CASE OF THE POST-NATI OF SCOTLAND. 157 



which law and truth provide, namely, that when 

 any king obtaineth by war a country whereunto he 

 hath right by birth, that he is ever in upon his 

 ancient right, not upon his purchase by conquest ; 

 and the reason is, that there is as well a judgment 

 and recovery by war and arms, as by law and course 

 of justice. For war is a tribunal-seat, wherein God 

 giveth the judgment, and the trial is by battle, or 

 duel, as in the case of trial of private right : arid 

 then it follows, that whosoever cometh in by eviction, 

 comes in his &quot; remitter ;&quot; so as there will be no dif 

 ference in countries whereof the right cometh by 

 descent, whether the possession be obtained peace 

 ably or by war. But yet nevertheless, because I will 

 utterly take away all manner of evasion and subter 

 fuge, I will yet set apart that part of time, in and 

 during the which the subjects of Gascoigne and Gui- 

 enne might be thought to be subdued by a re-con 

 quest. And therefore I will not meddle with the 

 prior of Shelley s case, though it be an excellent 

 case ; because it was in the time of 27 E. III. neither 

 will I meddle with any cases, records, or precedents, 

 in the time of king H. V. or king H. VI. for the 

 same reason ; but will hold myself to a portion of 

 time from the first uniting of these provinces in the 

 time of king H. II. until the time of king John, at 

 what time those provinces were lost ; and from that 

 time again unto the seventeenth year of the reign of 

 king E. II. at what time the statute of &quot; prasrogativa 

 &quot; regis&quot; was made, which altered the law in the point 

 in hand. 



