manor.

and were bound by their feodal tenure to assist their lord in the dispensation of domestic justice. This was formerly held every three weeks; and it's most important business is to determine, by writ of right, all controversies relating to the right of lands within the It may also hold plea of any personal actions, of debt, trespass on the case, or the like, where the debt or damages do not [34] amount to forty shillings.1 Which is the same sum, or three marks, that bounded the jurisdiction of the antient Gothic courts in their lowest instance, or fierding-courts, so called because four were instituted within every superior district or hundred. But the proceedings on a writ of right may be removed into the county court by a precept from the sheriff called a "tolt," quia tollit atque eximit causam e curia baronum." And the proceedings in all other actions may be removed into the superior courts by the king's writs of pone, or accedas ad curiam, according to the nature of the suit. After judgment given, a writ also of false judgment lies to the courts at Westminster to rehear and review the cause, and not a writ of error; for this is not a court of record: and therefore, in some of these writs of removal, the first direction given is to cause the plaint to be recorded, recordari facias loquelam.

III. A hundred court is only a larger court-baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred instead of a manor. The free suitors are here also the judges and the steward the registrar, as in the case of a court-baron. It is likewise no court of record; resembling the former in all points, except that in point

1 Finch. 248.

m Stiernhook de jure Goth. 1. 1. c. 2.

n F. N. B. 3, 4. See append. No. I. ? 2.

o 3 Rep. pref.

p See append. No. I. 2 3.

q F. N. B. 4. 70. Finch. L. 444, 445.

r F. N. B. 18.

V

This is said

of territory it is of a greater jurisdiction. by sir Edward Coke to have been derived out of the county court for the ease of the people, that they might have justice done to them at their own doors, without any charge or loss of time:t but it's institution was probably coeval with that of hundreds themselves, which were formerly observed to have been introduced though not invented by Alfred, being derived from the polity of the antient Germans. The centeni, we may remember, were the principal inhabitants of a district composed of different villages, originally in number an hundred, but afterwards only [35] called by that name; and who probably gave the same denomination to the district out of which they were chosen. Cæsar speaks positively of the judicial power exercised in their hundred courts and courts-baron. 66 Principes regionum atque pagorum" (which we may fairly construe, the lords of hundreds and manors), “inter suos jus dicunt controversiasque minuunt." w And Tacitus,

who had examined their constitution still more attentively, informs us not only of the authority of the lords, but of that of the centeni, the hundredors, or jury; who were taken out of the common freeholders, and had themselves a share in the determination. "Eliguntur in conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt: centeni singulis, ex plebe comites, consilium simul et auctoritas, adsunt." This hundred court was denominated hæreda in the Gothic constitution. But this court, as causes are equally liable to removal from hence, as from the common court-baron, and by the

s Finch. L. 248. 4 Inst. 267.

t 2 Inst. 71.

v Vol. I. introd. 24.

Centeni ex singulis pagis sunt, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur; et, quod primo numerus fuit, jam nomen et honor est. Tac. de mor. Germ c. 6.

w de bell. Gall. l. 6. c. 22.

x de Morib. German. c. 13.

y Stiernhook. l. 1. c. 2.

same writs, and may also be reviewed by writ of false judgment, is therefore fallen into equal disuse with regard to the trial of actions.

IV. The county court is a court incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of forty shillings.z* Over some of which causes these inferior courts have, by the express words of the statute of Gloucester,a a jurisdiction totally exclusive of the king's superior courts. For in order to be entitled to sue an action of trespass for goods before the king's justiciars, the plaintiff is directed to make affidavit that the cause of action does really and bona fide amount to 408. which affidavit is now unaccountably disused, except in the court of exchequer. The statute also 43 Eliz. c. 6. which gives the judges in many personal actions, where the jury assess less damages than 40s. a power to certify the same and [36] abridge the plaintiff of his full costs, was also meant to prevent vexation by litigious plaintiff's; who, for purposes of mere oppression, might be inclinable to institute suits in the superior courts for injuries of a trifling value. The county court may also hold plea of many real actions, and of all personal actions to any amount, by virtue of a special writ called a justicies; which is a writ empowering the sheriff for the sake of dispatch to do the same justice in his county court, as might otherwise be had at Westminster. The freeholders of the county are the real judges in this court, and the sheriff is the ministerial officer. The great conflux of freeholders, which are supposed always to attend at the county court (which Spelman calls forum plebeia justitiæ et theatrum comitivæ potestatis a) is the reason why all acts of parliament at the end of every session were wont to be there published by the sheriff;

z 4 Inst. 266.

a

6 Edw. I. c. 8. b 2 Inst. 391.

c Finch. 318. F. N. B. 152,

d Gloss v. comitatus.

*Cited, 6 Vt. 576.

why all outlawries of absconding offenders are there proclaimed; and why all popular elections which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of sheriffs and conservators of the peace, and still of coroners, verderors, and knights of the shire, must ever be made in pleno comitatu, or, in fuil county court. By the statute 2 Edw. VI. c. 25. no county court shall be adjourned longer than for one month, consisting of twenty-eight days. And this was also the antient usage, as appears from the laws of king Edward the elder: "præpositus (that is, the sheriff) ad quartam circiter septimanam frequentem populi concionem celebrato: cuique jus dicito; litesque singulas dirimito." In those times the county court was a court of great dignity and splendor, the bishop and the ealdorman (or earl) with the principal men of the shire sitting therein to administer justice both in lay and ecclesiastical causes. But it's dignity was much impaired, when the bishop was prohibited and the earl neglected to attend it. And, in modern times, as proceedings are removable from hence into the king's superior courts, by writ of pone or recordare, in the same manner as from [37] hundred-courts, and courts-baron; and as the same writ of false judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error; this has occasioned the same disuse of bringing actions therein.

These are the several species of common law courts, ,which though dispersed universally throughout the realm, are nevertheless of a partial jurisdiction, and confined to particular districts: yet communicating with, and as it were members of, the superior courts of a more extended and general nature; which are calculated for the administration of redress not in any one lordship, hundred, or county only, but throughout the whole kingdom at large. Of which sort is

е с. 11.

fLL. Eadgari. c. 5.

g F. N. B. 70. Finch. 445.

V. The court of common pleas, or, as it is frequently termed in law, the court of common bench.

By the antient Saxon constitution there was only one superior court of justice in the kingdom: and that had cognizance both of civil and spiritual causes; viz. the wittenagemote, or general council, which assembled annually or oftner, wherever the king kept his Easter, Christmas, or Whitsontide, as well to do private justice as to consult upon public business. At the conquest the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was diverted into another channel; and the conqueror, fearing danger from these annual parliaments, contrived also to separate their ministerial power, as judges, from their deliberative, as counsellors to the crown. He therefore established a constant court in his own hall, thence called by Bracton and other antient authors aula regia or aula regis. This court was composed of the king's great officers of state resident in his palace, and usually attendant on his person: such as the lord high constable and lord mareschal who chiefly presided in matters of honour and of arms; determining according to the law military and the law of nations. Besides these there were the lord high steward, and lord great chamberlain ; the steward of the household; the lord chancellor, whose peculiar [38] business it was to keep the king's seal and examine all such writs, grants, and letters, as were to pass under that authority; and the lord high treasurer, who was the principal advisor in all matters relating to the revenue. These high officers were assisted by certain persons learned in the laws, who were called the king's justiciars or justices; and by the greater barons of parliament, all of whom had a seat in the aula regia, and formed a kind of court of appeal, or rather of advice, in matters of great moment and difficulty. All these in their several departments transacted all secular business both criminal and civil, and likewise

h l. 3. tr. 1. c. 7.