The acts of our own general assemblies are a third source of provincial law.

The rules of practice and decisions of our provincial courts, constitute a fourth source of our law.

British acts of parliament for the regulation of commerce in the Colonies, form a fifth source of our colonial law.

As to provincial acts, when a new law is offered to the governor for his sanction, if there is any reason to doubt that it will be approved of by his majesty, a clause is usually added to it, suspending its operation until the king's pleasure shall be known. Besides this, the crown sometimes, though rarely, disallows an act which has passed without a suspending clause. All acts passed are immediately sent to England, and if not disallowed within two years are considered permanent laws. Unless there be a suspending clause, a provincial act goes at once into operation on receiving the governor's assent. If afterwards disallowed, the disallowance operates as a repeal would.

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By the act of 1778. (British Statute). 18 Geo. 3. c, 12. it is declared—“That from and after the passing of this "act, the King and parliament of Great Britain will not impose any duty, tax or assessment whatever, payable in any of his majesty's colonies, provinces and plantations, " in North America, or the West Indies; except only such "duties as it may be expedient to impose for the regula❝tion of commerce; the net produce of such duties to be "always paid and applied to and for the use of the colony,

province or plantation, in which the same shall be re66 spectively levied, in such manner as other duties col"lected by the authority of the respective General Courts, "or General Assemblies, of such colonies, provinces or "plantations, are ordinarily paid and applied.”

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SEC. VI.-SOURCES OF PROV. LAW.

British acts of parliament which incidentally legislate for the Colonies and which expressly mention them, passed under the general superintending power of parliament, for purposes connected with the general government of the empire, make a sixth source of our provincial law. The act of 1819 (British statute) 59 Geo. 3, c. 69 (Foreign enlistment act) is an example of the kind. This act makes it a misdemeanor "punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of the court," for any natural born subject of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, to enlist in the service of any foreign government, without license of the crown, order in council, or proclamation permitting such enlistment, and imposes similar punishment on those who shall procure others to enlist. The trial of the offence to be by any superior court having criminal jurisdiction in the colony, &c.

SECTION VII.

How far the Laws of England are in force in this Colony.

The common and statute law of England, composing together an extensive code, suited to the Great Empire under whose auspices we live, are not, as a whole, suited to our situation as a colony For this reason, only such parts of both, as were found applicable to our situation and conformable to general principles, have been from time to time adopted and recognized by the legislative and judicial authorities of the colony. In the first place the Crown, exercising then a sovereign power, directed its governors and other public officers to execute justice upon the principles of British law; and upon the same principles it erected tribunals of law and equity, modelled on those of the mother country, with such modification and changes as the difference of circumstances appeared to demand. In the same way the Crown appointed and established its governors and other executive magistrates, and regulated their functions and authority. A regular constitution having been established in 1758, by the convocation of a General Assembly,-the acts of that body have since formed a system of law grounded partly on the principles of the common law and the earlier acts of par

liament, and partly on the model of the acts of older provinces of North America, together with many regulations peculiar to this country. In addition, the decisions and practice of our own courts, and the general usage of the people at large, have assisted in bringing into use or rejecting different parts of the English common and statute law.

Some of the branches of law have been so far reduced into regular and systematic order by the foregoing means, that little difficulty can arise in ascertaining the true course of enquiry when any question connected with them arises; but there are many subjects which seem likely hereafter to give rise to much perplexity, as the provincial enactments and decisions are not capable of furnishing an adequate source of law to elucidate them, and much doubt exists as to the degree in which the English common or statute law are valid in the colony, except those parts of it which have met with an express legislative or judicial recognition or rejection.

I have given in the note several of the principal authorities on this point. Their views are for the most part vague and extra-judicial. Some of them appear to consider the whole common law as in force in the colonies. This would introduce a great variety of rules which are entirely inapplicable to our situation and circumstances, which have been abrogated in England by statute law; and in fact however frequently such a maxim may have been repeated, it has not in practice been adhered to in any of the colonies, and would be attended with much practical mischief. Our courts of justice are of necessity obliged to exercise to a certain extent powers of a legislative description, in adopting or rejecting different parts of the English law, on the apparent applicability to our circumstances, or the reverse. At the same time the common law has furnished us with many forms of proceeding, those of the Supreme

and Inferior courts,-which follow the practice of the superior courts at Westminster, where no provincial statute or usage interferes; and the rules of evidence are drawn. from the same quarter. The common law is also referred to as the best interpreter of those laws and constitutions of the province, which borrow from it their principle and phraseology. The civil law of Rome has a greater share in the composition of our laws than it has in those of the mother country, as our whole law of succession to intestate persons follows the former,, besides its importance in the Chancery, Admiralty and Marriage courts. To this therefore we must often look for aid as an interpreter, and also to the laws of the older colonies, as from them we have borrowed many regulations.

Thus, while it seems doubtful whether any English laws (except those in which the Colonies are expressly named) have any validity here, until they have been adopted into our local jurisprudence by distinct legislation or general recognition and usage; yet, what are generally esteemed the most valuable portions of British law, have been transplanted into our land,—the Habeas Corpus,-the freedom of the Press-the trial by Jury-the Representative Branch of legislature,—the viva voce examination of witnesses; in fine all those branches of public law which have drawn the eulogium of the wisest and the best of men upon the British constitution, we possess. While we are freed from many that have formed the subject of constant objection in the mother country. Thus our law, by dividing the inheritance among all the children of an intestate, and by abolishing most of the unnecessary and artificial distinctions between real and personal property, has relieved us from the unjust rules of primogeniture and from much subtilty of legal definition.

The Game Laws, the Tithe system, and much of the ex