his rights or intereſts[1]. 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 laid to be binding as well upon the king as upon the ſubject[2]: and, likewiſe, the king may take the benefit of any particular act, though he be not eſpecially named[3].
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: for that the ſole ſupreme government and command of the militia within all his majeſty's realms and dominions, and of all forces by ſea and land, and of all forts and places of ſtrength, ever was and is the
