Des, and the illiberal jealously that subasted between the patrons and students of each 4. The establishment of the court of Common Pleas at Westminster preserved the common law, and promoted its study in that neighbourhood, exclusive of the two universities 4. But the universities are now the most eligible places for laying the foundations of this, as of every other liberal accomplishment; by tracing out the principles and grounds of the law, even to their original elements SECTION II. Page 17-20 22 the unwritten or common law, and the written or statute law 2. The unwritten law includes, I. General customs. II. Particular customs. III. Particular laws 3. General customs, or the common law properly so called, are founded upon immemorial universal usage, whereof judicial decisions are the evidence ; which decisions are preserved in the public records, explained in the yearbooks and reports, and digested by writers of approved authority 31 4. Particular customs are those which are only in use within some peculiar districts; as gavel-kind, the customs of London, &c. OF THE NATURE OF LAWS IN GENERAL 38 to 61 1. Law is a rule of action prescribed by 2. Natural law is the rule of human ac- 6. Society is formed for the protection of 7. In all states there is an absolute supreme power, to which the right of lelegislation belongs; and which, by the singular constitution of these kingdoms, is vested in the king, lords, and commons 8. The parts of a law are, I. The declaratory which defines what is ht and wrong. II. The direc、ry; which consists in commanding the observation of right, or prohibiting the commission of wrong. III. The remedial; or method of recovering private rights and redressing private, wrongs. IV. The vindicatory netion of punishments for public wrongs; wherein consists the most forcible obligation of huallaws 9 To interpret a law, we must enquire after the will of the maker: which may be collected either from the words, the context, the subject-matter, the effects and consequence, or the spirit and reason of the law 10. From the latter method of interpretation arises equity, or the correction of that wherein the law (by reason of its universality) is deficient SECTION III. OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 38 39 39 41 43 44 47 48-51 53 4 59-61 61 63 to 91 1. The laws of England are of two kinds: 5. These-I. must be proved to exist; -II. must appear to be legal; that is, immemorial, continued, peaceable, reasonable, certain, compulsory, and consistent ;-III. must, when allowed, receive a strict construction 6. Particular laws are such as, by special custom, are adopted and used only in certain peculiar courts, under the superintendence and control of the common and statute law; namely, the Roman civil and canon laws 7. The written or statute laws are the acts which are made by the king, lords, and commons, in parliament; to supply the defects, or amend what is amiss, of the unwritten law 8. In order to give a more specific relief than can sometimes be had, through the generality of both the unwritten and written law, in matters of private right, it is the office of equity to interpose OF THE COUNTRIES SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 93 to 113 1. The laws of England are not received in their full extent in any other territories besides the kingdom of Eng. land, and the dominion of Wales;" which have, in most respects, an entire commanfon of laws 2. Scotia notwithstanding the union, 3. Berwick is governed by its own local ļ OT THE ABSOlute Rights OF INDIVI DUALS Page 122 to 144 1 The objects of the laws of England are, I. Rights. II. Wrongs 2. Rights are, the rights of persons, oi the rights of things 3. The rights of persons are such as concern, and are annexed to, the persons of men and, when the person to whom they are due is regarded, they are called (simply) rights; but, when we consider the person from whom they are due, they are then denominated duties 4. Persons are either natural, that is, such as they are formed by nature; or artificial, that is, created by human policy, as bodies politic or corporations 5. The rights of natural persons are, 1. Absolute, or such as belong to individuals. II. Relative, or such as regard members of society 6. The absolute rights of individuals, regarded by the municipal laws (which pay no attention to duties of the absolute kind), compose what is called political or civil liberty 7. Political or civil liberty is the natural liberty of mankind, so far restrained by human laws as is necessary for the good of society 122 122 123 123 123 123 125 129 129 133 8. The absolute rights, or civil liberties, of Englishmen, as frequently declared n Parliament, are principally three: the night of personal security, of personal liberty, and of private property 9. The right of personal security conBats in the legal enjoyment of life, imb, body, health, and reputation 10. The right of personal liberty consists in the free power of loco-motion, without illegal restraint or banishment 11. The right of private property consists in every man's free use and disposal of his own lawful acquisitions, without injury or illegal diminution 12. Resides these three primary rights, there are others which are secondary and subordinate; viz. (to preserve the former from unlawful attacks) I. The constitution and powerof Parliaments: II. The limitation of the king's prerogative-and (to vindicate them when actually violated): III. The regular administration of public justice: IV. The right of petitioning for redress of grievances: V. The right of having and using arms for self-defence 140-144 138 CHAPTER II. Page OF THE PARLIAMENT 146 to 189 1. The relations of persons are, I. Public. II. Private. The public relations are those of magistrates and people. Magistrates are supreme, or subordinate. And of supreme magistrates, in England, the Parliament is the supreme executive 2. Parliaments, in some shape, are of as 3. The parliament is assembled by the 146 147 150 160-167 153-160 5. With regard to the general law of parliament-its power is absolute; each house is the judge of its own pri vileges: and all the members of either house are entitled to the privilege of speech, of person, of their domestics, and of their lands and goods 6. The peculiar privileges of the lords (besides their judicial capacity) are to hunt in the king's forests; to be attended by the sages of the law; to make proxies; to iter protests; and to regulate the election of the sixteen peers of North-Britain 167 7. The peculiar privileges of the com mons are to frame taxes for the subject and to determine the merits of their own elections, with regard to the qualifications of the electors and elected, and the proceedings at elections them. selves ***.16 80 8. Bills are usually twice read in each house, committed, engrossed, and then read a third time; and when they have obtained the concurrence of both houses, and received