and partridges;
for the reparation of bridges and highways; for the punishment of
vagabonds or common beggars. Regulations concerning the police of the
country came properly under their inspection; and the laws of this
kind which they prescribed, had, if not a greater, yet a more durable
authority, than those which were derived solely from the proclamations
of the sovereign. Precedents or reports could fix a rule for decisions
in private property, or the punishment of crimes; but no alteration or
innovation in the municipal law could proceed from any other source than
the parliament; nor would the courts of justice be induced to change
their established practice by an order of council. But the most
acceptable part of parliamentary proceedings was the granting of
subsidies; the attainting and punishing of the obnoxious nobility, or
any minister of state after his fall; the countenancing of such great
efforts of power, as might be deemed somewhat exceptionable, when they
proceeded entirely from the sovereign. The redress of grievances were
sometimes promised to the people; but seldom could have place, while it
was an established rule, that the prerogatives of the crown must not
be abridged, or so much as questioned and examined in parliament.
Even though monopolies and exclusive companies had already reached an
enormous height, and were every day increasing to the destruction of all
liberty, and extinction of all industry, it was criminal in a member
to propose, in the most dutiful and regular manner, a parliamentary
application against any of them.

These maxims of government were not kept secret by Elizabeth, nor
smoothed over by any fair appearances or plausible pretences. They
were openly avowed in her speeches and messages to parliament; and
were accompanied with all the haughtiness, nay, sometimes bitterness of
expression, which the meanest servant could look for from his offended
master. Yet, notwithstanding this conduct, Elizabeth continued to be the
most popular sovereign that ever swayed the sceptre of England; because
the maxims of her reign were conformable to the principles of the
times, and to the opinion generally entertained with regard to the
constitution. The continued encroachments of popular assemblies on
Elizabeth's successors have so changed our ideas in these matters, that
the passages above mentioned appear to us extremely curious, and even,
at first, surprising; but they were so little remarked, d