at Westminster to rehear and review the caufe, and not a writ of error, for this is not a court of record.

HUNDRED COURT. A hundred court is only a larger court baron, being held for all the inhabitants for a particular hundred instead of a manor. 'The free fuitors are here also the judges, and the fteward the registrar, as in a court baron. is likewife no court of record; refembling the former in all respects, except that in point of territory it is of a greater jurifdiction. This hundred court was denominated hereda in the Gothic conftitution; but as caufes are equally liable to removal from hence, as from the common court baren, and by the fame writs, and may also be removed by writ of false judgment, the court is fallen into equal difufe with regard to the trial of actions.

The

COUNTY COURT. The county court is a court incident to the jurifdiction of the fheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debts or damages under the value of forty fhillings; over fome of which caufes thefe inferior courts have, by the exprefs words of the ftatute of Gloucester, a jurisdiction totally exclufive of the king's fuperior courts. County court may alfo hold plea of many real actions, and of all perfonal actions to any amount, by virtue of a special writ, called a jufticies, which is a writ impowering the sheriff, for the fake of dispatch, to do the fame juftice in his county court, as might otherwife be had at Westminster. The freeholders of the county are the real judges in their court, and the sheriff is the minifterial officer. The great conflux of freeholders, fuppofed always to attend at the county court, is the reafon why all acts of parliament, at the end of every feffion, were wont to be there published by the fheriff; why all outlawries of abfconding offenders are there proclaimed ; and why all popular elections, which the freeholders are to make; as formerly of fheriffs and confervators of the peace, and ftill of coroners, verderors, and knights of the fhire, muft ever be made in pleno comitatu, or, in full county court. By the ftatute 2 Ed. IV. c. 25. no county court can be adjourned longer than for one month, confifting of twenty-eight days. And this was alfo the ancient ufage, as appears from the laws of Edward the elder. In thofe times the county court was one of great dignity and fplendour; the bishop and the ealdorman (or earl), with the principal men of the shire, fitting to adminifter juftice both in lay and ecclefiaflical caufes. Its dignity was much impaired, when the bishop was prohibited, and the earl neglected to attend ; and, in modern times, as proceedings are removeable into the king's fuperior courts, by writ of pone or recordari, in the fame manner as

from

from hundred courts, and courts baron; and as the fame writ of false judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error, actions in the county court are fallen into difufe.

Thefe are the feveral fpecies of common law courts, which, though difperfed univerfally throughout the realm, are neverthelefs of a partial jurifdiction, and confined to particular diftricts yet communicating with, and, as it were,

mem

bers of, the fuperior courts of a more extended and general nature; which are calculated for the administration of redrefs, not in any one lordship, hundred, or county only, but throughout the whole kingdom at large.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. By the Saxon conftitution, there was only one fuperior court of justice in the kingdom, and that had cognizance both of civil and spiritual causes, viz. the wittena-gemot, or general council, which affembled annually, or oftener, wherever the king kept his Eafter, Chriftmas, or Whitfuntide, as well to do private juftice as to confult on publick bufinefs. But after the conqueft, the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction was diverted into another channel; and the conqueror, fearing danger from thefe annual parliaments, contrived alfo to feparate their minifterial power, as judges, from their deliberative, as counsellors to the crown. He therefore established a conftant court in his own hall, made up of the officers of his palace, who tranfacted the bufinefs, both criminal and civil, as well as matters of the revenue. When they fat in the hall, they were called a court criminal, when up stairs a court of revenue; the civil pleas they held in either court. This court was cailed, by Bracton and other authors, aula regia, or aula regis. Thefe high officers were affifted by certain perfons learned in the laws, who were called the king's jufticiars or juftices, and by the greater barons of parliament, all of whom had a feat in the aula regia, and formed a kind of court of appeal, or rather of advice, in matters of great moment and difficulty. Thefe, in their feveral departments, tranfacted all fecular bufinefs, both criminal and civil, and likewife matters of the revenue: and over all prefided one fpecial magiftrate, called the chief jufticiar, or capitalis jufticiarius totius Anglie; who was alfo principal minifter of itate, the fecond man in the kingdom, and, by virtue of his office, guardian of the realm in the king's abfence. And this officer it was, who principally determined all the valt variety of caufes that arofe in this extenfive jurifdiction; and, from the plenitude of his power, grew, at length, both obnoxious to the people and dangerous to the government which employed him. This great univerfal court being bound to follow the king's household in all its progrefles and expeditions, the

