dom extend to Ireland though not specifically mentioned, unless expressly excluded: in the same manner and for the same reasons that Scotland is bound by English statutes since her union with England. (a) The effect of the two unions is to render the different countries inseparably one and the same, with certain exceptions: and as both Scotland and Ireland send representatives to the English Parliament, there seems no reason why a statute made by such united Parliament, without any mention of the places to which it should be applicable, should not bind the whole united kingdom. With regard to the other adjacent islands, which are subject to the Crown of Great Britain, some of them [as the Isle of Wight, of Portland, of Thanet, &c.] are comprized within some neighbouring county, and are therefore to be looked upon as annexed to the mother island, and part of the kingdom of England. But there are others which require a more particular consideration. The Isle of Man is a distinct territory from England, and is not governed by our laws; neither does an Act of Parliament extend to it, unless it be particularly named therein, and then an Act of Parliament is binding there. (b) This isle had generally been vested by royal grant in the hands of English subjects, who exercised a species of royal authority therein, by assenting or dissenting to laws, and exercising an appellate jurisdiction, (c) though an appeal lay from a decree of the lord of the island to the King of Great Britain in council. (d) This island is now vested unalienably in the Crown, by purchase, and subjected to the regulations of the British Excise and Customs. (e) ...The islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, and their appendages, were formerly parcel of the Duchy of Normandy, and were united to the Crown of England by the first Prince of the Norman time. (f) They are governed by their own separate laws, (g) and are not bound by our statutes, unless particularly named ; (h) though an appeal lies from the judicial (a) See ante, 27. (b) 4 Inst. 284. 2 And. 116. 1 Bla. Com. 105, 6. (c) See recital of 5 Geo. 3. c. 26. 1 Bla. Com. 105, 6. (d) 1 P. W. 329. (e) See 3 Geo. 3. ch. 26. s. 39. (f) See Hal. Hist. Common Law, 184 to 189. 3 Burr. R. 856, 7. (g) 1 Bla. Com. 106. Even as to King's debts, 1 Chalmers' Op. 58. (h) 4 Inst. 286. decision decision in the island to the King in council, (a) as it does in general from all territories, as the colonies, &c. subject inthis manner to the Crown, though they cannot regularly transmit a cause to the King without first giving some judg ment in it. (b) If the judicial superintending power over his colonies, &c., by way of appeal, were not vested in the King, the law might be insensibly changed to the destruction of the superiority of the mother country. The King cannot give a direction to any Court to rehear any cause depending therein; but rehearings are granted or denied by Courts of Equity, on petition of the parties grieved. (c) Our plantations or colonies in America, (d) and in other parts of the globe, were of course obtained either by conquest or treaty, or by our taking possession of, and peopling them, when we found them uninhabited. When a country is obtained by conquest or treaty, the King possesses an exclusive prerogative power over it, and may entirely change or new-model the whole, or part of its laws, and political form of government, (e) and may govern it by regulations framed by himself. For instance, ever since the conquest of Gibraltar, in which, besides the garrison, there are inhabitants, property, and trade, the King has made orders and regulations suitable to those who live, &c. or enjoy property in that place. (f) As, however, a country conquered by British arms becomes a dominion of the King in right of his Crown, it is necessarily subject to the legislature of Great Britain; and, consequently, his Majesty's legislative power over it, as conqueror, is subordinate to his own authority in Parliament; so that his Majesty cannot make any new change contrary to fundamental principles, or exempt the inhabitants from the power of Parliament. (g) Nor can the King legally disregard or violate the articles on which the country is surrendered or ceded; but such articles are sacred and inviolable, according to their true intent and meaning. (h) It is necessary (a) Vaugh. R. 290, 402. 1 Bla: Com. 106. 2 Chalmers' Op. 177, 222, &c. (b) Ld. Raym. 1448. (d) See generally Stokes on the Colonies, ch. 1. (a) Dyer, 224. Vaugh. 281. 7 Rep. 17. The King may per se tax a conquered (h) Ibid. 208. post, 32. and and fit that the conquered country should have some laws; and, therefore, until the laws of the country thus acquired are changed by the new Sovereign, they still continue in force. (a) As observed by Lord Mansfield, (b) the absurd exception as to an infidel country, mentioned in Calvin's case, (c) shews the universality and antiquity of the maxim. So, where the laws of the vanquished territory are rejected, without the substitution of other laws, or are silent on any particular subjects, such territory is to be governed according to the rules of natural equity and right. (d) The King may preclude himself from the exercise of his prerogative legislative authority in the first instance, over a conquered or ceded country, by promising to vest it in an assembly of the inhabitants, and a governor, or by any other measure of a similar nature, by which the King does not claim or reserve to himself this important prerogative. (e) If an uninhabited country be discovered and peopled by English subjects, they are supposed to possess themselves of it for the benefit of their Sovereign, and such of the English laws then in force, as are applicable and necessary to their situation, and the condition of an infant colony; as for instance, laws for the protection of their persons and property, are immediately in force. (f) Wherever an Englishman goes hẹ carries with him as much of English law and liberty as the nature of his situation will allow. Sir Wm. Blackstone observes (g) on this subject, that “with respect to their interior polity, our Colonies are property of three sorts: 1. Provincial establishments, the constitutions of which depend on the respective commissions (h) issued by the Crown to the governors, and the instructions which usually accompany those commissions; under the authority of which, provincial assemblies are constituted, with the power of making local ordinances, not repugnant to the laws of England. 