But if, as will generally happen, the council is not of one mind, but is
divided in opinion, even after discussing the same subject two or three
times, there must be no further delay, but the different opinions are to
be submitted to the king, as in the twenty-fifth section of this chapter
we shall show.
18. Let it be also the duty of this council to publish the king's orders
or decrees, and to see to the execution of any decree concerning affairs
of state, and to supervise the administration of the whole dominion, as
the king's deputies.
19. The citizens should have no access to the king, save through this
council, to which are to be handed all demands or petitions, that they
may be presented to the king. Nor should the envoys of other
commonwealths be allowed to obtain permission to address the king, but
through the council. Letters, too, sent from elsewhere to the king, must
be handed to him by the council. And in general the king is to be
accounted as the mind of the commonwealth, but the council as the senses
outside the mind, or the commonwealth's body, through whose intervention
the mind understands the state of the commonwealth, and acts as it
judges best for itself.
20. The care of the education of the king's sons should also fall on
this council, and the guardianship, where a king has died, leaving as
his successor an infant or boy. Yet lest meanwhile the council should be
left without a king, one of the elder nobles of the commonwealth should
be chosen to fill the king's place, till the legitimate heir has reached
the age at which he can support the weight of government.
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