Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/200

184 king’s anwer is declared by the clerk of the parliament in Norman-French: a badge, it mut be owned, (now the only one remaining) of conquet; and which one could wih to ee fall into total oblivion; unles it be reerved as a olemn memento to remind us that our liberties are mortal, having once been detroyed by a foreign force. If the king conents to a public bill, the clerk uually declares, “le roy le veut, the king wills it o to be;” if to a private bill, “oit fait come il et deirè, be it as it is deired.” If the king refues his aent, it is in the gentle language of “le roy ’aviera, the king will advie upon it.” When a money-bill is paed, it is carried up and preented to the king by the peaker of the houe of commons ; and the royal aent is thus expreed, “le roy remercie es loyal ubjects, accepte lour benevolence, et aui le veut, the king thanks his loyal ubjects, accepts their benevolence, and wills it o to be.” In cae of an act of grace, which originally proceeds from the crown and has the royal aent in the firt tage of it, the clerk of the parliament thus pronounces the gratitude of the ubject; “les prelats, eigneurs, et commons, en ce preent parliament aemblees, au nom de touts vous autres ubjects, remercient tres humblement votre majete, et prient a Dieu vous donner en ante bone vie et longue; the prelates, lords, and commons, in this preent parliament aembled, in the name of all your other ubjects, mot humbly thank your majety, and pray to God to grant you in health and wealth long to live .” 2.&ensp;By the tatute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 21. the king may give his aent by letters patent under his great eal, igned with his hand, and notified, in his abence, to both houes aembled together in the high houe. And, when the bill has received the royal aent in either of thee ways, it is then, and not before, a tatute or act of parliament.

tatute or act is placed among the records of the kingdom; there needing no formal promulgation to give it the force of