King Charles II. He hath alone the Choice and Nomination of all Commanders, and other Officers at Land and Sea, the Choice and Nomination of all Magiftrates, Counsellors and Of ficers of State; of all Bishops, and other high Dignities in the Church; the bestowing of all Honours, both of higher and lower Nobility of England; the Power of determining Rewards and Punibments, either by pardoning the Offence, or remitting the Punishment.

By his Letters-Patent may ere& new Univerfities, Boroughs, Colleges, Hofpitals, Schools, Fairs, Markets, Forefts, Chafes, FreeWarren, Beacons, &c.

The King by his Prerogative, hath Power to enfranchise an Alien, and make him a Denizen, whereby he is enabled to purchafe Houfes and Lands. Hath Power to grant Letters of Marque or Reprifal, to grant Safe-Conducts, &c.

Debts due to the King, are in the first place to be fatisfy'd, in cafe of Executorship, and Adminiftratorship; and until the King's Debt be fatisfy'd, he may protect the Debtor from the Arreft of other Creditors.

May deftrain for the whole Debt upon one Tenant that holdeth not the whole Land; may require the Ancestor's Debt of the Heir, tho' not especially bound; is not obliged to demand his Rent as others are; may fue in what Court he please, and diftrain where he lift.

No Proclamation can be made but by the King.

No Protection for a Defendant to be kept off from a Suit, but by him, and that because he is actually in his Service.

He only can give Patents, in Cafe of Loffes by Fire or other wife, to receive the Charitable Benevolences of the People; without which no Man may ask it publickly.

The Sale of his Goods in an open Market, will not take away his Property therein, if he hath been defrauded of them. Where the King hath granted a Fair, with Toll to be paid, yet his Goods there fhall be exempted from all Toll.

No Occupancy fhall be good against the King, nor fhall Entry before him prejudice him.

His Servants in Ordinary are priviledg'd from ferving in any Offices that require their Attendance, as Sheriff, Conflable, Churchwarden, &c.

All Receivers of Money for the King, or Accomptants to him for any of his Revenues, their Perfons, Lands, Goods, Heirs, Executors, Adminiftrators, are chargeable for the fame at all times; for, Nullum tempus occurrit Regi.

His Debtor hath a kind of Prerogative Remedy, by a Quo minus in the Exchequer, against all other Debtors, or against whom they have any Caufe of Perfonal Action, fuppofing that he is thereby difabled to pay the King; and in this Suit the King's Debtor being Plaintiff, bath fome Privileges above others.

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In Doubtful Cafes, Semper præfumitur pro Rege.

No Statute reftraineth the King, except he be especially named therein. The Quality of his Perfon alters the Defcent of Gavel-kind, the Rules of Joint-Tenancy: No Estoppel can bind him, nor Judgment Final in a Writ of Right.

Judgments enter'd against the King's Title, are enter'd with a Salvo Jure Domini Regis. That if at any time the King's Counsel at Law can make out his Title better, that Judgment fhall not prejudice him, which is not permitted to the Subject.

In all Cafes where the King is Party, his Officers with an Ar reft, by Force of a Procefs at Law, may enter, and (if Entrance be deny'd) may break open the Houfe of any Man, altho' every Man's Houfe is faid to be his Caftle, and hath a Privilege to protect him against all other Arrefts.

A Benefice, or Spiritual Living, is not full against the King by Inftitution only, without Induction, altho' it be so against a Subject.

None but the King can hold a good Plea of falfe Judgment in the Courts of his Tenants.

The King of England, by his Prerogative, is Summus Regni Cuftos, and hath the Cuftody of the Perfons and Eftates of fuch, as for want of Understanding, cannot govern themselves, or ferve the King; fo the Perfons and Estates of Ideots and Lunaticks are in the Cuftody of the King: That of Ideots to his own Ufe, and that of Lunaticks to the Ufe of the next Heir.

The King, by his Prerogative, is Ultimus Heres regni, and is (as the great Ocean is of all Rivers) the Receptacle of all Eftates, when no Heir appears; for this caufe, all Eftates for want of Heirs, or by Forfeiture, Revert, or Efcheat to the King. All Treasure Trove, (that is, Money, Gold, Silver, Plate or Bullion, found, and the Owners unknown) belongs to the King; fo all Waifs, Strays, Wreeks, not granted away by him, or any former Kings; all wafte Ground or Lands recovered from the Sea; all Land of Aliens dying before Naturalization or Denization, and all things whereof the Property is not known. All Gold and Silver Mines in whofe Ground foever they are found; Royal Fishes, as Whales, Sturgeons, Dolphins, &c. Royal Fowl, as Swans not mark'd, and fwimming at liberty on the River, belong to the King.

