Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/27

 Ch. I.] Boundaries and Restraints, 7 and, in using such discretion, his Majesty is irresistible and absolute ; (a) yet there are certain duties pointed out, with a visible hand, for his observance : and various boundaries and restraints, on the tyrannical and oppressive use of the royal powers, are wisely interwoven into the texture of the constitu- tion. The duties arising from the relation of sovereign and sub- ject are reciprocal. Protection, that is, the security and governance of his dominions according to law, is the duty of the sovereign; and allegiance and subjectioii, with reference to the same criterion, the constitution and la>vs of the country, form, in return, the duty of the governed, as will be more fully noticed hereafter. We have already partially mentioned this duty of the sovereign, and have observed that the prerogatives are vested in him for the benefit of his subjects, and that his Majesty is under, and not above, the laws. This doctrine is laid down by several writers ; [h) and is expressly ratified by the coronation oath, wherein the King swears to govern accord- ing to law, to execute judgment in mercy, and to maintain the established religion ; and by the statute 1 2 and 13 W. S, c, 2. which declares that " the laws of England are the birth- right of the people thereof; and all the kings and queens who shall ascend the throne of this realm, ought to admi- nister the government of the same, according to the said laws : and all their officers and ministers ought to serve them respectively according to the same : and therefore all the laws and statutes of this realm, for securing the established reli- gion, and the rights and liberties of the people thereof, and all other laws and statutes of the same now in force, are ratified and confirmed accordingly." There are also various boundaries^ which.the constitution has set to the royal prerogative, (c) These consist in the actual and positive limitation of the powers of the Crown, in certain specified cases. Thus, though the King is supreme head of the church, he can neither legally alter his own, or establish any other, than the national religion ; and must tole- rate the dispassionate religious sentiments of others. His (a) 1 Bla. Com. 251,2. c. 9. and 34. 1 Bla. Com. 233,4. {b) Brae, lib* 1. c. 8. lib. 2. c. 16. s. 3. (c) See De Lolme on the Constitution — Year Bcok, 19 Hen. 6. 63. Fortescue, of Great Britain, chap. 6. Majesty