try presentments in the inferior courts of the forest, and to give judgment upon conviction of the sweinmote. And the chief justice may therefore, after presentment made, or indictment found, but *not before, () issue his warrant to the officers of the forest to apprehend the offenders. It may be held every third [*73] year; and forty days' notice ought to be given of its sitting. This court may fine and imprison for offences within the forest, (m) 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 maladministrations of justice; (n) or the chief justice in eyre may adjourn any matter of law into the court of king's bench. (0) These justices in eyre were instituted by King Henry II, A. D. 1184; (p) and their courts were formerly very regularly held; but the last court of justice-seat of any note was that holden in the reign of Charles I, before the earl of Holland; the rigorous proceedings at which are reported by Sir William Jones. After the restoration another was held, pro forma only, before the earl of Oxford; (g) but since the æra of the revolution in 1688, the forest laws have fallen into total disuse, to the great advantage of the subject. II. Commissioners of sewers.- A second species of restricted courts is that of commissioners of sewers. This is a temporary tribunal, erected by virtue of a commission under the great seal; which formerly used to be granted pro re nata (according to circumstances for the occasion) at the pleasure of the crown, (r) but now at the discretion and nomination of the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, and chief justices, pursuant to the statute 23 Hen. VIII, c. 5. Their jurisdiction is to overlook the repairs of sea 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 such county or particular district as the commission shall expressly name. The commissioners are a court of record, and may fine and imprison for contempt: (s) 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 *safeguard and conservation of the sewers within their commission, [*74] either according to the laws and customs of Romney-marsh, (t) or otherwise at their own discretion. They may also assess such rates, or scots, upon the owners of lands within their district, as they shall judge necessary; and, if any person refuses to pay them, the commissioners may levy the same by distress of his goods and chattels; or they may, by statute 23 Hen. VIII, c. 5, sell his freehold lands (and by the 7 Ann. c. 10, his copyhold also), in order to pay such scots or assessments. But their conduct is under the control of the court of king's bench, which will prevent or punish any (r) F. N. B. 113. (p) Hoveden. (t) Romney-marsh, in the county of Kent, a tract containing 24,000 acres, is governed by certain ancient and equitable laws of sewers composed by Henry de Bathe, a venerable judge in the reign of King Henry the Third; from which laws all commissioners of sewers in England may receive light and direction. (4 Inst. 276.) 1 The law regarding these commissioners has since been materially altered. illegal or tyrannical proceedings. (u) And yet, in the reign of King James I (8 November, 1616), the privy council took upon them to order, that no action or complaint should be prosecuted against the commissioners, unless before that board; and committed several to prison who had brought such actions at common law, till they should release the same: and one of the reasons for discharging Sir Edward Coke from his office of lord chief justice was for countenancing those legal proceedings. (v) The pretence for which arbitrary measures was no other than the tyrant's plea, (w) of the necessity of unlimited powers in works of evident utility to the public, "the supreme reason above all reasons, which is the salvation of the king's lands and people." But now it is clearly held, that this, (as well as all other inferior jurisdictions) is subject to the discretionary coercion of his majesty's court of king's bench. (x) III. The court of policies of assurance, when subsisting, is erected in pursuance of the statute 43 Eliz. c. 12, which recites the immemorial usage of policies of assurance, " by means whereof it cometh to pass, upon the loss or perishing *of any ship, there [*75] followeth not the undoing of any man, but the loss lighteth rather easily 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 sort, are allured to venture more willingly and more freely: and that heretofore such assurers had used to stand so justly and precisely upon their credits, as few or no controversies had arisen thereupon; and if any had grown, the same had from time to time been ended and ordered by certain grave and discreet merchants appointed by the lord mayor of the city of London; as men, by reason of their experience, fittest to understand and speedily decide those causes;" but that of late years divers persons had withdrawn themselves from that course of arbitration, and had driven the assured to bring separate actions at law against each assurer: it therefore