CHAPTER XVI. PROGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTION SINCE THE REVOLUTION. THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT: THE CABINET SYSTEM. The legal Code of the THE Revolution of 16SS marks at once a resting place constitution. and a fresh point of departure in the history of the English Constitution. The Bill of Rights was the summing up, as it were, and final establishment of the legal bases of the Constitution. With Magna Charta and the Petition of Right it forms the legal Constitutional Code, to which no additions of equal importance (except the constitutional provisions of the Act of Settlement to be presently noticed) have since been made by legislative enactment. Political progress has indeed, from time to time, left its mark on the statute-book, in laws the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. But even the greatest of these enactments—the Reform Act of 1832, supplemented by the Act of 1867-have been of the nature of amendments to the machinery of the Constitution, supplying defects and correcting abuses, rather than alterations in the great constitutional principles finally established by the Revolu Growth of the unwritten or tion. As might however be expected in a living organism, the Constitution has not remained stationary during a period CH. XVI.] Progress of Constitution since the Revolution. 663 constitution. of nearly two centuries. But its greatest changes have customary been brought about not by legislative enactment. Whilst the legal code has remained substantially unaltered, there has grown up by its side a purely unwritten and conventional code, which, firmly established as a part of the Constitution though still unknown to the law, has so completely modified the practical working of the legal code, as to form a present constitution which would be scarcely recognizable, except in its fundamental principles, by the authors of the Bill of Rights. The doctrines of Divine hereditary right, of absolute royal power, of the passive obedience of the subject, were negatived once and for ever by the Revolution, and the rule of Parliament was definitively established; but the mode of exercising that rule has since become something wholly different to what it then was, and in its present form of Parliamentary government through a Cabinet Ministry, forms the main characteristic of our constitutional system. The history of this remarkable development has now to Act of be briefly considered, but before doing so, it will be con- A.D. 1700. Settlement, venient to set out the text of the Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2), a statute important not only on account of the group of constitutional provisions embodied in it, which were to take effect from the accession of the House of Hanover, but also as the Title Deed of the reigning Dynasty, and a veritable original contract between the Crown and the People. 1 See Freeman, Growth of Eng. Const., p. 112. 2 The Act of Settlement is characterized by Hallam (Const. Hist. iii. 198) as 'the seal of our constitutional laws, the complement of the Revolution itself and the Bill of Rights, and the last great statute which restrains the power of the Crown.' ACT OF SETTLEMENT. 12 & 13 Wiil. III., c. 2 (A.D. 1700 and 1701). An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Whereas in the first year of the reign of your Majesty, and of our late most gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Mary (of blessed memory), an Act of Parliament was made, intituled, an Act for Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and for settling the Succession of the Crown, wherein it was (amongst other things) enacted, established, and declared, That the Crown and Regall Government of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging, should be and continue to your Majestie and the said late Queen, during the joynt lives of your Majesty and the said Queen, and to the survivor: And that after the decease of your Majesty and of the said Queen, the said Crown and Regall Government should be and remain to the heirs of the body of the said late Queen and for default of such issue, to her Royall Highness the Princess Ann of Denmark and the heirs of her body and for default of such issue, to the heirs of the body of your Majesty. And it was thereby further enacted, That all and every person and persons that then were or afterwards should be reconciled to or shall hold communion with the See or Church of Rome, or should professe the Popish Religion, or marry a Papist, should be excluded, and are by that Act made for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and Government of this Realm and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any Regall power, authority, or jurisdiction, within the same: And in all and every such case and cases the people of these Realms shall be and are thereby absolved of their allegiance: and that the said Crown and Government shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such person or persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said person or persons so reconciled, holding communion, professing, or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally dead. After the making of which Statute and the Settlement therein contained, your Majestie's good subjects, who were restored to the full and free possession and enjoyment of their Religion, Rights, and Liberties, by the providence of God giving success to your Majestie's just undertaking and unwearied endeavours for that purpose, had no greater temporall felicity to hope or wish for 1 Rot. Parl. 12 & 13 Gul. III. p. 1, n. 2; Statutes Revised, ii. 93. are dead; recommendca then [than] to see a Royall Progeny descending from your Majesty, to whom (under God) they owe their tranquility, and whose ancestors have for many years been principall assertors of the Reformed Religion and the Liberties of Europe, and from our said most gracious Sovereign Lady, whose memory will always be precious to the subjects of these Realms: And it having since and that the pleased Almighty God to take away