actions for the recovery of real estate may be brought, the shortening of the time of prescription or legal memory, the abolition of those complex modes of assurance, fines, and recoveries, the modification of the wife's claim of dower, the annihilation of satisfied terms,—these, among other things, have tended greatly to facilitate the transfer of property, have got rid of endless doubts and difficulties which perpetually arose upon titles, and have materially shortened conveyances. A great improvement has also been introduced into the law of wills, and there is less danger now than formerly of the wishes of a testator being frustrated. An attempt has been made to get rid of copyhold tenures, and repeated efforts, hitherto without effect, however, to introduce a system of registration of the titles to real estates.

"The administration of private justice has been greatly simplified by the numerous alterations which have been made in the procedure of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity. The abolition of real actions, and of the many fictions which formerly encumbered suits at law, was an important and beneficial change; but not so advantageous to the suitor as more recent improvements in the practice of the Courts at Westminster. Even these alterations have been less beneficial to the great mass of the community, however, than the establishment of the new County Courts, a measure warmly recommended by Sir William Blackstone, and to some extent a return to the ancient Saxon system, restored if not established by King Alfred, for securing the administration of justice at every man's door. The old rules of law excluding the evidence of the parties to the suit, and prohibiting persons who are considered disqualified either by reason of interest or by crime from being witnesses, have been rescinded, and all practical difficulties in eliciting the truth removed.

"The proceedings of the Courts of Equity have been simplified and shortened, and the trial of contested facts by a jury introduced, at the same time that these Courts have been enabled te

assess and award damages, instead of remanding the suitor for such redress to a Court of Law. The increase in the number of Judges has prevented the possibility of delay in the hearing of causes there pending; and there seems to be no reason why, in ordinary cases, the obtaining of justice in the Court of Chancery should not be a speedy and not ruinously expensive process.

"The cognisance of matrimonial and testamentary causes has been taken from the Ecclesiastical Courts, and conferred on lay tribunals, which have been provided, at the same time, with a simple and intelligible procedure. The law of England has also recognised at last the right of divorce for adultery; and put that remedy, which was previously only attainable by a private Act of Parliament, within the reach of all who are likely to demand it.

"The criminal law has been, as to many of its branches, amended and consolidated; and the severity of punishments at the same time much softened, and adapted more carefully than formerly to the nature and magnitude of the offence. The barbarous sufferings prescribed for those attainted of treason no longer stain the statute-book, and the punishment of innocent parties for ancestral guilt, which often resulted from the doctrine of corruption of blood, can no longer happen; while the offences involving capital punishment, which the convict only escaped by claiming the benefit of clergy, have been gradually reduced in number, until the extreme penalty of the law has become in practice confined to the frightful crime of murder. The trial by battel, and the mode of proceeding by appeal, have been formally abolished; the law relating to principal and accessory has been divested of its niceties, and the forms of the proceedings in the Criminal Courts so far simplified and improved, that offenders who have now the advantage of being defended by counsel rarely escape punishment on purely technical objections."

Having discussed at some length the principal events connected with the rise and progress of the Constitution, let us now enter more fully into an examination of the whole structure as it is presented to our view in its more complete form.

In a former part of this essay we defined the word "Constitution” to mean not only the Three Estates of the Realm-the King, Lords, and Commons-but also "the fundamental laws, ordinances, and customs by which these Estates are severally and collectively bound and governed, and by which their peculiar and distinctive rights, privileges, functions, and prerogatives are duly set forth and determined." We have now, therefore, to consider more at large the attributes pertaining to each of these Estates or Powers respectively :

1st. The King is the Chief Magistrate in the realm, and the source of all judicial power. From him must emanate all authority exercised by Judges and other public functionaries throughout the empire. To him, as Head of the Executive, belongs the sole and exclusive right of putting the laws in force. He sits upon his throne by hereditary right; yet by the Act of Settlement his profession of the Roman Catholic faith would entitle the next heir to the crown, being a Protestant, to succeed to the sovereignty. The King of himself has no power to make new laws, or to dispense with those which already exist; but as he forms an integral and component part of the Legislature, his consent is necessary before any statute passed in Parliament can become valid or have the force of law. His royal prerogative, however, enables him, if so advised by his Privy Council, upon whom the responsibility in that case would fall, to withhold his sanction from any parliamentary act that he might think inexpedient,—whether as detrimental to the public welfare, or as encroaching upon his own prerogatives. This right of veto which the sovereign possesses affords a guarantee

both to himself and to his subjects at large that the kingly office and authority will not be invaded by the other branches of the Legislature.

The King is also Head of the Church in all causes, both ecclesiastical and temporal. He appoints the Archbishops and Bishops to their several sees. He exercises supreme control over all matters pertaining to church polity, and without his authority no ecclesiastical act, ordinance, or decree can have any legal effect.

As the King is the "Fountain of Honour," so it is he alone who can confer titles of honour and dignity, and without his special permission his subjects have no right in this country to assume titles received from any foreign prince or potentate. The King, moreover, commands the army and navy, raises troops, equips fleets, receives ambassadors from foreign Courts, declares war and peace, and makes treaties and contracts alliances with foreign States-as to him seems best, with the advice of his Privy Council. It is the exclusive right and privilege of the Sovereign to assemble and dissolve Parliament; and, as "by a fiction of the law," he is supposed to be the universal proprietor of the kingdom, so all criminal prosecutions are conducted in his

name.

Being the "Fountain of Justice," the "King can do no wrong" —such at least is the presumption and the language of the law. For, as he has no peer in his own realm, and as he cannot, therefore, be judged by any competent tribunal, nor by those who, being his representatives or deputies, exercise their authority and jurisdiction by virtue of his commission, he is held blameless by the Constitution, while the Ministers of the Crown are held responsible for all acts of the Government, and are liable to be cited before the House of Peers for any maladministration or abuse of power.

Having thus enumerated some of the principal functions and powers of the Executive, we have next to inquire what guaran

tee the nation possesses that those powers will not be abused. This we shall discover by considering the relationships which exist between the Crown and the two Houses of Parliament. The Commons, as we have already seen, possess the exclusive right of introducing Money Bills in their own department—of imposing taxes, and of granting supplies for the various purposes of government, subject to the consent and approbation of the Upper House of legislature. And as the King has no power, himself, to levy aids or subsidies, he is wholly dependent on the nation for the means of upholding his own dignity-of supporting his household-of maintaining his Army, Navy, and Civil Service, and of keeping in motion the entire machinery of the State; so that the matter at length assumes the form of a business-like transaction between the ruler and the subject, in which the mutual interests of each are concerned, and in which both parties are bound to observe their respective engagements with good faith. A certain sum is annually voted for certain specific purposes-for the expenditure of which sum the Government is obliged to furnish an account; and as Parliament possesses not only the right of limiting the supplies which it grants, but of withholding them altogether if it should think fit, the nation possess the best possible guarantee that the government of the country will be properly conducted, and that the authority of the Executive will not be abused. At the time of the Revolution a rule was established which has ever since been adhered to, that all the expenses of the army, navy, and ordnance should be annually brought under the review of the House of Commons, and that every sum voted, for whatever purpose, should be applied to the particular service specified in the vote. From that period downwards the Commons have been the great power in the State; and we have the authority of Hallam for stating that, "since the Revolution they have virtually possessed the power of appointing and removing Ministers, of declaring war, and concluding peace."