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amounts to the same high crime; as well in the person committing the fact, as in the queen herself, if consenting. If however the queen be accused of any species of treason, she shall (whether consort or dowager) be tried by the peers of parliament, as queen Anne Boleyn was in 28 Hen. VIII.

The husband of a queen regnant, as prince George of Denmark was to queen Anne, is her subject; and may be guilty of high treason against her: but, in the instance of conjugal infidelity, he is not subject to the same penal restrictions.

A queen dowager is the widow of the king, and as such enjoys most of the privileges belonging to her as queen consort. But it is not high treason to conspire her death; or violate her chastity, for the same reason as was before alledged, because the succession to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet still, pro dignitate regali, no man can marry a queen dowager without special licence from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods. But she, though an alien born, shall still be entitled to dower after the king's demise, which no other alien is. A queen dowager, when married again to a subject, doth not lose her regal dignity, as peeresses dowager do their peerage when they marry

commoners.

The prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and also his royal consort, and the princess royal, or eldest daughter of the king, are likewise peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by statute 25 Edw. III. to compass or conspire the death of the former, or to violate the chastity of either of

the latter, are as much high treason as to conspire the death of the king, or violate the chastity of the queen. The heir apparent to the crown is usually made prince of Wales and earl of Chester, by special creation, and investiture; but, being the king's eldest son, he is by inheritance duke of Cornwall, without any new creation.

The rest of the royal family may be considered in two different lights, according to the different senses in which the term royal family, is used. The larger sense includes all those, who are by any possibility inheritable to the crown, which since the revolution and act of settlement, means the protestant issue of the princess Sophia. The more confined sense includes only those, who are within a certain degree of propinquity to the reigning prince, and to whom therefore the law pays an extraordinary regard and respect: but, after that degree is past, they fall into the rank of ordinary subjects, and are seldom considered any farther, unless called to the succession upon failure of the nearer lines.

And now, by statute 12 Geo. III. c. 11. no descendant of the body of king George II. (other than the issue of princesses married into foreign families) is capable of contracting matrimony without the previous consent of the king, signified under the great seal; and any marriage contracted without such consent is void. Provided, that such of the said descendants, as are above the age of twenty-five, may after a twelvemonth's notice given to the king's privy council, contract and solemnize

marriage without the consent of the crown; unless both houses of parliament shall, before the expiration of the said year, expressly declare their disapprobation of such intended marriage.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE COUNCILS BELONGING TO THE KING.

THE third point of view, in which we are to consider the king, is with regard to his councils. For, in order to assist him in the discharge of his duties, the maintenance of his dignity, and the exertion of his prerogative, the law hath assigned him a diversity of councils to advise with.

1. The first of these is the high court of parliament, whereof we have already treated.

2. Secondly, the peers of the realm are by their birth hereditary counsellors of the crown, and may be called together by the king to impart their advice in all matters of importance to the realm, either in time of parliament, or, which hath been their principal use, when there is no parliament in being.

In our law books it is laid down, that peers are created for two reasons: 1. Ad consulendum. 2. Ad defendendum regem; on which account the law gives them certain great and high privileges: such as freedom from arrests, &c. even when no parliament is sitting; because it intends, that they are always assisting the king with their counsel for the

commonwealth, or keeping the realm in safety by their prowess and valour.

Besides this general meeting, it is usually looked upon to be the right of each particular peer of the realm to demand an audience of the king, and to lay before him, with decency and respect, such matters as he shall judge of importance to the public weal.

3. A third council belonging to the king, are, according to sir Edward Coke, his judges of the courts of law, for law matters. So that when the king's council is mentioned generally, it must be defined, particularized, and understood, secundum subjectam materiam: and, if the subject be of a legal nature, then by the king's council is understood his council for matters of law; namely, his judges.

4. But the principal council belonging to the king is his privy council, which is generally called, by way of eminence, the council. The king's will is the sole constituent of a privy counsellor; and this also regulates their number, which is indefinite.

Privy counsellors are made by the king's nomination, without either patent or grant; and, on taking the necessary oaths, they become immediately privy counsellors during the life of the king that chooses them, but subject to removal at his discretion.

It is enacted by the act of settlement, that no person born out of the dominions of the crown of England, unless born of English parents, even

though naturalized by parliament, shall be capable of being of the privy council.

The duty of a privy counsellor appears from the oath of office, which consists of seven articles : 1. To advise the king according to the best of his discretion. 2. To advise for the king's honour, and good of the public, without partiality, through affection, love, meed, doubt, or dread. 3. To keep the king's counsel secret. 4. To avoid corruption. 5. To help and strengthen the execution of what shall be there resolved. 6. To withstand all persons who would attempt the contrary. And, lastly, in general, 7. To observe, keep, and do all that a good and true counsellor ought to do to his sovereign lord.

The power of the privy council is to inquire into all offences against the government, and to commit the offenders to safe custody, in order to take their trial in some of the courts of law. But their jurisdiction herein is only to inquire, and not to punish.

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The privileges of privy counsellors, as such, consist principally in the security which the law has given them against attempts and conspiracies to destroy their lives. For, by statute 3 Hen. VII. c. 14. if any of the king's servants, of his household, conspire or imagine to take away the life of a privy counsellor, it is felony, though nothing be done upon it. But the statute 9 Anne, c. 16. goes farther, and enacts, that any person that shall unlawfully attempt to kill, or shall unlawfully assault, and strike, or wound, any privy coun

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