PRIVY COUNCIL (Consilium regis privatum, concilium secretum et continuum concilium regis). The pnvy council, or council table, consists of the assembly of the queen's privy councillors for matters of state. Their number was anciently about twelve, but is now indefi nitely increased. The present usage is, that no members attend the deliberations of the council who are not especially summoned for that purpose. They must be natural-born subjects of England, and are nominated by the crown without any patent or grant. After uomina tion and taking the bath of office, they immediately become privy councillors. Formerly they remained in office only during the life of the sovereign, who chose them subject to removal at his discretion ; but by 6 Anne, c. 7, the privy council continues in existence six months after the demise of the crown, unless sooner determined by the suc cessor, and they are to cause the successor to be proclaimed. The privy council of Scotland is now merged in that of England, by 6 Anne, c. 6. The duties of a privy cotmcillor, as stated in the oath of office, are, to the best of his discretion truly and impartially to advise the king ; to keep secret his counsel, to avoid corruption, to strengthen the king's council in all that by them is thought good for the king and his land, to withstand those who attempt the contrary, and to do all that a good councillor ought to do unto his sovereign lord. By the Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Wm. III. c. 2) all matters relating to the government properly cognizable in the privy council are to be trans acted there ; and all the resolutions taken thereon are to be signed by such of the privy council as advise and consent to them.
The court of privy council is of great antiquity ; and during earlier periods of our history appears not always to have confined itself to the entertainment of mere matters of state. It had always and still has power to inquire into all offences against the government ; but it often assumed the cognizance of questions merely affecting the property and liberties of individuals. This is evident from the complaints and remonstrances that so frequently occur in our history, and ultimately from the declaratory law of the 16 Chas. I. referring to such practices. Probably the very statement of Sir Edward Coke, that the subjects of their deliberation are the " publiquo good, and the honour, defence, safety, and profit of the realm .... private causes, lest they should hinder the publiquo, they leave to the justices of the king's courts of justice, and meddle not with them," proceeded from his knowledge that such limits had not always been observed, and his jealousy of their invasion. Several other passages in his works seem to show that this was so. The attempts to enlarge the jurisdiction of the council appear always to have been resisted as illegal ; and they were finally checked by the 16 Chas. I. c. 10. That statute recites that of lato years " the council-table bath assumed unto itself a power to inter meddle in civil causes, and matters only of private interest between party and party, and have adventured to determine of the estates and liberties of the subject, contrary to the laws of the :and, and the rights and privileges of the subject." By the same statute it is declared and
enacted that neither his majesty nor his privy-council have or ought to have any jurisdiction in such matters, but that they ought to be tried and determined in the ordinary courts of justice, and by the ordinary courts of law.
Subsequently however to this statute, in matters arising out of the jurisdiction of the courts of the kingdom, as in colonial and admiralty causes, and also in other matters, where the appeal was to the king himself in council, the privy council continued to have cognisance, even though the questions related merely to the property of individuals. By 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the powers of the high courts of delegates, both in ecclesiastical and maritime causes, were transferred to the king, in council. The decision of these matters being purely legal, it was found expedient to make some alterations in the court, for the purpose of better adapting it to the discharge of this branch of its duties. Instances had before occurred where the judges had been called in and had given extra-judicial opinions to the privy council; but the practice was inconvenient and unsatisfactory, and all necessity for it is now wholly removed. By the 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 41, the jurisdiction of the privy council is further enlarged, and there is constructed from it a body entitled "the judicial committee of the privy council," which now consists of the keeper of the great eeal, the chief justices, the master of the rolls, the chief baron, and other great judicial officers. Power is also given to the king by his sign manual to appoint any two other persons who are privy councillors to be members of the com mittee. The same powers for enforcing their decrees, &c., are given to the judicial committee as are possessed by the Court of Chancery, Queen's Bench, &e.
The privileges of a privy councillor, beyond those of mere honorary precedence, formerly related to the security of his person. If any one struck another a blow in the house or presence of a privy councillor, he was fineable. Conspiracy by the king's menial servants against the life of a privy councillor was felony, though nothing were done upon it. And by 9 Anne, c. 16, any unlawful assault by any person on a privy councillor in the execution of his office was felony.
These statutes have however been now repealed, by 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, and any offence against a privy councillor stands on the same footing as offences against any other individual. (1 Co. Lit.,' 110, a. n. 5 ; 3 Inst.,' 182; 4 Inst.,' 52; 1 Blackst. Com.' Mr. Kerr's edit., ch. 5; Hallam's 'Constitutional History.')