366- L A W. 
years’ tune a new aft was obliged to be made, 6 Geo. II. 
c, 14. which allows all technical words to continue in the 
ufual (Latin) language. 
Of the Principality of Wales. 
Wales had continued independent of England, uncon- 
qdered and uncultivated, in the primitive pnftoral Hate 
which Csefar and Tacitus afcribe to Britain in general, 
for many centuries; even from the time of the hoftile in¬ 
vasions of the Saxons, when the ancient and Chriftian in¬ 
habitants of the ifland retired to thofe natural intrench- 
ments, for proteftion from their pagan vilitants. But, 
when thel'e invaders themfelves were converted to Chris¬ 
tianity, and fett'ied into regular and potent governments, 
this retreat of the ancient Britons grew every day nar¬ 
rower; they were over-run by little and little, gradually 
driven from one faftnefs to another, and by repeated lolles 
abridged of their wild independence. Very early in our 
hiftory we find their princes doing homage to the crown 
of England ; till at length, in the reign of Edward I. who 
may juftly be Ilyled the conqueror of Wales, the line of 
their ancient princes was abolifhed, and the king of Eng¬ 
land promifed the people of that country, upon condition 
of their fubmifiion, to give them a prince who had been 
born among them, and who could fpeak no other lan¬ 
guage. Upon their acquiefcence with this deceitful of¬ 
fer, he conferred the principality of Wales upon his fe- 
tond[on Edward, then an infant. Edward, by the death 
of his eldeft brother Alfonfo, became heir to the crown ; 
and, from that time, this honour has been appropriated to 
the eldeft fan or eldeft daughter of the king of England. 
Yet the creation has not been confined to the heir-appa¬ 
rent for both queen Mary and queen Elizabeth were cre¬ 
ated by their father Henry VIII. princefles of Wales, each 
of them at the time (the latter after the illegitimation of 
Mary) being heir preemptive to the crown. 
Edward II. was the firft titular prince; the territory of 
Wales being then entirely re-annexed (by a kind of foe- 
dal refumption) to the dominion of the crown of Eng¬ 
land ; or, as the flat. Walliae exprefles it, Terra Wallies cum 
incolis fuis, prius regijure feodahfuhjecta, (of which homage 
was the'fign,) jam in proprietalis dominium totaliter et cum 
mtegritate convcrfa ejf, et coronac regni Anglies tanquam pars 
corporis ejufdem annexa ct unita. By the fame ftatute alfo 
very material alterations were made in divers parts of their 
laws, fo as to reduce them nearer to the Engliffi ftandard, 
efpecially in the forms of their judicial proceedings; but 
they lfill retained very much of their original polity; par¬ 
ticularly their rule of inheritance, viz. that their lands 
were divided equally among all the iffue male, and did 
not defcend to the eldeft fon alone. By other fubfequent 
Ifatutes their provincial immunities were ftill farther 
abridged ; but the finilhing ftroke to their independence 
was given by the ftat. 2.7 Hen. VIII. c. 26. which at the 
fame time gave the utmoft advancement to their civil 
profperity, by admitting them to a thorough communi¬ 
cation of laws with the fubjefls of England. Thus were 
this brave people gradually (as our Blackftone exprefles 
it) conquered into the enjoyment of true liberty; being 
infenfibly put upon the fame footing, and made fellow- 
citizens, with their conquerors. A generous method of 
triumph, which the republic of Rome praflifed with great 
fuccel's ; till Ihe reduced all Italy to her obedience, by ad¬ 
mitting the vanquiffied ftates to partake of the Roman 
privileges. 
It is enatled by this ftatute, 27 Hen. VIII. 1. That the 
dominion of Wales (hall be for ever united to the king¬ 
dom of England. 2. That all Welfhmen born (lull have 
the fame liberties as other the king’s fubjefls. 3. That 
lauds in Wales (hall be inheritable according to the Eng- 
iiffi tenures and rules of delcent. 4.. That the laws of 
England, and no other, fnall be ufed in Wales; befides 
many other regulations of the police of this principality. 
