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doubt that God is righteous and merciful: nor dare I indulge any fufpicion of that kind, any more than of cruelty and tyranny in the all-perfect God.

I was educated amongft thofe proteftants who diffent from the church of England: when I came to thofe years that I was capable of judging of the arguments on both fides, I impartially confidered them; and as the refult thereof I chose to worship with those that are called diffenters, and to take my lot with them. I never could find that our Saviour or his Apoftles had ever inftituted any particular form of church-government, to which Chriftians were obliged to conform as of divine right: nor that they had delegated any power of that kind to any man, or to any body of men. From whence it was very apparent to me, that all claims of ordaining the circumftantials of worfhip, and the laying Chriftians under an obligation of conforming to them in obedience to authority, was an ufurped power; it was reftraining and fettering Chriftians where Chrift had left them free: it was invading the rights of confcience, which every Chriftian is bound to maintain; and it alfo appeared to me, to be the assuming an authority abfolutely inconfiftent with the prerogative of the great mafter, who is the fole king and lawgiver in his church; and to justify all the idle and ridiculous fuperftitions and fopperies in the church of Rome, or any other that fanciful men may take into their heads to eftablish, under the pretence of folemnity, decency, and order. For thefe reafons, I not only thought I was juflified in my diffent, but that it was my duty to diffent, as it was the only way I had of bearing my teftimony against an impofing fpirit; of freeing myself from unfcriptural impofitions; and maintaining a liberty which Chrift hath left me, of advancing as near as I could to a fcriptural fimplicity and purity as to worship.

• But though I have thought it my duty to diffent for the reasons before mentioned, yet I have ever thought it equally my duty to cul tivate an affection to those in the establishment: believing they were equally fincere, though they faw not things in the light wherein they appeared to me; and might be, at leaft, equally useful in the common caufe of Christianity, fince we agreed in things of much greater moment, than those in which we differed.'

• I have condemned the cenforious wrathful bigot of every denomination; and I have never answered to any party term, so as to lay any firefs, or to put any value upon it, but that which forbids all party fpirit, & CHRISTIAN.

N. B. The APPENDIX to the Nineteenth Volume of the Review, was published this Month.

p. 34, l. 22.

for

on one, r. no one.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For FEBRUARY, 1759.

A Treatise on the Court of Exchequer : in which the revenues of the crown; the manner of receiving and accounting for the feveral branches of them; the duty of the feveral officers employed in the collection and receipt; the nature of the proceffes for the recovery of debts due to the crown; are clearly explained: as alfo ccafionally, the nature of the feudal and other antient tenures; the origin of parliaments, convocations, the feveral courts of Juftice; and many other curious and useful particulars are fhewn. By a late Lord Chief Baron of that Court. 8vo. 5s. Nourie.

I

N the Preface to this work, we are told, that it was sent to the Editor, together with a treatife on rents, by a perfon of very high rank in the law, in order to their being publifhed; and that affurances were at the fame time given, that they were the works of the late Lord Chief Baron Gilbert.

We find no reafon to controvert this affurance: for it is evidently the production of a man eminently fkilled in jurifprudence, and intimately acquainted with the court of Exchequer. It is true, as it is hinted in the preface, we do not find that nice arrangement of matter, which might be expected from fuch a hand; neither does the Author always exprefs himself with fuch perfpicuity and precifion as the fubject requires. Nevertheless, a diligent Reader will receive both entertainment and improvement from the perufal of this treatife; as, by collating it with other authorities, he will gain new lights on fome interefting points of antiquity, and confequently be able to perceive the VOL. XX.

H

true

true grounds and reafons of feveral rights and cuftoms which prevail at this day.

It undoubtedly behoves every man, who has leifure and capacity for fuch researches, to be acquainted with the nature and extent of that judicial authority, which is to decide upon his person and property; and to which, as a citizen, he is bound to fubmit. But this requifite knowlege is not to be attained without a competent fkill in the hiftory of jurifdictions; of which the learned treatife before us comprehends a general view, though it more particularly treats of the court of Exchequer.

This work is divided into feventeen chapters; but as many of them relate to matters of practice, which more immediately concern the officers of the revenue, and men of the law, we fhall therefore confine our obfervations to fuch general heads, as are most proper for the attention of the gentleman and the man of literature.

Treating of the origin of the court of Exchequer, our Author fays, It is doubted whether the Exchequer in Normandy was formed from the Exchequer in England, or that of England from Normandy; certain it is, that they are very like one to the other all the great minifters, as the Jufticiar, Conftable, Senefchal, Chancellor, and Treafurer, fat in this court, and fuch other Barons as were occafionally refident, or fent for: and as the greatest part of the Baronage were fummoned to parliament, which was the most eminent court, fo fome few were fummoned to the Exchequer, which was the court for the private concerns of the crown,'

