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N the two preceding chapters we have confidered the fe

IN

veral courts, whofe jurifdiction is public and general; and which are fo contrived that fome or other of them may adminifter redrefs to every poffible injury that can arife in the kingdom at large. There yet remain certain others, whofe jurisdiction is private and special, confined to particular spots or instituted only to redress particular injuries. These are

1. THE foreft courts, inftituted for the government of the king's forests in different parts of the kingdom, and for the punishment of all injuries done to the king's deer or venison, to the vert or greenfwerd, and to the covert in which fuch deer are lodged. Thefe are the courts of attachments, of regard, of faeinmote, and of justice-feat. The court of attachments, woodinate, or forty days court, is to be held before the verderors of the foreft once in every forty days; and is inftituted to inquire into all offenders against vert and venifon: who may be attached by their bodies, if taken with the mainour, (or mainceuvre, a manu) that is, in the very act of killing venifon or ftealing wood, or preparing fo to do, or by fresh and immediate pursuit after the act is done <; else, they must be attached by their goods. And in this forty days

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court the forefters or keepers are to bring in their attachments, or prefentments de viridi et venatione; and the verderors are to receive the fame, and to enroll them, and to certify them under their feals to the court of justice-seat, or fweinmoted for this court can only inquire of, but not convict offenders. 2. The court of regard, or furvey of dogs, is to be holden every third year for the lawing or expeditation of mastiffs, which is done by cutting off the claws and ball (or [72] pelote) of the forefeet, to prevent them from running after deer". No other dogs but mastiffs are to be thus lawed or expeditated, for none other were permitted to be kept within the precincts of the foreft; it being supposed that the keeping of these, and these only, was neceffary for the defence of a man's houfef. 3. The court of fweinmote is to be holden before the verderors, as judges, by the fteward of the fweinmote thrice in every year, the fweins or freeholders within the foreft compofing the jury. The principal jurifdiction of this court is, first, to inquire into the oppreffions and grievances committed by the officers of the foreft; " de fuper-oneratione foreftari"orum,et aliorum miniftrorum foreftae; et de eorum oppreffionibus "populo regis illatis :" and, fecondly, to receive and try prefentments certified from the court of attachments against offences in vert and venifon". And this court may not only inquire, but convict alfo, which conviction fhall be certified to the court of justice-feat under the feals of the jury; for this court cannot proceed to judgment'. But the principal court is, 4. The court of juftice-feat, which is held before the chief justice in eyre, or chief itinerant judge, capitalis juftitiarius in itinere, or his deputy; to hear and determine all trespasses within the forest, and all claims of franchises, liberties, and privileges, and all pleas and caufes whatsoever therein arifing. It may alfo proceed to try prefentments in the inferior courts of the forefts, and to give judgment upon conviction of the fweinmote. And the chief justice may

& Cart. de foreft. c. 16.
e Cart. de foreft. c. 6,

f 4 Inft. 308.

Cart, de foreft, c. 8.

h Stat. 34 Edw. I. c. I.

i

4 Inft. 289.

Ibid. 291.

therefore

therefore after prefentment made or indictment found, but not before', iffue his warrant to the officers of the foreft to apprehend the offenders. It may be held every third year; and forty days notice ought to be given of it's fitting. This court may fine and imprifon for offences within the foreft", it being a court of record: and therefore a writ of error lies from hence to the court of king's bench, to rectify and redress any mal-administrations of justice"; or the chief justice in eyre may adjourn any matter of law into the court of king's bench. Thefe juftices in eyre were inftituted by [73] king Henry II, A. D. 1184 P; and their courts were formerly very regularly held: but the last court of justice-feat

any note was that holden in the reign of Charles I, before the earl of Holland; the rigorous proceedings at which are reported by fir William Jones. After the restoration another was held pro forma only, before the earl of Oxford; but fince the aera of the revolution in 1688, the foreft laws have fallen into total difufe, to the great advantage of the fubject (1).