2. Proprietary governments, (a) granted out by the Crown to individuals, in the nature of feudatory principalities, with all the inferior regalities and subordinate powers of legislation, which formerly belonged to the owners of counties palatine: yet still with these express conditions, that the ends for which the grant was made be substantially pursued, and that nothing be attempted which may derogate from the sovereignty. of the mother country. 3. Charter governments (6) in the nature of civil corporations, with the power of making bye-laws for their own interior regulation, not contrary to the laws of England; and with such rights and authorities as are specially given them in their several charters of incorporation. The form of government in most of them is borrowed from that of England. They have a governor named by the King, (or, in some proprietary colonies, by the proprietor,) who is his representative or deputy. They have courts of justice of their own, from whose decisions an appeal lies to the King and (in) council (c) here in England. Their general assemblies, which are their House of Commons, together with their councils of state, being their upper house, with the concurrence of the King, or his representative the governor, make laws suited to their own emergencies. But it is particularly declared by statute 7 & 8 W. 3. c. 22. that all laws, bye-laws, usages, and customs, which shall be in practice in any of the plantations, repugnant to any law made or to be made in this kingdom relative to the said plantation, shall be utterly void and of none effect. And, because several of the colonies had claimed a sole and exclusive right of imposing taxes upon themselves, the statute 6 G. 3. c. 12. expressly declares, that all his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be, subordinate to, and dependent upon the imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; (a) Observations on these. Stokes, 19, 20. Governor to be approved by King, 7 and 8 W. 3. c. 22. s. 16. (b) Stokes, 20. (c) Ante. 29, 30. post. And see 1 Bla. Com. 231. 1 Vez. sen. 444. "From the decrees of the Courts of Chancery in the Colonies, an appeal lies to the King in Council here in England. And from the judgments of the Courts of Common Law in the Colonies a writ of error lies to the Governor and Council of the Colony; and from their decision an appeal (in the nature of a writ of error) lies to the King in Council here." Stokes on the Col. 26. Proceedings on an Appeal, Ibid. 222 to 231, who who have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever. And this authority has been since very forcibly exemplified and carried into effect, by the statute 7 G. 3. c. 59. for suspending the legislation of New-York; and by several subsequent statutes. (a) Hence it is clear that, generally speaking, the common law of England does not, as such, hold in the British colonies: (b) such colonies are distinct from, though dependent on, England: are subject to the controul of Parliament, though not bound by any Acts of Parliament, unless particularly referred to therein. With respect to countries which the King does not hold in right of his British crown, as his Majesty's German territories, they have no connection or communication with England or its laws. (c) We have already observed that the King cannot vary from any treaty which he has entered into on the conquest of a country; and may preclude himself from the exercise of his prerogative power of legislation, in the first instance over a conquered or ceded territory, by vesting it in an assembly of the inhabitants or a governor. (d). It is indeed a most sound and important principle, that though the King may keep in his own hands the power of regulating and governing the inhabitants; he cannot infringe or depart from the provisions of a charter by which he has, though voluntarily, granted them any liberties or privileges. In every question therefore which arises between the King and his colonies respecting the prerogative, the first consideration is the charter granted to the inhabitants. If that be silent on the subject it cannot be doubted, but that the King's prerogatives in the colony are precisely those prerogatives which he may exercise in the mother country. The prerogative in the colonies, unless where it is (a) By 22 Geo. 3. c. 46. his Majesty was empowered to conclude a truce or peace with the Colonies or Plantations in America; and by his Letters Patent to suspend or repeal any Acts of Parliament which related to those colonies. (b) Of this there can be no doubt. But Mr. Stokes observes, in his work on the Constitution of the Colonies, that the Crown has from time to time esta3 blished the common law of England in all the British American Plantations, except Quebec or Canada. See 14 Geo. 2. c. 84. s. 11. establishing the Criminal Law of England in Quebec. Great part of Quebec or Canada has been, it seems, given up to the United States. Stokes, 31. (c) 3 Burr. 856. 1 Bla. Com. 110. (d) Ante, 29. abridged |