THE JURISDICTION OF THE MARCHES. 301 



bridge, between Momnouth and Gloucester, and the charge 

 lay in part upon Gloucestershire ; in which statute there is 

 a clause, that if the justices of peace do not their duty in 

 levying of the money, they shall forfeit five pounds to be 

 recovered by information before the council of the marches ; 

 whereby he inferred that the parliament would never have 

 assigned the suit to that court, but that it conceived Glou 

 cestershire to be within the jurisdiction thereof. And there 

 fore he concluded that here is in the nature of a judg 

 ment by parliament, that the shires are within the juris 

 diction. 



The third and last argument of the king s solicitor in the 

 case of the marches, in reply to Serjeant Harris. 



This case groweth now to some ripeness, and I am glad 

 we have put the other side into the right way ; for in for 

 mer arguments they laboured little upon the intent of the 

 statute of 34 H. VIII. and busied themselves in effect alto 

 gether about the force and use of the word marches ; but 

 now finding that liter a mortua non prodest, they offer at the 

 true state of the question, which is the intent : I am deter 

 mined therefore to reply to them in their own order, ut ma- 

 nifestum sit t as he saith, me nihil aut subterfugere voluisse 

 reticendo, aut obscurare dicendo. 



All which hath been spoken on their part consisteth upon 

 three proofs. 



The first was by certain inferences to prove the intent of 

 the statute. 



The second was to prove the use of the word marches in 

 their sense long after both statutes ; both that of 27, which 

 extinguished the lordships marchers, and that of 34, where 

 upon our question ariseth. 



The third was to prove an interruption of that practice 

 and use of j urisdiction, upon which we mainly insist, as the 

 best exposition of the statute. 



For the first of these, concerning the intention, they 

 brought five reasons. 



The first was that this statute of 34 was grounded upon 

 a platform, or preparative of certain ordinances made by 

 the king two years before, namely, 32 ; in which ordinances 

 there is the very clause, whereupon we dispute, namely, 

 That there should be and remain in the dominion and prin 

 cipality of Wales a president and a council : in which clause 

 nevertheless the word marches is left out, whereby they 



