LOCAL COURTS.
505
the purposes of a more improved state. As early as the sixth year of Edward I., it was provided by the Statute of Gloucester, that the County Court should have exclusive jurisdiction in pleas of debt and damages under the value of 40s. That Statute only provided that the jurisdiction of these courts should be exclusive in such pleas; it did not confine their jurisdiction to such pleas. Probably, however, in the course of a century after, 40s. became the maximum. Certainly this happened not very long afterwards. Such, then, was, at that period, the constitution of the County Courts in England: and now, I would fain, with the permission of the House, call their attention to the constitution of the County Courts of the sister kingdom—Scotland ; for when we are trying to apply a remedy, it is right, before we adopt any change, to see if, among many remedies, there is one which has been adopted elsewhere; and if so, to inquire how it has been found to work there. I need not remind, perhaps, any one, but certainly I need remind no lawyer—that however widely the general jurisprudence and practice of the two countries may at this moment differ, the early laws of the two were very much alike ; so alike, indeed, that while in England it is contended that the book called Regiam Majestatem was copied from Glanvil’s book on the laws of this country—so, on the other hand, it has been asserted in Scotland, that the Regiam Majestatem was the original of Glanvil’s work. This dispute proves at least the remarkable similarity which subsisted between the early laws of the two countries. The same similarity existed also in the administration of justice; and, while no one can doubt that many most valuable improvements have been effected in this country, of which the benefits have not been shared by Scotland, still, with all my prejudices in favour of the English system, I cannot