sel, and even a master in chancery, for having incurred a præmunire, by questioning in a court of equity a judg ment in the court of king's bench, obtained by gross fraud and imposition. This matter being brought before the king, was by him referred to his learned counsel, for their advice and opinion; who reported so strongly in favour of the courts of equity, that his majesty gave judg ment in their behalf; but, not contented with the irre fragable reasons and precedents produced by his counsel, (for the chief justice was clearly in the wrong,) he chose rather to decide the question by referring it to the plenitude of his royal prerogative. Sir Edward Coke submitted to the decision, and thereby made atonement for his error: but this struggle, together with the business of commendams, in which he acted a very noble part, and his controlling the commissioners of sewers, were the open and avowed causes, first of his suspension, and soon after of his removal, from his office.

Lord Bacon, who succeeded lord Ellesmere, reduced the practice of the court into a more regular system; but did not sit long enough to effect any considerable revolution in the science itself: and few of his decrees which have reached us are of any great consequence to posterity. His successors, in the reign of Charles I., did little to improve upon his plan and even after the restoration the seal was committed to the earl of Clarendon, who had withdrawn from practice as a lawyer near twenty years; and afterwards to the earl of Shaftesbury, who, though a lawyer by educa tion, had never practised at all. Sir Heneage Finch, who succeeded in 1673, and became afterwards Earl of Nottingham, was a person of the greatest abilities and most uncorrupted integrity; a thorough master and zealous defender of the laws and constitution of his country; and endued with a pervading genius, that enabled him to discover and to pursue the true spirit of justice, notwithstanding the em barrassments raised by the narrow and technical notions which then prevailed in the courts of law, and the imperfect ideas of redress which had possessed the courts of equity. The reason and necessities of mankind, arising from the great change in property by the extension of trade and the abolition of military tenures, co-operated in establishing his plan, and enabled him in the course of nine years to build a system of jurisprudence and jurisdiction upon wide and

rational foundations; which have also been extended and improved by many great men, who have since presided in chancery. And from that time to this, the power and business of the court have increased to an amazing degree.

From this court of equity in chancery, as from the other superior courts, an appeal lies to the house of peers. But there are these differences between appeals from a court of equity, and writs of error from a court of law: 1. That the former may be brought upon any interlocutory matter, the latter upon nothing but only a definitive judgment: 2. That on writs of error the house of lords pronounces the judgment on appeals it gives direction to the court below to rectify its own decree.

The next court that I shall mention, is one that hath no original jurisdiction, but is only a court of appeal, to correct the errors of other jurisdictions. This is the court of Exchequer Chamber, in which writs of error from any one of the three superior courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer, are determined by the judges of the other two.

The house of peers is the supreme court of judicature in the kingdom, having at present no original jurisdiction over causes, but only upon appeals and writs of error, to rectify any injustice or mistake of the law, committed by the courts below. To this authority this august tribunal succeeded of course upon the dissolution of the aula regia. For, as the barons of parliament were constituent members of that court; and the rest of its jurisdiction was dealt out to other tribunals, over which the great officers who accompanied those barons were respectively delegated to preside; it fol lowed, that the right of receiving appeals, and superintending all other jurisdictions, still remained in the residue of that noble assembly, from which every other great court was derived. They are therefore in all causes the last resort, from whose judgment no farther appeal is permitted; but every subordinate tribunal must conform to their determinations: the law reposing an entire confidence in the honour and conscience of the noble persons who compose this important assembly, that, if possible, they will make themselves masters of those questions which they undertake to decide, and in all dubious cases refer themselves to the opinions of the judges, who are summoned by writ to advise

them since upon their decision all property must finally depend.

I must also mention another species of courts, of general jurisdiction and use, which are derived out of, and act as collateral auxiliaries, to the foregoing; I mean the courts of assise and nisi prius.

These are composed of two or more commissioners, who are twice in every year sent by the king's special commission all round the kingdom, (except London and Middlesex, where courts of nisi prius are holden in and after every term, before the chief or other judge of the several superior courts; to try by a jury of the respective counties the truth of such matters of fact as are then under dispute in the courts of Westminster-hall. These judges of assise came into use in the room of the ancient justices in eyre, justi ciarii in itinere; who were regularly established, if not first appointed, by the parliament of Northampton, A. D. 1176, 22 Hen. II. with a delegated power from the king's great court or aula regia, being looked upon as members thereof: and they afterwards made their circuit round the kingdom once in seven years for the purpose of trying causes. They were afterwards directed by magna carta, c. 12, to be sent into every county once a year, to take or receive the verdict of the jurors or recognitors in certain actions, then called recognitions or assises, the most difficult of which they are directed to adjourn into the court of common pleas to be there determined. The itinerant justices were sometimes mere justices of assise, or of dower, or of gaol-delivery, and the like; and they had sometimes a more general commission to determine all manner of causes, being constituted justiciarii ad omnia placita: but the present justices of assise and nisi prius are more immediately derived from the statute Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 30, which directs them to be assigned out of the king's sworn justices, associating to themselves one or two discreet knights of each county.

