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CHAP. XII.

Of the Privy-Council.

HE Primum Mobile of the Civil Government of England,

that Noble, Honourable, and Reverend Affembly, called the Privy Council, which is a Court of great Antiquity and Ho

nour.

The primitive and ordinary Way of Government in England, was by the King and his Privy-Council, and all our Kings have acted much by it, determining Controverfies of great Importance, fometimes touching Lands and Rights between Party and Party, whereof there are very many Precedents; and the Judges of England, in fome difficult Cafes, were not wont to give Judgment until they had firft confulted the King or his Privy Council. Moreover, the Lords and Commons affembled in Parliament, have oftentimes tranfmitted Matters of high Moment to the King and his Privy Council, as by long Experience, better able to judge of, and by Secrecy and Expedition, berter able to tranfact fome State Affairs, than all the Lords and Commons together.

At prefent the King and His Privy Council take Cognizance of few or no Matters that may well be determined by the known Laws, and ordinary Courts of Juftice; but only confult for the publick Good, Honour, Defence, Safety, and Benefit of the Realm, not meddling with Matters that concern Freeholds, but Matters of Complaint, and fudden Emergencies.

A Privy Councellor, tho but a Gentleman, fhall have Precedence of all Knights, Baronets, and younger Sons of all Barons and Viscounts.

The Subftance of their Oath is, That they fhall according to their Power and Difcretion, truly, juftly and evenly counsel and advife the King, in all Matters to be treated in his. Majefty's Council; That they fhall keep fecret the King's Counfel, &c.

By Force of this Oath, and the Custom of the Kingdom of England, a Privy-Counsellor is made without any Patent or Grant, and to continue only during the Life of the King that makes him, nor fo long unless the King pleafeth.

The King, with the Advice of his Privy Council, doth publish Proclamations binding to the Subject, provided they are not contrary to Statute, or Common-Law, but in Execution of them.

The Members of this moft Honourable Council, are fuch as the King of his own free Will and meer Motion fhall please to

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chufe,

chufe, and are commonly Men of the highest Rank, Eminent for Eftates, Wisdom, Courage, Integrity, &c.

They are all to wait on his Majefty, and at Council-Board to fit in their Order bare-headed, when his Majefty prefides. At all Debates, the loweft delivers his Opinion firft, and the King laft of all declares his Judgment, and thereby determines the Matter of Debate.

A Council is feldom or never held without the Prefence of one of the Secretaries of State; of whofe Office and Dignity, much more confiderable in England than in other Nations, take here this brief Account.

Secretaries of State.] The King of England had anciently but one Secretary of State, until about the End of Henry the Eighth's Reign, it was thought fit, that weighty and important Office should be discharged by two Perfons, both of equal Authority, and both ftiled Principal Secretaries of State. In thofe days, and fome while after, they fat not at CouncilBoard, but having prepared their Business in a Room adjoyning to the Council-Chamber, they came in, and ftood on either Hand of the King; and nothing was debated at the Table, until the Secretaries had gone through with their Proposals. But Queen Elizabeth feldom coming to Council, that Method was altered, and the Secretaries took their Places as Privy-CounselJors, which Dignity they have retained and enjoyed ever fince; and a Council is feldom or never held without the Prefence of one of them at the least.

Their Employment being of Extraordinary Truft and Multiplicity, renders them moft confiderable in the Eyes of the King, upon whom they attend every Day, as Occafion requires; and of the Subject alfo, whofe Requefts and Defires are for the moft part lodged in their Hands, to be represented to the King, and always to make Difpatches thereupon, according to his Majefty's Answers and Directions.

The Correfpondence with all Parts of Great Britain is, without Diftin&tion, managed by either of the Secretaries, relating to the Church, the Army, the Militia, Grants, Pardons, Difpenfations, &c. But as for Foreign Affairs, all the Nations which have intercourfe of Bufinefs with Great-Britain, are by them divided into two Provinces, the Northern and Southern; of which the Northern is ufually under the Junior Secretary, and contains Scandinavia, &c. The Southern under the Senior, and contains, Flanders, France, &c.

They have this fpecial Honour, that if either of them be a Baron, he taketh place, and hath the Precedence of all other Perfons of the fame Degree, though otherwife by their Creation fome of them might have Right to precede him: And a Knight in like manner, if he hath no other Qualification; but

if above the Degree of a Baron, then he takes Place only ac cording to the Seniority of his Creation.

They have their feveral Lodgings appointed them in all the King's Houfes, as well for their own Accommodation, as for their Office, and those that attend upon it. They have alfo Board-wages.

Their fettled Allowance from the King, in Salary and Penfion, is two thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum to each of them. The Secretaries and Clerks, whom they employ under them, are wholly at their own Choice, and have no dependance upon any other Power or Perfons befides themselves.

The Secretaries of State have the Cuftody of that Seal of the King, which is properly called the Signet; the Ufe and Application whereof, gives Denomination to an Office, conftantly attending the Court, called the Signet-Office, wherein there are Four Clerks, who wait alternately by Months, and prepare fuch things as are to pass the Signet, in order to the Privy-Seal, or Great-Seal.

