Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/323

 9. HOLDSWORTH: THE LAW MERCHANT 309 to that aroused by the jurisdiction of the Council. The result of this opposition was seen in two statutes of Richard II. 's reign which defined the jurisdiction of the Admiralty. 13 Richard II. St. 1 c. 5 recites that " a great and common clamour and complaint hath been often times made before this time, and yet is, for that the admirals and their deputies hold their sessions within divers places of this realm, as well within franchise as without, accroaching to them greater authority than belongeth to their office." It enacts that, " the admi- rals and their deputies shall not meddle from henceforth with the sea, as it hath been used in the time of King Edward, grandfather of our Lord the King that now is." 15 Richard II. c. 3 enacts more specifically, " that of all manner of con- tracts, pleas, and quarrels, and all other things rising within the bodies of the counties as well by land as by water, and also of wreck of the sea, the Admiral's court shall have no manner of cognizance, power, nor jurisdiction." But, " nevertheless, of the death of a man, and of a mayhem done in great ships, being and hovering in the main stream of great rivers, only beneath the bridges of the same rivers nigh to the sea, and in none other places of the same rivers, the Admiral shall have cognisance." ^ In view of further petitions as to the en- croachments of the Admiral's court, it was enacted in 1400 that those sued wrongfully in that court should have a right of action for double damages.^ Petitions were still directed against the court and its procedure.^ But these statutes effected some settlement of the court's jurisdiction ; and the Courts of Common Law maintained their observance by the issue of writs of supersedeas, certiorari or prohibition.* We have seen that the reign of Henry VIII. witnessed a revival of interest in the navy and an increased activity in Admiral. » 2 Henry IV. c. 11. ' R. P. iii 498 (4 Hy. IV. n. 47), the prayer is for the enforcement of remedies against the admirals and their deputies, " et auxi que les ditz Admiralles usent lour Leies tant soulement par la Ley de Oleron et anxiens Leyes de la Meer, et par la Leye d'Engleterre, et nemye par Custume, ne par nulle autre manere;" R. P. iii 642 (11 Hy. IV. n. 61), the prayer is that the justices of the peace may have power to enquire into the doings of the Adimrals and their agents.
 * The statute also (§ 4) recognises the disciplinary powers of the
 * Coke, 4th Instit. 137, 138; Select Pleas of the Admiralty ii xli.