COUNCIL, or COUNSEL, in a general sense, an assembly of divers considerable persons, to concert measures relating to the state.
CouxciL. In this country the law, in order to assist the King in the discharge of his duties, the maintenance of his dig nity, and the exertion of his prerogative, bath assigned him a diversity of councils to advise with.
1. The first of these is the high court of parliament. See PARLIAMENT.
2. The peers of the realm are by their birth hereditary counsellors of the crown, and may be called together by the King, to impart their advice in all matters of importance to the realm, either in time of parliament, or, which hath been their principal use, when there is no parlia ment in being. Accordingly, Bracton, speaking of the nobility of his time, says tbey might properly be called " consules consulendo ; reges enim tales sibi asso ciatit ad consulendum." And in the law books it is laid down, that the peers are created for two reasons : 1. Ad consulen dum ; 2. Ad defendendum regent ; - for which reasons the laws give them certain great and high privileges ; such as free dom from arrests, &c. even when no par liament is because fife law 'in tends, that they are always assisting the King with their counsel for the common wealth, or keeping the realm in safety by their prowess and valour.
Instances of conventions of the peers, to advise the King, have been in former times very frequent, though now fallen into disuse, by reason of the more regu lar meetings of parliament. Sir Edward Coke gives its an extract of a record, 5 Henry IV. concerning an exchange of' lands between the King and the Earl of Northumberland. Many other instances of this kind of meeting are to be found under our ancient kings ; though the formal method of convoking them had been so long left off, that when Charles, I. in 1640, issued out writs under the great seal, to call a council of all the peers of England to meet and attend his Majesty at York., previous to the meeting
of the long parliament, the Earl of Clarendon mentions it as a new inven tion, not before heard of; that is, as he explains himself, so old, that it had not been practised in some hundreds of years. But though there had not for a long time before been an instance, nor has there been any since, of assembling them in so solemn a manner, yet in cases of emergency, our princes have at seve ral times thought proper to call for, and consult as many of the nobility as could easily be brought together ; as was par ticularly the seise with James II after the landing of the Prince of Orange ; and with the Prince of Orange himself, be fore he called the convention parliament, which afterwards called him to the throne. Besides this general meeting, it is usually looked upon to be the right of each particular peer of the realm to de inand an audience of the King, and to lay before him, with decency and respect, such matters as lie shall judge of impor tance to the public weal.
3. A third council belonging to the King are, according to Sir Edward Coke, his judges of the courts of law, for law matters. And this appears frequently in the English statutes, particularly 14 Ed ward III. c. 5. and in other books of raw. So that when the King's council is mentioned generally, it must be de particularized, and understood, according to the snhject matter ; and if the subject be of a legal nature, then by.the King's council is understood his council for matters of law ; namely, his judges.
4. But the piincipal council belong ing to the King is his privy council, which is gtnerally, by way of eminence, called The Council. For an account of its constitution and powers, see COUNCIL, Privy.