every fair and market; of which the steward of him who owns or has the toll of the market, is the judge; and its jurisdiction extends to administer justice for all commercial injuries done in that very fair or market, and not in any preceding one. So that the injury must be done, complained of, heard, and determined, within the compass of one and the same day, unless the fair continues longer. This court has cognizance of all matters of contract that can possibly arise within the precincts of that fair or market; and the plaintiff must make oath that the cause of an action arose there. From this court a writ of error lies, in the nature of an appeal to the courts of Westminster, which are bound to issue writs of execution, in aid of its process, after judgment, where the person or effects of the defendant are not within the limits of this inferior jurisdiction.

THE COURT BARON, is a court incident to every manor in the kingdom, to be holden by the steward within the manor. This court baron is of a double nature; one is a customary court, appertaining entirely to the copyholders, in which their estates are transferred by surrender and admittance, and other matters transacted relative to their tenures only. The other is a court of law, and it is the court of the barons, by which name the freeholders were sometimes anciently called: for that is held before the freeholders, who owe suit and service to the manor, the steward being rather the registrar than the judge.

A HUNDRED COURT is only a large court baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred, instead of a manor. The free suitors are here also the judges, and the steward the registrar, as in the case of a court baron. It is not a court of record; but resembles the former in all points, except that in point of territory it is of a greater jurisdiction. But these courts are fallen into disuse with regard to the trial of actions, because the causes are liable to be removed to the superior court, and may also be reviewed by writ of false judgment.

THE COUNTY COURT is incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of 40s. But as proceedings in these courts, are removable into the king's superior courts, and as a writ of false judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error, bringing actions into this court has fallen into disuse.

COMMON PLEAS.-This court is sometimes called in law, the court of common bench. The distribution of common justice between man and man was thrown into so provident an order, that the great judicial officers were made to form a check upon each other, the court of chancery issuing all original writs under the great seal to the other courts; the common pleas being allowed to determine all causes between private subjects, the exchequer managing the king's revenue, and the court of king's bench retaining all the jurisdiction which was not cantoned out to other courts,

and particularly the superintendance of all the rest, by way of appeal, and the sole cognizance of pleas of the crown, or criminal cases. For pleas, or suits, are regularly divided into two sorts; pleas of the crown, which comprehend all criminal misdemeanors wherein the king, on behalf of the public, is plaintiff and common pleas, which include all civil actions depending between subject and subject. The former of these were the proper object of the jurisdiction of the court of king's bench, the latter of the court of common pleas; which is a court of record, and is styled the lock and key of the common law; for herein only can real actions which concern the right of freehold or the reality, be originally brought; and all other, or personal pleas, between man and man, are likewise here determined; though in most of them the king's bench has also a concurrent authority. The judges of this court are at present four in number, one chief, and three puisne (pronounced puny) justices created, by the king's letters patent, who sit every day in the four terms to hear and determine all matters of law arising in civil causes, whether real, personal, or mixed and compounded of both. Of these it takes cognizance, as well originally, as upon removal from the inferior courts before mentioned. But a writ of error in the nature of an appeal, lies from this court into the court of king's bench.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH.-This court is so called because the king used to sit there in person, and the style of the court is still coram ipso rege. It is the supreme court of common law in the kingdom; consisting of a chief justice and three puisne justices, who are by their office the sovereign conservators of the peace, and supreme coroners of the land. Yet, though the king himself used to sit in this court, and still is supposed to do so, he did not determine any cause or motion, but by the mouth of his judges, to whom he has committed his whole judicial authority.

The jurisdiction of this court is very high, and transcendent. It keeps all inferior jurisdictions within the bounds of their authority, and may either remove their proceedings to be determined here, or prohibit their progress below. It superintends all civil corporations in the kingdom. It commands magistrates and others to do what their duty requires, in any case where there is no other specific remedy. It protects the liberty of the subject, by speedy and summary interposition. It takes cognizance of both criminal and civil causes; the former in what is called the crownside, or crown-office, the latter in the plea-side of the court.

For this court is likewise a court of appeal, into which may be removed, by writ of error, all determinations of the court of common pleas, and of all inferior courts of record in England; and to which, till lately, a writ of error lay also from the court of king's bench in Ireland. Yet even this so high and honourable court is not the dernier resort of the subject; for if he be not satisfied with any determination here, he may remove it

by writ of error into the house of lords, or the court of exchequer chamber, as the case may happen, according to the nature of the suit, and the manner in which it has been prosecuted.

THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER is inferior in rank, not only to the court of king's bench, but to the common pleas also. It is a court, both of law and equity, and is principally intended to order the revenues of the crown, and to recover the king's debts and duties. Its name of exchequer, (scaccarium,) arises from the chequered cloth, resembling a chess board, which covers the table there; and on which, when certain of the king's accounts are made up, the sums are marked and scored with counters. It consists of two divisions; the receipt of the exchequer, which manages the royal revenue, and the court or judicial part of it, which is again subdivided into a court of equity, and a court of common law.

