enumeration of the powers granted by this commission is pro bably the most authentic compendium that has been published of the function. of government ordinarily exercised by the crown. It does not, however, profane to be an enumeration of all the powers resident In the crown ; and it may be observed, that beeidee, perhaps, some appertaining to the office of supreme head of the church, the power of creating peers and conferring honour is not made over to the lords justices. That is a power which, we believe, never has been delegated, or attest,I to be delegated, If we except only the case of the patent granted Charles I., in 1644, to Lent Herbert (better known as the Earl of (1 n), which, alter the Restoration, ho was compelled to resign by the interference of the Mouse of Lords.
The Lords Judiee are further required, In the execution of their powers, punctually to observe his majesty's plosaure, as It might be from time to time expressed In instructions signed by the royal hand ; and the commindon was accompanied by a sot of instructions., twenty. one ID number, the most important things directed in which are, that no Bring. or benefice! In the gift of the crown which may become racant shall be disposed of without his majesty's directions; that no orders or directions concerning the disposition of money 'Judi be given before his majesty. pleasure shall have been signified thereupon ; and that there oust be. no exercise of the power dissolving the parliament, or calling new on., without special rignification of the royal pleasure. same ,as1r{etloo La put upon the exercise of the power of pinion ing, UPI some of the other power& In case however they should hold it necessary or expedient for the public service, the Lord. Justices are authorised to fill offices Immediately, and also to reprieve criminals ; and they are permitted to continue the existing parliament by short prorogations, until they should be otherwise directed under the royal sign manual, and to summon the privy council to meet as often as they shall see occasion.
1 The government was in the same manner intrusted by George I. to lords justices when he again went abroad in 1720, 1723, 1725, 1727.
Queen Caroline, wife of George 11., was so long as she lived always intrusted with the administration of the government when that sove reign went abroad. The 2 Goo. II. chap. 27, was passed in 1729, " To enable her majesty to be regent of this kingdom, during his majesty's absence, without taking the oaths ; " on the 15th of May thereafter, according to Salmon's ' Chronological Ilimtorian; a commission permed the great seal constituting her guardian and lieutenant of the kingdom during the king'. absence; and the wine authority states her to have been appointed guardian in 1732, and regent on the two other occa sions. A patent, with the like powers as that issued to the Prince of Wales in 1716, primed in 1732, appointing Queen Caroline guardian and lieutenant of the kingdom in the king's absence. Most probably all the four appointments were 'mule in the same manner and in the same terms. After the death of Queen Caroline, the government was always left during the reign of George in the hands of lords justices when the king went abroad; commiasiena and the accom panying instructions being on all oconsion.s nearly the same with those issued in 1719.
George III. during his long reign never left England. When George IV. went to Hanover, in September, 1821, nineteen guardians and lords justices were appointed, the Duke of York being the first. " Ono good effect arose from their appointment, that the lords justices during his (the king's) absence signed an immense number of military commissions and other documents, which had been accumulating since his accession to the throne." (' Morning Chronicle,' Aug. 11, 1815.) The writer of the newspaper article here quoted contends that " the royal authority of an English monarch cannot be personally exercised in a foreign country." " We take it;' he adds, " to be quite clear, that
a patent sealed with the great seal in a foreign country would be void. To guard against any such irregularity, the law requires that the patent shall state the place where it is signed and sealed as aped 1Vatmonaa. terium." Nevertheless, no provision such as had been customary on such occasions has been made for the exercise of the royal authority when her present majesty has temporarily left the kingdom. On one occasion the subject was (for what object does not appear) brought forward in the (louse of Lords by Lord Campbell, who, after stating at some length the course which he maintained had been uniformly taken down to the year 1843, asked if it was the intention that lords justices should be now appointed I The lord chancellor replied that the government had no such intention. "On the occasion of her majesty visiting the King of the French," his lordship is reported to have said, " the then Law officers of the crown, the present lord chief baron and the late Sir William Follett, had been consulted And after mature ration, these learned persons gave it as their decided opinion that it was not at all necessary in point of law that such an appointment should take place. . . . . In the present instance, aLso, the Law officers of the crown had been consulted as to whether it was necessary in point of law for her majesty to appoint a regency during her absence, and their reply was that it was in no degree necessary ; an opinion in which he entirely concurred." It ought to be mentioned that the seven persons appointed in 1705 by the 4 & 5 Anne, c. 8, and again in 1707, by the 6 Anne, c. 7, to administer the government along with other persons whom the new king or queen should have named, in case of his or her absence at the time from the kingdom, are styled lords justices iu the act, although called regents by Burnet, and in the common accounts. These lords justices (twenty-six in all) who actually came into office on the death of Queen Anne, 1st August, 1714, and continued till the arrival of the king on the 18th of September, enjoyed more extensive powers any others that have been appointed, at least in modern times. They were authorised to execute all powers of govenunent, in as full and ample manner as the next successor could use or execute the same if elle or he were present in person within this kingdom of Great Britain, until (inch successor should arrive, or otherwise determine their audio. rlty. The only restrictions laid upon them were, that they were not, without (Erection from the " queen or king," to dissolve parliament ; and that they would subject themselves to the pains of high treason If they gave the royal assent to any bill or bills for repealing or altering the Act of Uniformity, or the Act for the Establishment and Mainte. mance of the Presbyterian Church Government in Scotland.
The most Important of the facts we have stated have been derived from the report of the committee appointed by the !louse of Commons In 1788, " to examine and report precedents of such proceedings as may have been had in the case of the personal exercise of the royal authority being prevented or Interrupbel by infancy, sickness, infirmity, or otherwise," which is printed in the Journals of the House, vol. xliv., pp. 11-42. And some particulars may be gleaned from the accounts of the proceetlings in the two Houses of parliament on occasion of the king's Illness In 1788, Its reporttel in the Parliamentary History, voL xxvii., pp. 653-1297 ; and from the discussions on the Regency Bill from the beginning of November, 1810, to the middle of February, 1811, which nearly fill the 18th volume of the 'Parliamentary Debates.' One of the speeches which attracted most attention on the latter occa sion for its argument and research (that delivered by John Leach, Esq., afterwards vice-chancellor) was published in an authentic form, and may OD this subject be usefully consulted.