16 ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 



fied throughout the whole kingdom, taking in and subjugating the whole 

 mass, from the noble to the peasant ; and the royal courts of fees were, 

 from the beginning (Wales and the Isle of Man alone excepted), 

 the only tribunals in the country which extended their immediate au- 

 thority to all classes of society in all secular affairs. 



Thus were formed three peculiar kinds of legislation, which extend- 

 ed their jurisdiction to certain distinct and well-defined branches in 

 practical life ; at the same time they were, and had been during 

 many centuries, hinged upon, and subject to, the will of the monarch. 

 The throne, which was regarded in England as the source of justice, 

 was, at the same time, and truly in a less figurative sense, the source, 

 also, of a most unlimited arbitrary power, the growth, or rather the 

 abuse, of an ancient custom, arising, as we have before observed, 

 from the most widely-spread and absolute system of feudalism in the 

 world. Even to this present moment there is no perfect allodial pro- 

 perty in England, and the king is still styled the lord paramount of 

 the country. It was only under Charles II (by the statute 12th of 

 Car. II, c. 24), in the latter part of the seventeenth century, that 

 the oppressive conditions and drudgeries attached to landed pro- 

 perty, by the rules of the ancient feudal system, were entirely abo- 

 lished : a greater acquisition, says Black stone, to the civil property 

 of th« kingdom, than even Magna Charta itself. 



Notwithstanding the gradual accumulation of facts and experi- 

 ence as regards the customs or the laws of the country, the princes 

 were but ill-disposed to respect any regulation which clashed with 

 their individual interests, or thwarted their self-willed inclinations. 

 The monarchs generally considered their rights of legitimacy more 

 sacred, and of higher importance, than the customs or the esta- 

 blished laws of the land. The first prince who showed a disposition 

 to observe those laws which had been extorted from himself and his 

 predecessors was Henry III, in whose reign, also, and records, first 

 appeared the clause nan obstante, by which means he and his suc- 

 cessors at once acknowledged and violated the laws. Letters of pro- 

 tection, also, and mandates of various kinds, impeded or regulated 

 the course of justice ; and the repeated contrivances which were re- 

 sorted to for the purpose of meeting that abuse plainly indicated 

 the extent to which it had been carried, and the futility of the at- 

 tempts which were made to resist it. The first regulation which 

 was intended to counteract this evil, was made in the reign of Ed- 

 ward I ; but it is very doubtful whether he or his successors paid 

 any respect to it. The great number of letters of protection issued 



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