ever to have been under the control of | the chief justiciar, the Court of the Marshalsea, which had jurisdiction where one of the parties at least was of the king's household. Charles I. created by letters patent a new court, styled the Court of the Palace, with jurisdiction over all personal actions arising within the verge of the palace, that is, within twelve miles of Whitehall. These courts are now held together every Friday. The Court of Marshalsea is, in fact, disused, but the Palace Court is in active operation.

The Saxon kings had been in the habit of making progresses through their dominions for the purpose of administering justice. This practice was not continued by William the Conqueror; but he annually summoned his great council to sit at the three feasts of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, in three different parts of the kingdom-Winchester, Westminster, and Gloucester. But when the great mass of the legal business of the country was brought into the king's courts at Westminster, it became necessary to take some more efficient measures for the trial of causes in the country.

The first expedient adopted was to appoint itinerant judges, justices in Eyre, who travelled through the kingdom, holding plea of all causes civil or criminal, and in most respects discharging the office of the superior courts. These itinera, or Eyres, usually took place every seven years.

About the end of the reign of Edward III. this system was wholly discontinued, except as to pleas of the king's forests, the functions of the justices in Eyre being superseded by the justices of Nisi Prius. This system was first established by a statute of Edward I., which, in order to prevent the expense of bringing up the juries to the king's courts at Westminster, provided that certain judges of those courts should be appointed to make circuits twice a year for the trial of issues upon which judgment was to be given in the court above. This system is still in operation. The justices of Nisi Prius also receive commissions of Oyer and Terminer and of gaol delivery, to authorize them to try criminals; and a commission

of assize under which they used to try a peculiar species of action called assizes. These actions have long been obsolete; but the name of assizes is still given to the sittings of the justices on circuit under their several commissions.

Under the Norman kings the fines, amerciaments, and forfeitures in the king's courts constituted a considerable portion of the revenue, and the administration of justice was an important branch of the royal prerogative; but, like other branches of the prerogative, we sometimes find it in the hands of a subject, either by grant from the crown, or by prescription, which, according to legal notion, supposes a grant, though such supposition is often at variance with probability: within the counties Palatine and other royal franchises, the earls or lords had regal jurisdiction, saving the supreme dominion of the king. They had the same right as the king to pardon offences; they appointed judges of eyre, assize, and gaol delivery, and justices of the peace; all legal proceedings were made in their name, and offences were said to be committed against their peace, as in other places against the peace of the king. These royal prerogatives were, for the most part, re-annexed to the crown by stat. 27 Hen. VIII.; but the form of the judicial establishment still remained. [PALATINE COUNTIES.] But besides these palatinate jurisdictions, created to increase the power and gratify the pride of the nobles on whom they were conferred, the crown has also from time to time created courts, with a jurisdiction united in point of territory, and always under the control of the king's superior courts. If, in the Saxon times, the boroughs had courts similar to those of the hundreds, there are now no traces to be found of their existence; but however that may be, it is certain that when commerce increased, it was found of the utmost importance to the boroughs to be relieved from the jurisdiction of the feudal lord, and at the same time to have some court of justice to apply to, less distant, dilatory, and expensive than the king's courts at Westminster; and accordingly there has, at some time or other, been granted to almost every bo

superior judges of common law fifteen instead of twelve. But the five judges never sit all together, the full court consisting, as formerly, of four only.

During the terms, which are four periods in the year of about three weeks each, the three courts sit at Westminster for the determination of all questions of law; and twice a year fourteen of the judges make their circuits through England and Wales, to try, with the assistance of juries, all disputed questions of fact that arise in the country. Actions brought in Middlesex or London are tried in the same manner at the sittings which are held on certain days in and immediately after every term.

From each of the three courts there lies an appeal by writ of error to the Court of Exchequer Chamber. This is not a permanent court, consisting always of the same members; but from whichever of the three courts the appeal is made, it is brought before the judges of the other two. From the constitution of this tribunal, it is evident that where any considerable difference of opinion exists among the fifteen judges, it is incapable of effecting one of the chief purposes of a court of appeal-that of producing uniformity of decision; and, accordingly, a further appeal lies by writ of error to the House of Lords.

For the history of the courts, see Reeve's History of the English Law; Maddox's History of the Exchequer; Palgrave's Progress of the English Commonwealth; Allen's Inquiry into the Prerogative.

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COURTS CUSTOMARY. HOLD.] COURTS ECCLESIASTICAL. [EcCLESIASTICAL COURTS.]

COURTS OF RECORD. [COURTS.] COVERTURE. [WIFE] CREDENTIALS. [AMBASSADOR.] CREDIT, in commerce and in political economy, signifies the trusting or lending of one man's property to another. The man who trusts or lends is said to give credit, and he who is trusted is said to obtain it. The one is called a creditor, and the other a debtor.

