king’s anſwer is declared by the clerk of the parliament in Norman-French: a badge, it muſt be owned, (now the only one remaining) of conqueſt; and which one could wiſh to ſee fall into total oblivion; unleſs it be reſerved as a ſolemn memento to remind us that our liberties are mortal, having once been deſtroyed by a foreign force. If the king conſents to a public bill, the clerk uſually declares, “le roy le veut, the king wills it ſo to be;” if to a private bill, “ſoit fait come il eſt deſirè, be it as it is deſired.” If the king refuſes his aſſent, it is in the gentle language of “le roy ſ’aviſera, the king will adviſe upon it.” When a money-bill is paſſed, it is carried up and preſented to the king by the ſpeaker of the houſe of commons[1]; and the royal aſſent is thus expreſſed, “le roy remercie ſes loyal ſubjects, accepte lour benevolence, et auſſi le veut, the king thanks his loyal ſubjects, accepts their benevolence, and wills it ſo to be.” In caſe of an act of grace, which originally proceeds from the crown and has the royal aſſent in the firſt ſtage of it, the clerk of the parliament thus pronounces the gratitude of the ſubject; “les prelats, ſeigneurs, et commons, en ce preſent parliament aſſemblees, au nom de touts vous autres ſubjects, remercient tres humblement votre majeſte, et prient a Dieu vous donner en ſante bone vie et longue; the prelates, lords, and commons, in this preſent parliament aſſembled, in the name of all your other ſubjects, moſt humbly thank your majeſty, and pray to God to grant you in health and wealth long to live[2].” 2. By the ſtatute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 21. the king may give his aſſent by letters patent under his great ſeal, ſigned with his hand, and notified, in his abſence, to both houſes aſſembled together in the high houſe. And, when the bill has received the royal aſſent in either of theſe ways, it is then, and not before, a ſtatute or act of parliament.
This ſtatute or act is placed among the records of the kingdom; there needing no formal promulgation to give it the force
