(4.) Of issuing letters of marque and reprisals upon due

demand.

(5.) Of granting safe conducts.

In domestic affairs what is the character of the sovereign? (i.) As a constituent part of the supreme legislative power he can reject such Parliamentary provisions as he considers inexpedient.

(ii.) As the first in military command in the kingdom he can (1) raise and regulate fleets and armies; (2) build forts; (3) appoint ports and havens; (4) erect beacons, lighthouses, and sea marks (a power now vested in the Trinity House); (5) forbid the importation and exportation of military stores and arms; and (6) confine his subjects within the realm or recall them from foreign parts.

(iii.) As the Fountain of Justice and general Conservator of peace of the Kingdom, he may consequently (1) prosecute offenders; (2) pardon crimes; (3) issue procla

mations.

(iv.) As parens patriæ he is invested originally with the care of infants, idiots, and lunatics, which he subsequently delegated to his Lord Chancellor as Keeper of his Conscience.

(v.) As the Fountain of Honour, office, and privilege he has (1) the sole power of conferring dignities and honours; (2) the erecting and disposing of offices; (3) of conferring privileges upon private persons.

(vi.) As the arbiter of domestic commerce he is entitled to (1) the erection of public marts; (2) the regulation of weights and measures; (3) the coinage or the legitimation of money; and

(vii.) As the Supreme Head of the Church, the sovereign (1) regulates and dissolves synods; (2) nominates bishops; and (3) receives appeals in all ecclesiastical causes which were brought before the Crown in council, and heard before the judicial committee, or now may be heard before the Court of Appeal under the Judicature Act.

CHAPTER V.

THE ROYAL REVENUE.

Of what different kinds is the sovereign's revenue?

It is either (i.) ordinary, or (ii.) extraordinary; and the ordinary is (1) ecclesiastical, and (2) temporal.

What does the sovereign's ecclesiastical revenue consist of? (1.) The custody of temporalities of vacant bishoprics. (2.) The first fruits and tenths of benefices.

What does the sovereign's ordinary temporal revenue consist of? (1.) The rents and profits of the demesne lands of the Crown. (2.) The hereditary excise, being part of the consideration for the purchase of the sovereign's feodal profits, and the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption.

(3.) An excise duty on all beer and ale and other liquors sold in the kingdom, being the residue of the same consideration.

(4.) The profits arising from forests.

(5.) From the Courts of Justice.

(6.) The Royal Fish, wrecks, treasure trove, waifs and estrays, including in the word wreck under certain circumstances jetsam, flotsam and ligan.

(7.) The royal mines.

(8 and 9.) Profits arising from escheats, and the custody of idiots.

What did the sovereign's extraordinary revenue formerly consist of?

(1) Aids; (2) subsidies, and (3) supplies, now arrived at by taxation, and granted by the Commons in Parliament.

What are the taxes now imposed by law?

(i.) The land tax in the place of the subsidies on persons in respect of property by tenths or fifteenths. It is raised

by charging a particular sum upon each county in pursuance of the valuation of 1692, which sum is again assessed and raised upon individuals by Commissioners; it is perpetual and liable to redemption.

(ii.) The customs, or the tonnage, or poundage of all merchandise exported or imported. The duties on exports were said to arise because the sovereign (1) gave the subject leave to go out of the country and take his goods, and (2) because he had to keep up the ports, &c., and protect the merchant from pirates.

(iii.) The excise duty or inland imposition on a great variety of commodities.

(iv.) The post office or duty for carriage of letters.

(v.) The stamp duty on paper and parchment, documents, &c. (vi.) The duties upon offices and pensions.

It must be remembered that all the above are permanent taxes.

What is the Income Tax?

It is a tax arising from yearly profits, arising from property, professions, trades, and offices.

It was reimposed by Sir Robert Peel in 1842 for three years, and has been continued (varying in amount) by numerous statutes, of which the last is 31 & 32 Vict. cc. 2 & 28.

For what purpose is this revenue applied?

Part of it is applied to pay the interest of the national debt till the principal is discharged by Parliament, which consists of a debt in part funded, and in part unfunded, the former secured on the public funds, and the latter on exchequer bills and bonds.

What were the produce of these several taxes?

Originally separate and specific funds to answer specific loans upon their respective credits which were formerly consolidated by Parliament into three principal funds; (1) the aggregate; (2) the general; and (3) the South Sea Funds; and these funds were again in 1787 all included in one called the Consolidated Funds, since combined with that of Ireland, forming the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom.

What becomes of any surplus of the Fund?

After paying the interest on the national debt it is carried to the credit of the Commissioners for the reduction of the national debt; and unless otherwise appropriated by Parliament, is annually to be applied towards that object, assuming it be not required to make up any deficiencies in the civil list, which is the immediate and proper revenue of the Crown, settled by Parliament on the sovereign's accession, for defraying the charges of civil government.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ROYAL FORCES.

Of what does the military state consist?

(1.) Of the militia of each county raised by voluntary enlistment for a period not exceeding six years, and officered by gentlemen commissioned by the Crown.

(2.) The Yeomanry cavalry, and the Volunteer rifles, and Artillery Corps; and

(3.) The disciplined regular troops of the Kingdom kept on foot from year to year by Parliament, and governed

by martial law or arbitrary articles of war formed at the pleasure of the Crown.

What does the maritime state consist of?

The officers, seamen, and marines of the British Navy, who are by express and permanent laws established by Act of Parliament, the last of which is 29 & 30 Vict. c. 109.

CHAPTER VII.

THE NOBILITY AND OTHER RANKS.

How may the civic state be divided?

Into (1) the nobility; (2) the commonalty.

Who are included under the nobility, and how are the titles created?

(1) Dukes; (2) marquesses; (3) earls; (4) viscounts; (5) barons. They are created either by writ, that is, by summons to Parliament, or by letters patent from the sovereign, that is by royal grant, and they enjoy many privileges exclusive of the senatorial capacity.

Into what degrees are the commonalty divided?

(1) Knights of the Garter; (2) Knights Banneret; (3) Baronets; (4) Knights of the Bath; (5) Knights Bachelors; (6) esquires; (7) gentlemen; (8) tradesmen, artificers, and labourers.

CHAPTER VIII.

MAGISTRATES, &c.

Who are the subordinate magistrates of the most general use and authority?

(1) Sheriffs; (2) coroners; (3) justices of the peace; (4) constables.

Describe the office of sheriff.

He is the keeper of each county, appointed by the sovereign in due form with certain judicial powers; he is also conservator of the sovereign's peace, a ministerial officer, and the bailiff of the Crown.