comprehend the dominion of Wales and town of Berwick upon Tweed. And though certain of the king's writs or proceffes of the courts of Westminster do not ufually run into Berwick, any more than the principality of Wales, yet it hath been folemnly adjudged that all prerogative writs (as thofe of mandamus, prohibition, habeas corpus, certiorari, &c.) may iffue to Berwick as well as to every other of the dominions of the crown of England, and that indictments and other local matters arifing in the town of Berwick may be tried by a jury of the county of Northumberland (9). As to Ireland, that is ftill a diftinct kingdom; though a dependent fubordinate kingdom. It was only entitled the dominion or lordship of Ireland", and the king's ftile was no other than dominus Hiberniae, lord of Ireland, till the thirty-[100] third year of king Henry the eighth; when he afsumed (10) the title of king, which is recognized by act of parliament 35 Hen. VIII. c. 3. But, as Scotland and England are now one and the fame kingdom, and yet differ in their municipal laws; fo England and Ireland are, on the other hand, diftinct kingdoms, and yet in general agree in their laws. The inhabitants of Ireland are, for the most part, defcended from the English, who planted it as a kind of colony, after the conqueft of it by king Henry the fecond and the laws of England were then received and fworn to by the Irish na * Cro. Jac. 543. 2 Roil, abr. 292. Stat. 11 Geo. I. c. 4. 4 Burr. 834. h Stat. Hiberniae. 14 Hen. III. 1 4 (9) See the cafe of the King v. Cowle, in 2 Burr. 834. in which Lord Mansfield seems to have collected and methodized all the learning refpecting the conftitution of the town of Berwick upon Tweed. (10) The title of king was conferred upon him and his fucceffors by a ftatute paffed in Ireland exprefsly for that purpose, and it was made treafon for any inhabitant of Ireland to deny it. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 1. Irish Stat. tion, affembled at the council of Lifmore. And as Ireland, thus conquered, planted, and governed, ftill continues in a ftate of dependence, it must neceffarily conform to, and be obliged by, fuch laws as the fuperior ftate thinks proper to prefcribe. Ar the time of this conqueft the Irish were governed by what they called the Brehon law, fo ftiled from the Irish name of judges, who were denominated Brehons *. But king John in the twelfth year of his reign went into Ireland and carried over with him many able fages of the law; and there by his letters patent, in right of the dominion of conqueft, is faid to have ordained and established that Ireland should be governed by the laws of England': which letters patent fir Edward Coke apprehends to have been there confirmed in parliament. But to this ordinance many of the Irish were averfe to conform, and ftill ftuck to their Brehon law: fo that both Henry the third" and Edward the first were obliged to renew the injunction; and at length in a parliament holden at Kilkenny, 40 Edw. III. under Lionel duke of Clarence, and then lieutenant of Ireland, the Brehon law was formally abolished, it being unanimously declared to be indeed no law, but a lewd cuftom crept in of later [101] times. And yet, even in the reign of queen Elizabeth, the wild natives ftill kept and preferved their Brehon law; which is defcribed P to have been a rule of right unwritten, but "delivered by tradition from one to another, in which often"times there appeared great shew of equity in determining the right between party and party, but in many things i Pryn. on 4 Inft. 249. k 4 Inft. 358. Edm. Spenfer's ftate of Ireland. p. 1513. edit. Hughes. 1 Vaugh. 294. 7 Rep. 23. m 1 Inft. 141. utuntur Hybernici Deo deteftabiles exiftunt, et omni juri diffonant, adeo quod leges cenferi non debeant ;—nobis et confilio noftra 2 Pryn. Rec. 85. fatis videtur expediens, eifdem utendas concedere leges Anglicanas. 3 Pryn. Rec, 1218. n A. R. 30. 1 Rym. Feod. 442. Edm. Spenfer, ibid. "repugnant "repugnant quite both to God's laws and man's." The latter part of this character is alone ascribed to it, by the laws before-cited of Edward the first and his grandson, BUT as Ireland was a diftinct dominion, and had parlia ments of it's own, it is to be obferved, that though the immemorial customs, or common law, of England were made the rule of juftice in Ireland also, yet no acts of the English parliament, fince the twelfth of king John, extended into that kingdom; unless it were fpecially named, or included under general words, such as, " within any of the king's do"minions." And this is particularly expreffed, and the reafon given in the year books: "a tax granted by the parlia"ment of England fhall not bind thofe of Ireland, because they are not fummoned to our parliament;" and again, "Ireland hath a parliament of it's own, and maketh and "altereth laws; and our statutes do not bind them, because they do not fend knights to our parliament: but their perfons are the king's fubjects, like as the inhabitants of "Calais, Gafcoigne, and Guienne, while they continued "under the king's subjection," The general run of laws, enacted by the fupetior ftate, are fuppofed to be calculated for it's own internal government, and do not extend to it's diftant dependent countries, which, bearing no part in the legiflature, are not therefore in it's ordinary and daily contemplation. But, when the fovereign legislative power fees it neceffary to extend it's care to any of it's fubordinate dominions, and mentions them exprefsly by name or includes them under general words, there can be no doubt but then they are bound by it's laws, THE Original method of paffing ftatutes in Ireland was nearly the fame as in England, the chief governor holding parliaments at his pleasure, which enacted fuch laws as they [102] thought proper. But an ill ufe being made of this liberty, 9 20 Hen. VI. 8. 