Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/789

Rh P B I P R I 705 inducise are shortened in their case (see Watson, Law Diet., s.v. &quot;Privilege&quot;). In the United States the term privilege is of considerable politi cal importance. By Art. IV. 2 of the constitution, &quot; the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.&quot; By Art. XIV. 1 of the amend ments to the constitution (enacted July 28, 1868), &quot;no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.&quot; It will be noticed that Art. IV. applies to citizens of the States, Art. XIV. to citizens of the United States. &quot; The intention of this clause (Art. IV.) was to confer on the citizens of each State, if one may so say, a general citizenship, and to communicate all the privileges and immunities which the citizens of the same State would have been entitled to under the like circumstances&quot; (Story, Constitu tion of tlie, United States, 1806). The clauses have several times been the subject of judicial decision in the supreme court. Their practical effect may be thus illustrated. With regard to Art. IV., it was held that a State licence tax discriminating against commodities the production of other States was void as abridging the privileges and immunities of the citizens of such other States (Ward v. State of Maryland, 12 Wallace s Reports, 418). With regard to Art. XIV. 1, it was held that its main purpose was to protect from the hostile legislation of the States the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, looking more especi ally to the then recent admission of negroes to political rights. Accordingly it was held that a grant of exclusive right or privilege of maintaining slaughter-houses for twenty-one years, imposing at the same time the duty of providing ample conveniences, was not unconstitutional, as it was only a police regulation for the health of the people (The Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wallace, 36). The same has been held of a refusal by a State to grant to a woman a licence to practise law (Bradwell v. The State, 16 Wallace, 130), of a State law confining the right of suffrage to males (Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wallace, 162), and of a State law regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors (Bartemeyer v. Iowa, 18 Wallace, 129). Suits to redress the deprivation of privilege secured by the consti tution of the United States must be brought in a United States court. It is a crime to conspire to prevent the free exercise and enjoyment of any privilege, or to conspire to deprive any person of equal privileges and immunities, or under colour of law to subject any inhabitant of a State or Territory to the deprivation of any privileges or immunities (Revised Statutes of United States, 5507, 5510, 5519). PRIVY COUNCIL. In England the king almost of necessity has been at all times guided by a council. The council, as it existed in the Norman period under the name of curia regis (a branch of the larger commune con cilium regni), exercised judicial, legislative, and administra tive functions. It contained the germs of the courts of law and equity, the Houses of Parliament, and the privy council. The Courts of King s Bench and Common Pleas were gradually separated from it and became only courts of first instance, subject to appeal to the king s council. From the time of Edward I. the concilium ordinarium, the ordinary or standing council of the king, superseded the curia regis. It exercised high judicial functions as the ultimate court of appeal, as the adviser of suitors on petition what court to choose for redress, and as the resort of those who failed to obtain justice in the ordinary course. It was also the supreme administrative body, and as such issued ordinances on matters of a local or temporary nature, with not infrequent usurpations at a later period of juris diction belonging more properly to the common law courts or to parliament. The council &quot;consisted of the chief ministers, the chancellor, treasurer, lord steward, lord admiral, lord marshall, the keeper of the privy seal, the chamberlain, treasurer, and comptroller of the household, the chancellor of the exchequer, the master of the ward robe ; and of the judges, king s serjeant, and attorney- general, the master of the rolls, and justices in eyre, who at that time were not the same as the judges at West minster&quot; (Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 205). The growing power of the ordinary council (it does not seem to have been called the privy council until after the reign of Henry VI.) led to many complaints on the part of the Commons, some of which found their expression in statutes. The most worthy of notice is 25 Edw. III. st. 5, c. 4, characterized by Hallam as probably the most extensively beneficial enactment in the whole body of our laws. Among other provisions it prohibited arbitrary imprison ment and the determination of pleas of freehold before the council. The power of the council expanded or con tracted according to the vigour of the king. Its authority was finally reduced by the Long Parliament in 1640 by means of 16 Car. I. c. 10. Assumption of jurisdiction over freeholds was still a grievance, for the Act specially declared that the king s council has no jurisdiction over any man s land, goods, or chattels. From the beginning of Edward III. s reign the council and the House of Lords were often blended into one assembly, called the magnum concilium or great council. As it met only when summoned by writ and not daily, like the ordinary council, it could scarcely have exerted as much authority as the latter. It is therefore not surprising to find it soon split permanently into its two component parts, each retaining both judicial and legislative authority. The privy council still exercises authority of both kinds, though not as completely as the House of Lords. The political importance of the privy council has almost entirely disappeared since the duties of government have been assumed by the cabinet. Its modern legislative jurisdiction is of a subordinate char acter. Its position as a court of appeal from the foreign possessions of the crown is a strictly logical one. It was always the court for redress where no other redress could be obtained. For the sake of convenience this jurisdiction in cases of what is now called equity was exercised by the chancellor, originally the president of the ordinary council when it sat as a court of justice. But in cases for which equity made no provision, as being out of the bounds of the realm, the privy council still exercises to the full one of the most ancient parts of its jurisdiction. Appeals lay from foreign possessions by virtue of the prerogative, but are now generally regulated by statute. The jurisdiction of the High Court of Delegates over ecclesiastical and admiralty cases was transferred to the privy council in 1832. The council lost its probate appeal jurisdiction in 1857, its admiralty jurisdiction in appeals from England in 1875, from Ireland in 1877. At the present day members of the privy council become so at the will of the crown, but it is understood that persons in certain positions have an ex officio claim to be nominated. The council consists of princes of the royal family or of some of the great officers of state, such as the principal members of the Government, the archbishops and the bishop of London, the judges of the House of Lords, the judicial committee, and the court of appeal, diplo matists of high rank, &c. Members of the privy council have the title of &quot;right honourable&quot; and social precedence next after knights of the Garter. Ireland has its own privy council. Scotland has had none of its own since 6 Anne c. 40, which provided for one privy council for Great Britain. The modern jurisdiction of the privy council may be divided into two branches, administrative and judicial. Administrative. This jurisdiction chiefly depends upon statutory authority, which practically makes of the privy council a subordinate legislature. It is exercised either by the whole council or by committees to which matters are referred by the crown in council. Examples of the latter are the board of trade, the committee of council on education, the local government board (see PUBLIC HEALTH), the universities committee, with temporary powers under the Universities Act, 1877, and the committee of council for the con sideration of charters of incorporation under the Municipal Corpora tions Act, 18S2. Cases affecting the constitutional rights of the Channel Islands are referred to a committee for the affairs of Jersey and Guernsey. The committees report to the crown iu council, and their report is adopted and enforced by an order in council, published in the Gazette. Among other Acts conferring administrative powers upon the privy council are the Pharmacy Act, 1852, as amended by 31 & 32 Viet. c. 121, the Medical Act, 1858, the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, the Destructive Insects Act, 1877, the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, the Dentists Act, 1878, the Veterinary Surgeons Act, 1881. Judicial. Up to 1833 the judicial authority of the privy council was exercised by judicial committees appointed from time to time for the hearing of appeals referred to them by the crown