resort, from whose judgment no farther appeal is permitted; but every subordinate tribunal must conform to their determinations, the law reposing an entire confidence in the honour and conscience of the noble persons who compose this important assembly, that (if possible) they will make themselves masters of those questions upon which they undertake to decide, and in all dubious cases refer themselves to the opinions of the judges, who are summoned by writ to advise them; since upon their decision all property must finally depend.

XI. Before I conclude this chapter, I must also mention an eleventh species of courts, of general jurisdiction and use, which are derived out of, and act as collateral auxiliaries to, the foregoing, I mean the courts of assize and nisi prius.

These are composed of two or more commissioners, who are twice in every year sent by the king's special commission all round the kingdom, (except London and Middlesex, where courts of nisi prius are holden in and after every term, before the chief or other judge of the several superior courts, and except the four northern counties, where the assizes are holden only once a year) to try by a jury of the respective counties the truth of such matters of fact, as are then under dispute in the courts of Westminster-hall.

They usually make their circuits in the respective vacations after Hilary and Trinity terms. The judges upon their circuits sit by virtue of

five several authorities. 1. The commission of the peace. 2. A commission of oyer and terminer. 3. A commission of general gaol-delivery. The 4th commission is, A commission of assize, directed to the justices and serjeants therein named, to take (together with their associates) assizes in the several counties; that is, to take the verdict of a peculiar species of jury, called an assize, and summoned for the trial of landed disputes, of which hereafter. The other authority is, 5. That of nisi prius, which is a consequence of the commission of assize, being annexed to the office of those justices by the statute of Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 30. and it empowers them to try all questions of fact issuing out of the courts at Westminster, that are then ripe for trial by jury. These by the course of the courts are usually appointed to be tried at Westminster, in some Easter or Michaelmas term, by a jury returned from the county wherein the cause of action arises, but with this proviso, nisi prius, unless before the day prefixed the judges of assize come into the county in question. This they are sure to do in the vacations preceding each Easter and Michaelmas term, which saves much expence and trouble.

These are the several courts of common law and equity, which are of a public and general jurisdiction, throughout the kingdom.

CHAPTER V.

OF COURTS ECCLESIASTICAL, MILITARY, AND
MARITIME.

BESIDES the several courts, which were treated of in the preceding chapter, and in which all injuries are redressed, that fall under the cognizance of the common law of England, or that spirit of equity which ought to be its constant attendant, there still remain some other courts of a jurisdiction equally public and general: which take cognizance of other species of injuries, of an ecclesiastical, military, and maritime nature; and therefore are properly distinguished by the title of ecclesiastical courts, courts military, and courts maritime.

I. In briefly recounting the various species of ecclesiastical courts, or, as they are often styled, courts christian, (curiæ christianitatis) I shall begin with the lowest, and so ascend gradually to the supreme court of appeal.

1. The archdeacon's court is the most inferior court in the whole ecclesiastical polity. It is held in the archdeacon's absence, before a judge appointed by himself, and called his official: and its jurisdiction is sometimes in concurrence with, sometimes in exclusion of, the bishop's court of the diocese. Hence, however, by statute 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12. an appeal lies to that of the bishop.

2. The consistory court of every diocesan bishop is held in their several cathedrals for the trial of all ecclesiastical causes arising within their respective dioceses. The bishop's chancellor, or his commissary, is the judge; and from his sentence an appeal lies, by virtue of the same statute, to the archbishop of each province respectively.

3. The court of arches is a court of appeal belonging to the archbishop of Canterbury; whereof the judge is called the dean of the arches; because he anciently held his court in the church of St. Mary le bow (sancta Maria de arcubus) though all the principal spiritual courts are now holden at doctors' commons. His proper jurisdiction is only over the thirteen peculiar parishes belonging to the archbishop in London; but the office of dean of the arches having been for a long time united with that of the archbishop's principal official, he now, in right of the last-mentioned office, (as doth also the official principal of the archbishop of York) receives and determines appeals from the sentences of all inferior ecclesiastical courts within the province. And from him an appeal lies to the king in chancery (that is, to a court of delegates appointed under the king's great seal) as supreme head of the English church.

4. The court of peculiars is a branch of, and annexed to the court of arches. It has a jurisdiction over all those parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary

jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only. All ecclesiastical causes, arising within these peculiar or exempt jurisdictions, are originally cognizable by this court; from which an appeal lies to the king in chancery.

5. The prerogative court is established for the trial of all testamentary causes, where the deceased hath left bona notabilia within two different dioceses. In which case the probate of wills belongs, as we have formerly seen, to the archbishop of the province, by way of special prerogative. And all causes relating to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons are, originally, cognizable herein, before a judge appointed by the archbishop, called the judge of the prerogative court; from whom an appeal lies to the king in chancery.

6. The great court of appeal in all ecclesiastical causes, viz. the court of delegates, judices delegati, appointed by the king's commission under his great seal, and issuing out of chancery, to represent his royal person, and hear all appeals to him made by virtue of the statute of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. This commission is frequently filled with lords, spiritual and temporal, and always with judges of the courts at Westminster, and doctors of the civil law. But in case the king himself be party in any of these suits, the appea! does not then lie to him in chancery, which would be absurd: but, by the statute 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12. to all the bishops of the realm, assembled in the upper house of convocation.