Note 10 — Chapter I

Blackstone (vol. iv. c. 6) has some rather perplexed reasoning on this statute, leaning a little towards the de jure doctrine, and at best confounding moral with legal obligations. In the latter sense, whoever attends to the preamble of the act will see that Hawkins, whose opinion Blackstone calls in question, is right; and that he is himself wrong in pretending that "the statute of Henry VII. does by no means command any opposition to a king de jure, but excuses the obedience paid to a king de facto.