Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/470

 456 ///. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 384 laws ^ gives us approximately the same result. The laws recommended for repeal were too strict, severe or un- reasonable, incomplete or not severe enough, inexact, giving too much power to certain bodies, etc. In only one instance is a law declared contrary to the law of England, and then it is the legal principle implied in a part of the law that a man can be convicted on a general presentment which is declared repugnant. It is true that in a number of cases he recommends the repeal of a law which is different from the law of England, but it is not on the ground of its differ- ence that the recommendation is made; it is because the law is unsatisfactory from a legal standpoint and would not be a good law in any civilized community. In nine cases, how- ever, he considers the colony's convenience, and recommends the acceptance of the law, even though it would not have been proper for England or was not so good as the corresponding law in England. In these instances he recognizes the prin- ciple that the colony was generally the best judge of its own law, and practically concedes two of the points for which the colony contended, the principle of equity and that of custom. Fane's comments are uniformly fair and reasonable, and con- tain not a trace of animus toward the colonies.^ The circumstances and discussions thus far outlined are necessary to an understanding of the influences that acted upon the Board when it came to draw up its representation to the committee of the Council upon the petition of Belcher There are in the list 387 Acts and 3 Resolutions. Of the Acts 312 are good, proper, well contrived for the purpose intended, reasonable, con- taining nothing amiss, fit to be confirmed, open to no objection or agree- able to the conveniences of the colony, and 75 are open to objection and should be repealed. Of the latter 28 are too severe or unreasonable, 2 are not severe enough, 9 are too loose, inexact, or uncertain, 6 give too much power to the selectmen, the county court or the court of assist- ants, 3 omit certain necessary definitions or limitations of the corre- sponding English law, 7 are difl^erent from the law of England and for the object intended inferior to the English law, 2 are incomplete in themselves, 9 concern Bills of Credit, 3 the intestate law, 5 are good in part and 1 has been repealed. It would be worth while as a commen- tary upon Gershom Bulkeley's " Will and Doom " to compare his parti- san arraignment of the Connecticut laws with the judicial criticisms of Francis Fane. •"Francis Fane on the Connecticut Laws." B. T, Papers, Proprie- ti4$, V. 19-27.
 * The following is an analysis of the report: