240

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

MAP.XVIII.J G<J I.

both constitutional and commercial, had been raised, whichthe legislature only could decide.

It has often been repeated, and ought never to be forgotten,that our polity differs widely from those polities which have,during the last eighty years, been methodically constructed,digested into articles, and ratified by constituent assemblies. Itgrew up in a rude age. It is not to be found entire in any formalinstrument. All along the line which separates the functions ofthe prince from those of the legislator there was long a disputedterritory. Encroachments were perpetually committed, and,if not very outrageous, were often tolerated. Trespass, merelyas trespass, ivas commonly suffered to pass unresented. It w'asonly when the trespass produced some positive damage that theaggrieved party stood on his right, and demanded that thefrontier should be set out by metes and bounds, and that thelandmarks should thenceforward be punctiliously respected.

Many of those points which had occasioned the most violentdisputes betw'een our Sovereigns and their Parliaments hadbeen finally decided by the Bill of Rights. But one question,scarcely less important than any of the questions which had beenset at rest for ever, was still undetermined. Indeed, thatquestion was never, as far as can now be ascertained, evenmentioned in the Convention. The King had undoubtedly, bythe ancient laws of the realm, large powers for the regulationof trade: but the ablest judge rvould have found it difficult tosay what was the precise extent of those powers. It rvas univer-sally acknowledged that it belonged to the King to prescribeweights and measures, and to coin money; that no fair ormarket could be held without authority from him; that no shipcould unload in any bay or estuary which he had not declaredto be a port. In addition to his undoubted right to grant specialcommercial privileges to particular places, he long claimed aright to grant special commercial privileges to particular socie-