CONTENTS. CONCERNING the distribution of the laws of England into b CHAP. V. How the Common Law of England stood at and for some time after the coming of King William I, CHAP. VI. Concerning the parity or similitude of the Laws of England and Normandy, and the reasons thereof CHAP. VII. Concerning the progress of the Laws of England after the time of King William I. until the time of King Edward II. CHAP. VIII. A brief continuation of the progress of the Laws, from the time of King Edward II. inclusive, down to these times CHAP. IX. Concerning the settling of the Common Law of England in Ireland and Wales: and some observations touching the Isles of Mann, Jersey, and Guernsey, &c. CHAP. X. Concerning the communication of the Laws of England - unto the Kingdom of Scotland PAGE 92 143 159 197 216 271 Concerning the distribution of the laws of ENGLAND into Common law and Statute law. And first, concerning the Statute law, or Acts of Parliament. THE laws of England, may aptly enough be divided into two kinds, viz. lex scripta, the written law; and, lex non scripta, the unwritten law (a). For although, as shall be shewn hereafter, all the laws of this kingdom have some monuments or memorials thereof in writing, yet all of them have not their original in writing for some of those laws have obtained their force by (a) Constat autem jus nostrum, quo utimur, aut scripto, aut sine scripto; ut apud Graecos Των οι μεν 'γράφοι, οι δε dypapo. Inst. 1. 1. t. 2. s. 3. Et non ineleganter in duas species jus civile distributum esse videtur; nam origo ejus ab institutis duarum civitatum, Athenarum scilicet et Lacedæmoniorum, fluxisse videtur. In his enim civitatibus ita agi solitum erat, ut Lacedæmonii quidem ea, quæ pro legibus observabant, memoriæ mandarent: Athenienses vero ea, quæ in legibus scripta comprehendissent, custodirent. Id. s. 10. Indeed under those two comprehensive heads, all laws have been classed by ancient writers. See Aristotle's distinction of laws, 1 Rhet. c. 3. and the Antigone of Sophocles, v. 459. But see Dr. Taylor's Elements of the Civil Law, 247. seq. and Dr. Adams' Roman Antiquities;-a book which not only facilitates the acquisi tion of classical learning, but accelerates the communication of useful knowledge. Sir John Fortescue, (who was chancellor to Henry the sixth), remarks, quod omnia jura humana aut sunt lex naturæ, consuetudines, vel statuta, quæ et constitutiones appellantur. De laud. leg. Angl. c. 15. B |