by an ordnance of Cromwell, in 1656, any minstrel, or fidler [y], who shall be making mufic in any inn, or tavern, or shall ask any one to bear bis mufic, is to be punished as a sturdy beggar.l

The other chapters, which relate to Wales, enact, that no Welshman shall have any office in Wales, except a bishoprick-That they fhall not have any castle, fortrets, or house of defence [z]-And by the last chapter, the marrying even a Welshwoman incapacitates an Englishman from holding any office.

These must be allowed to be laws of rigour; other caufes however, befides the rebellion of Owen Glendower [a], might poffibly have contributed to those odious and difagreeable diftinctions between the king's English, and Welsh subjects.

Notwithstanding the conqueft of Wales by Edward the First, and his having introduced, in fome measure, the English laws and cuftoms by the statute of Rhydland; yet perpetual incurfions and depredations were made by the Welsh upon the adjacent English counties, and which did not perhaps arise so much from hatred to the conquerors, as from its being customary, in all mountainous countries (till they are more thoroughly civilized), to invade their richer neighbours (fuadet enim vefana fames), and who inhabit a more fertile country-When the cattle are driven into the mountains, the pursuit to recover them is attended with danger; and if the pilferer is overtaken, it requires no small number of pursuers to bring the cattle back with fafety to the owner-We find this to prevail more or lefs in all parts: the mountain Arabs pilfer from the inhabitants of the more level countries-The Tartars made the fame depredations upon the Chinese till the famous wall was built-And the Highlanders of Scotland [b] (if not yet thoroughly civilized by the wife laws, which both

[] Fidler does not fignify what we now understand by the word player on the violin-This inftrument was not known in England till the time of Charles the Second-It seems to have been borrowed from the old Welsh inftrument, called a crowd-It is not however tuned in the same manner with a violin, nor are there above two or three persons now in Wales who can play upon it.

[x] This part of the law was probably carried into execution, and accounts for there beingno confiderable antient, and at the fame time fortified, houses belonging at prefent to the gentry of Wales-As for Chirk Castle, it is a modern building.

[a] Glendower's real name was Vaughan, and he was originally a barrister of the Middle Temple.

[6] There is amongst the black as a law which does great honour to these Highlanders, which makes it a capital offence to rob their prisoner-And Lefly, the Scots historian, fays, that “justice (amongst themselves) was so well established, that the very rushes might have guarded "the cattle."

England and Scotland owe to the late Earl of Hardwicke) still continue the fame incurfions upon the Lowlanders [c].

I would not by this be understood to infinuate, that the mountaineer is born with a worse difpofition than the inhabitant of the more level country-We call fuch depredations at prefent by the name of pilfering, as we term the captures by the Algerines acts of piracy-We must recollect, however, that the mountaineers at this time (as well as the Algerines) were a free independent people, who never made any treaties [d] of peace with their neighbours, by which they ftipulated not to make fhort expeditions into an enemy's country; and for the fame reason that the Algerines have never made any fuch treaty with the Italian states.

The Mediterranean fea hath in moft ages been infefted with this kind of free-booter; for Neftor afks Telemachus in the Odyffey [e] (when he means to receive him with the greatest civility and hospitality) whether he is a pirate; and Plato obferves, " καὶ γὰρ Ὅμηρο υ] τὸν Ὀδυοτές πρὸς μητρὸς πάππον Αὐτόλοχον ἀγαπᾷ τε καὶ φησὶν αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ πάνας ανθρώπες κέκλες κλεπτο our-Even the civilized Athenians were by their laws obliged to take an

[c] Mountaineers likewife have not fo early a regular fyftem of laws-Thus the Cyclops, in the mountains of Sicily, are defcribed by Homer:

[d] The Algerines obferve the treaties which they enter into, perhaps as well as fome European powers.

[e] In the marches between two countries, violence from the one quarter naturally produces a return of the fame disorder, and rapine; and therefore we find, during the reign of Henry the Fifth, three different ftatutes for introducing better police into the county of Hereford; which being bounded not only to the west by Radnorshire and Brecknockshire, but likewise to the fouth by Monmouthshire (then part of Wales) feems to have wanted as many regulations as the adjacent Welsh counties of which they complain.

[ƒ] If the illustration of a law, by a citation from a poet, is objected to, my best answer will be (not to dwell on the authorities of Grotius, Puffendorf, and other great writers) that it appears by the oration of Æfchynes against Timarchus, that the poems of Homer were on the tables of the courts of justice, together with the Athenian laws; and that the clerk is frequently applied to by the orator to read both the one and the other-It is likewife fomewhere mentioned (though I do not recollect by what author) that a dispute between the Athenians, and the inhabitants of Salamis, was determined merely upon thefe Lines from Homer's catalogue of the Grecian fleet :

Αἴας δ ̓ ἐκ Σαλαμίνα. ἄγεν δυοκαίδεκα νῆας,

Στησε δ ̓ ἄγων, ἵν ̓ Αθηναίων ἴσαλο φάλαγγες.

oath

oath to make incurfions twice every year upon the Megareans, dis ava πᾶν ἔτῷ εἰς τὴν Μεγαρικὴν ἐμβάλλειν. Petit. Leg. Att. p. 21.

From which the inferiority of the inhabitants of Salamis at that time was inferred-It should seem that the authority of the Greek tragedians was alfo fometimes appealed to in the Athenian courts of juftice, as there is a law (in Petit's collection) ràs rgaywdias rŵr woietā) Αἰσχύλο, Σοφοκλέας, Εὐριπίδε, τὸν γραμματέα τῆς πόλεως παραγινώσκειν.

STATUTES

STATUTES MADE AT WESTMINSTER.

