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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
June 18
p. 653
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humbly apprehend, draw these four hundred Jurymen from their
Homes a very great part of the year; besides many idle people and
others of litigeous Dispositions, who are commonly Attendants on
these Courts; and the Taverns and Gaming houses near them, to the
Evil Example of Youth, the ruin of their Families and disturbance
of their more orderly Neighbours
6.thly Because however plausible the Bill may appear, I am of
Opinion it tends to root out the supream Provincial Court the better
Tribunal, and bloat up in its stead many seperate Jurisdictions.
Whereas the Wisdom of Ages and common observation evince that
very grievous Inconveniencies attend the distribution of Justice in
many distinct Courts dispersed about a Country. In these I con-
ceive will be as great variety of modes of Injustice and Oppression
as Lord Hale observes there were of the Rules and Administration
of Justice in the dispersed County Jurisdictions in England: where
the Administration of the Common Justice of the Kingdom, in the
Time of Henry the 2.d, was wholly dispensed in the County Courts
and other Inferior Courts, which bred great Inconveniencies, un-
certainty and variety in the Laws; whereby, in Process of Time,
every several County had several Laws Customs Rules and forms
of Proceeding, and there all Business of moment was carried by
Parties and Factions, and Men sped according as they could make
Parties; and those who had great Interest in the County easily over-
bore others in their Causes, and altho' (says Lord Hale) in Cases
of False Judgment the Law Provided Remedy, (in nature of an
Appeal) yet this proved but ineffectual to those Mischiefs; therefore
Business was drawn into not out of the Great Courts; where it was
dispatched with greater Justice and Equality: and for these Reasons
Edw.d 1. kept the Inferior Courts within Bounds: and so gradually
the Common Justice of the whole Country came to be administered
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p. 654
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by Men knowing and conversant in the Great Courts; by which
Factions and Parties in Business were prevented, and both the Rule
and the Administration of the Law were kept uniform, which Senti-
ments of the great Lord Hale, I conceive are quite applicable to such
Jurisdictions at all Times and in all Counties.
7.thly Because, as I humbly conceive, the Inconvenience to De-
fendants Witnesses and Jurymen purposed to be redressed by this
Bill, tho' as I fear to the Diminution of Remedy, would, more agree-
ably to the Constitution of this and the Mother Country, and to the
Experience and desires of the People, be answered by an Assize Law
than by this Bill: excepting what Regards Common Recoveries and
Replevins as mentioned in the Bill; which might as well have been
Enacted in a seperate Bill, to avoid involving with them the Dangers
to the Constitution above remarked, by enacting the other parts of
the Bill.
Beale Bordley
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