Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/233

Ch. 3. crown, expectant on the death of king William and queen Anne without iue, was ettled by tatute 12 & 13 W. III. c. 2. And at the ame time it was enacted, that whooever hould hereafter come to the poeion of the crown hould join in the communion of the church of England as by law etablihed. is the lat limitation of the crown that has been made by parliament: and thee everal actual limitations, from the time of Henry IV to the preent, do clearly prove the power of the king and parliament to new-model or alter the ucceion. And indeed it is now again made highly penal to dipute it: for by the tatute 6 Ann. c. 7. it is enacted, that if any peron maliciouly, adviedly, and directly, hall maintain by writing or printing, that the kings of this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws to bind the crown and the decent thereof, he hall be guilty of high treaon; or if he maintains the ame by only preaching, teaching, or advied peaking, he hall incur the penalties of a praemunire. princes Sophia dying before queen Anne, the inheritance thus limited decended on her on and heir king George the firt; and, having on the death of the queen taken effect in his peron, from him it decended to his late majety king George the econd; and from him to his grandon and heir, our preent gracious overeign, king George the third. it is eay to collect, that the title to the crown is at preent hereditary, though not quite o abolutely hereditary as formerly; and the common tock or ancetor, from whom the decent mut be derived, is alo different. Formerly the common tock was king Egbert; then William the conqueror; afterwards in James the firt’s time the two common tocks united, and o continued till the vacancy of the throne in 1688: now it is the princes Sophia, in whom the inheritance was veted by the new king and parliament. Formerly the decent was abolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any retriction: but now, Rh