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THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of January, 1766.

ARTICLE I.

Commentaries on the Laws of England. Book the firft. By William Blackstone, Efq. Vinerian Profeffor of Law, and Sollicitor General to her Majefty. Pr. 18s. in Sheets. Worrall. [Concluded.]

I

N our laft Review we left Mr. Blackftone where he traces the title of the present illuftrious family to the crown of Great Britain; and we now resume the confideration of his commentary on the rights of perfons. The next object, therefore, of our commentator's enquiry is concerning the king's royal family. The queen, the firft of his family, is, by virtue of her marriage, participant of divers prerogatives above other women. All these Mr. Blackftone has here fpecified and explained; to which he has added what concerns her as queen regent and queen dowager. Next to the queen confort, regent, or dowager, the prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and alfo his royal confort, and the princess royal or eldest daughter of the king, are likewife peculiarly regarded by the laws. The rest of the royal family, namely, "the younger fons and daughters of the king, who are not in the immediate line of fucceffion, are little farther regarded by the laws than to give them precedence before all peers and public officers as well ecclefiaftical as temporal '."

The third point of view in which the author confiders his majefty, is with regard to his councils. Of thefe, he informs us, the first is the high court of parliament (already treated of); the second is composed of the peers of the realm, who are by their birth hereditary counsellors of the king, and may be called together by him, to impart their advice in all matters of importance to the realm, either in time of parliament, or, which --has been their principal ufe, when there is one parliament in

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being; the third council belonging to the king are his judges of the courts of law; and, lastly, the fourth and principal is his privy council, which is generally called by way of eminence, hist council 3. Whatever relates to the inftitution, duties, and privileges of thefe councils, (except the firft, which has been already touched) the reader will find explained in this place. As our conftitution would not be free, were not the king under fome reciprocal ties to his people, it was neceflary to establish fuch in our frame of government, from whence arise the king's duties, which make the subject of our author's next examination. "The principal duty of the king is to govern his people according to law 4" The rest of his duties are comprehended in the coronation oath, which Mr. Blackftone has here recited 5. The next enquiry is concerning the king's prerogative; an enquiry which our commentator conducts with the respect of a loyal subject and the freedom of a Briton. He makes the principal constituent parts of the prerogative to be as follows. 1. Sovereignty, pre-eminence, or imperial dignity. 2. Absoluté perfection, fo that the king can do no wrong. 3. Perpetuity, fo that the king never dies 3. The conduct of our intercourse with foreign nations, and of our own domestic government and civil polity, are the source of other branches of the prerogative: And 1. the king, as reprefentative of his people, has the fole power of fending embaffadors to foreign ftates, and receiving embaffadors at home 9. Under this head are confidered the rights, powers, duties, and privileges of embaffadors, which are determined by the law of nature and nations, and not by any municipal constitutions. 2. It is alfo the king's prerogative to make treaties, leagues, and alliances with foreign ftates and princes. 3. He has the fole prerogative of making war and peace. 4. He may iffue letters of marque and reprifal upon due demand. 5. He has the prerogative of granting fafe-conducts. Thefe are the principal prerogatives of the king, refpecting this nation's intercourfe with foreign nations; in all of which he is confidered as the delegate or representative of his people 4." Mr. Blackstone had before obferved, that "in the exertion of those prerogatives, which the law has given him, the king is irresistible and abfolute, according to the forms of the conftitution. And yet, if the confequence of that exertion be manifeftly to the grievance or difhonour of the kingdom, the parliament will call his advisers to a just and severe acFor prerogative confifting (as Mr. Locke has well de

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fined it) in the discretionary power of acting for the public good, where the pofitive laws are filent, if that difcretionary power be abused to the public detriment, fuch prerogative is exerted in. an unconftitutional manner. Thus the king may make a treaty with a foreign ftate, which fhall irrecoverably bind the nation; and yet when fuch treaties have been judged pernicious, impeachments have pursued those ministers by whofe agency or advice they were concluded "." Befides the prerogatives already mentioned, the influence of the king in domestic affairs furnish many others. Therefore, 1. He is a conftituent part of the fupreme legislative power; and as fuch has the prerogative of rejecting fuch provifions in parliament as he judges improper to be paffed ". 2. He is confidered as generaliffimo, or the first In military command within the kingdom 7. 3. He is the fountain of justice, and general confervator of the peace of the kingdom . 4. The king is likewife the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege, and this in a different sense from that wherein he is ftiled the fountain of justice: for here he is really the parent of them. 5. He is arbiter of domestic commerce '; under which the establishment of public marts, the coinage and currency of money, with the regulation of weights and measures, are particularly confidered. The fixth and last branch of prerogative is that in which the king is regarded as fupreme head or governor of the national church 2. It is fufficient that we have thus touched the heads on which Mr. Blackstone comments, so that for a more full description of them we muft refer our readers to the book itself.