T

5 Henry IV. A. D. 1403.

HE 3d chapter of this ftatute directs, that watch'fhould be made

on the fea coaft, at the places, and in the manner it used to be made; which I fhould not have taken notice of, was it not to introduce a record, which is cited by Prynne in his animadverfions on Sir Edward Coke's 4th Inft. and which fhews in what places this watch used to be made, and upon what eminencies beacons were erected, to give notice of the invading enemy-Poffibly fuch beacons might be of ufe when an invafion is apprehended; and this book of Prynne's will not probably make part of a captain general, or lord admiral's library [g].

The 5th chapter makes it felony to cut out the tongue, or pull out the eyes of the king's liege people, which it recites to have been very frequently practifed; and which fhews what animofity had been already occafioned by the difputes between the houses of York and Lancaster-The Coventry [g] It is, perhaps, as improbable indeed, that these obfervations will ever make part of fuch a library.

"Ordinance pur fauvacion des pais de Kent & Deffex, & nomement pur les villes efteantz fur la Ryvere de Thamyfe, pur periles qe fodeinement leur purroit avenir pur noz "enemys come dieux defende, & auxi pur la fauvacion de la Navye efteant es portz du dit River.

* Primes, foit ordeine al Isle de Shepeye un Beken, & a Shoubery en Effex un autre Beken. "Item, a Hoo en Kent un Beken, & a Fobbyng en Effex un autre Beken. Item, a Cleve en "Kent un Beken, & a Tilbery en Effex un autre Beken. Item, a Gravesend en Kent un Beken, " & a Farnedon en Effex un autre Beken.

Item, qe par especial maundement de per noftre trefredoute Seigneur le Roy foient chargez "as viscountz, conftables, & autres miniftres, et avantdites parties de Kent & Deffex, que tous les dites Beknes foient haftivement et covenablement as lieus avantnomez apparaillez & parfaitz, "pur fauvation des pays avandies, & pur la dite navye.

"Item, qe tantoft qe les dites Beknes foient faites, qils foient bien & covenablement veillez, "fibien de jour.come de nuyt fanz faut.

-46

Item, qe les veillours qe pur le temps ferront as dites Bekenes, & nomement as Bekenes de "Shepeye, & Shoubery, foient de temps en temps garniz & chargez, qe aufitoft qils purront cfpier aucunes veffels d'enemys venantz ove feil ou ores devers la dite ryvere, fitoft les ditz "leur Bekenes de Shepey & Shoubery foient mys a fire, enfefantz ovefque ce toute la noife de corn et de cri qils purrent faire, pur garnir la paiis environ pur venir ove lour force au dite ryvere, chefcun en focours dauters pur contefteer lour enemys.

"

64

"Item, que les paiis avandi es foient garniz & amoneftez fur grevovfe peine que tantoft qils "veient les dites Bekenes, ou les unes de eur mys a fum, ou qils oient la noise de corn ou de

cri, qils viegnent preftment de lour meillour arraie d'armes tanque au dit ryvere, pur fauver les villes efteantz fur ycel, come la navye çfleant es portz, fanz damage de nos enemys."

act

act (as it is called) of Charles the Second paffed, indeed, at a time when parties run high; but that was a single inftance of fuch a maim; nor did the preceding civil wars produce any fuch proof of horrid barbarity— Amongst thofe who had been maimed at this time, Richard Cheddar (who was a fervant, or officer to Sir Thomas Brook, knight of the fhire for the county of Somerset) had been beat and blemished [g]; and the 6th chapter directs, that the person guilty of the offence shall surrender himself, upon a proclamation iffuing, to the judges of the King's Bench; and that if any fuch affault is made upon the fervant of any other member of parlia ment, the fame remedy fhall be given to the party injured.

There are two or three particulars in this fhort chapter which deferve notice-The first is, that Richard Chedder (the perfon maimed) is ftiled [b] Efcuyer, and yet was a fervant to Sir Thomas Brook-The next is, that the affailant is ftiled John Salage (otherwife Savage), which is the first instance that I find of the alias being used; and it is very remarkable' that the statute of Additions paffed the following year-Laftly, this is the first instance of privilege of parliament [] being mentioned in the statute book; and it should seem that it was meant only to extend to members or their fervants, whilft the parliament continued to fit, as in the preamble it is recited by way of aggravating the offence, que le dit horrible fait fut faist deins le temps du dit parliament [k].

The 5th and laft chapter contains a general pardon, and which I fhould not have obferved upon, was it not to fay, that the authors of the Parliamentary history have, without cause, objected, that it does not make mention of the moft effential and neceffary word, that of treafon.

It seems likewise to be a mistake in most hiftorians, who take notice that the parliament, which affembled the following year, was the famous Parliamentum Indo&tum []; from which the Lawyers were excluded, as

[g] In the original emblemix.

[6] Parliaments then fat but for a few days-Those who have a curiofity to fee how many, may confult Prynne's Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva-The parliament of the 7th of this king having fat nearly a year, it was matter of complaint on account of the payment of the wages.

[i] It appears by the continuation of Lord Clarendon, that the house of lords, in the time of Charles the Second, were fo defirous to preferve their privileges, that they infifted upon a particular provision in their favour, in a statute made to prevent the ftealing of wood.

[] There is, indeed, another particular, which deferves notice, that this Richard Chedder, upon surrendering himself, is to make fatisfaction either by the award of the judges of the King's Bench, or by a jury; and I do not recollect an instance of such an alternative. [1]" Rex brevia direxit vicecomitibus ne quofdam pro comitatibus eligerent qui in jure "regni docti fuiffent"-Tho. de Walfingham, p. 371-Stowe fays it was called the Laymans parliament.

2

there