Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/414

 400 ///. THE COLONIAL PERIOD The early law of Pennsylvania is very original and contains the germs of many developments that specially characterize American jurisprudence. There was, in this colony, from the first a desire for settled legal relations, which finds expression in a discussion in the colonial council in 1689. When it was there proposed that in doubtful cases the magistrates might apply the colonial laws or the common law at their discretion, this was held too uncertain, and the sole validity of the laws of Penn was upheld. ^ On the question of substituting affir- mation for oath, numerous English law precedents were, however, cited by the assembly to the governor. ^ The law of manslaughter is left to be determined by the law of England, in 1705.3 Maryland By the charter of Maryland, full powers of government were given to the proprietor. He might establish laws, and was not required to submit them for the approval of the Crown. He could establish courts, and process ran in his own name, and he was empowered to grant titles of nobility. He stood in the position of a count palatine.^ In 1635, the first legislative assembly met, passing a body of laws which was rejected by the proprietor. In 1637, the proprietor and the assembly mutually rejected laws proposed by each other. Thi^p caused a serious dead-lock, and it seemed impossible to create a code of laws such as had been found necessary in all the other colonies. The colonists, accordingly, in the absence of a code of positive laws claimed that they were governed by the common law of England, so far as applicable to their situation. The proprietor opposed this claim on account of the interference with his rights, and the controversy thus arising was not finally settled until 1732. ^ The rule of judicature was first fixed by the laws of 1642, in which it was ordered that civil causes should be tried according to the law and usage of the province, having regard » Ibid., II, 627. « Ibid., 210. Papers, 1850.
 * Pennsylvania Colonial Records, I, 291.
 * Brown, Civil Liberty in Maryland, Maryland Historical Society
 * McMahon's History of Maryland, Chap. III.