4. The making and repairing of Sewers and the doing all other necessary matters connected with the Public Health. 5. The Lighting, Paving, and Improvement of a Town or Village.

6. The Administration of the Laws in the case of all minor offices.

The popular nature and working of the Central Government is secured in the following ways :—

1. By the mode of electing Members of the House of Commons.

2. By the right and practice of Petitioning both Houses of Parliament, and of approaching the Queen's Ministers by Deputation.

3. By the system of Trial by Jury, through which in all the most important criminal prosecutions the final decision is given not by an Executive official, but by a body of twelve men, duly qualified, and impartially chosen out of the body of the people.

THE SOVEREIGN.

The succession to the Crown is regulated by an Act of Parliament passed in 1700, in the twelfth year of the reign of William III., and usually called the "Act of Settlement." * This Act limited the right of succession to the Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and grand-daughter of James I., and to her heirs being Protestants. It was also enacted by the same Statute that "whosoever shall hereafter come to the possession of this Crown shall join in Communion with the Church of England as by Law established."

* See Appendix A.

The Monarch may be either a King or a Queen. The present Queen began to reign in 1837. Her eldest son is called "Prince of Wales," and, if alive, will succeed to the throne at his mother's death. If he be not then alive, his eldest son or grandson will succeed; and if the son be not living, nor leave children, the Prince of Wales's second son will succeed, and so on. If none of the Prince of Wales's children or their children are living, then the Prince of Wales's next brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, and his children successively would come to the throne.

In the case of a minor (that is, for this purpose, one under eighteen years of age) being heir to the throne, a Regent is usually nominated in anticipation by Act of Parliament; and a Regent is similarly nominated in the case of the Sovereign becoming invalided, that is to say, permanently incapable of discharging his proper functions. In this last case some difficulty is experienced if the cause be sudden and unforeseen illness, as Parliament cannot act without the co-operation of the Sovereign. Hitherto this difficulty has been surmounted by such devices as acting without the Sovereign, but otherwise keeping as closely as possible to the principles and forms of the Constitution. A Regency Act describes the limits of the Regent's capacity, and provides, as far as is practicable, against the possibility of the Sovereign who is invalided or a minor being prejudiced, or the Constitution endangered, by the Regent's acts. the case of an invalid Sovereign it is customary, but not necessary, to select as Regent the heir to the throne. In the case of a minor, it is usual to select a parent or other near relation; and provision is also sometimes made against possible abuses by nominating a Council of advisers to share the Regent's responsibility in respect of all public

acts.

In

Though the Sovereign is capable of owning land and dealing with it in exactly the same way as an ordinary citizen, yet he is not dependent upon any such casual sources of

income for his support. All the property which once formed the main revenue of the Crown is now treated as furnishing part of the general State revenues, and the management of it is directly controlled by Parliament. In the stead of this precarious, indefinite, and generally insufficient provision for the Sovereign's personal expenses, and the expenses of the Royal Household, Parliament fixes, at the commencement of every reign, the yearly sum which shall be payable to the Crown for all the expenses not directly of a public kind. The yearly sum now paid to the Sovereign for his personal expenses is 60,000l. The sum paid for the expenses of the Court, pensions to servants, salaries and yearly payments, amounts to 385,000l., apart from special provision made on their marriage, by Act passed at the time, for the support of Members of the Royal Family. This sum, in addition to that paid for the Queen's personal expenses, is sometimes called the "Civil List," from the list of civil servants whose salaries were at one time payable out of the sum so set apart.

The functions of the Sovereign may be distinguished into those which are (1) in relation to Parliament, and those which are (2) Executive or Administrative.

In both respects the Sovereign is always held to act upon the advice of his Ministers, who are responsible to Parliament and the country. These Ministers, who form a compact body called the Cabinet, have entirely superseded in importance, though they have not even nominally displaced, the "Privy Council," of which they and all past Ministers with a number of other illustrious persons are members. The Cabinet is a sort of select and confidential Committee of advisers, presided over by the Prime Minister, who is now invariably the First Lord of the Treasury. The Cabinet is not known to the Law in any corporate capacity, nor is it recognised in any Act of Parliament or in any formal Parliamentary Proceedings. Each member of the Cabinet is responsible for any advice he gives personally to the Crown

or fails to give in a case in which his advice might be expected; and each member is responsible for the advice given by all or any one of the others unless he can prove his ignorance of it or his repudiation of it.

I. THE SOVEREIGN IN HIS RELATION TO

PARLIAMENT.

The Sovereign's functions in relation to Parliament may be described both negatively and positively, that is, by what he cannot do, and by what he can do.

1. Negatively. The Sovereign cannot by a mere exercise of his will, and without the assent of the two Houses of Parliament, make, alter, or suspend a law or impose any sort of tax. It is true that sometimes Parliament empowers the Sovereign in his Executive capacity to determine, "with the advice of his Privy Council," the time and place at which, and the extent to which, the provisions of a Law shall come into force. So, too, though the Sovereign cannot suspend the operation of a Law, yet, by his "prerogative of pardon," he can relieve particular offenders from the penalty attaching to their offence: but his advisers are held responsible for an abuse of this privilege. So, again, in the case of England becoming engaged in war, or taking up a position of "neutrality," the Sovereign issues a Proclamation notifying the fact and reminding the people of their legal duties and of the penalties attending the breach of them as provided by Acts of Parliament.

2. Positively. The Queen (acting by the advice of her Ministers) can prorogue Parliament whenever she pleases, and (except in one case) no Parliament can be assembled, prorogued, or dissolved except by her express command. If the Sovereign die while Parliament is sitting, or during prorogation, it continues to exercise, or resumes, its functions until prorogued or dissolved by his successor. If the

Sovereign die after the dissolution of one Parliament and before the day appointed for the assembling of a new one, the last preceding Parliament meets and continues for a period of six months, unless sooner prorogued or dissolved. Except by such an accidental extension of six months in the last-mentioned case, no Parliament can last longer than seven years. The Sovereign can dissolve Parliament whenever he pleases. He occasionally dissolves Parliament on the advice of his Ministers when it appears that they no longer possess the confidence of the House of Commons, and it seems probable that by "appealing to the people" a new House may be returned more favourable to them, or, at the least, that they may be secure in the belief that the judgment inside the House is fully supported by that outside it.

When a Parliament either comes to a natural end or is dissolved, all the members of the House of Commons and the Representative Peers of Scotland 'in the House of Lords are elected afresh. When Parliament is prorogued, the members of the two Houses are merely to be summoned afresh to meet again. A prorogation puts an end to all business then in progress in either House, except certain proceedings of a judicial nature, such as an Impeachment.

The annual meeting of Parliament is secured by the necessity of obtaining a grant from Parliament of the yearly supplies and of passing the annual Mutiny Act, which alone authorises the maintenance of a standing army. Parliament usually meets in the early part of February, and continues sitting, with a short vacation or "recess," at Easter and Whitsuntide, till the early part of August. This period is called a Session.

At the commencement of a new Parliament the cause of the summons must be declared to both Houses assembled together, either by the Sovereign in person or by Commissioners authorised by him for that purpose. On the first day of its meeting, the Commons are summoned to the House