a writ of error (in the nature of an appeal) lying from the King's Bench in Ireland to the King's Bench in England, (c) as the appeal from the Chancery in Ireland lies immediately to the house of lords here: it being expressly declared by the same statute, 6 Geo. I, c. 5, that the peers of Ireland have no jurisdiction to affirm or reverse any judgments or decrees whatsoever. The propriety, and even necessity, in all inferior dominions, of this constitution, "that, though justice be in general administered by courts of their own, yet that the appeal in the last resort ought to be to the courts of the superior state," is founded upon these two reasons. 1. Because otherwise the law, appointed or permitted to such inferior dominion, might be insensibly changed within itself, without he assent of the superior. 2. Because otherwise judgments might be given to he disadvantage or diminution of the superiority; or to make the dependence to be only of the person of the king, and not of the crown of England. (d) (10)

(e) This was law in the time of Hen. VIII. as appears by the ancient book, entitled, Diversity of Courts, c. bine le roy. (d) Vaugh. 402.

(10) [The following is the purport of the eighth article of the union of Great Britain and Ireland, extracted from the 39 and 40 Geo. III, c. 77.

Art. I. That the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall, on the first day of January, 1801, and forever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the royal style and titles of the imperial crown, and the ensigns, armorial flags and banners, shall be such as should be appointed by his majesty's royal proclamation.

Art. II. That the succession to the imperial crown shall continue settled in the same manner as the succession to the crown of Great Britain and Ireland stood before limited.

Art. III. That there shall be one parliament, styled, The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Art. IV. That four lords spiritual of Ireland, by rotation of sessions, and 28 lords temporal of Ireland, elected for life by the peers of Ireland, shall sit in the house of lords; and 100 commoners, two for each county, two for the city of Dublin, and two for the city of Cork, one for Trinity College, and one for each of the 31 most considerable cities and boroughs, shall be the number to sit in the house of commons on the part of Ireland.

That questions respecting the rotation or election of the spiritual or temporal peers shall be decided by the house of lords, and in the case of an equality of votes in the election of a temporal peer, the clerk of the parliament shall determine the election by drawing one of the names from a glass.

That a peer of Ireland, not elected one of the 28, may sit in the house of commons; but whilst he continues a member of the house of commons, he shall not be entitled to the privilege of peerage, nor capable of being elected one of the 28, nor of voting at such election, and he shall be sued and indicted for any offence as a commoner.

That as often as three of the peerages of Ireland, existing at the time of the union, shall become extinct, the king may create one peer of Ireland; and when the peers of Ireland are reduced to 100 by extinction or otherwise, exclusive of those who shall hold any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the union, or created of the united kingdom since the union, the king may then create one peer of Ireland for every peerage that becomes extinct. or as often as any one of them is created a peer of the united kingdom, so that the king may always keep up the number of 100 Irish peers, over and above those who have an hereditary seat in the house of lords.

That questions respecting the election of the members of the house of commons returned for Ireland, shall be tried in the same manner, as questions respecting the elections for places in Great Britain, subject to such particular regulations as the parliament afterwards shall deem expedient.

That the qualifications by property of the representatives in Ireland, shall be the same respectively as those for counties, cities, and boroughs in England, unless some other provision be afterwards made.

Until an act shall be passed in the parliament of the united kingdom, providing in what cases persons holding offices and places of profit under the crown of Ireland shall be incapable of sitting in the house of commons, not more than 20 such persons shall be capable of sitting; and if more than 20 such persons shall be returned from Ireland, then the seats of these above 20 shall be vacated, who have last accepted their offices or places.

That all the lords of parliament on the part of Ireland, spiritual and temporal, sitting in the house of lords, shall have the same rights and privileges, respectively as the peers of Great Britain; and that all the lords spiritual and temporal of Ireland shall have rank and precedency next and immediately after all the persons holding peerages of the like order and degree in Great Britain, subsisting at the time of the union; and that all peerages hereafter created of Ireland, or of the united kingdom, of the same degree, shall have precedency

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With regard to the other adjacent islands which are subject to the [*105] crown of Great Britain, some of them (as the Isle of Wight, of Portland, of Thanet, &c.) are comprised within some neighboring county, and are therefore to be looked upon as annexed to the mother island, and part of the kingdom of England. But there are others which require a more particular consideration.

