Form of commission. Regency Form of royal assent by commission. XIX. In strict compliance with the words of this statute, the Chapter commission is always, "by the King himself, signed with his own hand," and attested by the Clerk of the Crown in chancery. But on the 7th March, 1702, William III. signed, with a stamp, the commission assenting to the Abjuration Act. And towards the latter end of the reign of George IV., it became painful to him to sign any instrument with his own hand, and he was enabled, by statute, to appoint one or more person or persons, with full power and authority to each of them to affix, in his Majesty's presence, and by his Majesty's command, given by word of mouth, his Majesty's royal signature, by means of a stamp to be prepared for that purpose; and the commission for giving the royal assent to bills on the 17th June, 1830, bears the stamp of the king, attested according to the provisions of that Act.3 2 On the 5th February, 1811, the Regency Bill received the royal assent by commission, under peculiar circumstances. The king was incapable of exercising any personal authority but the great seal was nevertheless affixed to a commission for giving the royal assent to that bill. When the Commons had been summoned to the bar of the House of Lords by the lords commissioners, the lord chancellor said, My lords and gentlemen, by the commands, and by virtue of the powers and authority to us given by the said commission, we do declare and notify his Majesty's royal assent to the Act in the said commission mentioned, and the clerks are required to pass the same in the usual form and words;' after which the royal assent was signified by the Clerk in the usual words, "Le roy le veult."4 The form in which the royal assent is signified by commission is as follows. Three or more of the lords commissioners, seated on a form between the throne and the wool-sack in the House of Lords, command the usher of the Black Rod to signify to the Commons that their attendance Forms of is desired in the house of peers to hear the commission read, see pp. 2 11 Geo. IV. c. 23. 3 62 L. J. 732. 15 Macaulay, Hist. 308. 48 ib. 70; 18 H. D. 1124; see also Debates, 27th Feb. 1804 (Com- message, 172, 173. XIX. Chapter upon which the Commons, with the Speaker, immediately come to the bar. The commission is then read at length, and the titles of the bills being afterwards read by the Clerk of the Crown, the royal assent to each is signified by the Clerk of the Parliaments, in Norman French; and is so entered in the Lords' Journal. A supply bill (see p. 596) being carried up by the Clerk of the House of Commons, is handed to the Clerk of the Parliaments by the Speaker, and receives the royal assent before all other bills. The assent is pronounced in the words, "Le roy remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult." For a public bill the form of expression is, "Le roy le veult; for a private bill, "Soit fait comme il est desiré; " upon a petition demanding a right, whether public or private, "Soit droit fait comme il est desiré." In an act of grace or pardon which has the royal assent before it is agreed to by the two houses, the ancient form of assent was, "Les prelats, seigneurs, et communes, en ce present parlment assemblées, au nom de touts vos autres sujets, remercient tres humblement vostre majesté, et prient à Dieu vous donner en santé bonne vie et longue; " but according to more modern practice, the royal assent has been signified in the usual form, as to a Royal public bill. The form of words used to express a denial of fused. the royal assent would be, "Le roy s'avisera." 8 The necessity of refusing the royal assent is removed by the strict observance of the constitutional principle, that the Crown has no will but that of its ministers, who only continue to serve in that capacity so long as they retain the confidence of Parliament. This power was last exercised in 1707, when Queen Anne refused her assent to a bill for settling the militia in Scotland.1 1 assent re Norman During the Commonwealth, the lord protector gave his Use of the assent to bills in English: but on the Restoration, the old French. form of words was reverted to; and only one attempt has since been made to abolish it. In 1706, the Lords passed Given by the King in person. XIX. a bill "for abolishing the use of the French tongue in all Chapter p. 207. The royal assent is rarely given in person, except at the Prorogation by the close of a session, when the King attends to prorogue the King in Parliament, and then he signifies his assent to such bills as