Saxon aera[1]. She is alſo capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her huſband; and in this particular ſhe agrees with the Auguſta, or piiſſima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Juſtinian[2], was equally capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath ſeparate courts and officers diſtinct from the king’s, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and ſolicitor general are intitled to a place within the bar of his majeſty’s courts, together with the king’s counſel[3]. She may likewiſe ſue and be ſued alone, without joining her huſband. She may alſo have a ſeparate property in goods as well as lands, and has a right to diſpoſe of them by will. In ſhort, ſhe is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme ſole, and not as a feme covert; as a ſingle, not as a married woman[4]. For which the reaſon given by ſir Edward Coke is this: becauſe the wiſdom of the common law would not have the king (whoſe continual care and ſtudy is for the public, and circa ardua regni) to be troubled and diſquieted on account of his wife’s domeſtic affairs; and therefore it veſts in the queen a power of tranſacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if ſhe was an unmarried woman.
The queen hath alſo many exemptions, and minute prerogatives. For inſtance: ſhe pays no toll[5]; nor is ſhe liable to any amercement in any court[6]. But in general, unleſs where the law has expreſſly declared her exempted, ſhe is upon the ſame footing with other ſubjects; being to all intents and purpoſes the king’s ſubject, and not his equal: in like manner as, in the imperial law, “Auguſta legibus ſoluta non eſt[7].”
The queen hath alſo ſome pecuniary advantages, which form her a diſtinct revenue: as, in the firſt place, ſhe is intitled to an