And the ftat. 34. & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 26. confirms the 
fame, adds farther regulations, divides it into twelve (hires; 
and, in fhort, reduces it into the fame order in which it 
ftands at this day; differing from the kingdom of England 
in only a few particulars, and thofe too ofthe nature of pri¬ 
vileges, (luch as having courts within itfel.f, independent 
of the procefs of Weltminfter-hall,) and fome other im¬ 
material peculiarities, hardly more than are to be found 
in many counties of England itfelf. By this union of 
Wales with England, twenty-feven members were added 
to the Engliih houfe of commons. No county or town 
in Wales fends more than one member, except the county 
of Monmouth, which returns two. 
IV. Of the LAW of SCOTLAND. 
The kingdom of Scotland, notwithftanding the union 
of the crowns on the acceffion of their king James VI. to 
that of England, continued an entirely leparate and uif- 
tinit kingdom for above a century more, though an union 
had been long projected; which was judged to be the 
more eafy to be done, as both kingdoms were anciently 
under the fame government, and ltill retained a very great 
refemblance, though far from an identity, in their laws. 
By an aft of parliament 1 Jac. I. c. 1. it’is declared, that 
thefe two mighty, famous, and ancient, kingdoms, were 
formerly one. And fir Edward Coke obferves how mar¬ 
vellous a conformity there was, not only in the religion 
and language of the two nations, but alfo in their ancient 
laws, the defeent of the crown, their parliaments, their 
titles of nobility, their officers of ftate and of juftice, their 
writs, their cuftoms, and even the language of their laws. 
Upon which account he fuppofes the common law of each 
to have been originally the fame ; efpecially as their molt 
ancient and authentic book, called Regiam Majejlatem, and 
containing the rules of their ancient common law, is ex¬ 
tremely fimilar to that of Glanvil, which contains the 
principles of ours, as it flood in the reign of Henry II. 
And the diveriities fubfilling between the two laws at pre- 
fent may be well enough accounted for, from a diverfity 
of practice in two large and uncommunicating jurifdic- 
tions, and from the a< 5 ts of two diltinfl and independent 
parliaments, which have in many points altered and abro¬ 
gated the ancient common law of both kingdoms. 
The laws in Scotland concerning the tenures of land 3 
and of confequence the conllitution of parliaments and 
the royal prerogatives, were founded upon the fame feu¬ 
dal principles as the laws refpefling thele fubjefls in Eng¬ 
land. It is faid, that the feudal polity was eftablilhed firft 
in England ; and was afterwards introduced into Scot¬ 
land, in imitation of the Engliffi government. But it 
continued in its original form much longer in Scotland 
than it did in England ; and the changes in the Scotch 
government, perhaps owing to the circumltance that they 
are more recent, are far more diftinctly marked and de¬ 
fined than they are in the hiftory of the Engliih conftitu- 
tion. And perhaps the progrefs of the Scotch parlia¬ 
ments affords a clearer elucidation of the oblcure and am¬ 
biguous points in the hiftory of the reprelentation and 
conftitution of our country, than any arguments or au¬ 
thorities that have yet been adduced. A particular dif- 
cuflion of this fubjeft would far exceed the limits we have 
preferibed to ourfelves, nor would it be very interefting to 
the general reader; but for an account of the parliament 
of Scotland before the union, and of the laws relative to 
the election of the reprefentative peers and commoners of 
Scotland, we may refer to Mr. Wight’s valuable Inquiry 
into the Rife and Progrefs of Parliament, chiefly in Scot¬ 
land. It is fuppofed, that vve owe the lower houfe of parlia¬ 
ment, in England, to the accidental circumftance that the 
barons and the reprefentatives of the counties and bo¬ 
roughs had not a room large enough to contain them all; 
but, in Scotland, the three eftates aifembled always in one 
houfe, had one common prefident, and deliberated jointly 
upon all matters that came before them, whether of a ju¬ 
dicial or of a legiflative nature. Wight, 82. In England 
the lords Spiritual were always ftyled one of the three ef¬ 
tates of the realm ; but there is no authority that they 
ever voted in a body dillinft from the lords temporal. 
In the Scotch parliament the three eftates were, 1. The 
bifliops 3 