person, see may have passed since the last commission was issued but bills for making provision for the honour and dignity of the Crown, such as bills for settling the civil lists, have generally been assented to by the sovereign in person, immediately after they have passed both houses. When the King gives Titles of his royal assent to bills in person, the Clerk of the Crown mitted to reads the titles, and the Clerk of the Parliaments makes an obeisance to the throne, and then signifies his Majesty's assent, in the manner already described. A gentle inclination, indicative of assent, is given by his Majesty, who has, 1 See Pref. to Statutes of the Realm, and Rep. of Stat. Law Commrs. 1835 (406), p. 16. 2 See Civil List Bills, 1820, 75 C. J. 258; 1831, 86 ib. 517; 1838, 93 ib. 227. In 1901 the royal assent to the Civil List Bill was given by commission, 156 ib. 282. On the 2nd Aug. 1831, the Speaker, after a short speech in relation to the bill for supporting the royal dignity of her Majesty Queen Adelaide, delivered it to the Clerk, when it received the royal assent in the usual form: but the Queen, attended by one of the ladies of her bedchamber, 2 and her maids of honour, was pre- bills sub the King, see p. 511. Chapter however, already given his commands to the Clerk of the XIX. the absence During the year 1876, her Majesty being about to visit Given in the continent during the session, it became a question sovereign's whether her Majesty could give her royal assent to bills, by from the commission, during her absence from the realm. No case realm. could be found in which the royal assent had been so given : but in the 2nd William and Mary, "for the exercise of the Government by his Majesty during his Majesty's absence" (in Ireland), there was a proviso that "nothing should be taken to exclude or debar his Majesty, during his absence from the realm, from the exercise of any act of royal power, but that every such act should be as good and effectual as if his Majesty was within this realm;" and it had been stated by the lord chancellor (Lyndhurst), 7th August, 1845, that any act which her Majesty "could do as sovereign would have as much validity and effect, if done on the continent of Europe, as if done in her own dominions." The lord chancellor (Cairns) also, in 1876, gave it as his opinion (privately) that her Majesty would be able to give the royal assent to bills while absent from the realm; and this course has been followed whenever the necessity arose. When Acts are passed, the original ingrossment rolls (or, Ingrosssince 1849, the authenticated vellum prints) are preserved ment rolls. in the House of Lords; and all public and local and personal Acts, and nearly all private Acts, are printed by the King's printer; 2 and printed copies are referred to as evidence in courts of law. The original rolls or prints may also be seen when necessary, and copies taken, on the payment of certain fees. Act. All Acts of Parliament, of which the commencement was Commencenot specifically enacted, were formerly held, in law, to take ment of effect from the first day of the session: but the Clerk or clerk assistant of the Parliaments is now required by Act 33 Geo. III. c. 13, to indorse, in English, on every Act of 182 H. D. 3 s. 1515. 2 See debate on printer's error in the Elementary Education Act, 1891, 18th Feb. 1892, 1 Parl. Deb. Forms not binding in the pro gress of bills. Bills passed with unusual expedition. XIX. Parliament, immediately after the title, the day, month, and Chapter The forms commonly observed by both houses, in the a third time see p. 501. In the ordinary progress of a bill, the proceedings either Bills read follow from day to day, or some days are allowed to inter- forthwith, vene between each stage subsequent to the first reading; yet when a pressing emergency arises, bills are passed through all Procedure their stages in the same day, and even by both houses,2 and nity bills, the royal assent has also been signified on the same day.8 see p. 461. 1106 C. J. 82. 209; 108 ib. 412. 578; 109 ib. 96; 114 ib. 138; 134 ib. 300. 258 C. J. 645. 646; 98 ib. 491; 103 ib. 770; 107 ib. 77. 363. 378; 108 ib. 21; 110 ib. 294; 121 ib. 239. 3 Bill for recruiting the land forces, 3rd April, 1744, 24 ib. 636639; Seamen's Additional Pay Bill, 9th May, 1797, 52 ib. 555. 557. 558. Habeas Corpus Suspension (Ireland) Bill, 17th Feb. 1866, 121 ib. 88. In this latter case, the bill was passed by both houses on a Saturday, and the Queen being at Osborne, the commission, with the bill annexed, was forwarded to her Majesty in the on indem |