The court of equity is held in the exchequer chamber, before the lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, the chief baron, and three puisne ones. Its primary and original business is to call the king's debtors to account, by bill filed by the attorney-general; and to recover any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, any goods, chattels, or other profits or benefits, belonging to the crown. For as all the officers and ministers of this court have, like those of other superior courts, the privilege of suing and being sued only in their own court, so also the king's debtors and farmers, and all accomptants of the exchequer, are privileged to sue and implead all manner of persons, in the same court of equity that they themselves are called into: they have likewise the privilege to sue and implead one another, or any stranger, in the same kind of common law actions (where the personality is concerned) as are prosecuted in the court of common pleas. On the equity side of this court, the clergy have long been used to exhibit their bills for non-payment of their tithes, in which case the surmise of being the king's debtor is not a fiction, the clergy being bound to pay him their first fruits and annual tenths. But the chancery has of late years obtained a large share of this business. An appeal from the equity side of this court lies immediately to the house of peers; but from the common law side, a writ of error must be brought into the court of exchequer chamber. And from the determination there had, there lies, in the last resort, a writ of error to the house of lords.

THE HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY is the last and most important court in matters of civil property, of any of the king's supreme and original courts of justice. The office of chancellor, or lord keeper, is at present created by the mere delivery of the king's great seal into his custody: whereby he becomes, without writ or patent, an officer of the greatest weight and power of any now subsisting in the kingdom; and superior in point of precedency to every temporal lord. He is a privy councillor by his office, and prolocutor of the house of lords by prescription. The

appointment of all the justices of the peace throughout the kingdom belongs to him. Formerly he was usually an ecclesiastic, and presiding over the royal chapel, he became keeper of the king's conscience, visitor, in the king's right, of all hospitals and colleges of the king's foundation, and patron of all the king's livings under the value of twenty marks per annum in the king's books. He is the general guardian of all infants, idiots, and lunatics, and has the general superintendence of all charitable uses in the` kingdom. And all this, over and above the vast and extensive jurisdiction which he exercises in his judicial capacity in the court of chancery; wherein, as in the exchequer, there are two distinct tribunals, the one ordinary, being a court of common law, and the other extraordinary, being a court of equity.

The ordinary legal court is much more ancient than the court of equity. Its jurisdiction is to hold plea upon a scire facias, to repeal and cancel (hence the name cancellarius,) the king's letters patent, when made against law, or upon untrue suggestions: and to hold pleas of petitions, monstrans de droit, traverses of offices, and the like; when he has been advised to do any act, or is put in possession of any lands or goods, in prejudice of a subject's right. On proof of which, as the king can do no wrong, nor can he be supposed to intend to do any wrong, the law does not question but that he will immediately redress the injury, and refers that conscientious task to the chancellor, the keeper of his conscience. This court also holds pleas of all personal actions, when any officer or minister of the court is a party. It might likewise hold pleas of partitions of lands in coparcenary and of dower, when any ward of the crown was concerned in interest, so long as the military tenures subsisted; and it may also do so now of the tithes of forest lands, when granted by the king, and claimed by a stranger against the grantee of the crown; and of executions on statutes, or recognizances in nature thereof. But if any cause comes to issue in this court, that is, if any fact is disputed between the parties, the chancellor cannot try it, having no power to summon a jury, but must deliver the record propria manu into the court of king's bench, where it shall be tried by the country, and judgment shall be there given thereon. And when judgment is given in chancery upon demurrer or the like, a writ of error, in nature of an appeal, lies out of this ordinary court into the court of king's bench; for which reason very little is usually done on the common law side of the court.

In this ordinary or legal court is also kept the officina justicia, out of which issue all original writs that pass under the great seal, all commissions of charitable uses, sewers, bankruptcy, idiocy, lunacy, and the like; and for which it is always open to the subject, who may there at any time demand and have, ex debito justicia, any writ that his occasions may call for. These writs and their returns, were, according to the simplicity of

ancient times, originally kept in a hamper, in hanaperio, and the others which relate solely to the crown, were preserved in a little sack or bag, in parva baga; hence arises the distinction of the hanaper and petty bag offices, which both belong to the common law court in chancery.

But the extraordinary court, or court of equity, is now become the court of the greatest judicial consequence. This distinction between law and equity, as administered in different courts, is not at present known, nor seems ever to have been known in any other country at any time. The reason and necessities of mankind, arising from the great change in property by the extension of trade and the abolition of military tenures, cooperated in enabling many great men who have presided in chancery, to build a system of jurisprudence and jurisdiction upon broad and rational foundations. And the power and business of this court have now increased to an amazing degree.

From the court of equity in chancery, as from the other superior courts, an appeal lies to the house of peers. But there are these differences between appeals from a court of equity, and writs of error from a court of law: 1st, That the former may be brought upon any interlocutory matter, the latter upon nothing but only a definitive judgment: 2d, That on writs of error the house of lords pronounces the judgment; on appeals it gives direction to the courts below to rectify its own decree.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER CHAMBER.-This court has no original jurisdiction, but is simply a court of appeal, to correct the errors of other jurisdictions. It was first erected in the reign of Edward III. to determine causes upon writs of error from the common law side of the court of exchequer. It consists of the lord chancellor and lord treasurer, associating with themselves, the justices of the king's bench and common pleas. In imitation of which a second court of exchequer chamber was erected by statute in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Elizabeth, 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 sorts originally begun in the court of king's bench. Also into the court of exchequer chamber (which then consists of all the judges of the three superior courts, and sometimes the lord chancellor also), such causes are occasionally adjourned from the other courts, 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 branches of this court of exchequer chamber, a writ of error lies to the house of peers.

THE HOUSE OF PEERS is the supreme court of judicature of the kingdom, having at present no original jurisdiction over causes, but only upon appeals and writs of error, to rectify any injustice or mistake of the law committed by the courts below, and is in all causes the last resort, from whose judgment no further appeal is permitted; but every subordinate