Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/411

 11. REINSCH: COLONIAL COMMON LAW 397 statement and codification of the law that should prevail was held by the founders of Pennsylvania ; that they did not rely on an informal transfer of the applicable parts of the com- mon law; but that they, with great painstaking, stated in entirely original form the provisions considered necessary for colonial society. These laws contain many new and far-reaching reforms. Thus, in the laws agreed upon in England in 1682 there are the following provisions concerning procedure in the courts. Persons may appear in their own way and according to their own manner and personally plead their cause ; the complaint shall be filed in court fourteen days before trial; a copy of the complaint is to be delivered to the defendant at his dwell- ing house ; the complaint must be attested by the oath of the plaintiff ; ^ all pleadings and processes and reports in court shall be short and in English and in ordinary and plain character, that they may be understood and justice speedily administered.^ This provision antedates by almost two cen- turies the celebrated New York code-pleading reform, and this clause very clearly and simply states the object this reform sought to bring about. The period of prescription for the acquisition of title to land is fixed at seven years.^ The lands and goods of felons shall be liable to make satis- faction to the party wronged.* This is a return to an older idea of law, which at that time did not prevail in the English law ; for a felony only the king enforced a forfeiture, the injured party could not obtain any satisfaction. In the laws made at Philadelphia in 1683, there is contained a chapter enumerating the fundamental provisions which are to be changed only by the consent of six-sevenths of the council and assembly ; this early attempt to separate the funda- mental from the secondary provisions of the law is of great interest to students of American constitutional development. The subjects referred to as fundamental are the following: Liberty of conscience, naturalization, election of representa- tives, taxes, open courts and freedom of pleading, giving evi- dence, return of inquest and judgment by inquest (jury), » Ibid., Chap. 7. » Ibid., Chap. 16, * Ibid., Chap. 24.
 * The Duke of York's Laws, Laws of ] 682, Chap. 6.