The judges upon their circuits now sit by virtue of five several authorities. 1. The commission of the peace. 2. A commission of oyer and terminer. 3. A commission of general gaol-delivery. The consideration of all which belongs properly to the criminal laws. But the fourth. commission is, 4, A commission of assise, directed to the justices and serjeants therein named, to take, together with

their associates, assises in the several counties; that is, to take the verdict of a peculiar species of jury, called an assise, and summoned for the trial of landed disputes, of which hereafter. The other authority is, 5. That of nisi prius, which is a consequence of the commission of assise being annexed to the office of those justices by the statute of Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 30, and it empowers them to try all questions of fact issuing out of the courts at Westminster, that are then ripe for trial by jury. These by the course of the courts are usually appointed to be tried at Westminster in some Easter or Michaelmas term, by a jury returned from the county wherein the cause of action arises; but with this proviso, nisi prius, unless before' the day prefixed, the judges of assise come into the county in question. This they are sure to do in the vacations preceding each Easter and Michaelmas term, which saves much expense and trouble. These commissions are constantly accompanied by writs of association, in pursuance of the statutes of Edw. I. and II. before mentioned: whereby certain persons, usually the clerk of assise and his subordinate officers, are directed to associate themselves with the justices and serjeants, and they are required to admit the said persons into their society, in order to take the assises, &c. ; that a sufficient supply of commissioners may never be wanting. But, to prevent the delay of justice by the absence of any of them, there is also issued of course a writ of si non omnes; directing that if all cannot be present, any two of them, a justice or serjeant being one, may proceed to execute the commission.

These are the several courts of common law and equity, which are of public and general jurisdiction throughout the kingdom. And, upon the whole, we cannot but admire the wise economy and admirable provision of our ancestors, in settling the distribution of justice in a method so well calculated for cheapness, expedition, and ease. By the constitution which they established, all trivial debts, and injuries of small consequence, were to be recovered or redressed in every man's own county, hundred, or perhaps parish. Pleas of freehold, and more important disputes of property, were adjourned to the king's court of common pleas, which was fixed in one place for the benefit of the whole kingdom. Crimes and misdemeanors were to be examined in a court by themselves; and matters of the revenue in another dis

tinct jurisdiction. Now indeed, for the ease of the subject and greater despatch of causes, methods have been found to open all the three superior courts for the redress of private wrongs: which have remedied many inconveniences, and yet preserved the forms and boundaries handed down to us from high antiquity. If facts are disputed, they are sent down to be tried in the country by the neighbours; but the law, arising upon those facts, is determined by the judges above: and, if they are mistaken in point of law, there remain in both cases two successive courts of appeal, to rectify such their mistakes. If the rigour of general rules does in any case bear hard upon individuals, courts of equity are open to supply the defects, but not sap the fundamentals, of the law. Lastly, there presides over all one great court of appeal, which is the last resort in matters both of law and equity; and which will therefore take care to preserve an uniformity and æquilibrium among all the inferior jurisdictions: à court composed of prelates selected for their piety, and of nobles advanced to that honour for their personal merit, or deriving both honour and merit from an illustrious train of ancestors: who are formed by their education, interested by their property, and bound upon conscience and honour, to be skilled in the laws of their country. This is a faithful sketch of the English juridical constitution, as designed by the masterly hands of our forefathers. Of which the great original lines are still strong and visible; and, if any of its minuter strokes are by the length of time at all obscured or decayed, they may still be with ease restored to their pristine vigour.

QUESTIONS.

How many Superior Courts of Justice were there in the times of the Saxons?

What was the Wittenagemote ?

What was the Aula Regia, and by whom, when, and why founded?
Who was the Chief Justiciar?

What led to make the Court of Common Pleas stationary ?
Was this example followed by any foreign kingdoms ?

What changes did Edward I. make in the courts of justice?

What is the difference between Pleas of the Crown, and Common Pleas?