intrufted. This he ufually exercifed by his deputy, ftill called in Latin vice-comes, and in English, the fheriff, fhrieve, or fhire-reeve, fignifying the officer of the fhire; upon whom by procefs of time the civil administration of it is now totally devolved. In fome counties there is an intermediate divifion, between the fhire and the hundreds, as lathes in Kent, and rapes in Suffex, each of them containing about three or four hundreds apiece. Thefe had formerly their lathe-reeves and rape-reeves, acting in fubordination to the fhire-reeve. Where a county is divided into three of these intermediate jurifdictions, they are called trithings P, which were antiently governed by a trithing-reeve. Thefe trithings ftill. fubfift in the large county of York, where by an eafy corruption they are denominated ridings; the north, the east, and the weft-riding. The number of counties in England and Wales have been different at different times: at prefent they are forty in England, and twelve in Wales.

THREE of these counties, Chester, Durham, and Lancafter, are called counties palatine. The two former are such by prescription, or immemorial cuftom; or, at least as old as the Norman conqueft: the latter was created by king [117] Edward III, in favour of Henry Plantagenet, firft earl and then duke of Lancaster'; whofe heirefs being married to John of Gant the king's fon, the franchife was greatly enlarged and confirmed in parliament, to honour John of Gant himself, whom, on the death of his father-in-law, the king had alfo created duke of Lancaster. Counties palatine are fo called a palatio; because the owners thereof, the carl of Chester, the bishop of Durham, and the duke of Lancafter, had in those counties jura regalia, as fully as the king hath in his palace; regalem poteftatem in omnibus, as Brac ton expreffes it". They might pardon treafons, murders, and

PLL. Edav. c. 34.

9 Seld. tit. hon. 2. 5. 8. Pat. 25 Edw. III. p 1. m. 18. Seld ibid. Sandford's gen, hift. 112.

s Cart. 36 Edzv. III. n. 9.

t Pat. 51 Edw. III. m. 33. Plowd. 215.7 Rym. 138.

*/. 3. c. 8. §4.

4 luft. 204.

felonies;

felonies; they appointed all judges and justices of the peace; all writs and indictments ran in their names, as in other counties in the king's; and all offences were faid to be done against their peace, and not, as in other places, contra pacem domini regis". And indeed by the antient law, in all peculiar jurifdictions, offences were faid to be done against his peace in whofe court they were tried: in a court-leet, contra pacem domini; in the court of a corporation, contra pacem ballivorum; in the fheriff's court or tourn, contra pacem vice-comitis. These palatine privileges (fo fimilar to the regal independent jurifdictions ufurped by the great barons on the continent, during the weak and infant state of the firft feodal kingdoms in Europe) were in all probability originally granted to the counties of Chester and Durham, because they bordered upon inimical countries, Wales and Scotland: in order that the inhabitants, having juftice adminiftered at home, might not be obliged to go out of the county, and leave it open to the enemy's incurfions; and that the owners, being encouraged by fo large an authority, might be the more watchful in it's defence. And upon this account alfo there were formerly two [118] other counties palatine, Pembrokeshire and Hexhamshire; the latter now united with Northumberland: but thefe were abolifhed by parliament, the former in 27 Hen. VIII, the latter in 14 Eliz. And in 27 Hen. VIII, likewise, the powers before mentioned of owners of counties palatine were abridged; the reafon for their continuance in a manner ceasing: though ftill all writs are witnessed in their names, and all forfeitures for treafon by the common law accrue to them 2.

Or thefe three, the county of Durham is now the only one remaining in the hands of a fubject. For the earldom of Chefter, as Camden teftifies, was united to the crown by Henry III, and has ever fince given title to the king's eldest fon. And the county palatine, or duchy, of Lancaster, was the property of Henry Bolingbroke, the fon of John of

w 4 Init. 204.

Robertfon. Cha. V. i. 6o."

Seld. in Heng, magn. 6. 2.

* 4 Inst. 205.

