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triumph over the Reluctance of the Monarch, and the Judicial Authority of the Council, and to plunge the Nation into a wicked and disastrous War.

But,-compared with our own Times,-Instances such as these are rarely to be met with, in the Annals of the Past. And, when they did occur, they met with their reprobation. The Ignominy of each Transaction was remembered in its Epitaph. Guilt did not always escape the just Judgment of the Law, upon the very Person of the Criminal. The Sentence of his Fellow Men, in their Appreciation of his Acts, it never did, and never could escape. "Public Opinion" has marched, and is marching; and the Hatred of Treason will soon be as obsolete as Impeachment.

Still the Law subsists. The Culprit violates, but cannot make it void. It is there, to condemn the Violation, and to assert the Right. Times may change, and Manners; Men may cease to obey; but the Law changes not, ceases not to command. What was Right in the Thirteenth Century, is not Wrong in this. What was sinful then. is now, and must ever be, forbidden unto us.

Government belongs to the Sovereign, to be exercised by and with the Advice of the Privy Council, together with the frequent use of the Great Council of Parliament.

Other Standing Councils of State, there are none. When the Cabal, or Cabinet assembles, it acts in Defiance of the Law. Its Deliberations are Conspiracies. Its Mandates are Usurpations upon Government, and it is criminal to obey

them.

Parliament, in Reality one Body, though assembled in two Houses, is the Highest of the Councils of State, because it is also the Highest Court of Justice. To it belong the Functions of Advice and Control. These it is

*Tierney's Dodd's Ch. Hist. Vol. V. pp. 148-51.

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bound to exercise indifferently and impartially; unbiassed by the Crown; unswayed by party Predilections; mindful only that each Member there is the Queen's own Servant. It can initiate nothing that belongs to the Executive ;—it can disturb nothing but upon Cause shewn and approved; -it cannot remove Ministers by its Vote, nor, without Reason, address the Sovereign for their Removal ;-and, even when it censures their Measures, that Censure is not to be interpreted a Defeat, making their Resignation necessary. Nor has Parliament any Voice in the Nomination of Ministers; far less the Power to arm them with its previous Confidence. In short, the mere Changes of Administrations have no Value, for the High Court and Council of Parliament. It is only with their Measures that it has to deal; and that, calmly and impartially, and with the Respect for Law and Right, which befits the Judicial Capacity.

Every Man in England, of whatsoever Degree, and of whomsoever Tenant, owes Service and Counsel to his Sovereign, in whatsoever Court; according as the Nature of the Emergency shall indicate, or the Royal Writ require. The High Court of Parliament, the County Court, the Court Baron, or Leet, and the several Courts of Exempt Jurisdiction, albeit distinguished as to their respective Powers and Preeminences, have this in common, that each and every of them possesses a civil and a political Jurisdiction, of a Magnitude, proportionate to the Measure of its Judicial Capacity. The Machinery of the old Constitution is unbroken still. Let the Queen dispose the Application!

It is true, that the People are said to have their proper Representatives, only in the Court of Parliament. It is true that, for sundry settled and determined Purposes, that Court of Delegates has the Power to bind them by its Votes. It is true that, within those Limits, the Act of the

Parliament is, and must be taken to be, the solemn Act of every Man in England. But the Law, which confers the Power, binds the Delegate to employ it for the Common Profit, and binds the Constituent to watch it, and to shield it from Abuse. Nor can the Delegate exceed the Bounds of his Commission. There are Reservations, which it depends not upon the combined Pleasure of himself and his Constituents to cancel; and, when they attempt it, their Act is a Nullity; or it operates only to relieve the Subject from his Allegiance, and to effect the Dissolution of the State. Economists and Politicians may recommend to the Legislature the Protection of Crime. Senators may frame Statutes for its Furtherance. Parliaments may declare its Utility. But the Judges of the Land, standing upon the high Ground of Natural Right, and disdaining to bend to the lower Doctrine of Expediency, will also declare, that it is the Subject's Duty to disobey those Parliaments,—and to transgress those Statutes, and, that Crime, and the Constitution are not, and never can be, reconciled.*