We wish, that the learned Writer had given his opinion concerning this doubt. Some perfons infift, that there was a court of Exchequer under the Anglo-Saxon kings: and to this opinion that great lawyer and hiftorian, Sir Matthew Hale, may be thought to incline; for he ftrenuously contends, that the laws of Normandy were the greater part of them borrowed from ours, rather than ours from them: the fuppofition, that they were impofed upon us by William, generally called the Conqueror, according to him, has no foundation; and he affigns many natural caufes for the congruity of the Norman laws with ours. If Sir Matthew's reafoning is juft, and we may venture to determine, that the Normans took their laws from us, we may fafely conclude likewife, that they borrowed from us their feveral modes of jurifdiction. It is true, the ftrength of numbers refts on the other fide, and leads us to think that this court was erected by William the Firft, according to the model of the Tranfmarine Exchequer in Normandy. But we should have been glad that the Author had fifted this point, as we do not

find, that either in Maddox's Hiftory of the Exchequer, or in the Lex Conftitutionis, or, indeed, in any Writer on the subject, it is fatisfactorily canvafied.

Our Author proceeds to fhew, that when the power of the Jufticiar was broken, the Aula Regis, which was before one great court where the Jufticiar prefided, was divided into four diftinct courts, which are, the court of Chancery and the Exchequer, the court of King's Bench and the Common-pleas : and he fays, that when the Jufticiar was laid afide, the several offices in the Aula Regis, were, by Edward the Firft, broken into diftinct courts..

Upon this point authorities differ greatly. Dalrymple, in his chapter on the history of jurifdictions, fays, that Henry the Second divided the bufinefs of the Aula Regis among two new courts, called the King's Bench and Common-Pleas. But from antient authorities we may gather, that this distinction was not made till after his time. By the eleventh chapter of Magna Charta it is thus ordained, Common-Pleas fhall not follow our court, but fhall be holden in fome place certain.' And Gwyn, in the preface to his Reading, fays, that till Henry the Third granted the great charter, there were but two courts called the King's courts, which were, the King's-Bench and the Exchequer, then filed Curia Domini Regis & Aula Regis, because they followed the court, or king; and that upon the grant of that charter, the court of Common Pleas was erected, and fettled in one certain place, that is, Weftminster-hall. But Lord Coke is of opinion, that the court of Common-Pleas was conftituted before the conqueft, and was not created by Magna Charta. Were we to decide upon a matter of fuch nicety, we should incline to think, that the Common- Pleas did not become a diftinct court till the time of Henry the Third. Before that period, it is probable, that the bufinefs of the Common-Pleas was carried on in the King's-Bench, or fometimes, perhaps, in the Exchequer; for we find that, even after the paffing of Magna Charta, the bufinefs of the Common-Pleas was tranfacted in the Exchequer, as evidently appears from the ftatute of Edward the Firft, which ordains, that Common-Pleas fhall not be holden in the Exchequer, contrary to the form of the Great Charter.' However, thus much is certain, that let the divifion take place when it will; that politic prince Edward the First improved and compleated it.

In the fecond chapter, our Author treats of the antient revenues of the crown, and the feveral branches which compofed them; and how they were levied, accounted for, and paid into the Exchequer. He fhews, that the tenants of the King's

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demefne lands used formerly to fupply the King with corn, fheep, and other produce of the land in fpecie. But this method being found troublesome, the lands afterwards came to be affeffed according to their value and the King's neceffities.' This affeffment was called tallage *.

The Author further informs us, that the King not only gave lands to the tenants in antient demefne, for his provifion, but Likewife several of the demefne lands were given to boroughs, for the cloathing of his houfhold. Thefe grants were made to corporations by the King's charter: and these tenants, called tenants in burgage, ufed to fupply the king with manufactures in fpecie. But afterwards in lieu of thefe manufactures, they were affeffed by tallage: and at length the tallages impofed upon them, and upon the tenants in antient demesne, were both of them generally changed into rents. Before thefe tallages were changed into rents, the tenants in antient demefne, and the burgage tenants, used to grant the King an aid before the commencement of any expedition: or the King tallaged them after the expedition was ended, generally to the amount of a tenth or a fifteenth. But when thefe tallages were turned into rents, it was at the option of the burgage tenants and tenants in demefne, to give thefe rents or not. And towards the latter end of the first Norman period, they each of them began to fend their representatives to the King's court; for they were not bound to attend in perfon, as the military tenants were, who held by Knight's fervice. Their tenures conftitute the second fort of lands, in contradistinction to the demefne lands; and thefe military tenants, upon failure of duty, were affeffable according to the degree of their failure, and the value of their eftates.

It must be remembered, that as the King gave lands to towns, fo likewife he made grants to feveral companies within towns, as in London, where the tallage was affeffed on the alderman of each ward, who was the alderman of each refpective company; and they ufed frequently to rival each other in free gifts to the King: but they fent no reprefentatives, because they had only part of the lands which were at first granted out.

From this abstract, the attentive Reader may trace the origin of our corporations, and be better able to comprehend the matter of the enfuing curious chapter, which treats of the revenues arifing from the crown-lands; the feveral tenures by which

Tallage is derived from the French verb Tailler, which fignifies to cut for, by tallage, part of the tenant's fubftance was, as it were, carved out of the whole, by way of tax.

these

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