likewife no court of record; resembling the former in all points, except that in point of territory it is of a greater jurifdiction. This is faid by fir Edward Coke to have been derived out of the county court for the ease of the people, that they might have juftice done to them at their own doors, without any charge or lofs of time; but it's inftitution was probably co-eval with that of hundreds themfelves, 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 compofed of different vil lages, originally in number an hundred, but afterwards only called by that name "; and who probably gave the same denomination to the district out of which they were chofen. Caefar fpeaks pofitively of the judicial power exercifed in their hundred courts and courts-baron. "Principes regionum, at que pagorum," (which we may fairly conftrue, the lords of hundreds and manors) "inter fuos jus dicunt, controverfi afque minuunt." And Tacitus, who had examined their conftitution 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 themfelves a fhare in the determination. "Eliguntur in conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicofque "reddunt: centeni fingulis, ex plebe comites, confilium fimul et "auctoritas, adfunt *.” This hundred-court was denominated haereda in the Gothic conftitution. But this court, as caufes are equally liable to removal from hence, as from the common court-baron, and by the fame writs, and may alfo be reviewed by writ of falfe judgment, is therefore fallen into equal difufe with regard to the trial of actions. IV. THE County court is a court incident to the jurifdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of forty shillings *. Over fome of which caufes thefe inferior courts have, by the exprefs words of the statute of Gloucester 2, a jurisdiction totally exclufive of the king's fuperior courts. For in order to be entitled to fue an action of trefpafs for goods before the king's jufticiars, the plaintiff is directed to make affidavit that the cause of action does really and bona fide amount to 40 s; which affidavit is now unaccountably difufed, except in the court of exchequer. The ftatute alfo 43 Eliz. c. 6. which gives the judges in many perfonal actions, where the jury affefs lefs damages than 40 s, a power to certify the fame and abridge the plaintiff of his full cofts, was alfo meant to prevent vexation by litigious plaintiffs; who, for purposes of mere oppreffion, might be inclinable to inftitute fuits in the fuperior courts for injuries of a trifling value. The county court may alfo hold, plea of many real actions, and of all perfonal actions to any amount, by virtue of a special writ called a juflicies; which is a writ empowering the sheriff for the fake of dispatch to do the fame juftice in his county court, as might otherwife be had at Weftminster. 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 plebeiae juftitiae et theatrum comitivae poteftatis ") is the reason why all acts of parliament at the end of every feffion were wont to be there publifhed by the sheriff; why all outlawries of abfconding offenders are there proclaimed; and why all popular elections which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of sheriffs and confervators of the peace, and ftill of coroners, verderors, and knights of the fhire, muft ever be made in pleno comitatu, or, in full county court. By the ftatute 2 Edw. VI. c. 25. no county court fhall be adjourned longer than for one month, confifting of twenty-eight days. And this was z 4 Inft. 266. a 6 Edw. I. c. 8. b 2 Inft. 391. e Finch. 318. F. N. B. 152. alfo the also the antient ufage, as appears from the laws of king Edward the elder: "praepofitus (that is, the fheriff) ad quar"tam circiter feptimanam frequentem populi concionem celebrato : -" cuique jus dicito; litefque fingulas dirimito." In thofe times county court was a court of great dignity and splendor, the bishop and the caldorman (or earl) with the principal men of the shire fitting therein to administer justice both in lay and ecclefiaftical caufes. 