Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/253

Ch. 7.

T was oberved in a former chapter, that one of the principal bulwarks of civil liberty, or (in other words) of the Britih contitution, was the limitation of the king’s prerogative by bounds o certain and notorious, that it is impoible he hould ever exceed them, without the conent of the people, on the one hand; or without, on the other, a violation of that original contract, which in all tates impliedly, and in ours mot exprely, ubits between the prince and the ubject. It will now be our buines to conider this prerogative minutely; to demontrate it’s neceity in general; and to mark out in the mot important intances it’s particular extent and retrictions: from which coniderations this concluion will evidently follow, that the powers which are veted in the crown by the laws of England, are neceary for the upport of ociety; and do not intrench any farther on our natural liberties, than is expedient for the maintenance of our civil.

cannot be a tronger proof of that genuine freedom, which is the boat of this age and country, than the power of dicuing and examining, with decency and repect, the limits of the king’s prerogative. A topic, that in ome former ages was thought too delicate and acred to be profaned by the pen of a ubject. It was ranked among the ; and, like the myteries