d Camden, that, in a case of great public emergency, the crown could
by law dispense with an act of parliament. The question arising from the
embargo on the exportation of corn, in consequence of apprehended
famine, he proved triumphantly that, although the measure was expedient
and proper, it was a violation of law, and required to be sanctioned by
an act of indemnity." And Lord Campbell adds, in a note: "This doctrine,
acted upon in 1827, during the administration of Mr. Canning, and on
several subsequent occasions, is now universally taken for
constitutional law" (ii., 468).]

[Footnote 23: To adduce a single instance, worthy of remark as affecting
the personal liberty of the subject, in 1818 a bill of indemnity was
passed to sanction the action of the ministry in arresting and detaining
in prison, without bringing them to trial, several persons accused of
being implicated in seditious proceedings (_vide infra_).]

[Footnote 24: Vol. xvii., 304.]

[Footnote 25: The case is mentioned by Lord Campbell in his "Lives of
the Chancellors," c. cxxi. (life of Lord Macclesfield) and c. cxxiv.
(life of Lord Chancellor King).]

[Footnote 26: In fact, however, the age at which a young prince was
considered competent to exercise the royal authority in person had been
fixed at eighteen; and it is so stated in the speech in which the King,
in 1765, recommended the appointment of a Regent to Parliament.--
_Parliamentary History_, xvi., 52.]

[Footnote 27: This idea was expanded into an epigram, which appeared in
most of the daily papers, and has been thought worthy of being preserved
in the "Parliamentary History," xvii., 401 (note):

"Quoth Dick to Tom, 'This act appears
Absurd, as I'm alive,
To take the crown at eighteen years,
A wife at twenty-five.
The mystery how shall we explain?
For sure, as Dowdeswell said,
Thus early if they're fit to _reign_,
They must be fit to _wed_.'
Quoth Tom to Dick, 'Thou art a fool,
And nothing know'st of life;
Alas! it's easier far to rule
A kingdom than a wife.'"]

[Footnote 28: It is remarkable that this clause on one occasion proved
an obstacle to the punishment of the abettors of such a marriage. In
1793 the Duke of Sussex married Lady Augusta Murray, first at Rome, and
afterward, by banns, at St. George's, Hanover Square. And when the
affair came to be investigated by the Privy Council, Lord Thurlow
denounced the conduct of the pair in violent t