OF SLITS OR ACTION& 1. Wrongs or injuries, which are an infringement of the civil rights of individuals, are remedied, either, I. By the acts of the parties. or, 2. By the operation of law. Redress by the latter of these modes, (of which only i we arc here to speak) is by suit or action in the courts of justice.
2 A court is a place wherein justice is judicially ad ministered. by officers delegated by the crown for that purpose ; being either a court of record, or not of record. j A court ol record, is where the acts and judicial pro ceec.ines are enrolled in parchment : these rolls are called the records of the court, and are of such high and supereminent authority, that their truth is not to be called in question ; nor shall any plea, or even proof, be admitted to the contrary. All courts of record are the king's courts, in right of his crown and royal dig nity ; and therefore no other court has authority to fine and imprison ; so that the very erection of a new juris diction, with the power of fine and imprisonment, makes it instantly a court of record. A court not of record, is the court of a private person, such as the courts baron, 3. The Court of Piepoudre, curia /zcdis pulverizati, is the lowest and at the same time the most expeditious court of justice known to the law of England. It is a court of record incident to every market or fair, of which the steward of him who owns or has the toll of the mar ket is the judge ; and its jurisdiction extends to admi nister justice for all commercial injuries done in that fair or market, and not in any preceding one ; so that the injury complained of must he done, heard, and determined, before the determination of the fair or market. A writ of error lies, in the nature of an appeal to the courts of Westminster, which arc bound to issue writs of execu tion in aid of its process after judgment, where the per son or effects of the defendant are not within the limits of this inferior jurisdiction.
4. di court baron is incident to every manor, is not a court of record, and is holden by the steward within the said manor, and is of two natures; the one a customary court appertaining to the copy holders ; the other a court of common law. This may hold a plea of any personal
actions where the damages do not amount to forty shil lings. Proceeding may be removed from hence into the county court, by a precept from the sheriff, called a toll ; and also into the superior courts, by the king's writ of pone.
5 An hundred court, is only a larger court baron, being held for all the inhabitants of a particular hundred, in stead of a manor. It is no court of record ; causes are liable to removal from hence, and may also be reviewed by writ of false judgment.
county court, is incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff, and is not a court of record ; it may hold pleas of debt or damage under the value of forty shillings, but by special writ called a insticies, the sheriff is em powered. for the sake of dispatch, to do the same • ame jUS tire in his county court, as might otherwise he had at 'Westminster. Proceedings may also be removed from hence into the king's superior court, by writ of pone or recordari.
7. The court of common ideas, or common bench.— judges udges of this court are at present four in number, one chief, and three puisne justices, created by the king's letters-patent, who sit every day in the four terms to hear and determine all matters of law arising in civil causes, whether real, personal, or mixed and compound- ed of both. These it takes cognizance of, as well ori- ginally, as upon removal from the inferior courts before mentioned. A writ of error, in the nature of an appeal, lies from this court into the court of King's Bench.
8. The court of Bench is the supreme court of common law in the kingdom, consisting of a chief jus tice and three puisne justices, who are by their office the sovereign conservators of the peace, and supreme coro ners of the land. Though the king used to sit here, and still is supposed so to do, he did nut, neither by law is he empowered, to determine any cause, or motion, by the mouth of his judges. This court may follow the king at his pleasure.