Having confidered at large those branches of the king's prerogative which contribute to his royal dignity, and constitute the executive power of the government, Mr. Blackftone proceeds next to examine the king's fifcal prerogative, or fuch as regard his revenue; which the British conftitution hath vested in the royal perfon, in order to fupport his dignity and maintain his power; being a portion which each fubject contributes of his property, in order to fecure the remainder. This revenue, he tells us, is ordinary or extraordinary. The ecclefiaftical part of the king's ordinary revenue confifts of his title to the cuftody of the temporalities of bifhops; to a corrody or chaplainfhip out of every bishoprick; to the first fruits and tenths of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom; and to all tithes arifing in extraparochial places. The temporal branch of the king's ordinary -revenue arises from the rents and profits of the demefne lands of the crown; from military tenures, purveyance and pre

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emption, which were given up by king Charles II. for an hereditary excife on ale, beer, and other liquors; from wine licences, refigned by king George II. for 7000 1. per annum; from his forefts; from his courts of justice; from his right to royal fish; from shipwrecks unowned; from mines or the discovery of any hidden treasure; from goods waived or thrown away by a thief in his flight; from eftrays or wandering unowned animals; from the forfeiture of lands and goods; from the efcheats of lands, upon defect of heirs to fucceed to the inheritance; and, laftly, from the guardianship of ideots, under which is confidered what relates both to ideots and lunatics 3. "Deodands and forfeitures in general, fays Mr. Blackftone, as well as wrecks, treasure-trove, royal fish, mines, waifs, and estrays, may be granted by the king to particular fubjects, as a royal franchise; and indeed they are for the most part granted out to the lords of manors, or other liberties, to the perverfion of their original defign+."

After this view of the king's ordinary revenue, the author proceeds to confider his extracrdinary revenue. This confifts in grants made by parliament from time to time, and are called aids, fubfidies, or fupplies. These are furnifhed by taxes laid on the fubject, and which are either annual or perpetual. The annual taxes are those upon land and malt, which are here commented on at large. The perpetual taxes are, 1. The customs; or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff payable upon merchandize exported and imported. 2. The excife duty; which is an inland impofition paid sometimes upon the confumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the retail fale, which is the laft ftage before the confumption. "This, fays Mr. Blackftone, is doubtlefs, impartially speaking, the most œconomical way of taxing the fubject; the charges of levying, collecting, and managing the excife duties being confifiderably lefs in proportion than in 'any other branch of the revenue. It alfo renders the commodity cheaper to the confumer, than charging it with customs to the fame amount would do; for the reafon juft now given, becaufe generally paid in a later ftage of it. But at the fame time the rigour and arbitrary proceedings of excife-laws, feem hardly compatible with the temper of a free nation'." 3. A duty of 3 s. 4 d. per bushel on falt; which was made perpetual by ftatute Geo. II. c. 3. The fourth branch of the extraordinary revenue is the poft of fice, or duty upon the carriage of letters. 5. Are the stamp duties; the first inftitution of which was by ftatute 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 21. and they have fince in many inftances been en

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creased to five times their original amount. 6. A fixth branch is the duty upon houses and windows; which took its rife as early as the Conqueft 9. 7. The duty arifing from licences to hackney coaches and chairs in London and the parts adjacent, furnish the feventh branch of the extraordinary perpetual revenue. 8. Laftly, are the duties or fees from all officers and penfions, which are rated at one fhilling in a pound. "The clear neat produce of these several branches of the revenue, after all charges of collecting and management paid, amounts annually to about seven millions and three quarters fterling; befides two million and a quarter raised annually, at an average, by the land and malt-tax. How thefe immenfe fums are appropriated is next to be confidered. And this is first and principally, to the payment of the intereft of the national debt 1. This leads the commentator into the confideration of the national debt itself and of the national funds. The commencement of the national debt he places at the Revolution, which in fo fhort a time has accumulated to the enormous fum of 145,000,000 1. the annual interest and management of which amounting to about four millions and three quarters, is supplied by the revenues juft mentioned 2. Mr. Blackftone's fentiments on the national debt are so extremely juft, and worthy our most ferious confideration, that we cannot help quoting them here. * The only advantage, says he, that can refult to a nation from public debts, is the increase of circulation by multiplying the cath of the kingdom, and creating a new fpecies of money, always ready to be employed in any beneficial undertaking, by means of its transferrable quality; and yet productive of fome profit, even when it lyes idle and unemployed. A certain proportion of debt feems therefore to be highly useful to a trading people, but what that proportion is, it is not for me to determine. Thus much is indisputably certain, that the present magnitude of our national incumbrances very far exceeds all calculations of commercial benefit, and is productive of the greateft inconveniences, For, first, the enormous taxes that are raised upon the neceffaries of life for the payment of the in tereft of this debt, are a hurt both to trade and manufactures, by raising the price as well of the artificers fubfiftence, as of the raw material, and of course, in a much greater proportion the price of the commodity itself. Secondly, if part of this debt be owing to foreigners, either they draw out of the kingdom annually a confiderable quantity of specie for the interest; or else it is made an argument to grant them unreasonable privileges in order to induce them to refide here. Thirdly, if the

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