enables the lord chancellor yearly to grant a standing commission to the 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 barrister, are thereby, and by the statute 13 and 14 Car. II, c. 23, empowered to determine in a summary way all causes concerning policies of assurance 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 assurances but those on merchandize, (y) and to suits brought by the assured only, and not by the insurers, (2) no such commission has of late years issued: but insurance causes are now usually determined by the verdict of a jury of merchants, and the opinion of the judges in case of any legal doubts; whereby the decision is more speedy, satisfactory, and final, though it is to be wished that some of the parliamentary powers invested in these commissioners, especially for the examination of witnesses, either beyond the seas or speedily going out of the kingdom, (a) could at present be adopted by the (u) Cro. Jac. 336. (w) Milt. parad. lost, iv. 393. (z) Show. 396. courts of Westminster-hall, without requiring the consent of par ties.1 *IV. The court of marshalsea, and the palace court at [*76] Westminster, though two distinct courts, are frequently confounded together. The former was originally holden before the steward and marshal of the king's house, and was instituted to administer justice between the king's domestic servants, that they might not be drawn into other courts, and thereby the king lose their service. (b) It was formerly held in, though not a part of, the aula regis; (c) and, when that was subdivided, remained a distinct jurisdiction: holding plea of all trespasses committed within the verge of the court, where only one of the parties is in the king's domestic service (in which case the inquest shall be taken by a jury of the country), and of all debts, contracts, and covenants, where both of the contracting parties belong to the royal household; and then the inquest shall be composed of men of the household only. (d) By the statute of 13 Ric. II, st. 1, c. 3, (in affirmance of the common law), (e) the verge of the court in this respect extends for twelve miles round the king's place of residence. (f) And, as this tribunal was never subject to the jurisdiction of the chief justiciary, no writ of error lay from it (though a court of record) to the king's bench, but only to parliament, (g) till the statutes of 5 Edw. III, c. 2, and 18 Edw. III, st. 2, c. 7, which allowed such writ of error before the king in his place. But this court being ambulatory, and obliged to follow the king in all his progresses so that, by the removal of the household, actions were frequently discontinued, (h) and doubts having arisen as to the extent of its jurisdiction, (2) King Charles I, in the sixth year of his reign, by his letters patent, erected a new court of record, called the curia palatii or palace-court, to be held before the steward of the household and knight-marshal, and the steward of the court, *or his deputy; with jurisdiction to hold plea of all manner of personal actions whatsoever, which [*77] shall arise between any parties within twelve miles of his majesty's palace at Whitehall. () The court is now held once a week, together with the ancient court of marshalsea, in the borough of Southwark: and a writ of error lies from thence to the court of king's bench. But if the cause is of any considerable consequence, it is usually removed on its first commencement, together with the custody of the defendant, either into the king's bench or common pleas, by a writ of habeas corpus cum causa; and the inferior business of the court hath of late years been much reduced, by the new courts of conscience erected in the environs of London; in consideration of which the four counsel belonging to these courts had salaries granted them for their lives by the statute 23 Geo. II, c. 27. (d) Artic. sup. cart. 28 Edw. I, c. 3. Stat. 5 Edw. III, c. 2. 10 Edw. III, st. 2, c. 2. (e) 2 Inst. 548. (f) By the ancient Saxon constitution, the pax regia, or privilege of the king's palace, extended from his palace gate to the distance of three miles, three furlongs, three acres, nine feet, nine palins, and nine barley-corns; as appears from a fragment of the textus Roffensis, cited in Dr. Hicke's dissertat. epistol. 114. (i) 1 Bulstr. 208. The courts at Westminster have now the power of ordering the examination of witnesses who are abroad. V. Courts of Wales.