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 Gh.IV. Sec. I.] Prerogative as to the Crown, <^r. 39 is In the King in council {a), still Chancery may hold cogni- zance of such question, (the Crown having the option of being a party, and its right being reserved, if brought before it,) on an agreement or articles between the proprietors executed in England, to convey, &c. in pursuance of the boundary to be established, and the Court accordingly decreed a specific per- formance ; the agreement between the parties having given the Court a jurisdiction it would not otherwise have possessed. CHAP. IV. Of the Prerogative of the King as it more immediately relates to independent states and foreign matters. [Section I. — In general. One of the chief excellencies of the constitution consists in the harmony with which it combines all that strength and dispatch

the executive department of the state, which might be ex- pected only from a despotic government; with every liberty and right of interference on the part of the subject which is not inconsistent with the public welfare. That such strength and dispatch are politically necessary throughout the whole machine of government, and more espe- cially in that part of it which relates to foreign transactions, cannot be doubted: and experience has shewn that the rapidity and secrecy which are generally necessary to the due execution of public measures, will never be found in large Assemblies of the people. Wavering with doubts, and distracted by the jealousies and the animosities of party, such assemblies would be discussing the propriety of the step after the opportunity and occasion for its adoption had transpired. It is only by assigning the exclusive power of managing and executing state measures to one indi- vidual, that they can be effectually and properly transacted. When the rights in question are concentrated in one de- paf tment of the state, and the power of the realm is wielded (a) Ante. by