RST, he is a constituent part of the supreme legislative power;
and, as such, has the prerogative of rejecting such provisions in
parliament, as he judges improper to be passed. The expediency of
which constitution has before been evinced at large[k]. I shall only
farther remark, that the king is not bound by any act of parliament,
unless he be named therein by special and particular words. The most
general words that can be devised ("any person or persons, bodies
politic, or corporate, _&c._") affect not him in the least, if they
may tend to restrain or diminish any of his rights or interests[l].
For it would be of most mischievous consequence to the public, if the
strength of the executive power were liable to be curtailed without
it's own express consent, by constructions and implications of the
subject. Yet where an act of parliament is expressly made for the
preservation of public rights and the suppression of public wrongs,
and does not interfere with the established rights of the crown, it is
said to be binding as well upon the king as upon the subject[m]: and,
likewise, the king may take the benefit of any particular act, though
he be not especially named[n].

[Footnote k: ch. 2. pag. 149.]

[Footnote l: 11 Rep. 74 _b._]

[Footnote m: 11 Rep. 71.]

[Footnote n: 7 Rep. 32.]

II. THE king is considered, in the next place, as the generalissimo,
or the first in military command, within the kingdom. The great end of
society is to protect the weakness of individuals by the united
strength of the community: and the principal use of government is to
direct that united strength in the best and most effectual manner, to
answer the end proposed. Monarchical government is allowed to be the
fittest of any for this purpose: it follows therefore, from the very
end of it's institution, that in a monarchy the military power must be
trusted in the hands of the prince.

IN this capacity therefore, of general of the kingdom, the king has
the sole power of raising and regulating fleets and armies. Of the
manner in which they are raised and regulated I shall speak more, when
I come to consider the military state. We are now only to consider the
prerogative of enlisting and of governing them: which indeed was
disputed and claimed, contrary to all reason and precedent, by the
long parliament of king Charles I; but, upon the restoration of his
son, was solemnly declared by the statute 13 Car. II. c. 6. to be in
the king alone: f