Gant,

118 Gant, at the time when he wrefted the crown from king Richard II, and affumed the title of king Henry IV. But he was too prudent to fuffer this to be united to the crown; left if he loft one, he should lose the other alfo. For, as Plowden and fir Edward Coke obferve, "he knew he had the duchy "of Lancafter by fure and indefeasible title, but that his "title to the crown was not fo affured: for that after the "decease of Richard II the right of the crown was in the "heir of Lionel duke of Clarence, fecond fon of Edward III; "John of Gant, father to this Henry IV, being but the "fourth fon." And therefore he procured an act of parlia ment, in the first year of his reign, ordaining that the duchy of Lancaster, and all other his hereditary eftates, with all their royalties and franchises, should remain to him and his heirs for ever; and should remain, defcend, be adminiftered, and governed, in like manner as if he never had attained the regal dignity: and thus they defcended to his fon and grandfon, Henry V and Henry VI; many new territories and privileges being annexed to the duchy by the former. Henry VI being attainted in 1 Edw. IV, this duchy was declared in parliament to have become forfeited to the crown, and at the fame time an act was made to incorporate the duchy of Lancaster, to [119] continue the county palatine (which might otherwife have determined by the attainder) and to make the fame parcel of the duchy: and, farther, to veft the whole in king Edward IV and his heirs, kings of England, for ever; but under a separate guiding and governance from the other inheritances of the crown. And in 1 Hen. VII another act was made, to resume such part of the duchy lands as had been difmembered from it in the reign of Edward IV, and to veft the inheritance of the whole in the king and his heirs for ever, as amply and largely, and in like manner, form, and condition, feparate from the crown of England and poffeffion of the fame, as the three Henries and Edward IV, or any of them, had and held the same.

[ 120 ]

THE ifle of Ely is not a county palatine, though fometimes erroneously called fo, but only a royal franchife: the bishop having, by grant of king Henry the first, jura regalia within the ifle of Ely; whereby he exercises a jurifdiction over all causes, as well criminal as civil 3.

THERE are alfo counties corporate: which are certain cities and towns, fome with more, fome with lefs territory annexed to them; to which out of special grace and favour the kings of England have granted the privilege to be counties of themfelves, and not to be comprized in any other county; but to be governed by their own sheriffs and other magistrates, fo that no officers of the county at large have any power to intermeddle therein. Such are London, York, Bristol, Norwich, Coventry, and many others (23). And thus much of the countries fubject to the laws of England.

tural, and not in the political perfon of
king Henry VII, as formerly in that of
Henry IV; and was defcendible to his
natural heirs, independent of the fuccef-

on to the crown. And, if this notion
were well founded, it might have be-
some a very curious question at the time
of the revolution in 1688, in whom the
right of the duchy remained after king
James's abdication, and previous to the
attainder of the pretended prince of
Wales. But it is observable, that in the
me at the duchy of Cornwall is alfo
vefted in king Henry VII and his heirs;
which could never be intended in any
eyent to be feparated from the inherit-
ance of the crown. And indeed it
feems to have been understood very early
after the ftatute of Henry VII, that the

duchy of Lancaster was by no means thereby made a separate inheritance from the rest of the royal patrimony; fince it defcended with the crown, to the halfblood in the inftances of queen Mary and. queen Elizabeth: which it could not have done, as the estate of a mere duke of Lancaster, in the common course of legal descent. The better opinion therefore seems to be that of those judges, who held (Plowd. 221.) that notwithstanding the ftatute of Hen. VII. (which was only an act of resumption) the duchy ftill remained as established by the act of Edward IV; feparate from the other poffeffions of the crown in order and government, but united in point of inheritance.

8 4 Inft. 220.

(23) 3 Geo. I. c. 5. for the regulation of the office of sheriffs, enumerates twelve cities, and five towns, which are counties of themselves, and which have consequently their own sheriffs. The cities are, London, Chefter, Bristol, Coventry, Canterbury, Exeter, Gloucefter, Litchfield, Lincoln, Norwich, Worcester, York. The towns are, Kingston-upon-Hull, Nottingham, Newcaftle-upon-Tyne, Pool, Southampton.

2

T

INDIVIDUAL S.

HE objects of the laws of England are fo very numerous and extenfive, that, in order to confider them with any tolerable ease and perfpicuity, it will be neceffary to distribute them methodically, under proper and distinct heads; avoiding as much as possible. divifions too large and comprehenfive on the one hand, and too trifling and minute on the other; both of which are equally productive of confufion.