Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 edition. Excerpt: ... Henry the Eighth (as all other acts ought to be) shall be expounded to take away all inconvenience, and therefore by the general words of the acts, "honours and hereditaments," the dignity itself, with the lands given for maintenance of it, are given to the king, and the dignity is extinct in the crown." It appears from this case that, according to the spirit of the feudal constitution, the condition of personal residence was attached to the possession of baronial lands. Those who enjoyed them, stood, as it were, between the crown and the subject, acting on the one hand as local lieutenants for the sovereign, to preserve his prerogative and coerce rebellion, and on the other hand as conservators of the rights of the people among each other. Their duties, therefore, were not confined simply to legislation, but they also had an executive office, it being their duty to see that the laws were enforced and obeyed in their respective neighbourhoods. "Those who are earls," says Lord Coke, " have an office of great trust and confidence, and are created for two purposes;--to advise the king in time of peace, and defend the king and country in time of war; and, therefore, antiquity hath given them two ensigns to resemble those two duties; for first, their head is adorned with a cap of honour and a coronet, and their body with a Coke's Reports, part xiii. p. 106, et seq. robe, in resemblance of counsel; and, secondly, they are girt with a sword, in resemblance that they should be faithful and loyal to defend their prince and country." To fix a pecuniary standard for the peerage, and exactly settle the amount which should exempt a man from the legal penalties of poverty, may seem to be extremely difficult, but our ancestors had established a scale...
