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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
Volume 195, Page 27   View pdf image (33K)
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491] The English Statutes in Maryland. 27
Continuing, they urged that precedent was upon their side
in other colonies as well; and upon this occasion Keith yielded
to their claims.21
Thus we see that public sentiment was on the side against
extension. In line with this feeling, the Assembly, in 1718,
passed an Act definitely extending several English penal
statutes, which greatly altered the milder ideals of William
Penn's early legislation. The necessity for this, Shepherd
suggests,22 was the advantage taken by many law-breakers of
the privilege of affirmation instead of swearing oaths. In the
passage just cited, the argument was not technically legal, but
in the preamble to this Act the Assembly said :
" Whereas it is a settled point that as the common law is the
birthright of English subjects, so it ought to be their rule in Brit-
ish dominions; but Acts of Parliament have been adjudged not to
extend to these plantations, unless they are particularly named in
such acts." 22
Here is a clear-cut statement of the " orthodox " theory as
to extension, exactly similar in tenor, it will be noticed, to the
opinion of West in 1720, given above. Since it is easy to
prove that contact between Maryland and Pennsylvania was
continuous, and that the politics of the latter exerted a de-
cided influence on those of the former, it is not unreasonable
to suppose that this discussion in Pennsylvania, vvhich oc-
curred when discussion on the same point in Maryland was
inactive, had something to do with the. revival of the quarrel
in Maryland in 1722. This hypothesis is helped by the
emphasis that we shall find laid by Dulany and his party on
the Commissions of the Judges. It is the more remarkable,
as the latter argued precisely in opposition to the ideas of the
Council in Pennsylvania.
A far more striking analogy appears in the history of
Jamaica, to which the case of Blankard vs. Gably has already
led us. We found it there claimed and adjudged that Jamaica
" Ibid., pp. 386-7.
" Ibid., pp. 388-389.
" Ibid,, p. 390.

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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
Volume 195, Page 27   View pdf image (33K)
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