2 Ric III. 12. 22. Calvin's cafe. Yearbook a Hen. VII. 3. 7 Rep. Irish Stat. 11 Eliz. ft. 3. c. 8. particu particularly by lord Gormanstown, deputy-lieutenant in the reign of Edward IV', a fet of ftatutes were there enacted in the 10 Hen. VII. (fir Edward Poynings being then lord deputy, whence they are called Poynings' laws) one of which ", in order to restrain the power as well of the deputy as the Irish parliament, provides, 1. That, before any parliament be fummoned or holden, the chief governor and council of Ireland fhall certify to the king under the great feal of Ireland the confiderations and caufes thereof, and the articles of the acts propofed to be pafled therein. 2. That after the king, in his council of England, fhall have confidered, approved, or altered the faid acts or any of them, and certified them back under the great feal of England, and fhall have given licence to fummon and hold a parliament, then the fame fhall be fummoned and held; and therein the faid acts fo certified, and no other, fhall be proposed, received, or rejected". But as this precluded any law from being propofed, but fuch as were pre-conceived before the parliament was in being, which occafioned many inconveniencies and made frequent diffolutions neceffary, it was provided by the statute of Philip and Mary before-cited, that any new propofitions might be certified to England in the ufual forms, even after the fummons and during the feffion of parliament. By this means however there was nothing left to the parliament in Ireland, but a bare negative or power of rejecting, not of propofing or altering, any law. But the ufage now is, that bills are often framed in either houfe, under the denomination of "heads for a bill or bills:" and in that shape they are offered to the confideration of the lord lieutenant and privy council: who, upon fuch parliamentary intimation, or otherwife upon the application of private perfons, receive and tranfmit fuch heads, or reject them without any transmission to England. And with regard to Poynings' law in particular, it cannot be repealed or fufpended, unless the bill for t-Irish Stat. 10 Hen. VII. c. 23. Cap. 4. expounded by 3 & 4 Ph. & M. c. 4. W 4 Inft. 353: that that purpose, before it be certified to England, be approved by both the houses (12). * Irish Stat. 11 Eliz. ft. 3. c. 38. (12) The hiftory of the proceedings of the Irish parliament published by lord Mountmorres is a very valuable acceffion to conftitutional learning. It is a publication, which, befides being immediately useful to Ireland, affords much important information to those who are defirous of having a well-grounded and an accurate knowlege of the English conftitution; for the public proceedings of the neighbouring kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland furnish ftrong arguments from analogy, when difficult queftions arise respecting the English conftitution, and they are sometimes irrefragable evidence of ancient principles which were once common to them all. Lord Mountmorres obferves upon the statute referred to by the learned judge, that to repeal Poynings' law it required the confent of the greater number of the lords and commons, which, if it meant any thing, muft fignify a majority not of thofe who happened to be prefent, but of the whole number fummoned to parliament; and that the requifition in that fenfe was ftrictly complied with in 1782, when Poynings' law was repealed. 1 Vol. p. 53. I shall here take the liberty to fubjoin an extract from what lord Mountmorres calls "a fhort view of the former, and of the "prefent method of paffing laws and of holding parliaments in Ire"land," as it contains a clearer and more authentic account than I could elsewhere collect : "Before a parliament was held, it was expedient, antecedent to "one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, that the lord lieute"nant and council fhould fend over an important bill as a reason "for fummoning that affembly. This always created violent difputes, and it was conftantly rejected; as a money bill, which ori"ginated in the council, was contrary to a known maxim, that the "commons hold the purfe of the nation; and as all grants originate "from them, fince, in early times, they were used to confult with "their constituents upon the mode, duration, and quantum of the * fupply. "Propofitions for laws, or heads of bills, as they are called, originated indifferently in either houfe. After two readings and a "committal, they were fent by the council to England, and were "fubmitted, ufually by the English privy council, to the attorney "and |