our said Sovereign Lady, and late Queen also the most hopefull Prince William Duke of Gloucester (the and Duke of Gloucester only surviving issue of her Royall Highness the Princess Ann of Denmark), to the unspeakable grief and sorrow of your Majesty and your said good subjects, who, under such losses, being sensibly put in mind that it standeth wholly in the pleasure of Almighty God to prolong the lives of your Majesty and of her Royall Highness, and to grant to your Majesty, or to her Royall Highness, such issue as may be inheritable to the Crown and Regall Government aforesaid by the respective limitations in the said recited Act contained, doe constantly implore the Divine mercy for those blessings: And your Majestie's said subjects and that his having daily experience of your royall care and concern for the Majesty had present and future wellfare of these kingdoms, and particularly from the recommending from your throne a further provision to be made throne a for the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant line for the further prohappiness of the Nation and the security of our Religion; and it vision for being absolutely necessary for the safety, peace, and quiet of this Realm to obviate all doubts and contentions in the same by Crown in reason of any pretended titles to the Crown, and to maintain a the Protes certainty in the Succession thereof to which your subjects may tant line. safely have recourse for their protection in case the limitations in the said recited Act should determine: Therefore, for a further provision of the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant line, we, your Majestie's most dutifull and loyall subjects, the Lords Spirituall and Temporall, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, do beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted and declared, and be it enacted and declared by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That the The Princess most excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Dutchess Dowager Sophia, Elecof Hannover, daughter of the most excellent Princess Elizabeth, Duchess late Queen of Bohemia, daughter of our late Sovereign Lord Dowager of King James the First, of happy memory, be and is hereby Hanover, declared to be the next in succession in the Protestant line to the daughter of the late the Succes sion of the tress and Imperiall Crown and Dignity of the said Realms of England, Queen of France, and Ireland, with the Dominions and Territories there- Bohemia, unto belonging, after his Majesty and the Princess Ann of daughter Denmark, and in default of issue of the said Princess Ann and of of King his Majesty respectively: And that from and after the deceases James I., of his said Majesty our now Sovereign Lord, and of her Royall Successor to declared next the Crown after the King and the Princess Anne, in default of issue of the said Princess and his Ma jesty respectively; and the heirs of her body, being Pro testants. The persons inheritable by this let, holding communion with the Church of Rome in Highness the Princess Ann of Denmark, and for default of issue of the said Princess Ann and of his Majesty respectively, the Crown and Regall Government of the said kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, with the Royal State and Dignity of the said Realms, and all honours, stiles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, powers, jurisdictions, and authorities, to the same belonging and appertaining, shall be, remain, and continue to the said most excellent Princess Sophia and the heirs of her body, being Protestants: And thereunto the said Lords Spirituall and Temporall, and Commons, shall and will in the name of all the people of this Realm most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs, and posterities; and do faithfully promise that after the deceases of his Majesty and her Royall Highness, and the failure of the heirs of their respective bodies, to stand to, maintain, and defend the said Princess Sophia and the heirs of her body, being Protestants, according to the Limitation and Succession of the Crown in this Act specified and contained, to the utmost of their powers, with their lives and estates, against all persons whatsoever that shall attempt anything to the contrary. II. Provided always and it is hereby enacted that all and every person and persons who shall or may take or inherit the said Crown by vertue of the limitation of this present Act, and is, are, or shall be reconciled to or shall hold communion with the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the Popish Religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be subject to such incapacities as in such case or cases are by the said recited Act provided enacted capacitated as by the and established: And that every King and Queen of this Realm, former Act; who shall come to and succeed in the Imperiall Crown of this shall take the kingdom by vertue of this Act, shall have the Coronation Oath oath at their administered to him, her, or them, at their respective coronations, according to the Act of Parliament made in the first year of the reign of his Majesty and the said late Queen Mary, intituled An Act for establishing the Coronation Oath, and shall make, subscribe, and repeat the Declaration in the Act first above recited, mentioned, or referred to in the manner and form thereby prescribed. coronation according to Stat. 1 IV. M. c. 6. Further provisions for securing the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of these Realms. CONSTITU TIONAL SIONS. III. And whereas it is requisite and necessary that some further provision be made for securing our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, from and after the death of his Majesty and the Princess Ann of Denmark, and in default of issue of the body of the said Princess and of his Majesty respectively: Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same : (1.) That whosoever shall hereafter come to the possession of this Crown, shall joyn in communion with the Church of England as by law established. |