xvI Inaugural Address. 
party, on account of false judgments, which necessarily led 
to the hazard of a personal combat, if they maintained their 
opinion.(1) In all such cases Justice was delayed, and there 
were, therefore, frequent occasions for appeals of this des- 
cription, from whence the practice became familiar, and 
served as an introductiou to appeals on account of the ‘* ine 
justice” or “ iniquity” of the sentence, which followed, and 
gradually increased, as the trial by combat declined, for 
that mode of trial being, in fact, an appeal to the Deity, and 
the issue of the battle, held to be a decision by his immediate 
interference, was incompatible with a new judgment of any 
kind.(2) 
To facilitate Appeals, and the recourse of the subject to 
the Royal authority, Judges, under the title of ‘° Grand 
Baillis,’ were appointed in all the cities of the Royal Do- 
maine, with an Appellate Jurisdiction over all causes, civil 
and criminal, heard in the Seigneurial and in the Royal (but 
inferior) Courts of Prevété(3), which was final, except in 
certain cases of importance, which they were required to 
transmit to the King, to be decided by himself in his Council, 
where they were ultimately determined.(4) The number of 
these Jurisdictions, at their first creation, was inconsiderable, 
but in the reign of Philip Augustus, about the year 1190, 
they were numerous.(5) 
A regulation of greater importance succeeded the institue 
tion of the Grand Baillis. The King's Supreme Court of 
Justice, or Council, in which he presided, which, asia all 
other feudal Kingdoms, was originally ambulatory, follow- 
ing the person of the Monarch, ard held only upon some of 
——— the 
(1) Montesquieu, Lib. 28, cap. 27, vol. 2d. p. 282 & seq. Robertson’s 
Charles Y. vol. 1st. p. 306. 
(2) Robertson’s Charles V. vol. 1st. p. 61. 
(3) Dict. de Jurisp. vol. 3. p. 18. Dict.de Droit, verbo “ Baillis,” vol. 
1, p. 166, col. 2d. 
(4) Ency. Method. de Jurisp. verbo “ Baillis,” vol. 1st. p. 710. 
(5) Dictr. de Jurisp. vol. 3d, p. 18. Fontanon, Lib, 1st. Tit. 1st. p. 179. 
Dictr. de Droit, vol. 1. p. 168. 
