CONSTITUTION
Under the name of a constitutional and hereditary monarchy the government of Britain is vested in a sovereign and the two houses of parliament - The House of Lords and the House of Commons .
Laws passed by these houses, and assented to by the sovereign, become the laws of the land. The stability of the centre of real power has changed greatly, in Great Britain .The sovereign's right of veto on acts of parliament has practically passed into desuetude, while of the two legislative houses the House of Commons, from its being the expression of the national will as whole, has become the real centre of power and influence.
Popular rights and liberties are thus secured by the fact that the most influential part of the legislature is composed of members dependent on the confidence and trust of popular constituencies. Thus though the powers of the parliament may be regarded as unlimited, yet it must always in the end give way before a decided and clear expression of public opinion. It is often said, therefore, that the constitution of Great Britain is in great part an unwritten law, and this unwritten law is continually receiving additions and adapting itself to the new force, and needs of the time. This natural flexibility of the British constitution is one of its greatest merits, and what most distinguishes it from the of other countries.
One of the best examples of this quiet growth of unwritten law is the position occupied by such a body as the cabinet a body never official recognized by any act of parliament, and wholly unknown to the written law, yet practically the highest executive body in the kingdom, though nominally the executive government is vested in the sovereign.
On this subject the late Mr. Bagehot remarks ; " The efficient secret of the English constitution may be described as the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers. According to the traditional theory as it exists in all the books, the goodness of our constitution consists in the entire separation of the legislative and executive authorities, but in truth its merit consists in their singular approximation. The connecting link is the cabinet. By that new word we mean a committee of the legislative body selected to be the executive body . "
THE SOVEREIGN
The fundamental maxim upon which the right of succession to the throne depends is, that the crown is, by common law and constitutional custom, hereditary, and that the right of inheritance may from time to time be changed or limited by parliament; under which limitations the crown still continues hereditary. It descends to the males in preference to the females, strictly adhering to the rule of primogeniture. The sovereign is of age at eighteen years. The heir to the crown has, since the time of Edward III., inherited the title of Duke of Cornwall, and receives that of Prince of Wales by letters patent.
The power of the sovereign is limited by the laws. The divine right, so obstinately maintained by the Stuarts, was never recognized by the nation, and William III., Mary, and Anne ascended the throne, according to express declarations, only by virtue of a transmission of the crown to them by the nation. But the maxim has been acknowledged, particularly since the Restoration, that there is no power in the state superior to the royal prerogatives: the acts of the king (queen) are therefore subject to no examination, and the king is not personally responsible to any tribunal: hence the maxim, The king (queen) can do no wrong. Yet there is sufficient provision for confining the exercise of the royal power within the legal limits.
| 1. | All royal acts are construed in accordance with the laws, and it is taken for granted that the king can never intend |
| anything contrary to law. | |
| 2. | The counsellors of the king are responsible for the royal acts, and, as well as all these who are concerned in the |
| execution of them, are liable to impeachment and examination, without the right of defending themselves by pleading the royal commands. | |
| 3. | The parliament and the judicial tribunals have also the right to discuss freely such royal act; and, in particular, parliament |
| and each individual member of the upper house, has. the right to make remonstrance's to the crown. | |
| 4. | Individuals are protected from any abuses of the royal power by the Habeas Corpus Act, the liability of the agents to |
| prosecution, the right of complaining to parliament and the liberty of the agents to prosecution, the right of complaining to parliament, and the liberty of the press . |
The king is the supreme head of the state in peace and war, the lord paramount of the soil, the fountain of justice and honour, and the supreme head of the church. He has the prerogative of rejecting bills in parliament, which, however, has not been exercised since the year 1692. As commander, or the first in military command within the kingdom, he has the sole power of raising and regulating fleets and armies, which, however, is virtually controlled by the necessity he is under of obtaining supplies from parliament . As the fountain of justice, and general conservator of the peace of the kingdom, he alone has the right of erecting courts of judicature, and all jurisdictions of courts are derived from the crown. As the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege, he has the power of conferring dignities, privileges, offices, &c. In the foreign relations of the nation he is considered the nations representative, and makes treaties, declares war, As advisers he has the privy-council and the cabinet
