Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/25

 Ch. I.] The King's Allrihules, ^c. 5 These attributes are principally sovereignty/ or pre-eminence, perfection^ "the King can do no wrong;" and perpetuity, "the King never dies." [a) By the attribute sovereignty or pre-eminence, and perfection, we are not to understand that the King is above the laws, in the unconfined sense of those words, and that every thing he does is lawful ; but that his Majesty, individually and person.- ally, and in his natural capacity is independent; and is not amenable to any other earthly power or jurisdiction, {b) The inviolability of the King is essential to the existence of his powers as supreme magistrate; and therefore his person is sacred. The law supposes it impossible that the King him- self can act unlawfully or improperly. It cannot distrust him whom it has invested with the supreme power: and visits on his advisers and ministers the punishment due to the illegal measures of government. Hence the legal apophthegm that the King can do no wrong. As the law provides no redress against the sovereign, it properly attaches the blame of illicit proceedings to those only who are within the reach of punish- ment; for it would be absurd to suppose legal culpability which is dispunishable. The constitutional signification of the maxim was in former times misrepresented. It was pretended by. some that it meant that every measure of the King was lawful, a doctrine subversive of all the principles of which the con- stitution is compounded. It is a fundamental general rule, that the King cannot sanction any act forbidden by law: it is in that point of view that his Majesty is under, and not above, the laws; that he is bound by them equally with his subjects. Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub liominc, sed sub Deo et sub lege, quia hexfacit Regem, Attribuat igitur Rex legi, quod Lex attri^ huat et, videlicet dominationem et potestatem ; non est cnim Rex^ uhi dominatur voluntas, et non Lex.^^ [c) The perpetuity of the Crown is expressed by the quaint maxim that the King never dies; by which is meant that on the death of the King, the prerogatives and politic capacities of the supreme magistrate, instantly vest, without a moment's /«- terregnum, in his successor, [d) Having thus considered the attributes constituting the po- (a) 1 Bla. Com. 241. (c) Bract, lib. 1. ch. 8. [b) Ibid. (rf) Plowd. 213. 7 Co. R. la b. Post. 11. litic