avowedly lodged in the hands of the ſubject only, to be exerted whenever prejudice, caprice, or diſcontent ſhould happen to take the lead. Conſequently it can no where be ſo properly lodged as in the two houſes of parliament, by and with the conſent of the reigning king; who, it is not to be ſuppoſed, will agree to any thing improperly prejudicial to the rights of his own deſcendants. And therefore in the king, lords, and commons, in parliament aſſembled, our laws have expreſſly lodged it.
4. But, fourthly; however the crown may be limited or transferred, it ſtill retains it’s deſcendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the wearer of it. And hence in our law the king is ſaid never to die, in his political capacity; though, in common with other men, he is ſubject to mortality in his natural: becauſe immediately upon the natural death of Henry, William, or Edward, the king ſurvives in his ſucceſſor. For the right of the crown veſts, eo inſtanti, upon his heir; either the haeres natus, if the courſe of deſcent remains unimpeached, or the haeres factus, if the inheritance be under any particular ſettlement. So that there can be no interregnum; but, as ſir Matthew Hale[1] obſerves, the right of ſovereignty is fully inveſted in the ſucceſſor by the very deſcent of the crown. And therefore, however acquired, it becomes in him abſolutely hereditary, unleſs by the rules of the limitation it is otherwiſe ordered and determined. In the ſame manner as landed eſtates, to continue our former compariſion, are by the law hereditary, or deſcendible to the heirs of the owner; but ſtill there exiſts a power, by which the property of thoſe lands may be transferred to another perſon. If this transfer be made ſimply and abſolutely, the lands will be hereditary in the new owner, and deſcend to his heir at law: but if the transfer be clogged with any limitations, conditions, or entails, the lands muſt deſcend in that chanel, ſo limited and preſcribed, and no other.
In theſe four points conſiſts, as I take it, the conſtitutional notion of hereditary right to the throne: which will be ſtill far-
- ↑ Hiſt. P. C. 61.
