merchants one of the articles of their national liberty[1].” But indeed it well juſtifies another obſervation which he has made[2], “that the Engliſh know better than any other people upon earth, how to value at the ſame time theſe three great advantages, religion, liberty, and commerce.” Very different from the genius of the Roman people; who in their manners, their conſtitution, and even in their laws, treated commerce as a diſhonorable employment, and prohibited the exerciſe thereof to perſons of birth, or rank, or fortune[3]: and equally different from the bigotry of the canoniſts, who looked on trade as inconſiſtent with chriſtianity[4], and determined at the council of Melfi, under pope Urban II, A. D. 1090, that it was impoſſible with a ſafe conſcience to exerciſe any traffic, or follow the profeſſion of the law[5].
These are the principal prerogatives of the king, reſpecting this nation’s intercourſe with foreign nations; in all of which he is conſidered as the delegate or repreſentative of his people. But in domeſtic affairs he is conſidered in a great variety of characters, and from thence there ariſes an abundant number of other prerogatives.
I. First, he is a conſtituent part of the ſupreme legiſlative power; and, as ſuch, has the prerogative of rejecting ſuch proviſions in parliament, as he judges improper to be paſſed. The expediency of which conſtitution has before been evinced at large[6]. I ſhall only farther remark, that the king is not bound by any act of parliament, unleſs he be named therein by ſpecial and particular words. The moſt general words that can be deviſed (“any perſon or perſons, bodies politic, or corporate, &c.”) affect not him in the leaſt, if they may tend to reſtrain or diminiſh any of
- ↑ Sp. L. 20. 13.
- ↑ Ibid. 20. 6.
- ↑ Nobiliores natalibus, et honorum luce conſpicuos, et patrimonio ditiores, pernicioſum urbibus mercimonium exercere prohibemus. C. 4. 63. 3.
- ↑ Homo mercator vix aut nunquam poteſt Deo placere: et ideo nullus chriſtianus debet eſſe mercator; aut ſi voluerit eſſe, projiciatur de eccleſia Dei. Decret. I. 88. 11.
- ↑ Falſa fit poenitentia [laici] cum penitus ab officio curiali vel negotiali non recedit, quae ſine peccatis agi ulla ratione non praevalet. Act. Concil. apud Baron, c. 16.
- ↑ ch. 2. pag. 154.
