OF THE COUNTRIES SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF ENGLAND. TH HE kingdom of England, over which our municipal laws have jurisdiction, includes not, by the common law, either Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, or any other part of the king's dominions, except the territory of England only. And yet the civil laws and local customs of this territory do now obtain, in part or in all, with more or less restrictions, in these and many other adjacent countries; of which it will be proper firft to take a review, before we confider the kingdom of England itself, the original and proper subject of thefe laws. WALES had continued independent of England, unconquered and uncultivated, in the primitive paftoral state which Caefar and Tacitus afcribe to Britain in general, for many centuries; even from the time of the hostile invasions of the Saxons, when the antient and chriftian inhabitants of the ifland retired to thofe natural intrenchments, for protection from their pagan vifitants. But when these invaders themselves were converted to chriftianity, and fettled into regular and potent governments, this retreat of the antient Britons grew every day narrower; they were over-run by little and little, gradually driven from one fastness to another, and by repeated loffes abridged of their wild independence. Very early in our history we find their princes doing homage to the crown of England; till at length in the reign of Edward the first, who may justly be ftiled the conqueror of 7 Wales, Wales, the line of their antient princes was abolished, and the king of England's eldest fon became, as a matter of course, their titular prince; the territory of Wales being then entirely re-annexed (by a kind of feodal resumption) to the dominion of the crown of England"; or, as the statute of Rhudhlan expreffes it, "terra Walliae cum incolis fuis, prius "regi jure feodali fubjecta, (of which homage was the fign) "jam in proprietatis dominium totaliter et cum integritate con"verfa eft, et coronae regni Angliae tanquam pars corporis ejus"dem annexa et unita." By the statute alfo of Wales very material alterations were made in divers parts of their laws, fo as to reduce them nearer to the English ftandard, efpecially in the forms of their judicial proceedings: but they still retained very much of their original polity; particularly their rule of inheritance, viz. that their lands were divided equally among all the iffue male, and did not defcend to the eldest fon alone. By other fubfequent ftatutes their provincial immunities were ftill farther abridged: but the finishing stroke to their independency was given by the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26. which at the fame time gave the utmost advancement to their civil profperity, by admitting them to a thorough communication of laws with the subjects of England. Thus were this brave people gradually conquered into the enjoyment of true liberty; being infenfibly put upon the fame footing, and made fellow-citizens with their conquerors. A generous method of triumph, which the republic of Rome practifed with great fuccefs; till fhe reduced all Italy to her obedience, by admitting the vanquished states to partake of the Roman privileges. Ir is enacted by this ftatute 27 Hen. VIII, 1. That the dominion of Wales fhall be for ever united to the kingdom. of England. 2. That all Welfhmen born fhall have the fame liberties as other the king's fubjects. 3. That lands in Wales shall be inheritable according to the English tenures and rules of defcent. 4. That the laws of England, and no other, fhall a Vaugh. 400. 10 Edw. I. C 12 Edw. I. be be used in Wales: befides many other regulations of the police of this principality. And the ftatute 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 26. confirms the fame, adds farther regulations, divides it into twelve fhires, and, in fhort, reduces it into the fame order in which it stands at this day; differing from the kingdom of England in only a few particulars, and those too of the nature of privileges, (fuch as having courts within itself, independent of the procefs of Westminster-hall,) and fome other immaterial peculiarities, hardly more than are to be found in many counties of England itself. THE kingdom of Scotland, notwithstanding the union of the crowns on the acceffion of their king James VI to that of England, continued an entirely feparate and diftinét kingdom for above a century more, though an union had been long projected; which was judged to be the more eafy to be done, as both kingdoms were antiently under the fame government, and still retained a very great refemblance, though far from an identity, in their laws. By an act of parliament 1 Jac. I. c. 1. it is declared, that these two mighty, famous, and antient kingdoms were formerly one. And fir Edward Coke obferves, how marvellous a conformity there was, not only in the religion and language of the two nations, but also in their antient laws, the defcent of the crown, their parliaments, their titles of nobility, their officers of fate and of justice, their writs, their cuftoms, and even the language of their laws. Upon which account he fuppofes the common | law of each to have been originally the fame; efpecially as their most antient and authentic book, called regiam majeftatem, and containing the rules of their antient common law, is extremely fimilar to that of Glanvil, which contains the principles of ours, as it flood in the reign of Henry II. And the many diverfities, fubfifting between the two laws at prefent, may be well enough accounted for, from a diverfity of practice in two large and uncommunicating jurifdictions, and from the acts of two distinct and independent parliaments, which have in many points altered and abrogated the old common law of both kingdoms. HOWEVER, fir Edward Coke, and the politicians of that time, conceived great difficulties in carrying on the projected union but these were at length overcome, and the great work was happily effected in 1707, 6 Anne; when twentyfive articles of union were agreed to by the parliaments of both nations; the purport of the most considerable being as follows: I. THAT on the first of May 1707, and for ever after, the kingdoms of England and Scotland fhall be united into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain. 2. The succession to the monarchy of Great Britain shall be the fame as was before fettled with regard to that of England. 3. The united kingdom fhall be reprefented by one par liament. 4. THERE fhall be a communication of all rights and privileges between the subjects of both kingdoms, except where it is otherwife agreed. 9. WHEN England raises 2,000,000l. by a land tax, Scotland fhall raife 48,000l. 16, 17. THE ftandards of the coin, of weights, and of measures, fhall be reduced to thofe of England, throughout the united kingdoms. 18. THE laws relating to trade, customs, and the excise, fhall be the fame in Scotland as in England. But all the other laws of Scotland fhall remain in force; though alterable by the parliament of Great Britain. Yet with this caution: that laws relating to public policy are alterable at the discretion of the parliament; laws relating to private right are not to be altered but for the evident utility of the people of Scotland. 22. SIXTEEN 22. SIXTEEN peers are to be chosen to represent the peerage of Scotland in parliament, and forty-five members to fit in the house of commons. 23. THE fixteen peers of Scotland fhall have all privileges of parliament and all peers of Scotland fhall be peers of Great Britain, and rank next after those of the fame degree at the time of the union, and fhall have all privileges of peers, except fitting in the house of lords and voting on the trial of a peer. THESE are the principal of the twenty-five articles of union, which are ratified and confirmed by ftatute 5 Ann. c. 8. in which statute there are also two acts of parliament recited; the one of Scotland, whereby the church of Scotland and also the four universities of that kingdom, are established for ever, and all fucceeding fovereigns are to take an oath inviolably to maintain the fame; the other of England, 5 Ann. c. 6. whereby the acts of uniformity of 13 Eliz. and 13 Car. II. (except as the fame had been altered by parliament at that time) and all other acts then in force for the prefervation of the church of England, are declared perpetual; and it is stipulated, that every fubfequent king and queen shall take an oath inviolably to maintain the fame within England, Ireland, Wales, and the town of Berwick upon Tweed. And it is enacted, that these two acts "shall for ever be observed fundamental and effential conditions of the union." τε as UPON thefe articles and act of union, it is to be obferved, 1. That the two kingdoms are now fo infeparably united, that nothing can ever difunite them again; except the mutual confent of both, or the successful refiftance of either, upon apprehending an infringement of thofe points which, when they were separate and independent nations, it was mutually ftipulated fhould be "fundamental and effential conditions of "the union." 2. That whatever elfe may be deemed “fun It may juftly be doubted, whether even fuch an infringement (though a manifeft breach of good faith, unlefs done VOL. I. G upon the most preffing neceflity) would of itself diffolve the union; for the bare idea of a state, without a power fome where |