PROCLAMATION

Public notice given by the king to his subjects. {See King, Privy Council.) The power of i uing proclamations is a branch of the king's prerogative, and vested in him alone. They have a binding force on the subject, in so far as they are grounded on and enforce the laws of the realm. They may be said to be of two sorts: the one, enforcing an actually existing law by giving it a particular application of time, place, and circumstance; the other, exercising an extraordinary power vested in the king, which until so exercised is dormant; as a proclamation to prohibit any subject from leaving the realm during a certain time. Proclamations must be under the great seal. By 31 H. 8. c. 8. it was enacted that the king's proclamations should have the force of law; an enactment which, while it subsisted, did, in effect, make a complete revolution in the government of this country. It was, however, repealed five years afterwards by 1 E. 6. c. 12. Neverthele , in later times, it was held by crown lawyers, that the king might suspend or dispense with an existing law in favour of particular circumstances. But by 1 W. & M. stat. 2. c. 2. it is declared that no such power exists. [s. 998]