silent too; leaving to future generations,
whenever necessity and the safety of the whole shall require it, the
exertion of those inherent (though latent) powers of society, which no
climate, no time, no constitution, no contract, can ever destroy or
diminish.

II. BESIDES the attribute of sovereignty, the law also ascribes to the
king, in his political capacity, absolute _perfection_. The king can
do no wrong. Which antient and fundamental maxim is not to be
understood, as if every thing transacted by the government was of
course just and lawful, but means only two things. First, that
whatever is exceptionable in the conduct of public affairs is not to
be imputed to the king, nor is he answerable for it personally to his
people: for this doctrine would totally destroy that constitutional
independence of the crown, which is necessary for the balance of
power, in our free and active, and therefore compounded, constitution.
And, secondly, it means that the prerogative of the crown extends not
to do any injury: it is created for the benefit of the people, and
therefore cannot be exerted to their prejudice[r].

[Footnote r: Plowd. 487.]

THE king, moreover, is not only incapable of _doing_ wrong, but even
of _thinking_ wrong: he can never mean to do an improper thing: in him
is no folly or weakness. And therefore, if the crown should be induced
to grant any franchise or privilege to a subject contrary to reason,
or in any wise prejudicial to the commonwealth, or a private person,
the law will not suppose the king to have meant either an unwise or an
injurious action, but declares that the king was deceived in his
grant; and thereupon such grant is rendered void, merely upon the
foundation of fraud and deception, either by or upon those agents,
whom the crown has thought proper to employ. For the law will not cast
an imputation on that magistrate whom it entrusts with the executive
power, as if he was capable of intentionally disregarding his trust:
but attributes to mere imposition (to which the most perfect of
sublunary beings must still continue liable) those little
inadvertencies, which, if charged on the will of the prince, might
lessen him in the eyes of his subjects.

YET still, notwithstanding this personal perfection, which the law
attributes to the sovereign, the constitution has allowed a latitude
of supposing the contrary, in respect to both houses of parliament;
each of which, in it's turn, hath exerted the