MR. BOWYER'S ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
THE object of this volume is to present the reader with a general view of what may be called the constitutional law of England, or rather of the United Kingdom, in contradistinction to the civil and criminal law. Thus, the constituent parts of Parliament, its laws and customs—the Queen and her title, duties, authority, preroga- tive, and revenues, as well as the privileges, &c. of the Royal Family—are treated of at large. Judicial power and jurisdiction in general, with the particular courts in which they display them- selves, from the House of Peers, the Chancery, and the King's Bench, down to the Court of Piepoudre, are exhibited in their con- stitution, functions, and the extent of their jurisdiction. The na- ture and powers of? what may be termed our indigenous police, in opposition to professional law—as the shrievalty, coroners, justices of the peace, corporations, and parochial authorities—are also dis- cussed; as well as the rights of natural-born subjects, and the po- sition of aliens and denizens,—this last being an alien-born, but who has obtained ex donatione reg-is letters-patent to make him an English subject. A denizen may take lands by purchase or de- vise, which an alien may not ; but he cannot take by inheritance ; for his parent, through whom he must claim, had no inheritable blood, and therefore could convey none to the son ; and upon a like defect of inheritable blood, the issue of a denizen born before denization cannot inherit to him, but his issue born after may. Mr. Bowvan also considers such questions as the primary rights and liberties of Englishmen, not exactly as homo, but as subject ; the different orders of state, first as clergy and laity, and then the various degrees of each down to citizens and burgesses, which comprehends "merchants, tradesmen, artificers, and labourers."
The book is useful, supplying what many must have felt as a want ; for though they could have procured much of it from BLACK- STONE, yet they could not have obtained all, not to mention the various changes since he wrote : and what private reader, moreover, could have been at the trouble of the compilation ? The book is also well done ; and the notes of reference, which the author attaches to all his facts, will indicate a course of study to any one who desires to• pursue the subject further. The weakest parts are where Mr. Bowl-ea indulges in expatiations of his own ; which he does in respect to the divine nature and origin of the Church : but, as he seems to admit, that in dealing with matters where civil interests are concerned, the State is justified in controlling the ecclesiastical power, his views are purposeless. The veriest Volun- tary will let the Church be as divine as it pleases by its spiritual powers : his objection is to its demanding from the subject money, and from the state force.
Neither is the book unreadable. Of course it is not the readableness of a play, a poem, or a tale : but it has reality, matter and the interest attaching to cases or casuistry ; besides furnishing information upon topics in which we are all interested, and which though it lie a long while dormant may be called into use at any time. Here are a few specimens.
BIT ABOUT THE DUKE OP CORNWALL.
The heir-apparent to the crown is usually created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; but be is immediately on his birth Duke of Cornwall. This is a very peculiar species of inheritance, created by act of Parliament, whereof there is no other instance. The Dutchy of Cornwall is in the Queen until she has male issue • and on the birth of an heir-apparent, he will immediately become Duke of &rowan by inheritance ; but to hold the dukedom only so long as he does not inherit the crown and have a son and heir; for as soon as the father becomes King, the law vests the Dutchy of Cornwall in his heir-ap- parent.
PRECEDENCE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.
The younger sons and daughters of the Sovereign are entitled to a peculla place in the House of Lords ; for it is enacted by the stat. 31 Hen. VIII c. x. that no person except the King's children shall presume to sit or have place at the side of the Cloth of Estate in the Parliament Chamber. It was also de- cided by the House of Lords, to whom the settlement of the place and prece- dence of Edward Duke of York, second son of Frederick Prince of Wales, and grandson of George the Second, was referred by the King, that under the de- scription of the King's children his grandsons are included ; and that the Duke of York ought to kave place next to the Duke of Cumberland, the King's youngest son, and egb t have a seat on the left band of the Cloth of Estate. But when, by the decease of King George the Second, those royal personages ceased to be the children and became the brother and uncle of the reigning Sovereign, they, as Blackstone informs us, left their seats on the side of the Cloth of Estate ; so that when the Duke of Gloucester, second brother of King George the Third, took his seat in the House of Peers, lie wasplaced on the upper end of the Earls' bench, (on which the Dukes usually sit,) next to his Royal Highness the Duke of York.
ENGLISH GENTLEMEN.
" As for gentlemen," says Sir Thomas Smith, " they be made good cheap in this kingdom; for whosoever studieth the laws of the realm, who studieth in the universities, who professeth the liberal sciences, and (to be short) who can live idly and without manual labour, and will bear the port, charge, and coun- tenance of a gentleman, he shall be called master, and be taken for a gentle- man." Yet it would seem that, strictly speaking, according to the law, Lord Coke's definition is correct. " Every gentleman must be mina germs ; and the best trial of a gentleman in blood (which is the lowest degree of nobility) is by bearing of arms. . . . . So in these days the role is, nobiles aunt qui insig- nia gentiheia generis sui proferm possunt. And hence we may deduce that there are gentlemen by hereditary descent and gentlemen by grant of coat- armour.
The Court of Chivalry, which was .presided over by the Earl Marshal, is probably obsolete, and in Its best days it had the in- herent defect of wanting power to enforce its judgments ; but it might be of use now in keeping green gentlemen to the point in their "affairs of honour," and by hearing the matter face to face prevent discrepancies in their published reports. The long dis- cordant rigmarole, which has filled the columns of the daily press, touching LEY, WHAICALL, ROBERTSON, BORTHWICK, and Co., might have been reduced to a more regular shape, at all events, before the Court of Chivalry—that is, if a court of chivalry would have had any thing to do with them.
COURT OF CHIVALRY.
Certain general words in the statute 13 Rich. II. c. ii. support the claim of this court, " 1. To give relief to such of the nobility and gentry as think themselves aggrieved in matters of honour ; and 2. To keep up the distinction of degrees and quality. Whence it follows, that the civil jurisdiction of this Court of Chivalry is principally in two points; the redressing injuries of honour, and correcting encroachments in matters of coat-armour, precedency, and other distinctions of families. As a court of honour, it is to give satistaction to all such as are aggrieved in that point ; a point of a nature so nice and deli- cate, that its wrongs and injuries escape the notice of the common law, and yet are fit to be redressed somewhere. Such, for instance, as calling a man a coward, or giving him the lie ; for which, as they are productive of no imme- diate damage to his person or property, no action will lie in the Courts at West-ff rninster ; and yet they are such injuries as will prompt every man of spirit to demand some honourable amends; which, by the ancient law of the land, were appointed to be given in the Court of Chivalry. But modern resolutions have de. termined, that how much soever such a jurisdiction may be expedient, yet no action for words will lie therein."
" As to the other point of its civil jurisdiction, the redressing of encroach- ments and usurpations in matters of heraldry and coat-armour, it is the busi- ness of this court, according to Sir Matthew Hale, to adjust the right of ar- morial ensigns, bearings, crests, supporters, pennons, &c.; and also rights of place or precedence, where the King's patent or act of Parliament (which can- not be overruled by this court) have not already determined it"
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