trial of common caufes was found very burthenfome to the fubject. Wherefore John, who dreaded alfo the power of the justiciar, very readily confented to that article, which now forms the eleventh chapter of magna charta, and enacts" that common pleas fhall not follow our court, but fhall be holden in fome place certain." This certain place was eftablished in Weftminfter-hall, the place where the aula regis originally fat, when the king refided in that city; and there it has ever fince continued. The court being thus rendered fixed and stationary, the judges became fo too, and a chief, and other juftices of the common pleas; were thereupon appointed, with jurifdiction, to hear and determine all pleas of land, and injuries merely civil, between fubject and fubject; which critical establishment of this principal court of common law, at that particular juncture, and that particular place, gave rife to the inns of court in its neighbourhood; and thereby collecting together the whole body of the common lawyers, enabled the law itself to withftand the attacks of the canonifts and civilians, who laboured to extirpate and deftroy it. The aula regia being thus ftripped of fo confiderable a branch of its jurifdiction, and the power of the chief jufliciar being alfo curbed by many articles in the great charter, the authority of both began to decline apace under the long and troublefome reign of Henry III.; and, in further purfuance of this example, the other feveral officers of the chief jufticiar were, under Edward I. who new-modelled the whole frame. of our judicial polity, fubverted and broken into diftinét courts of judicature. The diftribution of common justice, between man and man, was thrown into fo provident an order, that the great judicial officers were made to form a cheque upon each other; the court of chancery illuing all original writs under the great feal to the other courts; the common pleas being allowed to determine all caufes between private fubjects, the exchequer managing the king's revenue; and the court of king's bench retaining all the jurifdiction which was not cantoned out to other courts, and particularly the fuperintendance of all the reft by way of appeal ; and the fole cognizance of the pleas of the crown, or criminal caufes for pleas or fuits are regularly divided into two forts; pleas of the crown, which comprehend all crimes and miidemeanors, wherein the king, on behalf of the public, is plaintiff; and common pleas, which include all civil actions depending between fubject and fubject. The former of thefe were the proper object of the jurifdiction of the court of king's bench; the latter of the court of common pleas, which is a court of record, and is fiyled, by Sir Edward Coke, "the lock-and-key of the common law," for herein only

can

can real actions, that is, actions which concern the right of freehold or the realty, be originally brought and all other, or perfonal pleas between man and man, are here determined; though, in the latter, the king's bench and exchequer have also a concurrent authority.

JURISDICTION. This court without any writ may, upon suggestion, grant prohibitions, to keep, as well temporal as ecclefiaftical courts within their bounds and jurifdiction, without any original or plea depending; for the common law, which in these cafes is a prohibition of itself, ftands instead of an original. Actions are alfo removed into this court out of inferior courts, whether of record or not, by proper writs. In term time, it may award a habeas corpus by the common law for any perfon committed for any caufe under treafon or felony, and thereupon discharge him, if it fhall clearly appear by the return, that the commitment was against law, as being made by one who had no jurifdiction of the cause, or for a matter for which, by law, no man ought to be punished. And now it is clear, that this court has a general jurifdiction to grant writs of habeas corpus, in all cafes. It alfo has jurif diction for the punishment of its own officers and minifters, and all other perfons guilty of contempt against the rules and orders of the court. Its jurifdiction is general, and extends throughout England; and as inferior courts, which are not of record, cannot hold plea of debt, &c. or damages, but under forty hillings, fo the fuperior courts, that are of record, cannot hold plea of debt, &c. or damages regularly, unless the fame amount to forty fhillings, or above.

- OFFICERS. The officers of the court of common pleas are very numerous; and the duties of fome of them apply folely to the jurisdiction which this court exclufively holds over the alienation of real estates. In the enumeration which follows, it is to be obferved that thofe officers alone are mentioned whofe appointment is peculiar to this court; the duties and appointments of judges and fome other persons will be mentioned in a fubfequent page.

CUSTOS BREVIUM. The cuftos brevium is the first or principal officer of this court, and holds his place by the king's letters patent. His office is to receive and keep all the writs, and put them on files, every return by itself; and, at the end of every term, to receive of the prothonotaries all the records of nifi prius, called the poftea. The cuftos brevium also makes entry of the writs of covenant, and the concord upon every fine, and makes out exemplifications and copies of all writs and records in his office, and of all fines levied; and his duty extends to fome other particulars refpecting fines.

PROTHO

PROTHONOTARIES. There are three prothonotaries of this court, who hold their offices for life, and are admitted by the chief juftice of the court for the time being; but the fecond prothonotary is admitted on the nomination of the cuftos brevium, who, in right of his office, has that appointment. In term time, they attend the fitting of the court at Weftminster, for the difpatch of fuch matters as arife from caufes entered in the office; and to inform the court of the state of fuch caufes, and certify to them in matters of practice when required. They also attend at their office in Tanfield-court, in the Inner Temple, to tax cofts, receive declarations, and pafs officially many other matters in the progrefs of a fuit at law.

SECONDARIES. There are allo three fecondaries, one belonging to, and nominated by, cach prothonotary. In term time they attend the court and judges in the treafury, to read all the records,writings, affidavits, petitions, papers, and exhibits; take minutes of all rules and orders, and draw up the fame, and take recognizances in court; have the cuftody of the court books, in which are entered the names of all caufes on demurrer, fpecial verdicts, and other matters that are to be argued in court, and of caufes that are to be tried at bar; enter all commitments of prifoners, difcontinuances, and fatisfactions. acknowledged upon record, and amend records by order of the court; they alfo attend trials at bar, and have fome other duties, CLERK OF THE JUDGMENTS. This officer draws up final judgments, enters fatisfaction on judgments, and has seve, ral other duties relating to the judgment rolls.

OTHER OFFICERS. From the fpecimen already afforded, it will be perceived that a defcription of the duty of every officer would only lead to a technical divifion of the various circumstances arifing in the progrefs of a fuit, without conveying any clear information; it is therefore confidered fufficient merely to name feveral of the other officers in the court, and to defcribe only thofe whofe duties are of more general extent. There are in the common pleas, a clerk of the dockets, clerk of the reverfals, clerk of the treasury, clerk of the jurats, treasury keeper, clerk of the warrants, clerk of the efloigns, clerk of the juries, exigenter, clerk of the outlawries, and clerk of the errors.

FILACERS. The filacer is an officer, fo called, because he files thofe writs whereon he makes out process. There are thirteen filacers, among whom the feveral counties of England are divided, befide one for the counties palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham. Thefe officers make out all procefs before appearance in actions, wherein process of

out