In the Church, the King's Prerogative and Power is extraordinary great: He only hath the Patronage of all Bishopricks, none can be chofen but those whom he hath first nominated by his Congé d'Eflire; none can be Confecrated Bishop, or take Poffeffion of the Revenues of the Bishoprick, without the King's fpecial Writ or Affent. The King hath Power to call a National or Provincial Synod; and with the Advice and Confent thereof, to make Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Conftitutions; introduce into the Church what Ceremonies fhall be thought fit; reform

and

and correct all Herefies, Schifms; punish Contempts, &c. and to declare what Translation of the Bible is fit to be allowed, &c.

The King hath a Power not only to Unite, Confolidate, Separate, Enlarge or Contract the Limits of any old Bishoprick, or other Ecclefiaftical Benefice; but alfo by his Letters-Patents may erect new Bishopricks, as Henry the Eighth did fix at one time; and the late King Charles the Martyr intended to do at St. Albans, for the Honour of the firft Martyr of England, and for contracting the too large Extent of the Bishoprick of Lincoln; may alfo erect new Archbishopricks, Patriarchates, &c.

The King hath Power to difpenfe with the Rigour of Ecclefi aftical Laws, excepting fuch as have received the Sanction of an A&t of Parliament, as has been declared by the Bill of Rights; and with any thing that is only Prohibitum & malum per accidens, & non malum in fe: As for a Baftard to be a Prieft, for a Prieft to hold two Benefices, or to fucceed his Father in a Benefice, or to be Non-refident, &c. For a Bishop to hold an Ecclefiaftical Be refice in Commendam or Truft.

Hath Power to difpenfe with fome Acts of Parliament, Penal Statutes, by non obftante, where himself is only concerned; to moderate the Rigour of the Laws according to Equity and ConScience; to grant special Privileges and Charters to any Subject; to pardon a Man by Law condemned, except in Appeals of Murder; to interpret by his Judges Statutes, and in Cafes not defin'd by Law, to determine and pafs Sentence; yet in Rebus Arduis, and in matters of great Importance the Judges have thought it fafeft to adjourn the fame, ad Prox Parl. propter Difficultatem, &c.

Every King of England, as he is Debitor Juftitia to his People, fo he is in Confcience obliged to defend and maintain all the Rights of the Crown in poffeffion; and when any King hath not religioufly obferved his Duty in this Point, it hath proved of very dreadful Confequence. As on the other fide, it much concerns every King of England to be very careful of the Subjects juft Liberties, according to the Golden Rule of the best of Kings, Charles the First, that the King's Prerogative is to defend the People's Liberties, and the People's Liberties to strengthen the King's Prerogative.

The Laws of England looking upon the King as God's Vicege rent upon Earth, do attribute unto him divers Excellencies not belonging to other Men: So the Law will have no Imperfection found in the King; as, no Injustice, no Error, no Negligence or Laches, no Infamy, no Stain or Corruption of Blood; for by taking of the Crown, all former, tho' juft Attainder, (and fuch Attainder made by A&t of Parliament) is ipfo facto purged. No Nonage or Minority; for his Grant of Lands, though held in his Natural, not Politick Capacity, cannot be avoided by Nonage. Higher than this, the Law attributeth a Kind of Perpetuity, not

Part I. to fay Immortality, to the King, Rex Anglia non moritur; his Death is by the Law termed the Demife of the King, because thereby the Kingdom is demifed to another. He is faid not to be fubject to Death, because he is a Corporation of himself, that liveth for ever, all Interregna being in England unknown; the fame Moment that one King dies, the next Heir is King fully and abfolutely, without any Coronation, Ceremony, or A&t to be done, ex poft facto.

Moreover the Law feemeth to attribute to the King a certain Ubiquity; that the King is in a manner every where, in all his Courts of Justice; and therefore cannot be Nonfuited, (as Lawyers fpeak.)

And yet there are fome things that the King cannot do, Rex Anglia nihil injuftè poteft.

