128 CASE OF THE POST-NATI OF SCOTLAND. 



person : if this statute had not been made to stop 

 and cross the course of the common law in that 

 point, as if Scotland now should he suitors to 

 the king, that an act might pass to like effect, and 

 upon like fear. And therefore if you will make good 

 your distinction in this present case, shew us a 

 statute for that. But I hope you can shew no 

 statute of separation hetween England and Scotland. 

 And if any man say that this was a statute declara 

 tory of the common law, he doth not mark how that 

 is penned ; for after a kind of historical declaration 

 in the preamble, that England was never subject to 

 France, the body of the act is penned thus : &quot; The 

 king doth grant and establish :&quot; which are words 

 merely introductive &quot; novae legis,&quot; as if the king 

 gave a charter of franchise, and did invest, by a do 

 native, the subjects of England with a new pri 

 vilege or exemption, which by the common law they 

 had not. 



To come now to the book-cases which they put ; 

 which I will couple together, because they receive 

 one joint answer. 



The first is 42 E. III. fol. where the book saith, 

 exception was taken that the plaintiff was born 

 in Scotland at Ross, out of the allegiance of 

 England. 



The next is 22 H. VI. fol. 38. Adrian s case ; 

 where it is pleaded that a woman was born at 

 Bruges, out of the allegiance of England. 



The third is 13 Eliz. Dyer, fol. 300, where 

 the case begins thus : &quot; Doctor Story qui notorie 



