Citt. I must confess I take the Government to be Coordinate, and the King One of the Three Estates, with submission to be better inform'd.
Against Coordination.
True. If it be so, how comes it that the House of Commons even in their most Popular seasons, have still own'd the Crown of England to be Imperial? How comes it that all our Laws are call'd the Kings Laws: all our Courts of Justice his Majesties Courts, and all Publick Causes try'd in the Kings Name, and by the Authority of his Majesty?
Citt. But have not the Two Houses their share in the Legislative Power?
It is the sanction makes the Law, not the Consent.
True. You must distinguish betwixt the Consent, and the Sanction; the Preparatory Part is Their's, the Stamp is the Kings: The Two Houses Consent to a Bill; It is only a Bill, when it is presented, and it remains yet a Bill, even when the King has Consented to it; and in this Common Consent, in Order to a Law, the Two Houses may be said to share with his Majesty: But then the Fiat, that superinduces an Authority, and is Only, and Properly the Act of Legislation, is singly in the King. So that though they share in the Consent, they have no pretence at all to the Sanction: which is an Act of Authority; the other but of Agreement.
The Inconveniences of a Coordination supposed.
And yet again, admitting your Coordination; First, every King runs the hazzard of his Crown upon every Parliament he calls: For That Third Estate lies at the Mercy of the Other Two: And further, 'tis a kinde of Ringing the Changes with the Government, the King and Lords shall be Uppermost One day, the King and Commons, Another, and the Lords and Commons, the Third: For in this Scale of Constitution whatsoever the One will not, the Other Two, may.
Citt. Well, but Ours is a MIXT Government, and we are a Free People.
Of a mixt Government and a Qualified.