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Q. What are the principal features of the Common Law?

A. The old rules or canons by which the descent of landed property from an ancestor to his heir was governed, the different modes of acquiring property, and the forms of various contracts.

Q. What is the written or Statute Law?

A. The collection of Acts of Parliament, the originals of which have been preserved from the earliest times. Q. Into what distinct classes may the Statute Law be divided?

A. Into General or Public Acts of Parliament which regard the whole community, and Special or Private Acts which operate only on particular persons and private concerns.

Q. How are the Common and Statute Law declared and interpreted?

A. By the authority of the judges of the realm, whose decisions are preserved.

Q. What is the Civil Law?

A. A Code of rules and maxims compiled by the Romans.

Q. What is the Canon Law?

A. A body of Roman Ecclesiastical Law.

Q. Are the Civil and Canon Law ever used in England?

A. Yes, the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts, and the Court for Probate and Matrimonial Causes are regulated by them.

Q. What is International Law?

A. That Law which depends entirely upon the Rules

of Nature or upon mutual compacts, treaties, and leagues between the several Communities of Mankind.

"International law," observes Mr. Austin, "regards the conduct of Sovereigns as related to one another." Dr. Travers Twiss remarks that the ruins of Sebastopol bear convincing testimony that International Law is not a fiction of jurists, but a stern reality.

Q. What is the design and object of all laws?

A. To ascertain what is just, honourable, and expedient, to shield the weak, to support the interest of the community and of every member thereof, and to make justice subject not only to the dictates of conscience, but also to rules which cannot be infringed with impunity.

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'Men are indebted for justice and liberty to Law."Rousseau.

Q. Name the three leading principles which every human being is bound to conform to by the Law of Nature.

A. To live respectably, to hurt nobody, and to render to every man his due.

Q. Into what departments is the territory of England divided?

A. Into Ecclesiastical and Civil departments.

Q. What are the names of the Ecclesiastical departments?

A. Provinces, which are governed by Archbishops; dioceses, which are governed by Bishops; archdeaconries, rural deaneries, and parishes.

Q. What are the names of the Civil departments?
A. Counties, hundreds, and tithings or towns.

Q. Explain the meaning of these terms.

A. The term " tithing" now comprehends the several species of cities, boroughs, and common towns, each of which originally consisted of ten families only. A "hundred" is supposed to be made up of ten tithings although of course it is not actually so; while a county or shire is a district comprising an indefinite number of hundreds.

Q. Is Wales subject to the laws of England?

A. Yes, it is, although it continued independent until the reign of Henry VIII., when an Act of Parliament was passed, enacting that the dominion of Wales should be. for ever united to the kingdom of England, and that the laws of England, and no other, should be used in Wales. It has, moreover, the privilege of sending members to sit in the English Parliament.

Q. What is the government of Scotland?

A. Since the Union in the reign of Queen Anne Scotland has been rendered in a great measure subject to the English laws, although several fundamental conditions were annexed to the Union.

Q. Name the chief condition.

A. The preservation of the Episcopal Church of England and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the same state that they were at the time of the Union. Q. Is the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed subject to the laws of England?

A. Yes, it is, but it has some local peculiarities derived from the ancient laws of Scotland.

Q. What is the Government of Ireland?

A. By the Act of Union, passed in the year 1801, Ireland was made subject to the laws of England, and

has since been governed by a Lord Lieutenant appointed by the English Sovereign.

Q. Is the Isle of Man subject to the English laws? A. No, it is a distinct territory from England, and is not governed by its laws.

Q. How are the Channel Islands governed?

A. They are governed by their own laws, but an appeal lies from them to the English Sovereign.

Q. Are our Colonies subject to the English laws? A. Yes, they are principally governed by them. Q. Are the main or high seas subject to the English laws?

A. Yes, the Courts of Admiralty have jurisdiction there.

Q. What are Counties Corporate ?

A. Certain cities and towns to which, out of special grace and favour, the kings of England have granted the privilege to be counties of themselves, and not to be comprised in any other county. They are governed by their own sheriffs and other magistrates, so that no officers of the county at large have any power to intermeddle therein. Most of the cities of the realm are counties corporate, and some few of the principal towns.

Q. What are Counties Palatine?

A. The Counties Palatine are Chester, Durham, and Lancaster; and the Earl of Chester, the Bishop of Durham, and the Duke of Lancaster, had at one time regal authority therein: though this authority has been somewhat abridged, they still enjoy many privileges.

Constitution, an established system of laws and customs, or a settled form of government (Lat., con, together, and

statuo, to place, to establish).

Monarchy, government by a single ruler or king (Gr., monos, alone, and archē, rule.

Aristocracy, the government of the nobles or the best born (Gr., aristos, best, and kratos, strength or government). Democracy, the government of the people (Gr., demos, the people, and kratos, strength or government).

People, the inhabitants of a country (Fr., peuple; Lat., populus, the people).

Custom, what one is accustomed to do (Fr., coutume; Lat., consuetudo, from consuesco, to accustom).

Tradition, a statement or narrative handed down from generation to generation (Lat., traditio, a handing over or down, from trans, across, and do, to give).

Canon, a measuring reed, hence a rule or law (Gr., kanōn, a reed).

Statute, a rule established (Lat., statuo, to place, from sto, to stand).

Parliament, a meeting for parleying, speaking, or consulting (Fr., parler, to speak).

Admiralty, a board of naval officers (Fr., amiral; Ar., amir, a lord, a chief).

County, a district ruled by a count (Fr., comte, from Lat., comes,

a companion [of princes]).

Palatinate or County Palatine, a district governed by a Count Palatine, a high judicial officer, who exercised, in the province to which he was delegated, similar authority to that exercised by the Comes Palatinus, or Companion of the Palace (Lat., palatium, a palace).

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