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