ment, or doing any act in conformity with the declaration, shall be protected, as they would have been by the express order of the court, made in such suit (ƒ). 4. There may also take place in the course of a suit-and sometimes without bill (g),-certain occasional or interlocutory incidents, viz. motions (h) and petitions (i). The first of these may be made at all stages of a suit, and are analogous to motions in the court of common law (k): but with this difference, that instead of granting, on a hearing ex parte, a rule to show cause in the first instance, a court of equity. proceeds, in the first instance, to a hearing of the parties on both sides; requiring him, however, by whom the motion is made, to give previous notice to his adversary of the nature and time of the intended application. A petition, also, is an incident of an interlocutory kind similar in general to a motion; but adopted in certain cases where a more special statement is required, than can conveniently be comprised in a mere notice of motion. Such statement is accordingly prepared in the form of a petition to one of the judges in equity,―concluding with a prayer of the appropriate relief; on which a day is appointed by the judge for the hearing, and a copy of the petition and the appointment served on the opposite party. 5. Finally, it is to be remarked, that, though a suit in chancery is in general instituted by bill, this is not invariably the case,- for where the equitable rights of the Crown are concerned, (or the rights of those who are under its particular protection, such as the objects of a public charity,) the matter of complaint is brought forward by way of information filed in the name of the attorney-general or of the solicitor-general (7). If the rights of the Crown itself are not concerned, this is done at the instance of some person whose name is inserted in the information; and who is termed the relator, and made responsible for costs. Proceedings in chancery indeed in the matter of charities, may also be by another method. For by 52 Geo. III. c. 101, in all cases of breach of charitable trust-or whenever the direction of a court of equity shall be deemed necessary for the administration of such trust-any two or more persons may, (on obtaining the previous sanction of the attorneygeneral or solicitor-general,) apply for relief by way of petition to the Lord Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, or Keeper of the Great Seal; and such person shall be heard in a summary way; and the order which the court makes thereon shall be conclusive, unless within two years afterwards there be an appeal to the House of Lords (m). CHAPTER XIV. OF INJURIES PROCEEDING FROM OR AFFECTING THE CROWN. HAVING thus considered the civil injuries, or [private wrongs, that may be offered by one subject to another,-all of which are redressed by the command and authority of the sovereign signified by his writs returnable in his several courts of justice, which thence derive jurisdiction of examining and determining the complaint,—we proceed now to inquire into the mode of redressing those injuries, to which the Crown itself is a party. Which injuries are either when the Crown is the aggressor,-and which therefore cannot without a solecism admit of the same kind of remedy (a); or else is the sufferer, and which then are usually remedied by peculiar forms of process appropriated to the royal prerogative. In treating therefore of these we will consider, first, the manner of redressing those wrongs or injuries which a subject may suffer from the Crown; and then of redressing those, which the Crown may receive from a subject. I. As to the method of redressing such injuries as the subject may receive from the Crown. That the sovereign can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution;] yet, as observed in a former part of this work, his acts may in themselves be contrary to law, and subject on that ground to reversal (b). (a) Bro. Ab. tit. Petition, 12, tit. Prerog. 2. (b) Vide sup. vol. 11. pp. 482, 498. For [whenever it happens that, by misinformation or inadvertence, the Crown hath been induced to invade the private rights of any of its subjects,] and the sovereign becomes by a proper representation informed of the injury sustained,—the law always then [presumes that to know of any injury and to redress it, are inseparable in the royal breast;] and [issues as of course, in the sovereign's own name, his order to his judges to do justice to the party aggrieved.] Though [the distance between the sovereign and his subjects is such that it rarely can happen,] as observed in a former place (c), [that any personal injury can proceed from the prince to any private man;] and the law [in decency supposes that it never can or will happen at all;] yet [injuries to the rights of property can scarcely be committed by the Crown without the intervention of its officers. And for these officers the law, in matters of right, entertains no respect or delicacy; but furnishes various methods of detecting the errors or misconduct of those agents, by whom the sovereign has been deceived and induced to do a temporary injustice.] As in ordinary cases, however, the Crown itself is the medium through which justice is obtained, so no relief can in general be had against the Crown by the ordinary methods of the common law or equity (d); but only by such (c) Vide sup. vol. 1. p. 499. (d) 3 Bl. Com. 255; Jenkins, 78; Finch, L. 83. It is said, in some books, that before the time of Edward the first, the king might be sued as a common person, the form being, "Præcipe Henrico regi Angliæ;" but this seems of questionable authority. (See Bac. Ab. Prerog. E. 7.) Where the rights of the Crown, however, extend only to the superintendence of a public trust, as in the case of a charity, or where its rights are only in cidentally concerned, and no attempt 1 special forms of proceeding as the common law has provided for this particular case. [The common law methods of obtaining possession or restitution from the Crown, of either real or personal property, are 1st, by petition de droit or petition of right; 2ndly, by monstrans de droit, manifestation or plea of right (e): both of which may be preferred or prosecuted either on the common law side of the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer (f). The former is of use when the Crown is in full possession of any hereditaments or chattels, and the petitioner suggests such a right as controverts the title of the Crown, grounded on facts disclosed in the petition itself: in which case he must be careful to state truly the whole title of the Crown, otherwise the petition shall abate (g); and then, upon this answer being indorsed or underwritten by the Crown soit droit fait al partie—let right be done to the party (h),-a commission shall issue to inquire into the truth of the suggestion (i). After the return to which the attorney-general is at liberty to plead in bar; and the merits shall be determined upon issue or demurrer, as in suits between subject and subject. Thus, if a disseisor of lands which are holden of the Crown, dies seised without any heir, whereby the Crown is primâ facie entitled to the lands, and the possession is cast on it, either by inquest of office, or by act of law without any office found; now the disseisee shall, here, have remedy by petition of right,-suggesting the title of the Crown, and his own superior right before the disseisin made (k).] Attorney-General, 1 Ves. 445; Simpson v. Clayton, 4 Bing. N. C. 766; 2 Roll. Abr. 213; Mitf. Treat. on Pleadings in Chancery. (e) As to these remedies (the first of which is said to owe its origin to Edw. 1), see Co. Entr. 402, 419; Bro. Ab. tit. Prerog. 2; Fitz. Ab. tit. Error, 8; Smith v. Upton, 6 Man. & G. 252; Baron de Bode's case, 8 Q. B. 208; Simpson v. Clayton, ubi sup. See also a Treatise on the Prerogative of the Crown, by Mr. Chitty, jun.; where full information will be found as to the proceedings therein. (f) A petition of right may now, however, be instituted in any of the superior courts, (vide post, p. 71.) (g) Finch, L. 255. (i) Skin. 608; Rast. Ent. 461. |