The Star. THE PREROGATIVES AND PRIVILEGES OF THE KING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VX, Issue 7106, 31 January 1901, Page 2

The Star.

THE PREROGATIVES AND PRIVILEGES OF THE KING.

Delivered every evening b 6 o'clock iv Hawem, n I Mnnam, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltbaxn, | ( Mungatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opuuake, 1 Otakeho, Mnnutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, ( Patea, and Waverley.] I \ THURSDAY, JANUARY 81, 1901. j3j 3

In order that there may always be an existing head to the State, the King is regarded as a corporation ; he cannot die. There can only be a demise of the Crown, that i?, a transfer of the Eoyal authority to a different person. It is natural thet ' just now a great deal of interest is felt in the question as to what change in the policy of the nation is likely to be caused by the change in the personality of the Crown which has just taken place. There may possibly be greater expectations of a difference from the fact that there is a change in sex as well as in person By the theory of English law, the King is a perfect and irresponsible being, holding office by Divine right ; witness the heading of all writs, "Victoria, by the grace of God, of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen." In practice, the powpra of the King are defined and limited by law as was laid down as early as the 13th century. Thus, the p'-ercgative of Magna Charta, Confirmation, Cartarum, Prerogativa Regis, the Petition of Eights, the Habeas Coiyus Act, the Bill of Eights, and the Act of Settlement. These prerogatives remaining and existing are divided by Chief Baron Comyns into those affecting external and those affecting internal relations. " Under the first would fall the power of making war and concluding peace. As incidents of this power, the King has the right of sending find receiving ambassadors, of concluding treaties, and of granting passports, safe conduct?, letters of marque, and reprisals." It will be seen that these are very large powers, but some ma; be limited by international agreement, as has been done under the Declaration of 'Paris, 1 856, under which privateering was abolished as regards the signatory Powers. The prerogatives | affecting internal relations have for convenience of classification been divided into personal, political, judicial, ecclesiastical, and fiscal. In respect to the first, the King can do no wrong, is personally irresponsible for crime or tort, and any injury suffered by a subject is attributed to the mistake of his advisers. As a result), the King is apparently the only person in the kingdom who cannot arrest a suspected felon, because did he arrest an innocent person, there would be a wrong without a remedy. He cannot be guilty of laches or negligence. With such exceptions as prosecutions for treason and offences against the customs, no lapse of time will bar the right of the Crown to prosecute. In civil matters the Crown is barred of its right in suits relating to land by tha lapse of sixty years. The King is exempt from taxation, on the ground that, as the revenue is his prerogative, it is useless for him to tax himself. But lands purchased by the privy purse are liable to taxation. He is also exempt from tolls and from the poor rate. His person cannot be arrested, or his goods distrained or taken in execution, and in this respect the colonists of New Zealand are getting more like kings every year. No kind of judicial process can be executed in a palace as long as it is a royal residence, but if, like Hampton Court, royal residence has ceased, there is no such sanctuary, with one exception only, Holyrood House, where such immunity still exists. It does not, however, protect criminals or Crown debtors. There are also some minor privileges, such as the right to a royal salute, etc. Politically, the king is the supreme executive and co-ordinate legislative authority, and as such he has the right of pre eminence and the right to the allegiance of his subjects. His subjects cannot remain neutral, as some have tried to do at the Cape. All land is held of him. Land derelict suddenly by the sea, land newly discovered by subjects, anl islands arising in the sea are his. The lands discovered and settled by the Boers were the Crown's ; they became the property of the late republics by Convention. The King can summon Parliament by his writ, can dissolve or prorogue it at pleasure, but cannot prolong it beyond seven years. He can refuse his assent to a Bill, but this right has not been exercised since Queen Anne, in 1707, refused to assent to a Scotch Militia Bill. He has the power to issue proclamations, but they are only binding so far as they are founded upon and enforce 'the laws of the realm. They cannot alter the common law or create a new oUtnce. The King is not in general bound by an Act of Parliament unless named therein. He can recall a subject from abroad or forbid his leaving the realm by the writ of ne exeat regno. The King is the fountain of honour ; as such} he has the power of granting peerages at will. He virtually appoints the Lords spiritual, and all the peerages of the Lords temporal have been created by the late Queen or her predecessors. Thus the entire House of Lords is the creation of the Crown. He also confers all other titles of honour, whether hereditary or.nofc, and grants precedence and armorial bearings. The great officers of State are appointed by the King, with the restriction that he cannot create new offices with new fees attached to them, or attach new fees to old offices, because by doing so he would be taxing his subjects without Act of Parliament. He is in supreme command of the army and navy for the defence of the realm, but a safeguard to the King's using that power to the detriment of the State is set up by annually voting supplies for the army, when a provision of the Bill of Eights is recited, "that the raising or keeping of a standing army with'n the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with the consent of Parliament, is against the law." The army is thus practically made an annual institution. The King has also the power of constituting corporations, and is ex officio guardian of infants, idiots, and lunatics. Of course all prerogatives which are not purely personal are exercised through responsible Ministers. The King is the fountain of justice and the supreme conservator of the peace of the realm. The King was bound to the obsetvance of justice by Magna Charta, and the meaning of ".fountain of justice " has been described by Blackstone thus : — " The law does not mean tho author original, but the distributor. Justice is not derived from the sovereign, as from his free gift; but he is the steward of the public, to dispense to whom it is due." With the exception of certain local courts, th© King hafNthq appointment t»f aH judicial Qjpg&S, who act as hi* deputies, t Hfppg«nßtitute

legal courts for the administration of 1 I the general law of the land, but not J for courts not so intended, nor such courts as the Star Chamber, or the commissions of martial-law forbidden by the Petition of Right. The King has other privileges, judicial, ] ecclesiastical, and fiscal, but the lastmentioned are small in modern times, as the rents from Crown lands are so small, and feudal dues have ceased to exist, except in the cases of j escheat, royal fish, wreck?, treasure trove, waifs and strays, etc. The , theory that the King, being entrusted with the defence of the realm, must havo sufficient means given him for ( the purpose, is made practicable by , the army and navy vote we have mentioned and by the payment of what is called the civil list to the King in person. Ifc will be seen that the prerogatives in external affairs, the making of treaties and war, are those over which the public has least check, but the matter of supplies is an enormous safeguard. On the making of treaties the only check is the ceneure sure to fall on tho King's responsible advisers, in case of bad treaties, tut that in no way alters the provisions of the treaties made.