198 DAVIS 



causes of a general nature should be heard in the several parts 

 of the state in a county court by the Chief Justice of the Province 

 for the time being, "or" as the bill read, "by and before such 

 other commissioner or commissioners as the Lord Proprietary 

 of this Province or the Lieutenant General shall authorize to 

 hear and determine the same," The bill further provided for a 

 register to attend each session of the County Court and that 

 "the said Chief Justice or Commissioners for the time being and 

 the said register shall be a court of record and shall be called 

 the County Court, and the said court shall or may have, use, 

 exercise and enjoy all 0/ any the same or the like powers, 

 privileges, authorities and jurisdictions within this Province (in 

 the causes aforesaid), as one of the King's courts of common 

 law in England useth or may use and exercise within the realm 

 of England (except where it is otherwise provided by any law 

 of this Province)." To this Court, or, more accurately, to 

 the Commissioners provided by the enactment, was committed 

 the management of local affairs generally, including the making 

 of levies for the public charges and expenses. 



Not to go into unnecessary detail, it may be said generally 

 that from this time forth it was the practice for the Commission- 

 ers of the several counties, or of the several county courts, as 

 they were indifferently styled in subsequent enactments, to make 

 all necessary levies for the public charges and expenses and to 

 administer the various county affairs. In some instances the 

 levies were made upon the counties and in others upon the sev- 

 eral hundreds within the counties, and in every instance the levy 

 was upon the taxable freemen or upon such freemen and the 

 "visible estates in the Province." 



In later years the duties of the County Commissioners in respect 

 of the levies were performed by the justices of the peace, who 

 had also been provided for at the same time as the count}^ court ; 

 and by a gradual process, but one in entire harmony with the 

 manner of growth of all institutions under our English system, 

 the justices of the peace wholly supplanted the Commissioners 

 in the respect under consideration ; until finally the meeting of 

 the justices of the peace for the purpose indicated came to be 

 designated as Levy Courts, and in 1794 (Act of 1794, ch. 53), 



