302 THE JURISDICTION OF THE MARCHES. 



collect that it came into the statute of 34 but as a slip, 

 without any farther reach or meaning. 



The second was, that the mischief before the statute, 

 which the statute means to remedy, was, that Wales was 

 not governed according to similitude or conformity with the 

 laws of England. And therefore, that it was a cross and 

 perverse construction, when the statute laboured to draw 

 Wales to the laws of England, to construe it, that it should 

 abridge the ancient subjects of England of their own laws. 



The third was, that in a case of so great importance it is 

 not like that if the statute had meant to include the four 

 shires, it would have carried it in a dark general word, as 

 it were noct outer, but would have named the shires to be 

 comprehended. 



The fourth was, the more to fortify the third reason, they 

 observed that the four shires are remembered and named 

 in several places of the statute, three in number ; and there 

 fore it is not like that they would have been forgotten in 

 the principal place, if they had been meant. 



The fifth and last was, that there is no clause of attend 

 ance, that the sheriffs of the four shires should attend the 

 lord president and the council ; wherein there was urged the 

 example of the acts of parliament, which erected courts ; as 

 the court of augmentations, the court of wards, the court of 

 survey ; in all which there are clauses of attendance ; 

 whereupon they inferred that evermore, where a statute 

 gives a court jurisdiction, it strengtheneth it with a clause 

 of attendance; and therefore no such clause being in this 

 statute, it is like there was no jurisdiction meant. Nay, 

 farther they noted, that in this very statute for the justices 

 of Wales there is a clause of attendance from the sheriffs 

 of Wales. 



In answer to their first reason, they do very well, in my 

 opinion, to consider Mr. Attorney s business and mine, and 

 therefore to find out for us evidence and proofs, which we 

 have no time to search; for certainly nothing can make 

 more for us than these ordinances, which they produce ; for 

 the diversity of penning of that clause in the ordinances, 

 where the word marches is omitted, and that clause in the 

 statute where the word marches is added, is a clear and per 

 fect direction what was meant by that word. The ordi 

 nances were made by force and in pursuance of authority 

 given to the king by the statute of 27 ; to what did the 

 statute extend ? Only to Wales. And therefore the word 

 marches in the ordinances is left out ; but the statute of 34 



