principal divisions of the laws, which are dispensed by the judges and magistrates, are the Common, Statute, and Equity Law.

THE COMMON OR UNWRITTEN LAW comprises those maximus, customs, and observances which, as they are of a higher antiquity than memory or history can reach have not been formally created and recorded by the legislature, but have acquired a binding force by immemorial usage, and the strength of general accordance and reception. General custom, or common law, settles the course in which lands descend by inheritance, the manner of acquiring and transferring property; that there shall be four courts of record ; that a deed is void, if not sealed and delivered; that money leut upon bond is recoverable by action of debt; and that breaches of the peace are punishable by fine and imprisonment.

By immemorial usage is not meant a period so remote as to be beyond historical record; the bounds of legal memory are limited by the 3 Edward 1, to the commencement of the reign of Richard I., from which time an uninterrupted custom acquires legal validity. But, as this rule has been often productive of injustice, it is provided by 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 71, that no right of common shall be defeated after thirty years' enjoyment, and after sixty years the right is deemed absolute and indefeasible, unless had by consent or agreement. In claims of right of way or other easements, the periods are twenty and forty years. Claims to the use of light to any dwelling-house or building enjoyed for twenty years, are indefeasible, unless shown to have been by consent.

Besides general customs, there are particular local customs, or laws, which affect only the inhabitants of particular districts; such as the customs of the City of London, also confirmed by Act of Parliament, of copyhold manors, of gavelkind in Kent, and some other parts of the kingdom, and of borough- English at Stafford and other places.

The Civil and Canon Laws form branches of the Unwritten or Common Law, which have not been enacted by parliament, and have been by custom adopted and used only in certain courts, under different restrictions; namely, in the Ecclesiastical courts, the courts of Admiralty, and the Chancellor's court of the University of Cambridge.

The decisions of the courts, being the best evidence of what the common law is, are held in high regard and are preserved as authentic records in the several courts. They are also to be seen in the volumes of the different reports.

The Written or Statute Law consists of statutes, acts, or edicts, made by the sovereign, by and with the advice and consent of the two houses of parliament.

Acts of Parliament or Statutes are of two kinds, public and private. Acts are deemed public and general, of which the judges take notice without pleading; such are those concerning the queen and royal family, prelates, nobles, great officers, sheriffs, &c.

Also,

acts concerning taxes, commerce and trade in general, or concerning all persons in general, though it be a special or particular thing, as those relating to assizes, forests, chases, &c. The oldest written law now extant, and printed in the statute book, is Magna Charta ; though, doubtless, there were many acts before that time, the records of which have been lost, and the maxims incorporated into the common law. Private acts are those which concern only a particular species, thing, or person, of which the judges will not take notice without pleading; such as those relating to corporate lodies; to dissenters; to colleges in universities; to particular parishes, inclosures, &c. Public and private acts are also distinguished as to fees. All bills whatever, from which private persons and corporations derive exclusive benefit, are subject to the payment of fees, and such bills are in this respect denominated private bills. In parliamentary language another distinctia is used, and some acts are called public general acts, others public local acts, namely, church acts, canal and railway acts. It was not till the year 1796 that acts of parliament were made generally accessible to the public; prior to that time, only about 1,100 copies were printed, which were confined to the members of hoth houses, the privy council, and certain great officers of state; but, in consequence of representations to parliament, 5,500 copies of every public general statute, and 300 of every public local and personal statute, are now distributed through the United Kingdom, to the houses of parliament, public offices, public libraries, courts of justice, magistrates, and clerks of the peace. They are also sold to the public separately by the queen's printer at the rate of three-halfpence a sheet for public acts, and threepence for private acts. Except in cases where the territorial limits of acts of parliament are expre sly named, their jurisdiction is not always clearly ascertainable. The general principle of the local operation of the statutes seems as follows:- From Magna Charta, 9 H. 3 (AD. 1224), to 10 H. 7 (1494), they extend to England and Ireland. From 10 H. 7 (1494), to 6 Anne (May 1st, 1707), they were limited to England. From 6 Anne to 41 G. 3 (Jan. 1st, 191, they extend to England and Scotland. From Jan. 1st, 11, they extend to the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and Ireland; Wales and Berwick are included in England; and fruernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, when specifically mentiesal A statute begins to operate from the time when it receives the royal assent, unless otherwise provided for. But when an act expires before a bill continuing it has received the royal assent, the latter act takes effect from the expiration of the former, unless otherwise provided for, except as to penalties. Acts are to be construed equitably, not according to their letter, but the intent and object with which they were made; especially that these points be considered, namely, the old law, the mischief, and the remerly.

By 10 & 11 V. c. 69, more effectual provision is made for taxing the costs and expenses charged on private bills by parliamentary agents, attorneys, solicitors, and others. No action is to be brought for costs till one month after the delivery of the bill for the same; unless the party to be charged is likely to quit the kingdom. Taxing officer to be appointed by the speaker of the House of Commons, and to execute his official duties conformably to the speaker's directions. Speaker to prepare list of charges; and for matters not included in the list, the taxing officer may allow reasonable costs. Taxing officer may examine parties on oath, and call for books and papers relative to charges and expenses: but no power is given him over the amount of fees on private bills payable to the House of Commons. Costs to be taxed on application of the party chargeable, or on application of parliamentary agent, attorney, or solicitor. Regulations of like import have been made by 12 & 13 V. c. 78, for the more effectual taxation of costs on private bills in the House of Lords, and which is amended by an act of 1865, the 28 V. c. 27.

