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8

A

TREATISE

ON

THE LAW

OF THE

Prerogatives of the Crown;

AND THE

RELATIVE DUTIES AND RIGHTS OF THE SUBJECT.

BY JOSEPH CHITTY, JUN. Esq.

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.

London:

PRINTED FOR JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH AND SON,

LAW BOOKSELLERS, 43, FLEET STREET;

AND JOHN COOKE, ORMOND QUAY, DUBLIN.

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G. WOODFALL, Printer, Angel-COURT, SKINNER-STREET, LONDON.

PREFACE.

66

Ir may be matter of surprise, that in a country in which the public eye has ever minutely watched the progress of authority, a subject of such interesting importance as the Prerogatives of the Crown," should not have elicited the most extensive and learned investigation. Whilst under some governments an attempt to discuss the limits of the royal power, would expose the presumptuous subject to the jealous apprehensions of tyranny, English history points out but few instances of periods in which the disclosure would have been dangerous; and the British constitution allows of none: it rather invites than represses the inquiry. For in this country, the relation of sovereign and subject combines reciprocal duties. The prerogative is not the iron tie of unbridled power: it holds the subject in the silken chain of mild subjection, for the general and permanent welfare of society; and as a general principle it affords the sovereign the liberty of restraint, only when the public good is the object in view. As the powers and rights of the King are inseparably connected with the dearest rights and liberties of his people; as their interests and their obligations are

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