a public notice given of anything of which the sovereign thinks proper to advertise his subjects. Proclamations form a branch of the sovereign's prerogative, and they have a binding force when they are grounded upon and enforce the laws of the realm. For, though the making of laws is entirely the work of the legislative branch of the sovereign power, yet the manner, time, and circumstances of putting those laws into execution must frequently be left to the discretion of the executive magistrate; and therefore his proclamations are binding upon the subject, where they do not either contradict the old laws or tend to establish new ones, but only enforce the execution of such laws as are already in existence, in such manner as the sovereign shall judge necessary.