h gave rise to this
regulation attended its progress. Nor could monarchs assume a more
arbitrary method of proceeding. 'I will not' (said the Earl of Cornwall
to his sovereign) 'render up my castles, nor depart the kingdom, but by
judgment of my peers.' Of this institution, so wisely calculated for the
preservation of liberty, all our historians have pronounced the
eulogium."--_Ditto_, p. 262-3.

Blackstone says:

"The policy of our ancient constitution, as regulated and established by
the great Alfred, was to bring justice home to every man's door, by
constituting as many courts of judicature as there are manors and towns
in the kingdom; _wherein injuries were redressed in an easy and
expeditious manner, by the suffrage of neighbors and friends_. These
little courts, however, communicated with others of a larger
jurisdiction, and those with others of a still greater power; ascending
gradually from the lowest to the supreme courts, which were respectively
constituted to correct the errors of the inferior ones, and to determine
such causes as, by reason of their weight and difficulty, demanded a
more solemn discussion. The course of justice flowing in large streams
from the king, as the fountain, to his superior courts of record; and
being then subdivided into smaller channels, till the whole and every
part of the kingdom were plentifully watered and refreshed. An
institution that seems highly agreeable to the dictates of natural
reason, as well as of more enlightened policy. * *

"These inferior courts, at least the name and form of them, still
continue in our legal constitution; but as the superior courts of record
have, in practice, obtained a concurrent original jurisdiction, and as
there is, besides, a power of removing plaints or actions thither from
all the inferior jurisdictions; upon these accounts (among others) it
has happened that these petty tribunals have fallen into decay, and
almost into oblivion; whether for the better or the worse may be matter
of some speculation, when we consider, on the one hand, the increase of
expense and delay, and, on the other, the more able and impartial
decisions that follow from this change of jurisdiction.

"The order I shall observe in discoursing on these several courts,
constituted for the redress of _civil_ injuries, (for with those of a
jurisdiction merely _criminal_ I shall not at present concern
myself,[67]) will be by beginning with the lowest, and those whose
j