- A fifth species of private courts of a limited, though extensive jurisdiction are those of the principality of Wales; which, upon its thorough reduction, and the settling of its polity in the reign of Henry the Eighth, () were erected all over the country; principally by the statute 34 and 35 Hen. VIII, c. 26, though much had before been done, and the way prepared by the statute of Wales, 12 Edw. I, and other statutes. By the statute of Henry the Eighth before-mentioned, courts-baron, hundred, and county courts are there established as in England. A session is also held twice in every year in each county, by judges (m) appointed by the king, to be called the great sessions of the several counties in Wales: in which all pleas of real and personal actions shall be held, with the same form of process and in as ample a manner as in the court of common pleas at Westminster: (n) and writs of error shall lie from judgments therein (it being a court of record) to the court of king's bench at Westminster. But the ordinary original writs of process of the king's courts at Westminster do not run into the principality of Wales: (o) though *pro[*78] cess of execution does: (p) as do also prerogative writs, as writs of certiorari (to have notice given him), quo minus, mandamus, and the like. (2) And even in causes between subject and subject, to prevent injustice through family factions or prejudices, it is held lawful (in causes of freehold at least, and it is usual in all others) to bring an action in the English courts, and try the same in the next English county adjoining to that part of Wales where the cause arises, (7) and wherein the venue is laid. But, on the other hand to prevent trifling and frivolous suits, it is enacted by statute 13 Geo. III, c. 51, that in personal actions, tried in any English county, where the cause of action arose, and the defendant resides in Wales, if the plaintiff shall not recover a verdict for ten pounds, he shall be nonsuited and pay the defendant's costs, unless it be certified by the judge that the freehold or title came principally in question, or that the cause was proper to be tried in such English county. And if any transitory action, the cause whereof arose and the defendant is resident in Wales, shall be brought in any English county, and the plaintiff shall not recover a verdict for ten pounds, the plaintiff shall be nonsuited, and shall pay the defendant's costs, deducting thereout the sum recovered by the verdict.1 VI. Court of Lancaster.-The court of the duchy chamber of Lancaster is another special jurisdiction, held before the chancellor of the duchy or his deputy, concerning all matter of equity relating to lands holden of the king in the right of the duchy of Lancaster; (8) which is a thing very distinct from the county palatine (which hath also its separate chancery, for sealing of writs, and the like), (t) and comprises much territory which lies at a vast distance from it; as particularly a very large district surrounded by the city of Westminster. The proceedings in this court are the same as on the equity side in the courts of exchequer and chancery; (u) so that it seems not to be a court of record; and indeed it has been holden that those courts have a concurrent jurisdiction with the duchy court, and may take cognizance of the same causes. (v) *VII. Courts palatine.-Another species of private courts, [79] which are of a limited local jurisdiction, and have at the same time an exclusive cognizance of pleas, in matters both of law and equity, (w) are those which appertain to the counties palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham, and the royal franchise of Ely. (x)1 In all these, as in the principality of Wales, the king's ordinary writs, issuing under the great seal out of chancery, do not run; that is they are of no force. For as originally all jura regalia were granted to the lords of these counties palatine, they had of course the sole administration of justice, by their own judges, appointed by themselves and not by the crown. It would therefore be incongruous for the king to send his writ to direct the judge of another's court in what manner to administer justice between the suitors. Teste of writs.-But when the privileges of these counties palatine and franchises were abridged by statute 27 Henry VIII, c. 24, it was also enacted that all writs and process should be made in the king's name, but should be teste'd or witnessed in the name of the owner of the franchise. Wherefore all writs, whereon actions are founded, and which have current authority here, must be under the seal of the respective franchises; the two former of which are now united to the crown, and the two latter under the government of their several bishops. And the judges of assize, who sit therein, sit by virtue of a special commission from the owners of the several franchises, and under the seal thereof; and not by the usual commission under the great seal of England. Hither also may be referred the courts of the cinque ports, or five most important havens, as they formerly were esteemed in the kingdom, viz.: Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Hastings, and Hythe; to which Winchelsea and Rye have been since added; which have also similar franchises in many respects (?) with the counties palatine, and particularly an exclusive jurisdiction (before the mayor and jurats of the ports), in which exclusive jurisdiction the king's ordinary writ does not run. A writ of error lies from the mayor and jurats of each port to the lord warden of the cinque ports, in his court of Shepway; and from |