For they are the Vicegerents of the Sovereign, in their daily Dispensations of Public Justice. To them the Guardianship of Law hath been confided, in the Name, and for the Honor and Dignity, of the Crown, whereof that sacred Trust is the sole and undoubted Prerogative, and the brightest of the Ornaments. It is thus, that Neglect of Law becomes the Disparagement of Majesty, and Malversation, the highest of Treasons. For Treason against the Person of the Prince,-which is the Highest Treason that can be,-to Man,-falls short of this Treason against the State !+

* Per Lord Wynford, in Forbes v. Cochrane. (2. B. & Cr. 470.) + Mr. Serjeant Maynard's Speech before both Houses in Parliament, on the 24th of March, 1641.

ON ENGLAND'S CONTEMPT FOR HER LAWS.

FROM THE GERMAN.

[In Connection with the last Article, the following Translation is subjoined, of a Paper which appeared in the "Konstitutionnelle Jahrbuche," of Stuttgart, (vol. i. p. 150.) in the course of last year. The Series, of which it was intended to be the first, has never been continued.-ED. PORTF.]

THERE are two Symptoms of Corruption in a State. One is, the Multiplicity of New Laws. The remark is as old as Tacitus :-Corruptissimâ Republicâ, plurimæ Leges.* The other is, where antient Laws continue to be recognised, but ceased to be observed. The Corruption, of which this is a Sign, is in many respects worse than the first. The People are bent on forsaking their Traditions, and Institutions ;—and yet, although possessing the Power to give a Color of Law to their Apostacy, they do not think it worth their while to give it.

They leave their Laws upon the Parchment Rolls, where the godlike Givers had written them, that they may disobey them to their Face. They affect to regard a certain æsthetic Value in them still, and therefore, though they will not think of using them, they have no Objection to keep them there for Ornament.

To the first stage of Corruption, the French have come long ago. To the second Stage, we Englishmen have long been coming, and already we touch it, before the hindmost of our Files have cleared the first Stage. Like the French, we place our Glory in our diurnal Legislation. We believe that no Harm can befall us, if we make good new Laws; above all, if we make them upon some new and

* Annals, lib. iii. c. 27.

enlightened Principle. If anything goes wrong in any of our Functions, it must wait till Parliament meets. No Matter that it be not within the Competence of Parliament to take the Initiative in amending it, or to take any Part in it at all:-no one ever thinks of its being set right by the Executive, without the simultaneous Concurrence of the Legislature. Whether the Reform, that is wanted, be Legislative only, or Administrative only, it matters not. It must wait till the meeting of Parliament.

When that Event takes place, the Mischief receives at the Hands of the English Houses the same calm, impartial, and farseeing Consideration, that a similar Matter would meet with in the French Chambers. No man ever asks; Is a new Law wanted? but only,-What kind of new Law shall we have? No one presumes to question the Policy of some Sort of Legislation; their only Difficulty being as to the Sort. It is beneath the Dignity of Parliamentarians, to be contented with old Laws, of the same Tenor and Effect, and more constitutional in Form; even could it be proved that such Laws were in Existence! And thus, while Administration, in England, flourishes no better than in France, it cannot be denied, that both France and England deserve great Credit for Law Making. At all events, England is entitled to it. Every Year witnesses a new Crop of Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,' subdivided and classified as Public General,' Local and Personal, declared Public,' ‹ Private Acts printed,' and Private Acts not printed.' Legislation thus goes on rapidly at the rate of at least one Volume a Year. The last Annual of this Kind, the Volume for 1842, is one thick closely printed Volume, in large Octavo, and contains 1090 Pages.* Upon its Contents we

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* The present Year's Volume contains only 712 Pages. But then, this has been said to be an abortive Year of Legislation !—[ED. PORTF.]

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