the royal assent, they become acts of Parliament 9. The houses may adjourn themselves; but the king only can prorogue the Parliament CHAPTER III. 190 to 215 OF THE KING, AND HIS TITLE 1. The supreme executive power of this kingdom is lodged in a single person: the king or queen 2. This royal person may be considered with regard to, I. His title. II. His royal family. III. His councils. IV. His duties. V. His prerogative. VI. His revenue 3. With regard to his title; the crown of England, by the positive constitution of the kingdom, hath ever been descendible, and so continues 4. The crown is descendible in a course peculiar to itself 5. This course of descent is subject to limitation by Parliament 6. Notwithstanding such limitations, the crown retains its descendible quality, and becomes hereditary in the prince to whom it is limited 7. King Egbert, king Canute, and king William I., have been successively constituted the common stocks, or ancestors of this descent 8. At the revolution, the convention of estates, or representative body of the nation, declared, that the misconduct of king James II. amounted to an abdication of the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant 9 In consequence of this vacancy, and from a regard to the antient line, the convention appointed the next protestant heirs of the blood-royal of king Charles I. to fill the vacant throne, in the old order of succession; with a temporary exception, or preference, to the person of king William III. 10. On the impending failure of the protestant line of king Charles I., (whereby the throne might again have become vacant), the Parliament extended the settlement of the crown to the protestant line of king James I. viz. to the princess Sophia of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being protestants and she is now the common stock, from whom the heirs of the crown must descend CHAPTER IV. Pago Page 1. The king's councils are, I. The Parliament. II. The great council of peers. III. The judges, for matters of law. IV. The privy council 227-230 2. In privy counsellors may be consi dered, I. Their creation. 11. Their qualifications. III. Their duties. IV. Their powers. V. Their privileges. VI. Their dissolution 190 190 190 193 795 196 198 213 214 215 CHAPTER VI. 230-233 237 to 278 OF THE KING'S PREROGATIVE 1. Prerogative is that special power and pre-eminence, which the king hath above other persons, and of the ordinary course of law, in right of his regal dignity 237-239 2. Such prerogatives are either direct, 3. The direct prerogatives regard, I. 253-261 6. In foreign concerns; the king, as the representative of the nation, has the right or prerogative, I. Of sending and receiving embassadors. II. Of making treaties. III. Of proclaiming war or peace. IV. Of issuing reprisals. V. Of granting safe-conducts 7. In domestic affairs; the king is, first, a constituent part of the supreme legislative power; hath a negative upon all new laws; and is bound by no statute, unless specially named therein 261 8. He is also considered as the general of the kingdom, and may raise fleets and armies, build forts, appoint havens, erect beacons, prohibit the exportation of arms and ammunition, and confine his subjects within the realm, or recall them from foreign parts ?^9-266 9. The king is also the fountain of jus tice, and general conservator of the peace; and therefore may erect courts (wherein he hath a legal ubiquity), prosecute offenders, pardon crimes, and issue proclamations 266 10. He is likewise the fountain of honour, of office, and of privilege 11. He is also the arbiter of domestic commerce (not of foreign, which is regulated by the law of merchants); and is therefore entitled to the erection of public marts, the regulation of weights and measures, and the coinage or legitimation of money 12. The king is, lastly, the supreme head of the church; and, as such, convenes, regulates, and dissolves synods, nominates bishops, and receives appeals in all ecclesiastical causes CHAPTER VIII. Page 271 273 278 3. The king's ordinary temporal revenue consists in, I. The demesne lands of the crown. II. The hereditary exeise being part of the consideration for the purchase of his feodal profits, and the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption. III. An annual sum issuing from the duty on wine licences; being the residue of the same conside ration. IV. His forests. V. His courts of justice. VI. Royal fish. Wrecks, and things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan. VIII. Royal mines. IX. Treasure trove. X. Waifs. XI. Estrays. XII. Forfeitures for offences, and deodands. XIII. Escheats of lands. XIV. The custody of idiots and lunatics VII. 286-306 4. The king's extraordinary revenue consists in aids, subsidies, and supplies, granted to him by the commons in parliament 5. Heretofore these were usually raised by grants of the (nominal) tenth or fifteenth part of the moveables in every township; or by scutages, hydages, and talliages; which were succeeded by subsidies assessed upon individuals, with respect to their lands and goods 6. A new system of taxation took place about the time of the revolution; our modern taxes are therefore, I. Annual. II. Perpetual The annual taxes are, I. The land tax, or the antient subsidy raised upon a new assesment. II. The malt tax, being an annual excise on malt, mum, cyder, and perry 306 308 308 308-313 8. The perpetual taxes are, I. The customs, or tormage and poundage of all merchandize exported or imported. II. The excise duty, or inland imposition, on a great variety of commodities. 10. The produce of these several taxes were originally separate and specific funds, to answer specific loans upon their respective credits; but are now consolidated by parliament into three principal funds, the aggregate, general, and south-sea funds, to answer all the debts of the nation: the public faith being also superadded, to supply deficiencies, and strengthen the security of the whole 11. The surpluses of these funds, after paying the interest of the national debt, are carried together, and denominated the sinking fund; which, unless otherwise appropriated by parliament, is annually to be applied towards paying off some part of the principal 12. But, previous to this, the aggregate fund is now charged with an annual sum for the civil list; which is the immediate proper revenue of the crown, settled by parliament on the king at his accession, for defraying the charges of civil government CHAPTER IX. 326 329 330 330 OF SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES 338 to 365 1. Subordinate magistrates, of the most general use and authority, are, I. Sheriffs. II. Coroners. III. Justices of the peace. IV. Constables. V. Surveyors of the highways. VI. Overseers of the poor 2. The sheriff is the keeper of each coun- 3. Coroners are permanent officers of the 5. Constables are officers of hundreds 338-9 339 346 349 |