COMMENTARIES, 5-6 DECEMBER 1787

the Legislature; he has the sole command of the fleets and armies, with
the appointment of all the offices and places dependent thereon, both
military and civil; he alone can levy troops, equip fleets and build for-
tresses. He is the source of all the Judicial power in the State; he is the
chief of all the tribunals, and the Judges are only his substitutes; every
thing is transacted in his name; the judgments must be with his seal,
and are executed by his officers. By a fiction in the law, he is looked
upon as the universal proprietor of the kingdom. He can pardon of-
fences. He is the fountain of honor, office and privilege; creates Peers
of the realm, and distributes titles and dignities. He is the head and
supreme governor of the national Church. In this capacity he appoints
the Bishops, and the two Archbishops; he alone convenes, prorogues
or dissolves the Convocation of the Clergy; his assent likewise is nec-
essary to the validity of their acts. He is the Superintendent of Com-
merce; he has the prerogative of regulating weights and measures; he
alone can coin money, and can give currency to foreign coin. He pos-
sesses the power of convening, proroguing and dissolving the Parlia-
ment; the collection, management and expenditure of an immense rev-
enue, deposited annually in the Royal Exchequer, with the appointment
of an almost innumerable tribe of officers dependent thereon. In fine,
what seems to carry so many powers to the height, is its being a fun-
damental maxim, that THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG; he is above
the reach of all Courts of law; he is accountable to no power whatever
in the nation; and his person is sacred and inviolable.
In the next place, we find an hereditary Nobility, and an order of
gownsmen totally dependent on the Crown, who form another distinct
branch of the Legislature, and a Court ofJudicature in cases of appeal.
This body of Nobility are created and encreased at the will of the
Crown. Here are then, two branches out of three of the Legislature,
wholly independent of the people. The House of Commons are, to be
sure, an elective body, and the only part of the Government in any
degree dependent on the people. They form, however, a very imperfect
representation of the collective body of the people. Out of 513, the
number of Members sent by England to Parliament, the Boroughs and
Cinque Ports send no less than 382. Some of these Boroughs contain
but one voter; many of them not more than ten; and the major part
of them less than one hundred. But if representation is so imperfect
and unequal, there still remains a most capital defect, as to the fre-
quency of elections, and the vague, uncertain footing this privilege of
the people, so indispensibly necessary to liberty, stands upon. No fixed
rule has been established for the duration of Parliament. But it is left
to the discretion of Parliament itself to lengthen or shorten its own

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