Note 107 — PAPERS ON AMERICAN SUBJECTS, DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY TROUBLES. (continued 2)
Reading edition
[i. e.] All statutes respecting the general relation between the crown and the subject, not such as respect any particular or peculiar establishment of the realm of England. As for instance: by the 13th and 14th of Car. II. c. 2, the supreme military power is declared to be in general, without limitation, in his majesty, and to have always been of right annexed to the office of king of England, throughout all his majesty's realms and dominions; yet the enacting clause, which respects only the peculiar establishment of the militia of England, extends to the realm of England only: so that the supreme military power of the crown in all other his majesty's realms and dominions stands, as to this statute, on the basis of its general power, unlimited. However, the several legislatures of his majesty's kingdom of Ireland, of his dominions of Virginia, and of the several colonies and plantations in America, have, by laws to which the king hath given his consent, operating within the precincts of their several jurisdictions, limited the powers of it and regulated the exercise thereof.