First-The establishment of public marts, or places of buying and selling, such as markets and fairs, with the tolls thereunto belonging. These can only be set up by virtue of the king's grant, or by long and immemorial usage and prescription, which presupposes such a grant.

Secondly-The regulation of weights and measures. These, for the advantage of the public, ought to be universally the same throughout the kingdom; being the general criteria which reduce all things to the same or an equivalent value.

Thirdly-As money is the medium of commerce, it is the king's prerogative, as the arbiter of domestic commerce, to give it authority or make it current.

VI. The king is, lastly, considered by the laws of England as the head and supreme governor of the national church.

In virtue of this authority the king convenes, prorogues, restrains, regulates, and dissolves all ecclesiastical synods or convocations.

From this prerogative also, of being the head of the church, arises the king's right of nomination to vacant bishopricks, and certain other ecclesiastical preferments; which will more properly be considered when we come to treat of the clergy.

As head of the church, the king is likewise the dernier ressort in all ecclesiastical causes; an appeal lying ultimately to him in chancery from the sentence of every ecclesiastical judge.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE KING'S REVENUE.

WE proceed now to examine the king's fiscal prerogative, or such as regard his revenue, which the British Constitution hath vested in the royal person, in order to support his dignity and maintain his power; being a portion which each subject contributes of his property, in order to secure the remainder.

This revenue is either ordinary, or extraordinary. The king's ordinary revenue is such, as has either subsisted time out of mind in the crown, or else has been granted by parliament, by way of purchase or exchange for such of the king's inherent hereditary revenues, as were found inconvenient to the subject.

I. The first of the king's ordinary revenues, which I shall take notice of, is of an ecclesiastical kind, (as are also the three succeeding ones), viz. the custody of the temporalities of bishops; by which are meant all the lay revenues, lands, and tenements, (in which is included his barony), which belong to an archbishop's or bishop's see.

The law has given the king, not the temporalities themselves, but the custody of the temporalities, till such time as a successor is appointed; with power of taking to himself all the intermediate profits, without any account of the successor; and with the right of presenting to such benefices and other preferments as fall within the time of vacation.

This revenue of the king, which was formerly very considerable, is now by a customary indulgence almost reduced to nothing; for, at present, as soon as the new bishop is consecrated and confirmed, he usually receives the restitution of his temporalities quite entire, and untouched, from the king; and at the same time does homage to his sovereign and then, and not sooner, he has a feesimple in his bishoprick, and may maintain an action for the profits.

II. The king is entitled to a corody, as the law calls it, out of every bishoprick, that is, to send one of his chaplains to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him till the bishop promotes him to a benefice. This is also in the nature of an acknowledgment to the king, as founder of the see, since he had formerly the same corody or pension from every abbey or priory of royal foundation.

III. The king also is entitled to all the tithes arising in extra-parochial places; under an implied trust, that the king will distribute them for the good of the clergy in general.

IV. The next branch consists in the first fruits, and tenths, of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom.

By the statute 2 Ann. c. 11. all the revenue of first-fruits and tenths is vested in trustees for ever, to form a perpetual fund. for the augmentation of poor livings. This is usually called queen Anne's bounty; which has been still farther regulated by subsequent statutes.

V. The next branch of the king's ordinary revenue consists in the rents and profits of the demesne lands of the crown. At present they are contracted within a very narrow compass, having been almost entirely granted away to private subjects. This has occasioned the parliament frequently to interpose; and, particularly, after king William III. had greatly impoverished the crown, an act passed, whereby all future grants or leases from the crown for any longer term than thirty-one years or three lives, are declared to be void; except with regard to houses, which may be granted for fifty years. And no reversionary lease can be made, so as to exceed, together with the estate in being, the same term of three lives or thirty-one years; that is, where there is a subsisting lease, of which there are twenty years still to come, the king cannot grant a future interest, to commence after the expiration of the former, for any longer term than eleven years. The tenant must also be made liable to be punished for committing waste; and the usual rent must be reserved, or, where there has usually been no rent, one-third of the clear yearly value.

VI. Hither might have been referred the advantages which used to arise to the king from the profits of his military tenures, to which most lands in the kingdom were subject, till the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24. which in great measure abolished them all; and the parliament, in part of recompense, settled on him, his heirs, and successors, for ever, the hereditary excise of fifteen-pence per

barrel on all beer and ale sold in the kingdom, and a proportionable sum for certain other liquors.

VII. A seventh branch might also be computed to have arisen from wine licenses; but this revenue was abolished by statute 30 Geo. II. c. 19. and an annual sum of upwards L.7000 per annum, issuing out of the new stamp duties imposed on wine licenses, was settled on the crown in its stead.

VIII. An eighth branch of the king's ordinary revenue is usually reckoned to consist in the profits arising from his forests, which consist principally in amercements or fines levied for offences against the forest-laws.

IX. The profits arising from the king's ordinary courts of justice constitute a ninth branch of his revenue. And these consist not only in fines imposed upon offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters; but also in certain fees due to the crown in a variety of legal matters.

X. A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon; and these, when either thrown ashore, or caught near the coasts, are the property of the king, on account of their superior excellence.

XI. Another maritime revenue, and founded partly upon the same reason, is that of shipwrecks. The statute further ordains, that the sheriff of the county shall be bound to keep the goods a year