THE CROWN.
This brief general statement will aid us in understanding the origin, the historical and con stitutional value of the Crown, in its relation to the character and to the proceedings of the Parliament in Italy. We can then, in bolder lines, portray a doubleperiod which cor responds to the gradual development of our political organization. This political organiza tion in its dynastic concessions resembles a charter; as regards its title, its form, it is a statute, as regards the spirit that prompts it, the manner in which it has evolved, it is a true constitution on a parliamentary basis. In its outward and superficial appearance it differs little from other statutes in which, as in Prus sia, the ruler of the state is the head of the executive.
In Italy the statute has not the restrictive authority that it had in France in 1814, in Prus sia in 1850, in Austria in 1867, all of which rep resented royal concessions; and yet it still sug the old absolutism in many particulars. o the Italian statute, as regards jurisdiction, the same standard cannot ibe applied that politi cal science suggests in the examination of other constitutions. A scientific analysis will show that a statute conceded by royal initiative must have a special character. The king thought that by creating the organization neces sary for political government he would restrict his own power; but he really in this way or dained that such matters as referred to the exercise of power or freedom should be regu lated by This complication of regulations, restrictions of written (codified) principles forms a series of limitations that the head of the state has placed on his own actions, and which is anal ogous to the restrictions which the executive lays down by decree and ordinance. Without this we could not explain the Kovisions which do not come under the ordinary classification of the three forms of government. We shall merely cite the various forms of the !us Imperil which daily become more comprehen sive, and avoid the civic as they do the legal authority. These provisions, which assumed the form of royal decrees, represented the ex ercise of the highest sovereignty, and had some analogy with the orders of the Privy-Council in England; but on the other hand they must not be confounded with the royal enactments, such as those permitted by the charter of 1814 in France, which cost Charles X his throne and overthrew the Polignac Ministry, or with that which authorized the decree of May 1882 in Prussia.
It would be natural in Italy to expect a similarly enlarged sphere of royal authority which would appear to detract from the reality of parliamentary government. And in the pre liminary period of our constitutional history we have not a few instances of such a condition of affairs. But through the natural evolution of parliamentary government the rights immedi ately belonging to the Crown were preserved, and all the rest were included in the responsi bilities of a ministry directly responsible to a House of Deputies elected by the people.
The manner of procedure in the law of necessity, which comes up in extreme cases before any government, whether monarchist or republican, has not been clearly defined. The proclamation of a state of siege depends, in substance as well as form, on a royal decree which, although countersigned by all the mem bers of the Cabinet, does not guarantee it from possible abuses. While preserving to the exec utive the right of action by means of decrees, the limits of such a law of necessity should be fixed by means of laws such as they have in France and Germany; or better still, by the English method, which requires the interven tion of Parliament.
The Italian statutes contain various disposi tions in regard to the prerogative of the Crown, namely, the mass of guarantees ordained to maintain the prestige of the Crown and its pre eminence over a representative government, such as: the hereditary character of the Crown according to the Salk law (art. 2) ' • the in violability of the person of the king (art. 4); fixing his majority at 18 years of age (art. 11) ; the allowance to the members of the royal household; the regency, etc.