1809 The King Of Great Britain. From: 1809 A Book Explaining The Ranks and Dignities Of British Society. via Google Books. (PD-180) BRITISH RANKS, The King Of Great Britain and His Or Her Powers during Jane Austen’s lifetime.
BRITISH RANKS, THE KING .
The supreme executive power of these kingdoms is vested by our laws in a single person, the King or Queen, for it matters not to which sex the crown descends, but the person entitled to it, whether male or female, is immediately invested with all the ensigns, rights, and prerogatives of sovereign power .
In the earliest periods of our his tory the crown appears to have been elective. But hereditary succession has now been long established , and has proved a good preservative against that periodical bloodshed and misery, which both history and experience have long shewn are the consequences of elective kingdoms. The crown descends lineally to the issue of the reigning monarch , and not till the failure of the male issue is it allowed to be taken by the female.
Lawyers say the King of England is a mixed person, a priest as well as a prince and at his coronation he is anointed with oil, as the priests and kings of Israel were, to intimate that his person is sacred. The principal duty of the king is to govern his people according to law and these are the terms of the oath administered usually by the Archbishop of Canterbury at his coronation, in the presence of the people, who on their parts do reciprocally take the oath of allegiance to the crown : “ The archbishop, or bishop, shall say, Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this kingdom of England , and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on and the laws and customs of the same?
The king or queen shall say , I solemnly promise so to do . Archbishop , or bishop .Will you to your power cause law and jus tice , in mercy , to be executed in all your judgments?
King or queen, I will, Archbishop , or bishop – Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God , the true profession of the gospel and the protestant reformed religion established by the law? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches com mitted to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them ?
King or queen, All this I promise to do .
After this , the king or queen , laying his or her hand upon the holy gospels , shall say , The things which I have here before promised , I will perform and keep : so help me God . And then shall kiss the book .
One of the principal bulwarks of our liberty is the certain and definite limitation of the king’s prerogative, the extent and restrictions of which are marked out with the greatest clearness. But in the exertion of those powers which the LAW has given him , the king is irresistible and absolute. He is considered by the laws of England as the head and supreme governor of the national church and, in virtue of this authority, he convenes , prorogues , rogues , restrains , regulates , and dis solves all ecclesiastical synods or convocations. He has the supreme right of patronage over all ecclesiastical benefices and if they are not presented to within the time prescribed , their lapse becomes the advantage of the crown. In regard to foreign concerns, the king is the delegate or representative of his people. He has power, by his prerogative, with out any act of parliament, to make war or peace, conclude treaties, grant safe conducts, give commissions for raising and regulating fleets and armies, as well as for erecting, manning, and governing forts, and other places of strength. He can prohibit the exportation of arms and ammunition out of the kingdom, can dispose of magazines, castles, ships, public moneys, etc. and all that is done in regard to foreign powers by the royal authority, is the act of the whole nation. He has the sole power of sending ambassadors to foreign states, and receiving ambassadors at home. He convokes, adjourns, prorogues, and dissolves parliaments and may refuse his assent to any bill passed by both houses, without giving his reason for it .
He may increase the number of members of either house at plea sure, by creating new peers and bestowing privileges on other towns for sending burgesses to Parliament, but the last has by late kings been given up.
The sole power of conferring dignities and honors is entrusted to him so that all degrees of nobility and knighthood, and other titles, are received by immediate grant from the crown. And the king has also the prerogative of conferring privileges upon private persons such as granting place or precedence to any of his subjects such is also the power to enfranchise an alien and make him a denizen, and the prerogative of erecting corporations. The coining of money too, as well as the settling thedenomination or value for which it shall pass current, is the act of the sovereign power.
But to take all the characters into view in which the king is considered in domestic affairs would be almost endless for from thence an abundant number of prerogatives arise. All lands re covered from the sea , gold and silver mines, royal fishes etc. be long to him. He can unite, separate, enlarge, or contract the limits of ecclastical benefices and, by his letters, erect new bishoprics, colleges etc. He can dispense with the rigor of ecclesiastical laws except those which have been con firmed by act of parliament, or declared by the bill of rights. He has also power to moderate the rigor of the law to pardon a man condemned by law except in appeals of murder, and in case of impeachment by the house of commons, and to interpret by his judges in statutes and cases which are not defined by law.
But though he be entrusted with the whole executive power of the law, yet he cannot sit in judgment in any court for justice must be administered according to the powers committed and distributed to the several courts.
As the king is declared to be the supreme head in matters both civil and ecclesiastical so no suit can be brought against him even in civil matters because no court can have jurisdiction over him. The law also ascribes to the king in his political capacity absolute perfection. The king can do no wrong, by which ancient and fundamental maxim we are not to understand that every transaction of government is of course just and lawful but that whatever is exceptionable in the conduct of public affairs is not to be imputed to the king nor is he answerable for it personally to his people and farther that the prerogative of the crown extends not to do any injury. It is created for the benefit of the people and therefore cannot be exerted to their prejudice. In the king there can be no negligence and therefore no delay will bar his right. In the king also there can be no infamy, stain, or corruption of blood. And the law ascribes a kind of perpetuity, or immortality to him. His death is termed his demise , because the crown is thereby demised to another. He is not in law liable to Death, being a corporation of him self that lives for ever. There is no interregnum but the moment one king dies, his heir is king, fully and absolutely, without any coronation , ceremony etc. To these it may be added that by the law the king is said in a manner to be every where in all courts of judicature , which he alone has the right of erecting and therefore cannot be nonsuited.
The power of issuing proclamations is vested in the king alone, considered as the fountain of justice. The laws make it high treason barely to imagine or intend the death of the king, and because the destruction of the king may ensue that of his great counsellors or officers, it is felony in any of the king’s subjects to conspire even that. Some things the king cannot do. He cannot divest himself or successor of any part of the regal prerogative or authority and there are two things which he cannot do without the consent of Parliament:the making of new laws and the raising of new taxes. The king cannot dispense with the laws nor do any thing contrary to law. In England the law is as much superior to the king , as to any of his subjects and the obedienceof the king of England to the laws is his greatest glory while it is the security of the rights and liberties of his people who are the greatest as well as the freest people on the face of the earth , merely because their sovereigns are obliged to live insubjection to the written laws of the land.
The title of grace was first given to our kings about the time of Henry IV and that of majesty first to Henry VIII. The title of his present Majesty is , GEORGE the Third , King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Sovereign of the Orders of the Garter, Thistle, Bath and St. Patrick, Duke and Elector of Brunswick Lunenburg, Bishop of Osnaburg and Arch Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire.
