Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/405

 Ch.XVI. Sec.L] Crown Grants. 385 nizens (a). Nor can the King grant a trust reposed in himself as sovereign, as a lapse {b). Nor could he grant his dispensing power (c) ; or purveyance ; butlerage, &c. {d) : and he is re- strained from transferring his prerogative in saltpetre {e); the year day and waste (f) ; and the power of prosecution upon and carrying into eiFect, a penal or other statute or law (g). The King's grants are also void whenever they tend to pre- judice the course and benefit of public yws^/c^. Thus the King cannot grant an exemption from the jurisdiction of any Court, if he do not erect another jurisdiction of the same nature, for that would create a failure of justice : so that he cannot exempt a town from the Admiralty jurisdiction, if he do not grant a power to have another jurisdiction there (h). Nor can the King exempt any one from civil responsibilities to a fellow sub- ject [i] ; or from liability to be punished for offences he may commit (^). And both at common law (/), and by statute (m), grants or promises of fines or forfeitures before the conviction of, or judgment against, the party on whom they are to be levied, are void. Nor can the King by grant create a forfeiture of goods, &c. On this ground the charter of Hen. 6. to the corporation of dyers within London, granting them power to search, &c. and if they found any cloth dyed with logwood, that the cloth should be forfeited, was held void (n). It is also a clear ge- neral principle that the King cannot by grant or otherwise impose new, or enhance old, charges, impositions or taxes on any of his subjects (o). Therefore grants by the King that a merchant shall pay so much for searching or measuring his goods (p) ; that he shall not import wine without paying sO much {q) ; that a merchant who imports wine at any other port (a) Bro. Patents, pi. 45. 111. l^J (h) 2 Rol. Ab. 201. 1. 45. Vin. Ab. 89. Prerog. m. b. pi. 21. Sta- (0 Ante, 90, 1.; &e. tute 27 H. 8. c. 24. s. 2, 5. {k) 2 Rol. Ab. 192. 32. 35. Vin. Ab. (h) Hob. 208. That the King may Prerog. Y. b. empower a subject to grant or erect a (/) Ibid. corporation, ante, 127, 8. (m) 21Jac.l. c. 3. s. 1. 1 W. and (e) 7 Co. 36, b. 21Jac. I.e. 3.6.1. M. St. 2. c. 2. s. 1. {(l) 2 Rol. Ab. 187. 1. 35. (n) 2 Inst. 47. Sid. 441. Ventr. 47. (e) 12 Rep. 13. (o) 2 Inst. 58, 60. Com." Dig. Pre- (/) Jenk. 307, pi. 83. Bro. Ab. rog. D. (D. 48.) Prerog. pi. 104. Ante, 220. (/>) 2 Inst. 62. (g) Jenk. 190, pi. 93. ^ Co. 57, p. (9) Ibid. 63. C c than