These have no Fee from the King, but only Diet, which at Penfion is 200 yearly: Their Office is in White-Hall: They wait by Month, each of them three Months in a Year. of them always attends the Court wherefoever it removes, and One by Warrant from the King, prepares fuch Bills or Letters for the King to fign, as not being Matter of Law, are by any Warrants directed to them to prepare. In their Office all Grants, either prepared by the King's Learned Council at Law, or by themselves, for the King's Hand, when_figned, are returned, and there tranfcribed again, and that Transcript is carried to one of the Principal Secretaries of State, and fealed, and then it is called a Signet, which is directed to the Lord PrivySeal, and is his Warrant for iffuing out a Privy-Seal upon it; yet Privy-Seals for Money do now always begin in the Treafury, from whence the firft Warrant iffues counter-fign'd by the Lord Treafurer: But when the Nature of the Grant requires the paffing the Great-Seal; then the Privy-Seal is an Authority to the Lord Chancellor to pafs the Great-Seal, as the Signet was to the Lord Privy-Seal, to affix that Seal to the Grant: But in all Three Offices, &c. Signet, Privy-Seal, and Great-Seal,the Grant is tranfcribed. So all which paffes from the King,haththese feveral Ways of being confidered before perfected. There are alfo Four Clerks of the Privy-Seal.

More of their Office is to be seen in Stat. 27 of Hen. VIII. worthy to be noted.

Moreover, depending on the Secretaries of State is an ancient Office called the Paper-Office, the Keeper whereof hath in his Charge all the publick Papers, Writings, Matters of State, and Council; all Letters, Intelligences, Negociations of the King's publick Minifters abroad, and generally all the Papers

and

and Difpatches that pass through the Offices of the Two Secretaries of State, which are, or ought to be from Time to Time tranfmitted into this Office, and here remain, difpofed by way of a Library, within His Majefty's Palace of White

Hell.

CHA P. XIII.

Of the PARLIAMENT of ENGLAND, and therein of the Perfon fummoning, the Manner of the Summons, the Perfons fummoned, their Priviledges, the Place and Manner of Sitting, the Paffing of Bills in either Houfe, the Paffing of Acts of Parliament, of Adjourning, Proroguing, and Diffolving of Parliaments, &c.

BE

Efore the Conqueft, the Great Council of the King, confifting only of the Great Men of the Kingdom, was called Magnatum Conventus, or else Prælatorum Procerumque Concilium, and by the Saxons in their own Tongue, Wittena-Gemot, the Council or Affembly of the Sages, and Micel-Gemot, the Great Affembly; after the Conqueft, about the beginning of King Edward I. fome fay in the Time of Henry I. it was called by the French Word, Parlementum, from Parler, to talk together, ftill confifting (as divers great Authors affirm) only of the Great Men of the Nation, until the Reign of Henry III. the Commons alfo were called to fit in Parliament; for divers Authors prefume to fay, the firft Writs to be found in Records, fent forth to fummon them, bare date 49 Hen. III. above four hundred Years ago. Yet fome Antiquaries are of Opinion, that long before, nothing of moment, wherein the Lives or Estates of the Common People of England were concern'd, ever passed without their common Consent.

None but the King hath Authority to fummon a Parliament; in the King's Abfence out of the Realm, the Cuftos Regni, in the King's Name, doth fummon a Parliament; and during the King's Minority within the Realm, the Protector Regni doth the fame.

No Parliament can begin without the King's Prefence, either in Perfon, or by Representation in Commiffion.

When the King of England is with his Parliament in Time of Peace, he is then faid to be in the Height of his Royal Dignity, as well as when he is at the Head of his Army in Time of War. There is then scarce any thing that the King

cannot

cannot do, his Power cannot be confined for Causes or Perfons within any Bounds.

A Parliament is fummoned in Manner following: Fifty Days at leaft before the Parliament doth affemble, the King iffues out his Writ, cum Advifamento Confilii Jui ; and the Warrant is, Per ipfum Regem & Confilium.

The King's Writ (which is a fhort Letter or Epiftle) is directed and sent to every particular Perfon of the Lords Spiritu al and Temporal, commanding the Lords Spiritual in Fide & Dilectione, and the Lords Temporal, per Fidem & Allegiantiam, to appear at a certain Time and Place, to treat, and give their Advice in fome certain important Affairs concerning the Church and State, &c.

Other Writs are fent to the Sheriff of each County, to fummon the People to elect Two Knights for each County, Two Citizens for each City, and One or Two Burgeffes for each Borough, according to Statute, Charter, or Cuftom.

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In thefe Elections anciently all the People had their Votes, and moft Votes carried it; but for avoiding of Tumults and Trouble, it was enacted by Hen. VI. That none fhould have any Suffrage in the Election of Knights of the Shire, but fuch as were Freeholders, did refide in the County, and had yearly Revenue 40 s. (which, till the Discovery of the Gold and Silver in America, was more than 10 l. is now.) Yet there was then, as now, this Defect or Abfurdity, That whereas all Englishmen, who have confiderable Eftates, ought not to be taxed without their own Confent in Parliament, by themselves, or by their Reprefentatives; Copy-holders in England, whereof there are fome who have a Thoufand Pounds a Year, have no Voice in the Election of Knights of the Shire.

The Perfons elected for each County, are to be Milites Notabiles, or at leaft Efquires, or Gentlemen fit to be made Knights, as it is in the Statute of Hen. VI. They ought to be Native Englishmen, or at least fuch as have been Naturalized by Act of Parliament; no Alien or Denizen, none of the Twelve Judges, no Sheriff of a County, no Ecclefiaftical Perfon, may be chofen a Parliament-man, to ferve for any County, City, or Borough.

To the Legality of fitting in either Houfe of Parliament, it is abfolutely neceffary, That a Man should be of full Age; that is, Twenty one Years old at least.

All Members of Parliament, both Lords and Commons, that they may attend the Publick Service of their Country, are privileg'd, with their Menial Servants attending on their Perfons, together with all their neceffary Goods brought along with them, from all Attachments and Imprisonments for Debts, Trefpaffes, Account or Covenant, all the Time that they are on the Way to the Place of Parliament, all the Time of the Sef

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