proceeding in the courts of equity are also peculiar to themselves; and comprise the method of requiring the defendant to put in, upon his oath, a written answer to the plaintiff's charge; a method unknown to the courts in which the common law is administered (m).

(m) The defendant, however, may now be compelled in the common law courts to be examined as a witness

against himself, though the case was formerly otherwise; see 14 & 15 Vict. c. 99, et vide post, bk. v. c. x.

SECTION IV.

OF THE COUNTRIES SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.

[The kingdom of England, over which our municipal laws have jurisdiction, includes not, by the common law, either Wales, Scotland, or Ireland,] or Berwick-uponTweed (a), [or any other part of the Queen's dominions except the territory of England only. And yet the civil laws and local customs of this territory do now obtain, in part or in all, with more or less restrictions, in these and many other adjacent countries;-of which it will be proper first to take a review, before we consider the kingdom of England itself, the original and proper subject of these laws.

Wales (b) had continued independent of England, unconquered and uncultivated, in the primitive pastoral state which Cæsar and Tacitus ascribe to Britain in general, for many centuries: even from the time of the hostile invasions of the Saxons, when the antient and Christian inhabitants of the island retired to those natural intrenchments, for protection against their pagan visitants. But when these invaders themselves were converted to Christianity, and settled into regular and potent governments, this retreat of the antient Britons grew every day narrower; they were over-run by little and little, gradually driven

(a) See Rex v. Cowle, 2 Burr. 850. But England now primâ facie includes Wales and Berwick; vide post, p. 93.

(b) As to Wales, see Vaugh. 395 -420; Rex v. Cowle, ubi sup. ; 4 Inst. 239; 2 Inst. 195; Buckley v. Thomas, Plowd. 121, 123, 126, 129.

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[from one fastness to another, and by repeated losses abridged of their wild independence. Very early in our history we find their princes doing homage to the crown of England; till at length in the reign of Edward the first, who may justly be styled the conqueror of Wales, the line of their antient princes was abolished (c), and the king of England's eldest son] was created (d) their titular prince; [the territory of Wales being then entirely reannexed, by a kind of feodal resumption, to the dominion of the crown of England (e); or, as the statute of] Wales (f) [expresses it, "terra Wallic cum incolis suis, prius regi jure feodali subjecta (of which homage was the sign), jam in proprietatis dominium totaliter et cum integritate conversa est, et coronæ regni Angliæ tanquam pars corporis ejusdem annexa et unita." By the statute of Wales very material alterations were also made in divers parts of their laws, so as to reduce them nearer to the English standard, especially in the forms of their judicial proceedings; but they still retained very much of their original polity, particularly their rule of inheritance, viz., that their lands were divided equally among all the issue male, and did not descend to the eldest son alone. By other subsequent statutes their provincial immunities were still farther abridged: but the finishing stroke to their independency was given by the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26; which at the same time gave the utmost advancement to their civil prosperity, by admitting them to a thorough communication of laws with the subjects of England. Thus were this brave people gradually conquered into the enjoyment of true liberty, being insensibly

(c) See Turner's Hist. Eng. p. 3, c. ii.; Hume's Hist. Eng. c. xiii. (d) Blackstone says he became so "as a matter of course;" but (as Mr. Christian has remarked) the expres sion is not accurate, though it has been always usual to create the

king's eldest son, the Prince of Wales.

(e) Vaugh. 400; Rex v. Cowle, 2 Burr. 851.

(ƒ) 12 Edw. 1. Blackstone refers erroneously in this place to the statute 10 Edw. 1.

[put upon the same footing, and made fellow-citizens, with their conquerors.

It is enacted by this statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26,1. That the dominion of Wales shall be for ever united to the kingdom of England. 2. That all Welshmen born shall have the same liberties as other the king's subjects. 3. That lands in Wales shall be inheritable according to the English tenures and rules of descent. 4. That the laws of England, and no other, shall be used in Wales: besides many other regulations of the police of this principality. And the statute 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 26, confirms the same, adds farther regulations, and divides it into twelve shires (g),] a division, it may be observed, exclusive of the county of Monmouth; which, though formerly part of Wales, had been made, by the 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26, just mentioned, one of the counties of the realm of England.

From this time the civil condition of the principality has differed but slightly from that of the kingdom at large. There were however, until a recent period, two particulars of distinction sufficiently important to deserve notice-first, that Wales possessed within itself superior courts called Courts of Great Session (h), independent of the process of Westminster Hall, and was not visited by the English judges of assize; secondly, that such of its counties and towns as were represented in parliament sent each one member only, the usual number in England being two. But by the Act for the more effectual administration of justice, 1 Will. IV. c. 70, the jurisdiction of the Courts of Great Session was abolished, and it was enacted that assizes should be held in the principality, for the trial of all matters criminal and civil, in like manner and form as had been usual for the counties in England.

(g) By 8 & 9 Vict. c. 11, the manner of assigning sheriffs in Wales is regulated and assimilated to that in England.

(h) The proceedings in the courts of Great Session were partly regulated by 13 Geo. 3, c. 51.

And by the Act to amend the representation of the people, 2 Will. IV. c. 45, a new arrangement was made as to the return of members for Wales; by the effect of which three of its counties respectively send two knights of the shire to parliament, and each of the remaining counties

one.

The kingdom of Scotland (i)—notwithstanding the union of the crowns on the accession of their king James the sixth to that of England,--continued [an entirely separate and distinct kingdom for above a century more, though an union had been long projected; which was judged to be the more easy to be done], as these kingdoms exhibited at the time of the project [a very great resemblance, though far from identity,] in their institutions. And this is remarked by Sir E. Coke (j), who points out a conformity, in many things, [not only in the religion and language of the two nations, but also in their antient laws (k).] As to the latter particular, indeed, this resemblance did not exist at the time of the Norman conquest, for the Scottish institutions were then, according to the best authorities, exclusively Celtic (1), and those of England, Anglo-Saxon: but it had become established as soon afterwards as the twelfth century (m); and not only continued to prevail at the time of the Union, but is even yet in some particulars distinctly perceptible. The diversities of practice, how

tatem (the authenticity of which, though once a subject of dispute, seems on the whole to be sufficiently established,) is so similar to the treatise of Glanvil on English law in the reign of Hen. 2, that one of them is plainly copied from the other. There seems little reason, however, to doubt that Glanvil's is the original work. As to these treatises, see 4 Inst. 345; Erskine's Instit. b. 1, t. 1, s. 32; Robertson's Chas. V. vol. i. n. (25); Reeves's Hist. Eng. Law, vol. i. p. 225.