the Act, and the capital value so found is to be treated as the original capital value of the minerals. (i)

For the purposes of this valuation the minerals are to be treated as a separate parcel of land. (k)

(i) Finance Act, 1910, s. 22 (7).

land" in the Act (except

(k) Ib. s. 23 (2). Since the expression where the context otherwise requires it) is to be construed, so far as respects minerals, as a reference to the capital value so found (see s. 23 (4)), it would seem that the value of such unworked minerals would have to be taken into account for purposes of increment value or reversion duty.

Part III. The Executive.

CHAPTER I.

THE CROWN.

Members of the Executive.-Though nominally the supreme executive power is vested in the sovereign, and all executive acts are done in his name, in practice the Crown acts upon the advice of its ministers, and the executive business of the country is carried on by the various Government departments, in accordance with the general policy determined upon by that special group of ministers known as the Cabinet. The heads of the more important departments form the Ministry, who are persons nominated by the Prime Minister from amongst the leading members of his party; the principal of these, with the Prime Minister at their head, constitute the Cabinet.

Omitting the House of Lords, who, though constitutionally entitled to advise the sovereign on affairs of State, can hardly be said to take an active part in the conduct of the executive, the principal members of the executive may be enumerated as follows:

(1) The Crown.

(2) The Privy Council.

(3) The Ministry and the Cabinet.

(4) The Lord Chancellor.

(5) The Lord Privy Seal.

(6) The Secretariat, or the five principal Secretaries of State, viz. the Home Secretary, the Foreign Secre

tary, the Colonial Secretary, the Secretary of State for India, and the Secretary of State for War. These are the political heads of the corresponding departments of State.

(7) The Law Officers of the Crown, viz. the Attorney and

Solicitor General for England, the Attorney and Solicitor General for Ireland, and the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland.

(8) The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

(9) The political departments of State. These are(a) The Home Office.

(b) The Foreign Office.
(c) The Colonial Office.
(d) The India Office.

(e) The War Office.

The political heads of these form the secretariat.
(f) The Admiralty Board.

(9) The Treasury Board and the Exchequer.
(h) The Post Office.

(i) The Scotch Office.

() The Irish Office.

(k) The Board of Trade.

(1) The Local Government Board.

(m) The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.

(n) The Board of Works and Public Buildings.

(0) The Board of Education.

(p) The Imperial Defence Committee of the Cabinet. (10) The non-political departments. (a)

The Crown.

The Title to the Crown.-The Anglo-Saxon kings were elected by the Witenagemot, but it became customary to choose a member of the late king's family, though not necessarily his hereditary successor by right of primogeniture. Similarly the conqueror submitted to an election by the Witan to fortify his title by right of conquest. Gradually the importance of election and coronation diminished, whilst the doctrine of hereditary right became more firmly established, and in 1272 Edward I. commenced to reign before his coronation, which did not take place until the 19th of August, 1274. His son Edward II. commenced to reign from the day after his father's death. From this point until the Act of Settlement, 1700, the title to the Crown fluctuates between Parliamentary grant and hereditary right. Richard II. was (a) The principal of these will be found enumerated post, p. 218.

C.L.E.

10

forced to resign in 1399, and the Crown entailed by Pailiament on Henry IV. and his heirs male. Edward IV., 1461, claimed the Crown by hereditary right as the nearest male representative of Edward III., and enforced his right by force of arms. Henry VII., 1485, claimed the Crown partly by hereditary right and partly by right of conquest, but permitted his title to be fortified by statute. James I., 1603, claimed by descent from Margaret, and, in spite of the exclusion of the Scotch line by the will of Henry VIII., Parliament acknowledged his title by passing an Act of Recognition. (b)

On the flight of James I., Parliament, by the Bill of Rights, 1688, (c) declared the throne vacant by abdication, and settled the Crown upon William and Mary of Orange during their lives and the life of the survivor of them, the further limitations being (1) the heirs of the body of Mary, (2) the Princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her body, (3) the heirs of the body of William. In the year 1700 Mary, having left no descendants, and William being in a dying condition, and Anne's children all dead, further limitations became necessary in order to provide for the event of Anne's dying without leaving issue, which seemed probable, and the Act of Settlement (d) was passed, under which the Crown is now held.

Under this Act the Crown was settled upon the heirs of the body of Sophia, widow of the Elector of Hanover, and daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, who was the daughter of James I. This settlement was made subject to the provisions, (1) that no papist should succeed, (2) that the declaration against transubstantiation in the form provided by Statute in 1677 (30 Car. 2, stat. 2, c. 1) should be made on the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament, or at the coronation, (3) that the coronation oath, in the form provided by the Act for Establishing the Coronation Oath, 1688 (1 Will. & Mar. sess. 1, c. 1), s. 3, should be taken at the coronation, (4) that the person who succeeds should join in communion with the Church of England.

On the death of Queen Anne in the year 1714, leaving no issue, these limitations took effect, and, Sophia being dead, the Crown devolved upon her son, George I. From George I. the

(b) 2 (Vulgo. 1) Jac. I. c. 1.
(c) 1 Will. & M. s. 2, c. 2.

(d) 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2.

Crown descended lineally to George II., George III., and George IV., and from the latter to his brother William IV., in the year 1830, from whom it descended to Queen Victoria, niece of William IV, in 1837, and from the latter in 1901 to her eldest son, Edward VII., from whom it descended in 1910 to His present Majesty King George V., the eldest surviving son of Edward VII.

The present legal aspect, then, of the descent of the Crown may thus be stated :—In the absence of statutory limitations the mode of devolution is governed at common law by the feudal rules of hereditary descent formerly applicable to land, subject to the distinctions, (1) that in the case of daughters the eldest alone inherits and her issue, the Crown not descending to all the daughters equally as coparceners, (2) that the old rules relating to the exclusion of the half-blood do not apply. (e) At common law, therefore, the Crown descends lineally to the issue of the reigning Sovereign, males taking before females, and subject to the right of primogeniture, children representing their deceased ancestors, per stirpes in infinitum. Upon failure of lineal descendants, the Crown passes to the nearest collateral relation of the blood royal. (f) The right of inheritance is, however, subject to be defeated by parliamentary enactment, (g) in which case the Crown descends according to the statutory provisions, but, subject to these, retaining its hereditary qualities as at common law. It may in fact be said that the old elective and hereditary principles, which appear in the early form of coronation service, still apply to the descent of the Crown.

Accession and Coronation. In consequence of the legal maxim that the king never dies (Calvin's Case, 1608), (h) on the demise of the Crown the person who succeeds is entitled to exercise all prerogative rights before coronation. The accession of the new Sovereign is, however, customarily announced to the public as soon as conveniently may be after the former Sovereign's death by means of a proclamation issued, by the lords spiritual and temporal, members of the late Sovereign's Privy Council, and the principal gentlemen of

(e) See 1 Bl. Comm. 14th Ed. 192, 193; 25 Ed. III., stat. 2, Ruff; Willion v. Berkley (1561), Plowd. 223, 245. (f) See Ib. (g) Succession to the Crown Act, 1707 (6 Anne, c. 7, Ruff), ss. 1-3. (k) 7 Co. Rep. 10 b, 11.