot. 2 Hen. II. Madox hift. exch. 419.) r Pro roba ad opus reginae, quater xx l. &vi s. viii d. (Mag. rot. 5 Hen. II. ibid. 250.) s Solere aiunt barbaros reges Perfarum ac Syrorum-uxoribus civitates attribu• Caufa coadunandi lanam reginae. ere, boc mado; bacc civitas mulieri rediDomefd. ibid. P Civitas Lundon. Pro oleo ad lamp. ad. reginae. (Mag. rot. pipp. temp. Hen. II. ibid.) 4 Vicecomes Berkefcire, xvil. pro cappa reginae. (Mag, rat. pip. 19.—22 Hen. miculum praebeat, haec in collum, baec in crines, &c. (Cic. in Verrem, lib. 3. cap. 33.) t See Madox Difceptat. epiftolar. 74. Pryn, Aur. Reg. Append. 5. u lib. 2. c. 26. to |