There are alfo divers things which the King cannot do, Salvo Jure, Salvo Juramento, & Salva Confcientia fua; because by an Oath at his Coronation, and indeed without any Oath by the Law of Nature, Nations, and of Chriftianity, he holds himfelf bound (as do all other Chriftian Kings) to protect and defend his People, to do Juftice, and to fhew Mercy, to preferve Peace and Quietnefs among them; to allow them their juft Rights and Liberties; to confent to the Repealing of bad Laws, and to the Enacting of good. Two things efpecially the King of England cannot do without the Confent of both Houses of Parliament, viz. make New Laws, and raife New Taxes, there being fomething of Odium in both of them, the one seeming to diminish the Subjects Liberty, and the other to infringe his Property: Therefore, that all Occafion of Difaffection towards the King (the Breath of our Noftrils, and the Light of our Eyes, as he is ftiled in Holy Scriptures) might be avoided, it was wifely contrived by our Ancestors, that for both thefe fhould Petitions and Supplications be firft made by the Subject.

If the King of England be in any Foreign Nation, he may try any of his offending Domefticks by the Laws of England, faith Fleta; as in the Cafe of Engelram of Nogent in France, and of Manning, whom K. Ch. II. caus'd to be try'd, and executed in the Duke of Newburgh's Territories in Germany.

These, and divers other Prerogatives, rightfully belong, and are enjoy'd by the King of England.

Dominions.] The ancient Dominions of the Kings of England, were first England, and all the Seas round about Great-Britain and Ireland, and all the Iles adjacent, even to the Shore of all the Neighbouring Nations; and our Law faith, The Sea is of the Leigeance of the King, as well as the Land; and as a Mark thereof all Ships of Foreigners have anciently demanded Leave to Fish, and pafs in thefe Seas, and do at this Day lower their Top-fails to all the King's Ships of War; and therefore Children born upon thofe Seas, (as it fometimes hath happened) are ac

counted

counted natural born Subjects to the King of England, and needed not any Naturalization, as others born out of his Do

minions.

To England, Henry the Second annexed Ireland, being ftiled only Lord of Ireland, till the three and thirtieth of Henry the Eighth, although they had all Kingly Jurifdition before.

Edward the First annexed all Wales, and Edward the Third the Right, tho' not the Poffeffion, of all France, but Henry V. added both, and his Son Henry VI. was Crown'd and Recogniz'd by all the States of the Realm at Paris.

King James I. being King of Scotland before, upon his Acces fion to the Crown of England, the whole Ifland was united under one Head, and fince that time fundry confiderable Plantations in America have been peopled by the Subjects of the Crown of England.

The Dominions of the King of England at this Day in Poffeffion, are Great Britain and Ireland, and all the Seas adjacent. Moreover, the 'Iflands of Jersey, Guernsey, Aldernay, and Sark, which are Parcel of the Dutchy of Normandy, befides those profitable Plantations of New-England, New-York, East and Weft ferSey, Penfylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Barbadoes, Jamaica, Florida, North and South Carolina, Bermudos, with feveral other Ifles and Places in thofe Quarters, and fome in the Eaf-Indies, and upon the Coast of Africa; alfo upon the North Parts of America, by Right of first Discovery; to Eftotiland, Terra Corterialis, Newfoundland, and to Guiana in the South; the King of Eng!and hath a Legal Right, tho' not Poffeffion of the whole.

Strength. And let our Sovereign be confider'd abftra&tly as King only of England, which is like a huge Fortress, or a garrifon'd Town, fenced, not only with ftrong Works, and a wide and deep Ditch the Sea, but guarded alfo with excellent Out-works, the strongest and beft built Ships of War in the World; it is fo abundantly furnish'd with Men and Horfes, with Victuals and Ammunition, with Cloaths and Money, that if all the Potentates of Europe fhould confpire (which God forbid) they could hardly conquer it, provided it be at Unity in it felf.

This for the Defenfive Strength of the King of England; now for the Offenfive. How formidable muft he be to the World, when they fhall understand that a King of England is well able, when-ever he is willing, to raise of English Foot two hundred thousand, and of English Horse fifty thousand (for fo many, during the late Rebellion, 1643, were computed to be in Arms on both fides). And when they fhall confider the Valiant and Martial Spirit of the English, their natural Agility of Body, their Patience, Hardiness and Stedfaftnefs is fuch, and their Fear of Death fo little, that no Neighbour-Nation, upon equal Number and Terms, fcarce ever beat them, either at Sea or

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Land: