the sovereign power: and with respect to coinage in general, there are three things to be considered therein, - the materials, the impression, and the denomination. With regard to the materials, Sir E. Coke lays it down that the money of England must either be of gold or silver; and none other was ever issued by the royal authority till 1672, when copper farthings and halfpence were coined by king Charles II., and ordered by proclamation to be current in all payments under the value of sixpence, and not otherwise. But this copper coin is not upon the same footing with the other in many respects, particularly with regard to the offence of counterfeiting it. By the stat. 56 Geo. III. c. lxviii., gold is made the only legal tender for payments within the united kingdom exceeding forty shillings.

"As to the impression, the stamping thereof is the unquestionable prerogative of the crown; for though divers bishops and monasteries had formerly the privilege of coining money, yet, as Sir Matthew Hale observes,3 this was usually done by special grant from the king, or by prescription, which supposes one, and therefore was derived from, and not in derogation of, the royal prerogative. Besides that, they had only the profit of the coinage, and not the power of instituting either the impression or denomination, but had usually the stamp sent to them from the exchequer.

"The denomination for which the value is to pass current is in the breast of the queen; and if any unusual L. ff. de Contr. Empt. Vend....“electa materia est cujus publica æstimatio difficultatibus permutationum, æqualitate quantitatis subveniret "

....

1 2 Inst. 577.

2 By stat. 2 Wm. IV. c. xxxiv. the laws touching offences against the coin are consolidated and amended.

31 Hale, Hist. Pleas of the Crown, 191.

Х

pieces are coined, that value must be ascertained by proclamation. In order to fix the value, the weight and the fineness of the metal are to be taken into consideration together. When a given weight of gold or silver is of a given fineness, it is then of the true standard, and called esterling, or sterling metal, a name for which various reasons are assigned, but none of them entirely satisfactory; and of this sterling, or esterling, metal all the coin of the kingdom must be made, by the statute 25 Ed. III. st. 5, c. xiii. So that the queen's prerogative seemeth not to extend to the debasing or enhancing the value of the coin below or above the sterling value, though Sir Matthew Hale seems to be of another opinion."3 The queen may also by her proclamation legitimate foreign coin, and make it current here, declaring at what value it shall be taken in payments. But Blackstone is of opinion that this ought to be by comparison with the standard of our own coin, otherwise the consent of parliament is necessary.5

VI. The queen is, lastly, considered by the laws of England as the head and supreme governor of the national church.

By statute 26 Hen. VIII. c. i. (reciting that the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the church of England, and so had been recognised by the clergy of this kingdom in their convocation), it is

1 Spelman, Gloss. 203. Dufresne, iii. 165.

2 2 Inst. 577.

31 Hale, P. C. 194. A jury of goldsmiths, called a jury of the pix, is empanelled at certain intervals of time, who having been sworn, and received a charge from the lord chancellor, assay or try the fineness of a number of pieces of coin from the mint, and return a verdict finding the fact on their oaths. This is a very ancient proceeding. 4 1 Hale, P. C. 197.

5 Blackst. Com. ibid. p. 277, 278.

enacted that the king shall be reputed the only supreme head on earth of the church of England, and shall have annexed to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the style and title thereof, as all jurisdictions, authorities, and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the church appertaining. And another statute to the same purpose was made 1 Eliz. c. i.1

Here we must carefully distinguish the exaggerated and unsound meaning, which was attached by courtiers and lawyers to the title of supreme head, assumed, with the assent of the clergy, by Henry VIII., from the true and sound view of the ecclesiastical prerogative in which alone the church acquiesced. When it was proposed to the clergy of the convocation of Canterbury to acknowledge the king as supreme head of the church and clergy of England, they absolutely refused to pass this title simply and unconditionally; and after much discussion, the king was obliged to accept it with a proviso, introduced by the clergy, to the following effect: "We acknowledge his majesty to be the sole protector and supreme lord of the clergy and church of England, and (SO FAR AS IT IS LAWFUL BY THE LAW OF CHRIST) also supreme head."? It is clear that this proviso was sufficient to preserve the right of the church to submit to the royal prerogative, and the interference of the state, only so far as it could do so without violating those ecclesiastical obligations, and those rights of conscience, of which the church, and not the civil power, is the depository. This position

1 Blackst. Com. ibid.

2 Palmer, Treat. of the Church, v. i. p. 461. Burnet, Hist. Reform. vol. iii. p. 90-92, and vol. i. p. 205. Collier, vol. ii. p. 62.

3 On this subject see Grotius, De Imperio summarum Potestatum circa Sacra. Grot. Dr. de la Guerre, 1. ii. c. xx. § 44. Pufendorf, Dr. des Gens, 1. vii. c. iv. § 11, not. Barbeyrac. Pufendorf, Dissert.

claims no more for the church than every religious community is entitled to at the hands of the civil power, on mere principles of liberty of conscience. The intention of the church of England in making this recognition was only to admit a general power of external control and direction in ecclesiastical affairs to the king, without relinquishing any of the ancient rights of the church. It is an unfounded assertion, that the papal power was transferred to the king: the royal supremacy was of a perfectly distinct nature from the papal jurisdiction.'

But the statute of appeals, 24 Hen. VIII. c. xii., will afford us a clearer view of the nature of the royal supremacy. In that statute it is recited, that "by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same; unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by the names of spiritualty and temporalty, been bounded and owen to bear, next to God, a natural and humble obedience; he being also institute and furnished, by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God, with plenary, whole, and entire power, pre-eminence, authority, prerogative, and jurisdiction, to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk, resients, or subjects, within this his realm, in all causes, matters, debates, and contentions, happening to occur, insurge, or begin, within the limits thereof, without restraint, or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world; the body spiritual whereof having de Concordia veræ Politicæ cum Religione Christiana. De Marca Concordia Sacerdotii cum Imperio.

Palmer, Treat. of the Church, vol. i. p. 464-5.

power, when any cause of the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learning, then it was declared, interpreted, and shewed by that part of the said body politic, called the spiritualty, now being usually called the English church, which always hath been reputed, and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity, and sufficiency of number, it hath been always thought, and also is at this hour, sufficient and meet of itself, without the intermeddling of any exterior person or persons, to declare and determine all such doubts, and to administer all such offices and duties, as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain; for the due administration whereof, and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection, the king's most noble progenitors, and the antecessors of the nobles of this realm, have sufficiently endowed the said church both with honour and possessions; and the laws temporal for the trial of property of lands and goods, and for the conservation of the people of this realm in unity and peace, without rapine or spoil, was and yet is administered, adjudged, and executed, by sundry judges and ministers of the other part of the said body politic, called the temporalty; and both their authorities and jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of justice, the one to help the other."

Here we find a solemn recognition, by the supreme authority of parliament, of the existence of the church as a body distinct and separate from the state; the particular province allotted to each of those societies; and the duty of both to conjoin together in the due administration of the power committed to them respectively, the one to help the other. Thence we may learn the reciprocal relation and duties of the church and the state; and, at the same time, infer that the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical matters was not erected as a new power, but