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 removeable from hence into the king's fuperior courts, by writ of pone or recordari, in the fame manner as from hundred-courts, and courts-baron; and as the fame writ of falfe judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error; this has occafioned the fame difufe of bringing actions therein. THESE are the feveral fpecies of common law courts, which though difperfed universally throughout the realm, are nevertheless of a partial jurifdiction, and confined to particular districts: yet communicating with, and as it were members of, the fuperior courts of a more extended and general nature; which are calculated for the adminiftration of redrefs not in any one lordship, hundred, or county only, but throughout the whole kingdom at large. Of which fort is V. THE Court of common pleas, or, as it is frequently termed in law, the court of common bench. By the antient Saxon conftitution there was only one fuperior court of justice in the kingdom; and that court had cognizance both of civil and fpiritual caufes: viz. the wittenagemate, or general council, which affembled annually or oftener, wherever the king kept his Christmas, Eafter, or Whitsontide, as well to do private juftice as to confult upon public bufinefs. At the conqueft the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction was e c. 11. g F. N. B. 70. Finch. 445. LL. Eadgari. c. 5. C 3 diverted Book III, diverted into another channel; and the conqueror, fearing danger from these annual parliaments, contrived alfo to feparate their minifterial 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 compofed of the king's great officers of ftate resident in his palace, and ufually attendant on his perfon: fuch as the lord high conftable and lord marefchal, who chiefly prefided in matters of honour and of arms; determining according to the law military and the law of nations, Befides these there were the lord high steward, and lord great chamberlain; the fteward of the houfhold; the lord chancellor, whose peculiar buliness it was to keep the king's feal and examine all fuch writs, grants, and letters, as were to pafs under that authority; and the lord high treasurer, who was the principal advifer in all matters relating to the revenue. Thefe high officers were affifted by certain perfons learned in the laws, who were called the king's jufticiars or justices; and by the greater barons of parliament, all of whom had a feat 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 tranfacted all fecular business both criminal and civil, and likewife the matters of the revenue; and over all prefided one special magistrate, called the chief jufticiar or capitalis jufticiarius totius Angliae; who was alfo the principal minifter of state, the fecond man in the kingdom, and by virtue of his office guardian of the realm in the king's abfence. And this officer it was, who principally determined all the vast variety of caufes that arofe in this extenfive jurifdiction; and from the plenitude of his power grew at length both obnoxious to the people, and dangerous to the government which employed him j. THIS great univerfal court being bound to follow the king's houfhold in all his progreffes and expeditions, the h 1. 3. tr. I. c. 7. j Spelm. Gl. 331, 2, 3. Gilb. Hift. C. P. introd. 17. trial of common causes therein was found very burthenfome to the fubject. Wherefore king John, who dreaded also the power of the jufticiar, very readily confented to that article which now forms the eleventh chapter of magna carta, and enacts, "that communia placita non fequantur curiam regis, fed "teneantur in aliquo loco certo." This certain place was eftablished in Westminster-hall, the place where the aula regis originally fate, when the king refided in that city; and there it hath ever fince continued. And the court being thus rendered fixed and stationary, the judge, became fo too, and a chief with other juftices of the common pleas was thereupon appointed; with jurisdiction to hear and determine all pleas of land, and injuries merely civil between subject and subject. Which critical establishment of this principal court of common law, at that particular juncture and that particular place, gave rife to the inns of court in its neighbourhood; and, thereby collecting together the whole body of the common lawyers, enabled the law itself to withstand the attacks of the canonists and civilians, who laboured to extirpate and deftroy it. This precedent was foon after copied by king Philip the fair in France, who about the year 1302 fixed the parliament of Paris to abide conftantly in that metropolis; which before used to follow the perfon of the king, wherever he went, and in which he himself ufed frequently to decide the causes that were there depending: but all were then referred to the fole cognizance of the parliament and it's learned judges. And thus also in 1495 the emperor Maximilian I. fixed the imperial chamber (which before always travelled with the court and houfhold) to be conftantly held at Worms, from whence it was afterwards tranflated to Spire'. THE aula regia being thus ftripped of fo confiderable a branch of it's jurisdiction, and the power of the chief justiciar being also confiderably curbed by many articles in the great charter, the authority of both began to decline apace iSee vol. I. introd. §. 1. Mod. Un. Hift. xxiii. 396. 1 Ibid. xxix. 467. C 4 under |