Now the heir succeeds to the throne immediately on the decease of his prede cessor, so that the king, as the phrase is, never dies. The course of descent is to the sons and their issue, according to se niority; and if there is failure of male issue, the crown descends to a female. The person who succeeds by descent to the crown of England, succeeds also to the kingly office in Scotland and Ireland and in all the possessions of the British empire.
At the coronation of the king he makes oath to three things :—that he will govern according to law ; that he will cause jus tice to be administered ; and that he will maintain the Protestant church. [CoRo NATION.] His person is sacred. He cannot by any process of law be called to account for any of his acts. His concurrence is necessary to every legislative enactment. He sends embassies, makes treaties, and even enters into wars without any pre vious consultation with parliament. He nominates the judges and the other high officers of state, the officers of the army and navy, the governors of colonies and dependencies, the bishops, deans, and some other dignitaries of the church. He calls parliament together, and can at his pleasure prorogue or dissolve it. He is the fountain of honour : all hereditary titles are derived from his grant. He
can also grant privileges of an inferior kind, such as markets and fairs.
This is a very slight sketch of the powers that belong to the kings of Eng land; but the exercise of any or all of these powers is practically limited. The king cannot act politically without an agent, and this agent is not protected by that irresponsibility which belongs to the king himself, but may be brought to ac count for his acts if he transgress the law. The agents by whom the king acts are his ministers, whom the king selects and dis misses at his pleasure ; but practically he cannot keep a ministry which cannot command a majority in the House of Com mons; and virtually, all the powers of the crown, which make so formidable an array on paper, are exercised by the chief minister, or prime minister, for the time. [CABINET.] The king now does not even attend the cabinet councils ; and the power which in theory belongs to his kingly office, and in fact in earlier periods was exercised by him, is now become purely formal. But though the king of England has lost his real power, he has obtained in place of it perfect security for his person, and for the transmission to his descendants of all the honour and re spect due to the head of the most exten sive and powerful empire on the globe.