477] The English Statutes in Maryland. 13

of the English laws involved was left with the courts.'
This act Reinsch describes as " the first definite recognition
in America of the power of the courts to apply the common
law of England to colonial conditions and to rigid provisions
deemed unsuitable.'1'

Then followed a period of uncertainty. If in 1681 the
members of the Lower House appeared willing to recede from
their demand for the English laws,8 on other occasions they
emphasized their right to them. In 1674, for example, a bill
to fix definitely what original statutes should be in force in
Maryland was lost by the opinion of the Lower House that
the introduction of English statutes should be general.' Ten
years later, when the troublous times of the Revolution were
drawing nigh, upon another attempt of the Lower House to
secure legal recognition of their desired end, the Proprietor
commented at length on the danger of this idea and answered
that he was willing to

" admit this alteration, that when the laws of this province are
silent, justice may be administered according to the laws of Eng-
land, if the Governor or Chief Judge and the mstices of my court
shall find such laws consistent with the condition of my Province
To a bill with this alteration will I set my hand, but not otherwise."10

Later still, and not long before the Revolution, the Lower
House resolved—a procedure hitherto rare, but, as Mereness
well points out, one that later became formidable—that they
demanded " the benefit of the laws of England and of this
Province as our inherent and just right.'' u

Thus early appeared an indefiniteness which, on the side of
colonial law, at least, justifies the remark of Governor Hutch-
inson. For although the Assembly succeeded in maintaining

° Maryland Archives I. Ass. Pro. pp 435-6, 448, 504. Mereness
p 261 McMahon p. 113 Bacon, Laws of Md.—Act of 1662, ch 3.

7 Reinsch. p. 42.

8 In order to increase the power of the County courts at the
expense of the Provincial Court.
* Mereness, pp. 261-262.

10 Ibid., p. 264.

11 Ibid., p. 264; and see Bacon, Laws of Md , Acts of 1663, ch 4,
and note; 1676, ch. I, 2 and notes; 1678, ch. 15, 16 and notes; 1681,
ch. 3; 1682, ch. 12.