And, first, the Isle of Man is a distinct territory from England, and is not governed by our laws: neither doth any act of parliament extend to it, unless it be particularly named therein; and then an act of parliament is binding there. (e) It was formerly a subordinate feudatory kingdom, subject to the kings of Norway; then to King John and Henry III of England; afterward to the kings of Scotland; and then again to the crown of England: and at length we find King Henry IV claiming the island by right of conquest, and disposing of it to the earl of Northumberland; upon whose attainder it was granted (by the name of the Lordship of Man) to Sir John de Stanley by letters patent, 7 Henry IV. (f) In his lineal descendants it continued for eight generations, till the death of Ferdinando, earl of Derby, A. D. 1594: when a controversy arose concerning the inheritance thereof, between his daughters and William his surviving brother: upon which, and a doubt that was started concerning the validity of the original patent, (g) the island was seized into the queen's hands, and afterwards various grants were made of it by King James the Frst: all which being expired or surrendered, it was granted afresh in 7 Jac. I, to William earl of Derby, and the heirs of his body, with remainder to his heirs general; which grant was the next year confirmed by act of parliament, with a restraint of the power of alienation by the said earl and his issue male. On the death of James, earl of Derby, A. D. 1735, the male line of Earl William failing, the duke of Atholl succeeded to the island as heir general by a female branch. In the mean time, though the title of king had been long disused, the earls of Derby,

(e) 4 Inst. 284. 2 And. 116.

(f) Selden, tit. hon. 1. 3. (g) Camden. Eliz. A. D. 1594.

according to the dates of their creations; and that all the peers of Ireland, except those who are members of the house of commons, shall have all the privileges of peers as fully as the peers of Great Britain, the right and privilege of sitting in the house of lords, and upon the trial of peers only excepted.

Art. V. That the churches of England and Ireland be united into one protestant episcopa church, to be called The United Church of England and Ireland; that the doctrine and worship shall be the same; and that the continuance and preservation of the united church as the estab lished church of England and Ireland, shall be deemed an essential and fundamental part of the union; and that, in like manner, the church of Scotland shall remain the same as is now established by law, and by the acts of union of England and Scotland.

Art. VI. The subjects of Great Britain and Ireland shall be entitled to the same privileges with regard to trade and navigation, and also in respect of all treaties with foreign powers.

That all prohibitions and bounties upon the importation of merchandise from one country to the other shall cease.

But that the importation of certain articles therein enumerated shall be subject to such countervailing duties as are specified in the act.

Art. VII. The sinking funds, and the interest of the national debt, of each country, shall be defrayed by each separately. And, for the space of 20 years after the union, the contribution of Great Britain and Ireland towards the public expenditure in each year, shall be in the proportion of fifteen to two, subject to future regulations.

Art. VIII. All the laws and courts of each kingdom shall remain the same as they are now established, subject to such alterations by the united parliament as circumstances may require; but that all writs of error and appeals shall be decided by the house of lords of the united kingdom, except appeals from the court of admirality in Ireland, which shall be decided by a court of delegates appointed by the court of chancery in Ireland.

The statute then recites an act passed in the parliament of Ireland, by which the rotation of the four spiritual lords for each session is fixed; and it also directs the time and mode of electing the 28 temporal peers for life; and it provides that 64 county members, two for each county, two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for Trinity College, Dublin, and one for each of 31 cities and towns which are there specified, which are the only places in Ireland to be represented in future. One of the two members of each of those places was chosen by lot, unless the other withdrew his name, to sit in the first parliament, but at the next elections, one member only will be returned.]

The number of Irish members of the house of commons was increased by the addition of five, by st. 2 and 3 William IV, c. 88, § 11.

as lords of Man, had maintained a sort of royal authority therein; by assenting

or *dissenting to laws, and exercising an appellate jurisdiction. Yet, [*106] though no English writ, or process from the courts of Westminster, was

of any authority in Man, an appeal lay from a decree of the lord of the island to the king of Great Britain in council. (h) But the distinct jurisdiction of this little subordinate royalty being found inconvenient for the purposes of public justice, and for the revenue, (it affording a commodious asylum for debtors, outlaws, and smugglers,) authority was given to the treasury by statute 12, Geo. I, c. 28, to purchase the interest of the then proprietors for the use of the crown: which purchase was at length completed in the year 1765, and confirmed by statutes 5 Geo. III, c. 26 and 39, whereby the whole island and all its dependencies so granted as aforesaid, (except the landed property of the Atholl family, their manorial rights and emoluments, and the patronage of the bishoprick (i) and other ecclesiastical benefices,) are unalienably vested in the crown, and subjected to the regulations of the British excise and customs.

The islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, and their appendages, were parcel of the duchy of Normandy, and were united to the crown of England by the first princes of the Norman line. They are governed by their own laws, which are for the most part the ducal customs of Normandy, being collected in an ancient book of very great authority, entitled le grand Coustumier. The king's writ, or process from the courts of Westminster, is there of no force; but his commission is. (11) They are not bound by common acts of our parliaments, unless particularly named. (k) All causes are originally determied by their own officers, the bailiffs and jurats of the islands; but an appeal lies from them to the king and council, in the last resort. (12)

Besides these adjacent islands, our most distant plantations in America, and elsewhere, are also in some respects subject to the English laws. Plantations or colonies, in distant *countries, are either such where the lands are claimed

by right of occupancy only, by finding them desert and uncultivated, and [*107 ] peopling them from the mother-country; or where, when already cultivated, they have been either gained by conquest, or ceded to us by treaties. And both these rights are founded upon the law of nature, or at least upon that of nations. But there is a difference between these two species of colonies, with respect to the laws by which they are bound. For it hath been held, (7) that if an uninhabited country be discovered and planted by English subjects, all the English laws then in being, which are the birthright of every subject, (m) are immediately there in force. (13) But this must be understood with very many and very great restrictions. Such colenists carry with them only so much of the English law as is applicable to their own situation and the condition of an infant colony; such, for instance, as the general rules of inheritance, and of protection from personal injuries. The artificial refinements and distinctions incident to the property of a great and commercial people, the laws of police and revenue, (such especially as are enforced by penalties,) the mode of maintenance for the established clergy, the jurisdiction of spiritual courts, and a multitude of other provisions, are neither necessary nor convenient for them, and therefore are not in

(h) 1 P. Wms. 329.

(i) The bishoprick of Man, or Sodor, or Sodor and Man, was formerly within the province of Canterbury, but annexed to that of York. by statute 33 Hen. VIII, c. 31. (k) 4 Inst. 286. (7) Salk. 411, 666.

(m) 2 P. Wms. 75.

(11) What are called prerogative writs, however, from the Queen's Bench, run to these islands. Roy v. Overton, Sid. 386; Wilson's Case, 7 Q. B. 984; Brenan and Galen's Case, 10 Q. B. 492.

(12) [Of these islands the crown is proprietary; but, like the demesne lands, they are subject to the occasional interference of parliament. With reference to these islands, the exercise of the executive power is regulated by customs and known laws: the people themselves have no voice, but subject to these.]

(13) Regarding the extent to which the common law of England is in force in the American States by colonial adoption, see note, p. 63.

force. (14) What shall be admitted and what rejected, at what times, and under what restrictions, must, in case of dispute, be decided in the first instance by their own provincial judicature, subject to the revision and control of the king in council: the whole of their constitution being also liable to be new-modelled and reformed by the general superintending power of the legislature in the mother-country. (15) But in conquered or ceded countries, that have already laws of their own, the king may indeed alter and change those laws; (16) but, till he does actually change them, the ancient laws of the country remain, unless such as are against the law of God, as in the case of an infidel country. (n) Our American plantations are principally of this latter sort, being obtained in the last century either by right of conquest and driving out the natives (with what natural justice I shall not at present inquire), *or by treaties. (17) And [*108] therefore the common law of England, as such, has no allowance or authority there; they being no part of the mother-country, but distinct, though dependent, dominions. They are subject, however, to the control of the parliament; though (like Ireland, Man, and the rest,) not bound by any acts of parliament, unless particularly named.

With respect to their interior polity, our colonies are properly of three sorts. 1. Provincial establishments, the constitutions of which depend on the respective commissions issued by the crown to the governors, and the instructions which usually accompany those commissions; under the authority of which, provincial assemblies are constituted, with the power of making local ordinances, not repugnant to the laws of England. 2. Proprietary governments, granted out by the crown to individuals, in the nature of feudatory principalities, with all the inferior regalities, and subordinate powers of legislation, which formerly belonged to the owners of counties-palatine: yet still with these express conditions, that the ends for which the grant was made be substantially pursued, and that nothing be attempted which may derogate from the sovereignty of the mother country. 3. Charter governments, in the nature of civil corporations, with the power of making bye-laws for their own interior regulations, not contrary to the laws of England; and with such rights and authorities as are specially given them in their several charters of incorporation. The form of government in most of them is borrowed from that of England. They have a governor named by the king, (or, in some proprietary colonies, by the proprietor,) who is his representative or deputy. They have courts of justice of their own, from whose decisions an appeal lies to the king and council here in Eng

(n) 7 Rep. 17, Calvin's case. Show, Parl. C. 31.

(14) [A statute passed in England after the establishment of a colony, will not affect it unless it be particularly named; and therefore the requisitos of the statute against frauds, in executing wills, &c. have no influence in Barbadoes: see cases collected 1 Chitty's Com. Law, 638; so the 5 and 6 Edw. VI, c. 16, as to sale of offices, do not extend to Jamaica. 4 Mod. 222.]

