Colony thus stated its views of the power of Parliament in the Empire:

I. That there is a difference between subjection to the laws in general, as all that dwell in England are, and subjection to some laws of State, proper to foreign plantations;

2. That we must distinguish between corporations within England and corporations of, but not within, England; the first are subject to the laws of England, yet not to every general law, as the City of London and other corporations have divers customs and by-laws differing from the common and statute laws of England. Again, though plantations be bodies corporate (and so is every city and commonwealth), yet they are also above the rank of an ordinary corporation.

In the Act of Parliament of 1649, declaring the estabishment of the Commonwealth, the power of Parliament was declared in language which did not differentiate its powers when sitting as the Parliament of the Realm from its powers when sitting as the Parliament of the Empire. The Act read:

Be it declared and enacted by this present Parliament, and by the authority of the same, that the people of England, and of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, are and shall be, and are hereby constituted, made, established, and confirmed, to be a Commonwealth and Free State, and shall from henceforth be governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the supreme authority of this nation, the representatives of the people in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as officers and ministers under them for the good of the people, and that without any King or House of Lords.

Virginia, however, after its revolt from the authority of the Commonwealth, procured its constitutional relationship to England, -and incidentally the constitutional relationship of all the Colonies,-to be thus expressed in the Articles of Surrender of March 12, 1651:

First: It is agreed that the Plantation of Virginia, and all the inhabitants thereof, shall be and remain in due obedience and subjection to the Commonwealth of England, according to the laws there established, and that this submission and subscription be acknowledged a voluntary act not forced nor constrained by a conquest upon the country, and that they shall have and enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the free born people of England.

Second: That the Grand Assembly as formerly shall convene and transact the affairs of Virginia, wherein nothing is to be acted or done contrary to the government of the Commonwealth of England and the laws there established.

Seventh: That the people of Virginia shall have free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places and with all nations according to the laws of that Commonwealth; and that Virginia shall enjoy all privileges equal with any English Plantations in America.

Eighth: That Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of the Grand Assembly, and so that neither forts nor castles be erected or garrisons maintained without their consent.

This constitutional settlement, by which it was agreed that Virginia was in a relationship of “due obedience and subjection" to the State of England (that is, in a relationship of such obedience and subjection as was due and proper on just principles of free Imperial government) necessarily implied that Parliament had only the powers which the State of England could exercise by virtue of this constitutional settlement.

The language used in the English statutes shows that from the time of the accession of William III., at least, the King was regarded as the King of the dominions and territories because England was the Imperial State on which these dominions and territories were dependent

and of which he was the representative, under the control and supervision of Parliament, for the performance of those duties requiring expert and diplomatic knowledge and action.

In the Coronation Oath established by the Act of 1688, the King was obliged to make oath

To govern the people of this Kingdom of England and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the statutes in Parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the same.

In the Oath of Allegiance established by Act of 1707, the person taking the oath was obliged to swear:

That our Sovereign is lawful and rightful King (or Queen) of this Realm, and of all other his (or her) Majesty's dominions and countries thereunto belonging.

This last expression is noticeable as showing that though the dependencies were then regarded as "belonging to" Great Britain, they were also regarded as "his Majesty's" dominions-that is, they were regarded as dependencies of the State of Great Britain, in the immediate charge of the King.

In the Navigation Act of 1696 (For Regulating Frauds and Preventing Abuses in the Plantation Trade) Parliament took occasion to declare its power over all the dependencies in Asia, Africa, and America by enacting that

All laws, by-laws, usages or customs at this time or which shall hereafter be in practice or endeavored or pretended to be in force or practice in any of the said Plantations which are in anywise repugnant to . . . this present Act or to any other law hereafter to be made in this Kingdom, so far as such law shall relate to and mention the said Plantations, are illegal, null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

This was an admission that the dependencies were entitled to a special régime distinct from that of the Realm,

accompanied by a claim that Parliament might determine the character of the régime in each particular instance.

The statehood of the Colonies was evidenced and declared by the manner and form of their political and corporate action. Their Local Governments "enacted" their "laws." In the Colonies, the General Court or the General Assembly enacted the laws; in the Provinces, the Governor or the Lord Proprietor, by the authority of the General Assembly, enacted them. There were occasional and temporary forms of enactment used which, if continued, might have given ground for claiming that the King was a part of the Provincial Government. Thus, in Maryland, from 1654 to 1658, the form of the enacting clause was: It is enacted in the name of his Highness the Lord Protector, with the consent and by the authority of this present General Assembly." This form of enactment, which might have contained an admission that Maryland was a commonwealth co-ordinate with England and not a province belonging to and dependent upon England, was stopped in 1658 when Lord Baltimore was restored as Lord Proprietor, and the old form, "Be it enacted by the Lord Proprietary by and with the consent of the Upper and Lower House of the General Assembly," was again used until the Revolution.

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In 1682, immediately after Bacon's Rebellion, the form of enactment in Virginia was: "Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the General Assembly." This was stopped after two years and in 1682 the form was adopted which was not changed until the American Revolution: "Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Burgesses of the General Assembly and it is enacted by the authority aforesaid."

After Lord Baltimore was deprived of his proprietorship of Maryland in 1692, the form of the enacting clause was: "Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of this present

General Assembly, and the authority of the same. This continued until 1716, when the proprietorship was restored to the heirs of Lord Baltimore. Thenceforth the form of the enacting clause was: "Be it enacted by the right honorable the Lord Proprietary, by and with the advice and consent of his Governor and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly and the authority of the

same.'

These temporary exceptions, however, only serve to prove that it was the theory of the public law that the public acts in the American Colonies were to be enacted in the name of the Local Government, and not in the name of the King or of the Home Government. The practically universal form of the enacting clause, by which the Governor of the Province enacted "by and with the advice and consent of the Upper and Lower House of the General Assembly and by the authority of the same," shows that, in the public law of the British Empire, the Colonies were recognized as having statehood, and the State of Great Britain, as having a visitorial and superintending power over them.

It was thus established as the fundamental principle of the Constitution of the British Empire for the American Colonies that they were political persons,— that is, States, in the generic sense of that word,-subject, under constitutional conditions and limitations, to the State of Great Britain as the Imperial State or metropole of the Empire; that the King was the representative of Great Britain as the Imperial State, and that Parliament was also its representative, superior to the King. As between the Imperial State and the dependencies, the functions of the Imperial State were to determine the constitutions of the dependencies and to legislate for the Imperial defence and welfare; the function of the dependencies was to legislate for their local interests. Whatever the King consented to as a proper function of the Local Governments,