reign, an act was made suspending Poyning's law with respect to all acts already passed, or to be passed in that parliament; the passing of which act was certainly a strong confirmation of what was before doubtful against the house of lords or commons in Ireland, whether they could bring in bills different from those transmitted by the council, since here they both consented to the suspension of the act to make valid the laws they had passed or should pass in that parliament, without that previous ceremony*.

But in the reign of Philip and Mary, by which time this opinion, before doubtful (for so it is mentioned in the act then made) was, however, to be maintained and strengthened, as it added power to the crown. The act we at present live under was made to prevent all doubts in the former, which was certainly framed in words calculated to create such doubts, to be extended in favor of the prerogative. This pro

But

vides, that as many causes and considerations for acts not foreseen before, may happen during the sitting of the parliament, the lord lieutenant and council may certify them, and they should pass, if they should be agreed to by the lords and commons. the great strokes in this new act were two, the first explanatory of part of the former in Henry the Sev enth's reign, that is, that the king and council of England should have power to alter the acts transmitted by the council of Ireland; secondly, the enacting part, that no acts but such as so came over, under the great seal of England, should be enacted; which made it clear, that neither lords or commons in Ireland had a right to frame or propose bills to the *Irish Statutes, p. 48.

crown, but that they must first be framed in the privy council of Ireland, afterwards consented to, or altered by the king, and the same council in England, and then appearing in the face of bills, be refused or accepted in toto by the lords and commons here*.

It is true, that both lords and commons have attempted, and gained an approach towards their ancient rights of beginning bills, not in that name, but under the name of Heads of Bills, to be transmitted by the council; but as the council are the first beginners of acts of parliament, they have assumed a power of modelling these also. The legislature of Ireland is, therefore, very complicated. First, the privy council of Ireland, who, though they may take the hint from the lords or commons, frame the bill, next the king and council of England, who have a power of alteration, and really make it a bill, unalterable, by sending it, under the great seal of England; then the two houses of lords and commons, who must agree in the whole, or reject the whole; and, if it passes all these, it is presented to the king for his assent; which indeed is but nominal, as it was before obtained.

*Irish Statutes, vol. 1. p. 143.

LECTURE XXIV.

Villenage....The Servi in Germany, mentioned by Casar and Tacitus, the predecessors of the Socmen or socage tenants in the feudal monarchy....Villeins in gross and villeins belonging to the land of the Lord....The condition of villeins.... The different ways by which a man may become a villein.... The means by which villenage or its effects may be suspended.

I NOW proceed to the lowest class of people that were in a feudal kingdom, who indeed, were not any part at all of the body politic, namely copyhold tenants, tenants in ancient demesne, and villeins, on which I shall not much enlarge, as villenage is worn out both in England and Ireland; and though the two former are common in England, yet there are none such in this kingdom. I shall begin with villenage, though the lowest, kind, as I apprehend the other two by the tacit consent of their lords, have for ages, from being villeins acquired the privileges that distinguished them from such.

In a former lecture I gave it as my opinion, that, while the nations of the north continued in Germany, there was no such order of men among them; but that the persons among those people who were called servi by Cæsar and Tacitus, were the predecessors of the socmen or socage tenants in the feudal monar、 chy; though they certainly had not all the privileges

the socmen acquired, and that after their settlements in their conquests, this rank was introduced, and formed out of their captives taken in war, in imita-. tion of the Roman slaves. In this I am strongly supported by my lord Coke, who quotes Bracton, Fleta, and the Mirror, concerning their origin, to the following purpose: "The condition of villeins who passed " from freedom into bondage in ancient time grew "by the constitution of nations, and not by law of na"ture; in which time all things were common to all, "and by multiplication of people, and making proper "and private those things that were common, arose "battles. And then it was ordained by constitution "of nations (he means by the tacit consent of civilized "nations) that none should kill another, but that he "that was taken in battle should remain bond to his "taker for ever, and he to do with him, and all that "should come of him, his will and pleasure, as with "his beast or any other cattle, to give, or to sell, or "to kill. And after, it was ordained for the cruelty "of some lords, that none should kill them, and that "the life and members of them, as well as of freemen, "were in the hands and protection of kings, and that "he that killed his villein should have the same "judgment as if he had killed a freeman*." This, it falls also to be observed, is the very account the Roman civil law gives of the original of servitude.

Villenage, therefore, was a state of servitude, erect ed for the purpose of doing the most ignoble, labori ous, and servile offices to the lord, according to his will and pleasure, whensoever called upon; such as the instances Littleton gives, of carrying and recarry. *Coke on Littleton, lib. 2. chap. 11. § 172.

ing dung, and spreading it on his lord's land. Brac ton thus defines it, purum villenagium est, a quo prestatur servitium incertum indeterminatum, ubi scire non poterit vespere quale servitium, fieri debet mane, viz. Ubi quis facere tenetur quicquid ei præceptum fuerit. So the most honorable service, the military one, was free, and its duties uncertain. The next in rank, the socage was free, and its duties certain. This, the lowest, was servile, and its duties uncertain*.

Of those villeins there were two kinds, villeins belonging to the person of the lord and his heirs, which our law calls villeins in gross, and villeins belonging to the land of the lord, and who, in consequence of the lands being aliened went over to the new acquirer, without any special grant. These were in the Roman law, called, servi adscriptitii glebæ, that is, slaves annexed to the soil, and by our lawyers villeins regardent to a manor ; for manors were, anciently, thus distributed. After the lord had reserved to himself a demesne contiguous to his castle, sufficient for the purpose of his house and his cattle, the remainder was generally divided into four parts; the first for settling such a number of military tenants as might always more than suffice to do the service due to the superior lord; the second for socage tenants, to plow the lord's demesne, or in lieu thereof, to render corn, cattle, or other things as stipulated by him; the third for villeins, for the purpose of carrying dung, felling timber, making inclosures, and other servile offices, as required by the lord at his pleasure; and the last share of land, was called the waste, or common, being generally woodland, and coarse pass *Bracton, lib. 4. cap. 28.