FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178  
179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   >>   >|  
he king comes to the house of peers, in his crown and royal robes, and sending for the commons to the bar, the titles of all the bills that have passed both houses are read; and the king's answer is declared by the clerk of the parliament in Norman-French: a badge, it must be owned, (now the only one remaining) of conquest; and which one could wish to see fall into total oblivion; unless it be reserved as a solemn memento to remind us that our liberties are mortal, having once been destroyed by a foreign force. If the king consents to a public bill, the clerk usually declares, "_le roy le veut_, the king wills it so to be;" if to a private bill, "_soit fait come il est desire_, be it as it is desired." If the king refuses his assent, it is in the gentle language of "_le roy s'avisera_, the king will advise upon it." 2. By statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 21. the king may give his assent by letters patent under his great seal, signed with his hand, and notified, in his absence, to both houses assembled together in the high house. And, when the bill has received the royal assent in either of these ways, it is then, and not before, a statute or act of parliament. THIS statute or act is placed among the records of the kingdom; there needing no formal promulgation to give it the force of a law, as was necessary by the civil law with regard to the emperors edicts: because every man in England is, in judgment of law, party to the making of an act of parliament, being present thereat by his representatives. However, a copy thereof is usually printed at the king's press, for the information of the whole land. And formerly, before the invention of printing, it was used to be published by the sheriff of every county; the king's writ being sent to him at the end of every session, together with a transcript of all the acts made at that session, commanding him "_ut statuta illa, et omnes articulos in eisdem contentos, in singulis locis ubi expedire viderit, publice proclamari, et firmiter teneri et observari faciat_." And the usage was to proclaim them at his county court, and there to keep them, that whoever would might read or take copies thereof; which custom continued till the reign of Henry the seventh[o]. [Footnote o: 3 Inst. 41. 4 Inst. 26.] AN act of parliament, thus made, is the exercise of the highest authority that this kingdom acknowleges upon earth. It hath power to bind every subject in the land, and the dominions thereun
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178  
179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
parliament
 

assent

 

statute

 
session
 
thereof
 
kingdom
 

county

 

houses

 

sending

 

sheriff


published
 
articulos
 

transcript

 

printing

 

statuta

 

commanding

 

making

 

titles

 

present

 

judgment


England
 

thereat

 

representatives

 
information
 

eisdem

 
commons
 
printed
 

However

 

invention

 

singulis


exercise

 

seventh

 
Footnote
 
highest
 

authority

 
subject
 

dominions

 

thereun

 

acknowleges

 

firmiter


proclamari

 

teneri

 
observari
 

faciat

 
publice
 
viderit
 

edicts

 

expedire

 
proclaim
 

copies