In 1850 the 13 V. c. 21 was passed for curtailing repetitions and redundancies in statutes, and which provides that any act passed may be altered, amended, or repealed, in the same session. Acts are to be divided into sections without the usual introductory words, as, "be it enacted." Where any act is referred to prior to 4 Hen. 7, it is made sufficient to cite the year of the king's reign, or if more statutes than one in the same year, the statute; and if more than one chapter, the chapter.

The interpretation of the statutes and maxims of the common law rests with the judges, whose knowledge therein arises from study and experience, from the perusal of the statutes, records of pleas, books of reports, and the tractates of learned men. Where the common law and the statute differ, the common law gives place to the statute; and an old statute gives place to a new one, so far as it is contrary thereto (but only when the matter of the old statute is clearly repugnant to that of the new one), upon the general principle that, when contradictory, posterior abrogate prior laws. When a decision has once been made on any point it is an invariable rule to determine it in the same way again, unless the precedent can be clearly proved erroneous; judges being sworn to decide not according to their private opinions, but according to the known laws and customs of the realm.

Supplemental to the common and statute law, is EQUITY, which is a species of unwritten law, whose office is to detect latent frauds and concealments which the process of the ordinary courts cannot reach; to enforce such matters of trust and confidence as are binding in conscience, though not cognizable in a court of common jurisdiction; and to give a specific relief, more adapted to the circumstances of the case, than can always be obtained by the rules and provisions of the positive law. The subject of partnership

also falls almost exclusively under the management of the Courts of Equity; and, until a recent period, they were the only tribanals to which recourse could be had to compel a man to abstain from the commission of an injury, or to perform his contract. But Dow every one who brings an action in one of the Common Law Courts for breach of contract or other injury, is entitled, by 17 & 18 V. e. 125, to claim also in such action a writ of injunction against the continuance or repetition of such breach of contract or other injury.

These functions of courts of equity are limited to cases of property; for the nature of our institutions will not permit that, in criminal matters, which involve the personal security of individuals, a power should be lodged in any judge to construe the laws otherwise than according to the letter and established authority. And it may be further observed, that the jurisdiction of equity has lost much of its original character of arbitrary interference where the law was harsh or silent. From the effects of time and precedent, its rules and decisions have become fixed laws themselves; sometimes supplying, sometimes controlling, as accident or occasion may have directed, the institutes of common and statute law.

CHAPTER II.

Of the Countries subject to the Laws of England.

THE jurisdiction of the common law, except as provided by statute, is limited to the territory of England, and does not include either Wales, Scotland, Ireland, or any other part of the empire.

It will be proper to take a review of each of these countries before we consider the kingdom of England.

The territory of Wales was annexed to the dominion of the Crown of England in the reign of Edward the 1st, and the title "Prince of Wales" has since been always conferred on the eldest son of the sovereign of England. By 12 Edw. 1, commonly called the Statute of Wales, material alterations were made in the Welch laws, especially in the forms of judicial procedure; and gradually by different statutes, passed at various times, and more especially by 27 Hen. 8, c. 26, and 34 & 35 Hen. 8, c. 26, the independence of Wales was entirely done away with, and its people were admitted to a thorough communication of laws with the subjects of England.

The civil condition of the Principality has since differed but slightly from that of the kingdom at large, and by 20 Geo. 2, c. 42, it is enacted that an act of Parliament, in which England only is mentioned, should henceforth include Wales and the town of

Berwick-upon-Tweed. Until lately, Wales possessed superior courts, called Courts of Great Session, independent of the process of Westminster Hall, and was not visited by the English judges of assize. One member only was allowed to each of the Welch counties and towns represented in parliament. But, in the reign of William the Fourth, the jurisdiction of the Courts of Great Session was abolished by act of parliament, and it was enacted that assizes should be held in like manner as had been usual for the English counties. It was also, by 2 Will. 2, c. 45, called the Act to amend the Representation of the People, arranged that 2 members should be allowed to each of 3 Weich counties, and 1 member to each remaining county.

The kingdom of Scotland, notwithstanding the union of the crowns, on the accession of James VI. to that of England, continued a separate and distinct kingdom for above a century after, though a union had long been projected, which was judged more feasible, as both nations were anciently under the same government, and still retained a great resemblance in their laws and institutions. Sir E. Coke supposes the common law of each to have been originally the same, especially as the most ancient and authentic law book of the Scotch, Regiam Majestatem, containing the rules of their ancient common law, is extremely similar to that of Glanvil, which contains the principles of the English common law as it stood in the reign of Henry II. The diversities subsisting between the two laws at present may be readily accounted for, from the diversity of practice in two large and uncommunicating jurisdictions, and from the acts of two distinct and independent parliaments, which have, in many respects, altered and abrogated the common law of both kingdoms. The great work of the Union between the two kingdoms was effected in 1707, by 6 Anne, c. 8, when twenty-five articles of union were agreed to by the parliaments of both nations, the substance of the most considerable being as follows:-1. That on the 1st of May, 1707, and for ever after, the kingdoms of England and Scotland shall be united into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain. 2. The succession to the monarchy of Great Britain shall be the same as was before settled with regard to that of England. 3. The United Kingdom shall be represented by one parliament. 4. There shall be a communication of all rights and privileges between the subjects of both kingdoms, except where it is otherwise agreed. 9. When England raises £2,000,000 by a land tax, Scotland shall raise £48,000. 16 & 17. The standards of the coin, of weights, and of measures, shall be reduced to those of England throughout the United Kingdom. 18. The laws relating to trade, customs, and the excise shall be the same in Scotland as in England; but all the other laws of Scotland shall remain in force, though alterable by the parliament of Great Britain; yet with this proviso, that laws relating to public policy are alterable at the discretion of the parliament;