couple of ancestors (which conftitutes a kinfman of the whole blood) but from a fingle ancestor only; as when two perfons are derived from the fame father, and not from the fame mother, or vice verfa: provided only, that the one ancestor, from whom both are defcended, be that from whofe veins the blood royal is communicated to each. Thus Mary I inherited to Edward VI, and Elizabeth inherited to Mary; all children of the fame father, king Henry VIII, but all by different mothers. The reafon of which diversity, between royal and common defcents, will be better understood hereafter, when we examine the nature of inheritances in general.

3. THE doctrine of hereditary right does by no means imply an indefeafible right to the throne. No man will, I think, affert this, that has confidered our laws, conftitution, and hiftory, without prejudice, and with any degree of attention. It is unquestionably in the breast of the supreme legislative authority of this kingdom, the king and both houses of parliament, to defeat this hereditary right; and, by particular entails, limitations, and provifions, to exclude the immediate heir, and vest the inheritance in any one elfe. This is ftrictly confonant to our laws and conftitution; as may be gathered from the expreflion fo frequently ufed in our ftatute book, of "the king's majefty, his heirs, and fucceffors." In which we may observe, that as the word, "heirs," neceffarily implies an inheritance or hereditary right, generally subsisting in the royal perfon; fo the word, "fucceffors," diftinctly taken, muft imply that this inheritance may fometimes be broken through; or, that there may be a fucceffor, without being the heir, of the king. And this is fo extremely reasonable, that without fuch a power, lodged fomewhere, our polity would be

very defective. For, let us barely suppose fo melancholy a cafe, as that the heir apparent fhould be a lunatic, an idiot, or otherwife incapable of reigning: how miferable would the condition of the nation be, if he were alfo incapable of being fet afide!—It is therefore neceffary that this power should be lodged fomewhere: and yet the inheritance, and regal dignity, would be very precarious indeed, if this power were exprefsly and avowedly lodged in the hands of the subject only, to be exerted

N 2

erted whenever prejudice, caprice, or difcontent should happen to take the lead. Confequently it can no where be fo properly lodged as in the two houses of parliament, by and with the confent of the reigning king; who, it is not to be fuppofed, will agree to any thing improperly prejudicial to the rights of his own descendants. And therefore in the king, lords, and commons, in parliament affembled, our laws have expressly lodged it.

4. BUT, fourthly; however the crown may be limited or transferred, it still retains it's defcendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the wearer of it. And hence in our law the king is faid never to die, in his political capacity; though, in common with other men, he is fubject to mortality in his natural: because immediately upon the natural death of Henry, William, or Edward, the king furvives in his fucceffor, For the right of the crown vefts, eo inftanti, upon his heir ; either the haeres natus, if the courfe of defcent remains unimpeached, or the haeres factus, if the inheritance be under any particular fettlement. So that there can be no interregnum ; but, as fir Matthew Hale obferves, the right of fovereignty is fully invested in the fucceffor by the very defcent of the crown. And therefore, however acquired, it becomes in him abfolutely hereditary, unless by the rules of the limitation it is otherwise ordered and determined. In the fame manner as landed eftates, to continue our former comparison, are by the law hereditary, or defcendible to the heirs of the owner; but ftill there exifts a power, by which the property of those lands may be transferred to another perfon. If this transfer be made fimply and abfolutely, the lands will be hereditary in the new owner, and defcend to his heir at law: but if the transfer be clogged with any limitations, conditions, or entails, the lands muft defcend in that channel, fo limited and prefcribed, and no other.

Is thefe four points confifts, as I take it, the conftitutional notion of hereditary right to the throne: which will be ftill farther elucidated, and made clear beyond all difpute, from a

b Hit. P. C. 61.

fhort

fhort hiftorical view of the fucceffions to the crown of England, the doctrines of our antient lawyers, and the feveral acts of parliament that have from time to time been made, to create, to declare, to confirm, to limit, or to bar, the hereditary title to the throne. And in the purfuit of this inquiry we fhall find, that, from the days of Egbert, the first fole monarch of this kingdom, even to the prefent, the four cardinal maxims above-mentioned have ever been held the conftitutional canons of fucceffion. It is true, this fucceffion, through fraud, or force, or fometimes through neceffity, when in hoftile times the crown defcended on a minor or the like, has been very frequently suspended; but has generally at last returned back into the old hereditary channel, though fometimes a very confiderable period has intervened. And, even in thofe inftances where the fucceffion has been violated, the crown has ever been looked upon as hereditary in the wearer of it. Of which the ufurpers themselves were fo sensible, that they for the most part endeavoured to vamp up fome feeble fhew of a title by defcent, in order to amufe the people, while they gained the poffeffion of the kingdom. And, when poffeffion was once gained, they confidered it as the purchase or acquifition of a new eftate of inheritance, and tranfmitted or endeavoured to tranfmit it to their own pofterity, by a kind of hereditary right of ufurpation.