(15) The reader need hardly be reminded that the right of the British parliament to legislate generally for the American colonies which were not represented therein, was not admitted, but was resisted by force of arms, and the resistance ultimated in establishing the independence of the thirteen United States of America, which was acknowledged by Great Britain by the treaty of Sept. 3, 1783.

(16) [See an elaborate and learned argument by Lord Mansfield, to prove the king's legislative authority by his prerogative alone over a ceded conquered country. Cowp. 204.]

What the king may or may not do, by virtue of his prerogative, with reference to a conquered or ceded country, is very elaborately discussed in Chalmer's Opinions, 169.

(17) The practical view taken of the American plantations, as well by statesmen as by the courts, has not regarded them as obtained by right of conquest or under treaties, but as acquired by right of discovery. The continent of America was looked upon as occupied by races of savages, whose habits of life rendered them incapable of any such occupation and use of the soil as should exclude the possession of others; for which reason the land was considered open to be appropriated and colonized by the nation of the first discoverer. That European nation first discovering a country and setting up marks of possession was regarded as acquiring the exclusive right as against all others to colonize and settle it, and to extinguish the Indian title therein; but no better right was recognized in the Indians than one to mere occupancy, while the title to the soil itself was in the civilized race. See Story on Const., §§ 152 to 157; 3 Kent, 308; Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet. 515.

land. Their general assemblies, which are their house of commons, together with their council of state, being their upper house, with the concurrence of the king, or his representative the governor, make laws suited to their own emergencies. But it is particularly declared by statute 7 and 8 W. III, c. 22, that *all laws, bye-laws, usages and customs, which shall be in practice in any of the plantations, repugnant to any law, made or to be made in this [*109] kingdom relative to the said plantations, shall be utterly void and of none effect. And, because several of the colonies had claimed a sole and exclusive right of imposing taxes upon themselves, the statute 6 Geo. III, c. 12, expressly declares, that all his majesty's colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be, subordinate to and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; who have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain in all cases whatsoever. And this authority has been since very forcibly exemplified and carried into act, by the statute Geo. III, c. 59, for suspending the legislation of New York; and by several subsequent statutes.(18)

These are the several parts of the dominions of the crown of Great Britain, in which the municipal laws of England are not of force or authority, merely as the municipal laws of England. Most of them have probably copied the spirit of their own law from this original; but then it receives its obligation, and authoritative force, from being the law of the country

As to any foreign dominions which may belong to the person of the king by hereditary descent, by purchase, or other acquisition, as the territory of Hanover, and his majesty's other property in Germany; as these do not in any wise appertain to the crown of these kingdoms, they are entirely unconnected with the laws of England, and do not communicate with this nation in any respect whatsoever. The English legislature had wisely remarked the inconveniences that had formerly resulted from dominions on the continent of Europe; from the Norman territory which William the Conqueror brought with him, and held in conjunction with the *English throne; and from Anjou and its appendages which fell to Henry the Second by hereditary descent. [*110] They had seen the nation engaged for near four hundred years together in ruinous wars for defence of these foreign dominions; till, happily for this country, they were lost under the reign of Henry the Sixth. They observed that, from that time, the maritime interests of England were better understood and more closely pursued: that, in consequence of this attention, the nation, as soon as she had rested from her civil wars, began at this period to flourish all at once; and became much more considerable in Europe, than when her princes were possessed of a larger territory, and her councils distracted by foreign interests. This experience, and these considerations, gave birth to a conditional clause in the act(o) of settlement, which vested the crown in his present majesty's illustrious house, "that in case the crown and imperial dignity of

(o) Stat. 12 and 13 Will. III, c. 3.

(18) [Notwithstanding the establishment of their independence by the American States, the mother country still possesses a number of colonies in different parts of the globe, to which the reasoning in the text may be applied. The policy of the country has for some time been to introduce gradually representative free government unto them all, retaining in the crown, nevertheless, the appointment of the Chief Executive officers. Where, however, the European population is small, as compared to the native, or is fluctuating in character, it is sometimes deemed important that the home government should retain and exercise a more complete control. Todd, Parl. Gov., vol. 2, p. 519 et seq.

The opinions in England regarding the proper treatment of Colonies have become so changed within a few years, that it is doubtful if a demand for independence on the part of a colony of such strength and resources, as to be able to make it with any reason would be seriously resisted or objected to.

By the "act for the better government of India," passed Aug. 2, 1858, all the territories before under the government of the East India Company were vested in the queen, and all its powers are to be exercised in her name, through one of the principal secretaries of state.