Excerpt from A Treatise on the Law of the Prerogatives of the Crown: And the Relative Duties and Rights of the Subject It may be matter of surprise, that in a country in which the public eye has ever minutely watched the progress of authority, a subject of such interesting importance as the "Prerogatives of the Crown," should not have elicited the most extensive and learned investigation. Whilst under some governments an attempt to discuss the limits of the royal power, would expose the presumptuous subject to the jealous apprehensions of tyranny, English history points out but few instances of periods in which the disclosure would have been dangerous; and the British constitution allows of none: it rather invites than represses the inquiry. For in this country, the relation of sovereign and subject combines reciprocal duties. The prerogative is not the iron tie of unbridled power: it holds the subject in the silken chain of mild subjection, for the general and permanent welfare of society; and as a general principle it affords the sovereign the liberty of restraint, only when the public good is the object in view. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.