mands and the attachments and executions of our judgments and those of our Steward throughout the verge of our house, so long as he shall hold the office of Marshal.

6. In our household let there be a Coroner to execute the business of the Crown throughout the verge and wheresoever we shall be or come within our realm; and let the same person or some other be assigned to assay all weights and measures in every our verge throughout our realm according to our standards; and these two duties he shall not fail to do by reason of any franchise, unless such franchise be granted in fee farm or in alms by us or our predecessors.

7. In every county let there be a sheriff who shai! be attendant on our commands and those of our Justices; and let him have record of pleas pleaded before him by our writs; and under the sheriffs let there be hundredres serjeants and beadles attendant on the sheriffs. And in every county let there be coroners chosen for keeping the pleas of our peace, as shall be authorized in the chapters concerning their office, and let them have record of things relating to their office.

8. Moreover our will is, that there be Justices constantly remaining at Westminster, or at such other place as we shall be pleased to ordain, to determine common pleas according as we shall authorise them by our writs; and these Justices, shall have record of the proceedings held before them by virtue of our writs. 9. Also our will is, that at our Exchequers at Westminster and elsewhere our Treasurers and our Barons there have jurisdiction and record of things which concern their office, and to hear and determine all causes relating to our debts and seignories and things incident thereto, without which such matters could not be tried; and that they have cognizance of debts owing to our debtors, by means whereof we may the more speedily recover our own.

10. And we will, that Justices be assigned in every county to have cognizance in such causes of petty assises and other matters, as we shall assign them by our letters patent, of which causes we will that they have record. Let Justices also be appointed to deliver the gaols in every county, once in every pleadable week, while they find anything to do; and let them likewise have record of the pleas brought before them and of their judgments.

II. And although we have granted to our Justices to bear record of pleas pleaded before them, yet we will not that their record

be any warrant to them in their own wrong, nor that they be permitted to erase their rolls or amend them or record contrary to the enrollment. And we will that the power of our Justices be limited in this manner, that they go not beyond the articles of our writs, or of presentments of jurors, or of plaints before them made, save that they shall have the cognizance of vouchers to warranty, and of other incidental matters without which the original causes could not be determined. And we forbid, that any have power of amending any false judgment of our Justices, except the Justices who follow us in our Court, who are authorised by us for that purpose, or ourselves, with our Council; for this we specially reserve to our own jurisdiction.

12. We forbid all our Coroners and Justices, and all others to whom we have given authority of record, that any, except our Steward and our Justices of Ireland and of Chester, without our leave substitute another in his place, to do any act of which he himself ought to make record; and if anything be done before such substitutes, we will that it be of no force, though it should be of abjuration or outlawry.

Extracts from COKE'S FOURTH INSTITUTE.

[Court of King's Bench.] Under these words (proprias causas) are included three things. First, all pleas of the crowne; as all manners of treasons, felonies, and other pleas of the crown which ex congruo, are aptly called propriae causae regis, because they are placita coronae regis. Secondly, regularly to examine and correct. all and all manner of errors in fait, and in law, of all the judges and justices of the realm in their judgments, processe, and proceedings in courts of record, and not only in, pleas of the crown, but in all pleas, reall, personall, and mixt, (the court of the exchecquer excepted, as hereafter shall appear.) And this is proprium quarto modo to the king in this court: for regularly no other court hath the like jurisdiction, and therefore may be well called propria causa regis. And these two be of high and soveraign jurisdiction. Thirdly, this court hath not only jurisdiction to correct errors in judicial proceedings, but other errors and misdemeanors extrajudiciall tending to the breach of the peace or oppression of the subjects, or raising of faction, controversy, debate, or any other manner of misgovernment; so that no wrong or injury, either publick or private, can be done, but that this shall be reformed or punished in one court or other by due course of law. As if any

person be committed to prison, this court upon motion ought to grant an habeas corpus, and upon returne of the cause do justice and relieve the party wronged. And this may be done though the party grieved hath no priviledge in this court. It granteth prohibitions to courts temporal and eclesiasticall, to keep them within their proper jurisdiction. Also this court may baile any person for any offence whatsoever.

Fourthly, this court may hold plea by writ out of the chancery of all trespasses done vi et armis, of replevins, of quare impedit, &c. Fifthly, this court hath power to hold plea by bill for debt, detinue, covenant, promise, and all other personall actions, ejectione firmae, and the like, against any that is in custodia mareschalli, or any officer, minister, or clerk of the court: and the reason hereof is, for that if they should be sued in any other court they should have the priviledge of this court; and lest there should be a fayler of justice (which is so much abhorred in law) they shall be impleaded here by bill though these actions be common ples, and are not restrained by the said act of Magna Charta, ubi supra. Likewise the officers, ministers, and clerks of this court priviledged by law in respect of their necessary attendance in court, may impleade others by bill in the actions foresaid.

