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THE ROYAL FAMILY. , [Book . duration the most permanent. It was the duty of an expounder of our laws to lay this constitution before the student in its true and genuine light: it is the duty of every good Englishman to understand, to revere, to defend it. (11) CHAPTER IV. OF THE KING'S ROYAL FAMILY. The first and most considerable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen. The queen of England is either queen regent, queen consort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or sovereign, is she who holds the crown in her own right; as the first (and perhaps the second) Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne; and such a one has the same powers, prerogatives, rights, digni- ties, and duties, as if she had been a king. This was observed in the entrance of the last chapter, and is expressly declared by statute 1 Mar. I, st. 3, c. 1. But the queen consort is the wife of the reigning king; and she, by virtue of her marriage, is participant of divers prerogatives above other women. (a) And first, she is a public person, exempt and distinct from the king: and not, like other married women, so closely connected as to have lost all legal or separate existence so long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of (a) Finch. L. 86. (11) By the constitution of the United States the president, who is the federal executive, is chosen by electors, who are themselves chosen by the people of the several states to perform that duty. Each state appoints in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a num- ber of 6lectors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in congress: Const. art. 2, § 1; and those electors meet in the respective states and vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of the persons voted for, at least, not being an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; the result of which voting is transmitted to the seat of government, and canvassed in joint convention of the two houses of congress. If no one person have a majority of all the votes cast for president, the house of representatives proceeds immediately to choose a president by ballot, from the persons, not exceeding three, having the highest number of votes; but in this election they vote by states, the representation of each state being entitled to one vote, and a majority of all the states being necessary to a choice. If no person has a majority of all the votes cast for vice-presi- dent, the senate, from the two highest numbers on the list, chooses a vice-president; a majority vote of a quorum of two-thirds of all the senators being requisite to an election. Const. 12th amendment. No person is eligible to either of these offices except a natural born citizen, or one who was a citizen at the time of the adoption of the constitution, and who has attained the age of thirty-five years. Const. art. 2, § 1. In case of the removal of the president from office or of his death, resignation or inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the same devolve on the vice-president. Const. art. 2, 1. And in case of vacancy in the office of vice-president, then such powers and duties devolve upon the president pro tern. of the senate, or, if there be no such officer, then upon the speaker of the house of representatives for the time being. 1 Stat. at Large, 239. And if the house of representatives shall not choose a president when the right devolves upon them, by the fourth day of March next following, the vice-president becomes acting president, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the president. Const. 12th amendment. The president and vice-president, like all other civil officers, are subject to be removed from office, on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Const. art. 2, § 4. By the constitution, as originally adopte(, the electors chosen in the states cast their votes for two persons, without designating which was their choice for president and which for vice- president, and the persons having the highest number, if a majority of all, became president, and the one having the next highest number, if a majority, became vice-president; but, when party lines came to be distinctly drawn, so that the candidates of one party, in the absence of intrigue or bad faith, were likely always to receive the same number of votes, the purpose of this scheme of election was wholly defeated, and the constitution, after the exciting election of Mr. Jefferson by the house of representatives, over Mr. Burr, who had been candidate before the people for the second ppsition only, was changed as above shown. 140 Chap. 4.] OF THE QUEEN REGENT. ability to purchase lands, and to convey them, to make leases, to grant copy- holds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can do: (b) a privilege as old as the Saxon era.(c) She is also capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her husband; and in this particular she agrees with the Augusta, or pii.ssma regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who according to Justinian, (d) was equally *capable of making a grant to, and receiv- ing one from, the emperor. The queen of England hath separate courts [*21 and offices distinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and solicitor general are entitled to a place within the bar of his majesty's courts, together with the king's counsel.(e) She may like- wise sue and be sued alone, without joining her husband. She may also have a separate property in goods, as well as lands, and has a right to dispose of them by will. In short, she is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme sole, and not as a feme covert; as a single, not as a married woman, (f) For which the reason given by Sir Edward Coke is this: because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king, (whose continual care and study is for the public, and circa ardua regni,) to be troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic affairs; and therefore it vests in the queen a power of transacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if she was an unmarried woman. The queen. hath also many exemptions and minute prerogatives. For instance: she pays no toll; (g) nor is she liable to amercement in any court.(h) But in general, unless where the law has expressly declared her exempted, she is upon the same footing with other subjects; being to all intents and purposes, the king' subject, and not his equal: in like manner as, in the imperial law, "Augusta legibus soluta non est."(i) The queen hath also some pecuniary advantages, which form her a distinct revenue: as in the first place, she is entitled to an ancient perquisite called queen-gold, aurum reginw, which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen consort during her marriage with the king, and due from every person who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in consideration of any privileges, grants, licences, pardons, or *other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king: and it r*220] is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the entire L*220 offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majesty by the mere recording of the fine. (k) (1) As, if an hundred marks of silver. be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chase, or free-warren: there the queen is entitled to ten marks in silver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum regince. (1) But no such payment is due for any aids or subsidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines imposed by courts on offenders, against their will; nor for voluntary presents to the king, without any consideration moving from him to the subject; nor for any sale or contract whereby the present revenues or possessions of the crown are granted away or diminished. (m) The original revenue of our ancient queens, before and soon after the con- quest, seems to have consisted in certain reservations or rents out of the demesne lands of the crown, which were expressly appropriated to her majesty, distinct from the king. It is frequent, in domesday book, after specifying the rent (b)4 Rep. 23. (e) Seld. Jan.Angl. 1, 42. The instance meant, loc.citat, Is where Ethelswith, wife to Burghred, king of the Mercians, granted a patent to Cathwals. (d) Cod. 5,16, 26. (e) Seld. tit. hon. 1 6, 7. (F) Finch. L. 86. Co. Litt. 133. (q)Co. Litt. 133. (h)Finch. L. 185. (1) 'f.1, 3,31. (k) -Pryn.Aur. reg. 2. () 12 Rep. Wi.
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