a public notice given of anything of which the king thinks proper to advertise his subjects.

Proclamations are a branch of the king's prerogative; and no person can make them without the king's authority, except mayors of towns, &c. by custom of privilege. Proclamations which require the people to do or not to do certain things, have the force of laws; but then they are supposed to be consistent with the laws already in being, otherwise they are superceded.