or or governor of a county; and a
knight, _miles_, was bound to attend the king in his wars. For the
same reason therefore that honours are in the disposal of the king,
offices ought to be so likewise; and as the king may create new
titles, so may he create new offices: but with this restriction, that
he cannot create new offices with new fees annexed to them, nor annex
new fees to old offices; for this would be a tax upon the subject,
which cannot be imposed but by act of parliament[k]. Wherefore, in 13
Hen. IV, a new office being created by the king's letters patent for
measuring cloths, with a new fee for the same, the letters patent
were, on account of the new fee, revoked and declared void in
parliament.

[Footnote k: 2 Inst. 533.]

UPON the same, or a like reason, the king has also the prerogative of
conferring privileges upon private persons. Such as granting place or
precedence to any of his subjects, as shall seem good to his royal
wisdom[l]: or such as converting aliens, or persons born out of the
king's dominions, into denizens; whereby some very considerable
privileges of natural-born subjects are conferred upon them. Such also
is the prerogative of erecting corporations; whereby a number of
private persons are united and knit together, and enjoy many
liberties, powers, and immunities in their politic capacity, which
they were utterly incapable of in their natural. Of aliens, denizens,
natural-born, and naturalized subjects, I shall speak more largely in
a subsequent chapter; as also of corporations at the close of this
book of our commentaries. I now only mention them incidentally, in
order to remark the king's prerogative of making them; which is
grounded upon this foundation, that the king, having the sole
administration of the government in his hands, is the best and the
only judge, in what capacities, with what privileges, and under what
distinctions, his people are the best qualified to serve, and to act
under him. A principle, which was carried so far by the imperial law,
that it was determined to be the crime of sacrilege, even to doubt
whether the prince had appointed proper officers in the state[m].

[Footnote l: 4 Inst. 361.]

[Footnote m: _Disputare de principali judicio non oportet: sacrilegii
enim instar est, dubitare an is dignus sit; quem elegerit imperator._
_C._ 9. 29. 3.]

V. ANOTHER light in which the laws of England consider the king with
regard to domestic concerns, is as the arb