KING Egbert about the year 800, found himself in possesfion of the throne of the weft Saxons, by a long and undifturbed defcent from his ancestors of above three hundred years. How his ancestors acquired their title, whether by force, by fraud, by contract, or by election, it matters not much to inquire; and is indeed a point of fuch high antiquity, as must render all inquiries at best but plaufible guesfes. His right must be supposed indisputably good, because we know no better. The other kingdoms of the heptarchy he acquired, fome by confent, but most by a voluntary submiffion. And it is an established maxim in civil polity, and the law of nations, that when one country is united to another in fuch a manner, as that one keeps it's government and ftates, and the other lofes them; the latter entirely afsimilates

with or is melted down in the former, and muft adopt it's laws and customs. And in pursuance of this maxim there hath ever been, fince the union of the heptarchy in king Egbert, a general acquiefcence under the hereditary monarchy of the weft Saxons, through all the united kingdoms.

FROM Egbert to the death of Edmund Ironfide, a period of above two hundred years, the crown descended regularly, through a fucceflion of fifteen princes, without any deviation or interruption: fave only that the fons of king Ethelwolf fucceeded to each other in the kingdom, without regard to the children of the elder branches, according to the rule of fucceffion prefcribed by their father, and confirmed by the wittena-gemote, in the heat of the Danish invafions; and alfo that king Edred, the uncle of Edwy, mounted the throne for about nine years, in the right of his nephew a minor, the times being very troublesome and dangerous. But this was with a view to preferve, and not to deftroy, the fucceffion; and accordingly Edwy fucceeded him.

KING Edmund Ironfide was obliged, by the hoftile irruption of the Danes, at firft to divide his kingdom with Canute, king of Denmark; and Canute, after his death, feifed the whole of it, Edmund's fons being driven into foreign countries. Here the fucceffion was fufpended by actual force, and a new family introduced upon the throne: in whom however this new acquired throne continued hereditary for three reigns; when, upon the death of Hardiknute, the antient Saxon line was reflored in the perfon of Edward the confeflor.

He was not indeed the true heir to the crown, being the younger brother of king Edmund Ironfide, who had a fon Edward, firnamed (from his exile) the outlaw, ftill living. But this fon was then in Hungary; and, the English having just fhaken off the Danish yoke, it was neceflary that fomebody on the fpot fhould mount the throne; and the confeffor was the

Puff. L. of N. and N. b. S. c. 12. §. 6.

next of the royal line then in England. On his decease without iffue, Harold II ufurped the throne; and almoft at the fame inftant came on the Norman invasion: the right to the crown being all the time in Edgar, firnamed Atheling, (which fignifies in the Saxon language illuftrious, or of royal blood) who was the son of Edward the outlaw, and grandfon of Edmund Ironfide; or, as Matthew Paris well expreffes the fenfe of our old conftitution, "Edmundus autem latusferreum, rex na"turalis de ftirpe regum, genuit Edwardum; et Edwardus ge"nuit Edgarum, cui de jure debebatur regnum Anglorum.”

d

WILLIAM the Norman claimed the crown by virtue of a pretended grant from king Edward the confeffor; a grant which, if real, was in itself utterly invalid: because it was made, as Harold well obferved in his reply to William's demand, "abfque generali fenatus, et populi conventu et edicto;" which alfo very plainly implies, that it then was generally understood that the king, with confent of the general council, might difpofe of the crown and change the line of fucceflion. William's title however was altogether as good as Harold's, he being a mere private fubject, and an utter ftranger to the royal blood. Edgar Athcling's undoubted right was overwhelmed by the violence of the times; though frequently afferted by the English nobility after the conqueft, till fuch time as he died without iffue: but all their attempts proved unfuccefsful, and only ferved the more firmly to eftablish the crown in the family which had newly acquired it.

THIS Conqueft then by William of Normandy was, like that of Canute before, a forcible transfer of the crown of England into a new family: but, the crown being fo tranfferred, all the inherent properties of the crown were with it transferred alfo. For, the victory obtained at Haftings not being a victory over the nation collectively, but only over the perfon of Harold, the only right that the conqueror could pretend to acquire thereby, was the right to poffefs the crown of England, not to alter the nature of the government.

A. D. 1066.

e William of Malmsb. 1. 3.

N 4

f Hale, Hift. C. L. c. 5. Seld. review of tithes, c. 8.

And