[Court of Common Pleas.] Out of these, three things are to be observed first what shall be said communia placita. They are not called communia placita in respect of the persons, but in respect of the quality of the pleas. Regularly pleas are divided into pleas of the crown, and into common or civil pleas. Pleas of the crowne are treason and felony, and misprision of treason and felony &c. This court is the lock and the key of the common law in common pleas, for herein are reall actions, whereupon fines and recoveries (the common assurances of the realm) do passe, and all other reall actions by originall writs are to be determined, and also of all common pleas mixt or personall: in divers of which, as it appeareth before in the chapter of the King's Bench, this court and the king's bench have a concurrent authority.

So as in the exchequer there are these seven courts. 1. The court of pleas. 2. The court of accounts. 3. The court of receipt. 4. The court of the exchecquer chamber being the assembly of all the judges of England for matters in law. 5. The court of exchecquer chamber for errors in the court of exchecquer. 6. A

court in the exchecquer chamber for errors in the king's bench. 7. This court of equity in the exchecquer chamber.

Of Writs of Error in Parliament. If a judgment be given in the king's bench either upon a writ of error, or otherwise, the party grieved may upon a petition of right made to the king in English, or in French (which is not er debito justitiae, but for decency, for that the former judgment was given coram rege) and his answer thereunto, fiat justitia, have a writ of error directed to the chief justice of the king's bench for removing of the record in praesens parliamentum, and thereupon the roll itself, and a transcript in parchment is to be brought by the chief justice of the king's bench into the lords' house in parliament: and after the transcript in parchment is examined by the court with the record, the chief justice carrieth back the record itself into the king bench, and then the plaintife is to assign the errors, and thereupon to have a scire fac' against the adverse party, returnable either in that parliament, or the next; and the proceeding thereupon shall be super tenorem recordi, et non super recordum. And the proceeding upon the writ of error is only before the lords in the upper house, secundum legem et consuetudinem parliamenti.

BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES, III, 55, 57.

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; which was first erected by statute 31 Edw. III, c. 12. to determine causes by writs of error from the common law side of the court of exchequer. And to that end it consists of the lord chancellor and lord treasurer, taking unto them the justices of the king's bench and common pleas. In imitation of which a second court of exchequer chamber was erected by statute 27 Eliz. c. 8. consisting of the justices of the common pleas, and the barons of the exchequer ; before whom writs of error may be brought to reverse judgments in certain suits originally begun in the court of king's bench. Into the court also of exchequer chamber (which then consists of all the judges of the three superior courts, and now and then the lord chancellor also,) are sometimes adjourned from the other courts such causes, as the judges upon argument find to be of great weight and difficulty, before any judgment is given upon them in the court below. From all the branches of this court of exchequer chamber a writ of error lieth to the House of Peers.

Before I conclude this chapter, I must also mention an eleventh 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 assize 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; and except the four northern counties, where the assizes are holden only once a year,) 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 assize came into use in the room of the ancient justices in eyre, justiciarii in itinere.

SMITH, ACTIONS AT LAW (3 ed. 1847), 8.

And, though the Queen's Bench and exchequer had at first, as has been explained, no jurisdiction over purely civil causes, those being all entrusted to the Common Pleas, yet, by a series of fictions, they contrived to draw all personal actions within their jurisdiction. For the Queen's Bench declared that a person in the custody of its marshal was before it for every purpose, and, as actions of trespass were considered to be still within its jurisdiction, being of a criminal nature, and a fine payable to the Crown by the defendant, the plaintiff was permitted to issue a writ charging the defendant with a trespass, which being then a cause for which a man might be arrested, he was taken and committed to the Marshalsea; and, being once there, the plaintiff might declare against him for any cause of action. Afterwards, they carried the principle further, and held, that the defendant's appearance or putting in bail would answer the same purpose; for that in those cases, though not in the real, he was in the constructive custody of the marshal. And, therefore, till a few years since, all writs issuing out of the Queen's Bench described the cause of action to be trespass, in bailable cases, mentioning the real ground afterwards in an ac etiam clause, as if it were merely subsidiary to the fictitious one; and every declaration by bill in the Queen's Bench stated the defendant. to be in the custody of the Marshal of Marshalsea. As to the Court of Exchequer, that tribunal adopted a simpler mode of extending its jurisdiction; for the plaintiff in his writ and declaration stated that he was a debtor to the king, and less able to pay his debts