Credit is given either in goods or in money. By the former mode goods are

are

supplied to a purchaser, for which the payment is deferred for some fixed period, or indefinitely, and the person who supplies them indemnifies himself for the delay by an increased price. By the latter mode, money is advanced, upon security or otherwise, and interest is charged upon the loan. [INTEREST; MORTGAGE.] Both these modes used, in conjunction with each other, in the large transactions of commerce. A manufacturer, for example, sells to a merchant, for exportation, goods to the value of a thousand pounds. The merchant, however, is unable to pay for them until he has received remittances from abroad; and the manufacturer, aware of his solvency, is contented to receive in payment a bill of exchange, due at some future period. [EXCHANGE, BILL OF.] But in the mean time he is himself in need of money to carry on his business; and instead of waiting for the payment of the bill when it shall become due, he gets it discounted by a banker or other capitalist. Thus having given credit to one person in goods, he obtains credit from another in money. In this and other ways capital is circulated and applied to the various purposes for which it is required. But without entering further upon the practical methods by which the mercantile system of credit is conducted, it is proposed to inquire into its causes and into its economical uses and results.

There can be no system of credit until there has been a considerable accumulation of capital; for when capital first begins to be accumulated, those who possess it apply it directly in aid of their own labour. They have no superfluity which they can afford to lend to others; and they are generally engaged in some business in which their savings can be profitably employed. As a country increases in wealth, many persons acquire capital which they cannot employ in their own business, or can only employ by offering inducements to purchase in the shape of deferred payments. Others, again, inherit capital from which they wish to derive an income without the trouble of personally superintending its application. It is from these classes of persons that lenders of capital arise; and

they have no difficulty in finding borrowers. Setting aside that countless class of mankind whose maxim it is to get money or money's worth, honestly if they can, but at all events to get it-who will borrow whenever others will lend, and reckon the loan as so much money earned, most men have an instinctive perception that the next best thing to having capital of their own is to have the use of the capital of others. The efficacy of capital is very soon discovered as an instrument for the production of wealth, and those who have it not are willing to pay for its use; or, in other words, to share with a capitalist the profits of their own industry, on condition that he intrusts to them such funds as they require for making it productive. Thus as soon as a sufficient capital exists, a system of credit has a natural tendency to arise, and will continue to grow with the increase of capital, unless it be checked by a general insecurity of property, by imperfect legal securities for the payment of debts, or by a want of confidence in the integrity of the parties who desire to borrow. When the society and laws of a country are in a sound state, and capital is abundant, credit comes fully into operation.

The precise use of credit as an agent in the production of wealth is that it gives circulation to capital, and renders it available wherever it can be most profitably employed. It does for capital what division of employments does for labour. Without augmenting its quantity it increases its utility and productiveness. Credit, in fact, may be best understood by regarding it as one of the many forms in which the division of employments facilitates the production of wealth. Without the aid of capital, the labour of man is comparatively ineffectual; and credit, by circulating capital among those who are engaged in the productive employment of labour, promotes the most essential of all divisions of industry-that which uses and makes effective the ingenuity of men in those pursuits for which they are adapted. [DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS.]

To employ capital productively is a business requiring great knowledge, skill, and industry; and is rendered more effec

tive by a division of superintendence, as manual labour is facilitated by a judicious distribution of employments among several hands. Every man who borrows money for the legitimate purposes of industry, and applies it with judgment, is really the agent of the capitalist, in executing duties which the capitalist himself would be unable to perform. A man's capital would be comparatively useless without an active superintendence, and a union of skill and industry in a particular business. These qualities are placed at his disposal by the system of credit, and stimulated to exertion by a share in the profits arising from the use of his capital. If the capitalist should trust persons improvidently, these useful results will not follow; but it is his peculiar province, as it is his interest, to exercise caution and judgment in the investment of his own capital; and if he fail to do this, his fortune will suffer in precisely the same manner as if he superintended a factory himself without understanding the business, and employed idle and ignorant foremen and unskilled operatives.

These illustrations will suffice to explain the nature and uses of credit: but it must always be borne in mind that in circulating capital and making it available in aid of industry, it calls no new capital into existence. It makes the existing capital of a country more productive, and consequently accelerates the accumulation of fresh capital; but credit cannot be, in itself, a substitute for capital. A man without any capital of his own may carry on business by the aid of credit; but he is merely using the capital of another. No man can lend his money, and still use it himself. It is not ubiquitous-nor can it serve two purposes at once. If a man does not use his own capital, he may lend it to another to use; but it is impossible that he can both use it himself and allow another to use it at the same time. He cannot use it in person and by proxy.

Stated in this manner, the truth of these principles is obvious; yet so great is the influence of credit in stimulating enterprise, that it is constantly mistaken for a distinct productive agency. Thus it is said, for example, that wherever credit is freely obtained in a country, great pro