II. A SECOND fpecies of reftricted courts is that of commiflioners of fewers. This is a temporary tribunal erected by virtue of a commiffion under the great feal; which formerly ufed to be granted pro re nata at the pleasure of the crown', but now at the discretion and nomination of the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, and chief juftices, pursuant to the

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(1). All the forefts, which were made after the conqueft, except New Forest in Hampshire created by William the Conqueror, were difafforested by the charta de forefta. The foreft of Hampton Court was established by the authority of parliament in the reign of Hen. VIII. The number of forefts in England is fixty-nine. 4 Inft. 319. Charles I. enforced the odious foreft laws, as a fource of revenue independent of the parliament.

VOL. III.

G

ftatute

ftatute 23 Hen. VIII. c. 5. Their jurisdiction is to overlook the repairs of fea banks and sea walls; and the cleansing of rivers, public streams, ditches and other conduits, whereby any waters are carried off: and is confined to fuch county or particular district as the commiffion fhall exprefsly name. The commiffioners are a court of record, and may fine and imprison for contempts; and in the execution of their duty may proceed by jury, or upon their own view, and may take order for the removal of any annoyances, or the fafeguard and confervation of the fewers within their commiffion, either according to the laws and cuftoms of Romneymarfh', or otherwife at their own difcretion. They may alfo affefs fuch rates, or fcots, upon the owners of lands within their district, as they fhall judge neceffary: and, if any person refuses to pay them, the commissioners may levy the fame by distress of his goods and chattels; or they may, by ftatute 23 Hen. VIII. c. 5. fell his freehold lands (and by the 7 Ann. c. 10. his copyhold also) in order to pay such [74]fcots or affeffments. But their conduct is under the control

of the court of king's bench, which will prevent or punish any illegal or tyrannical proceedings". And yet in the reign of king James I, (8 Nov. 1616) the privy council took upon them to order, that no action or complaint should be profecuted against the commiffioners, unless before that board; and committed feveral to prifon who had brought fuch actions at common law, till they should release the same : and one of the reafons for discharging fir Edward Coke from his office of lord chief juftice was for countenancing those legal proceedings v. The pretence for which arbitrary meafures was no other than the tyrant's plea", of the necessity of unlimited powers in works of evident utility to the public, "the fupreme reafon above all reafons, which is the falva

■ 1 Sid. 145.

t Romney-marth in the county of Kent, a tract containing 24,000 acres, is governed by certain antient and equitable laws of fewers, compofed by Henry de Bathe, a venerable judge in the reign of king Henry the third; from

which laws all commiffioners of fewers
in England may receive light and direc-
tion. (4 Inft. 276.)
u Cro. Jac. 336.

v Moor 825.826. See pag. 55.
w Milt. parad, lost. iv. 393.

❝tion

"tion of the king's lands and people." But now it is clearly held, that this (as well as all other inferior jurifdictions) is subject to the discretionary coercion of his majesty's court of king's bench.

III. THE court of policies of affurance, when fubfifting, is erected in pursuance of the ftatute 43 Eliz. c. 12. which recites the immemorial ufage of policies of affurance, " by "means whereof it cometh to pafs, upon the lofs or perishing "of any fhip, there followeth not the undoing of any man, "but the loss lighteth rather eafily upon many than heavy "upon few, and rather upon them that adventure not, than "upon those that do adventure: whereby all merchants, "especially those of the younger fort, are allured to venture "more willingly and more freely and that heretofore fuch "affurers had used to stand so justly and precisely upon their "credits, as few or no controverfies had arisen thereupon; " and if any had grown, the fame had from time to time "been ended and ordered by certain grave and difcreet mer"chants appointed by the lord mayor of the city of London; "as men by reafon of their experience fittest to understand " and speedily decide those causes:" but that of late years divers perfons had withdrawn themselves from that course of arbitration, and had driven the affured to bring feparate actions at law against each affurer: it therefore enables the lord chancellor yearly to grant a ftanding commiffion to the [ 75 1 judge of the admiralty, the recorder of London, two doctors of the civil law, two common lawyers, and eight merchants; any three of which, one being a civilian or a barrifter, are thereby and by the ftatute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 23. empowered to determine in a fummary way all caufes concerning policies of affurance in London, with an appeal (by way of bill) to the court of chancery. But the jurisdiction being somewhat defective, as extending only to London, and to no other affurances but those on merchandize, and to fuits brought. by the affured only, and not by the infurers, no fuch comStyl. 166.

1 Ventr. 66. Salk. 146. zi Show. 396.

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