Acts, or fuch as are made to extend or reftrain the Common Law, it will be fufficient to observe, that being the refult of the united wills of the Three Confiituent Parts of the Legislature, they, in all cafes, fuperfede both the Common Law and all former Statutes, and the Judges must take cognizance of them, and decide in conformity to them, even though they had 'not been alledged by the parties*.

The different Courts for the Administration of Juftice, in England, are,

1. The Court of Common Pleas. It formerly made a part of the Aula Regis; but as this latter Court was bound by its inftitution always to follow the perfon of the King, and private individuals experienced great difficulties in obtaining relief from a Court that was ambulatory, and always in motion, it was made one of the articles of the Great Charter, that, the Court of Common Pleas fhould thenceforwards be held in a fixed place t; and fince that time it has been feated at Weftminfter. It is compofed of a Lord Chief Juftice, with three other Judges; and appeals from its judgments, ufually called Writs of

Unle's they be private Acts.

Communia Placita non fequantur Curiam nofiram, fed teneantur in aliquo loco certo. Magna Charta, cap. 11.

Error,

Error, are brought before the Court of King's Bench.

II. The Court of Exchequer. It was originally eftablifhed to determine thofe caufes in which the King, or his fervants, or accomptants, were concerned, and has gradually become open to all perfons. The confining the power of this Court to the above class of perfons, is therefore now a mere fiction; only a man muft, for form's fake, fet forth in his declaration that he is debtor to the King, whether he be fo, or no. The Court of Exchequer is compofed of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and three other Judges.

III. The Court of King's Bench forms that part of the Aula Regis which continued to fubfift after the dismembering of the Common Pleas. This Court enjoys the most extensive authority of all other Courts: it has the fuperintendence over all Corporations, and keeps the various jurifdictions in the Kingdom within their respective bounds. It takes cognizance, according to the end of its original inftitution, of all criminal causes, and even of many causes merely civil. It is compofed of the Lord Chief Juftice of the Court of King's Bench, and three other Judges. Writs of error against the judgments paffed in that Court in civil matters, are brought before the Court of the Exchequer Chamber; or, in most eafes, before the House of Peers. 6

IV. The

IV. The Court of the Exchequer Chamber. When this Court is formed by the four Barons, or Judges of the Exchequer, together with the Chancellor and Treafurer of the fame, it fits as a Court of Equity: a kind of inftitution on which fome obfervations will be introduced in a following Chapter. When this Court is formed by the twelve Judges, to whom fometimes the Lord Chancellor is joined, its office is to deliberate, when properly referred and applied to, and give an opinion on important and difficult caufes, before judgments are passed upon them in thofe Courts where the caufes are depending.

CHA P. X.

On the Law, in regard to Civil Matters, that is obferved in England.

CONCERNING the manner in which Justice is adminiftered, in civil matters, in England, and the kind of law that obtains, in that refpect, the following obfervations may be made.

In the first place, it is to be obferved, that the beginning of a civil procefs in England, and the first step usually taken in bringing an action, is the feizing by public authority the perfon against

This is done with

whom that action is brought. a view to fecure fuch perfon's appearance before a Judge, or at least make him give fureties for that purpose. In most of the Countries of Europe, where the forms introduced in the Roman Civil Law, in the reigns of the latter Emperors, have been imitated, a different method has been adopted to procure a man's appearance before a Court of Justice. The ufual practice is to have the perfon fued, fummoned to appear before the Court, by a public officer belonging to it, a week before-hand: if no regard is paid to fuch fummons twice repeated, the Plaintiff, or his Attorney, is admitted to make before the Court a formal reading of his demand, which is then granted him, and he may proceed to execution *.

In this mode of proceeding, it is taken for granted, that a perfon who declines to appear before a Judge, to answer the demand of another, after being properly fummoned, acknowledges the juftice of fuch demand; and this fuppofition is very just and rational. However, the above mentioned practice of securing before-hand the body

* A perfon against whom a judgment of this kind has been paffed (which they call in France un jugement par défaut) may easily obtain relief: but as he now in his turn becomes in a manner the Plaintiff, his deserting the cause, in this second stage of it, would leave him without remedy.

of

of a perfon fued, though not fo mild in its execution as that just now described, nor even more effectual, appears more obvious and is more readily adopted, in those times when Courts of Law begin to be formed in a Nation, and rules of diftributive justice to be established; and it is, very likely, followed in England as a continuation of the methods that were adopted when the English laws were as yet in their infancy.

In the times we mention, when laws begin to be formed in a Country, the adminiftration of juftice between individuals is commonly lodged in the fame hands which are intrufted with the public and military authority in the State. Judges, invefted with a power of this kind, like to carry on their operations with a high hand: they confider the refufal of a Man to appear before them, not as being barely an expedient to avoid doing that which is juft, but as a contempt of their authority they of course look upon themselves as being bound to vindicate it; and a writ of Capias is fpeedily iffued to apprehend the refractory Defendant. A preliminary Writ, or order, of this kind, becomes in time to be used of course, and as the first regular step of a law-fuit; and thus, it is likely enough, as it happened that in the English Courts of Law, if I am rightly informed, a Writ of Capias is either iffued before

the