cxvi PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY

not to be had but at a great charge and difficult to get at any cost, and then but in [a
writ] ten hand...,

[T]he Justices perfect knowledge of the Laws will be a great means to facilitate the
tryal of every such cause, and prevent the turning over books to find out the laws, when
they shall know at first mentioning what the law is and how it stands related to other
laws; and be able to direct the tryal by their own knowledge, and distinguish on the
different arguments of each Party which will be a happyness no less to themselves then
the suitors. 4

This lack of an accessible collection of laws may be one reason why so little
resort was had to the many popular and remedial actions provided by the statutes
of the province.

Most of the ranking lawyers in the province appear to have been quite familiar
with the better-known acts of Parliament. While little direct evidence appears
in the Liber with respect to the extension of various acts of Parliament to the
province (some of the presentments are annoyingly ambiguous), the Liber appears
to confirm a number of the conclusions reached by Kilty in his authoritative
treatise on the subject.

Studies in depth of any legal institution tend to culminate in intellectual
myopia. Desiring to avoid such end, we submit the instant study as one endeavor
to describe and evaluate the workings of a so-called "inferior court" in an im-
portant American colony during the latter part of the seventeenth century. In
our opinion the county courts, such as that of Prince Georges County, played a
more significant role in the judicial system of the province than generally be-
lieved. The pages of the Liber, when placed in perspective, fully support this
conclusion.

J. H. S.
P. A. C.

4. Dodd, Maryland Compiled Laws of 1700, 5 MHM 187-88 (1910). See also Wroth, A History of
Printing in Colonial Maryland, 1686-1776, 22-26, 163.