Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/609

 18. BRYCE: THE EXTENSION OF LAW 595 scribed in the Roman Empire were largely due, to the exten- sion of the law of England to new subjects. They would apparently have come to pass in the same way and to the same extent had the English race remained coniSned to its own island. England has extended her law over two classes of terri- tories. The first includes those which have been peacefully settled by Englishmen — North America (except Lower Canada), Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Falkland Isles. All of these, except the United States, have remained politically connected with the British Crown. The second includes conquered territories. In some of these, such as Wales, Ireland, Gibraltar, the Canadian prov- inces of Ontario and Nova Scotia, and several of the West India Islands, English law has been established as the only system, applicable to all subjects.^ In others, such as Malta, Cyprus, Singapore, and India, English law is applied to Englishmen and native law to natives, the two systems being worked concurrently. Among these cases, that which pre- sents problems of most interest and difficulty is India. But before we consider India, a few words may be given to the , territories of the former class. They are now all of them, except the West Indies, Fiji and the Falkland Isles, self- governing, and therefore capable of altering their own law. This they do pretty freely. The United States have now forty-nine legislatures at work, viz. Congress, forty-five States, and three organized Territories. They have turned out an immense mass of law since their separation from England. But immense as It is, and bold as are some of the experiments which may be found in it, the law of the United States remains (except of course in Louisiana) substantially English law. An English barrister would find himself quite at home In any Federal or State Court, and would have noth- ing new to master, except a few technicalities of procedure toms disappeared in Wales; the Brehon law, though it was contained in manv written texts and was followed over the larger part of Ireland till the days of the Tudors, has left practically no trace in the existing law of Ireland, which is, except as respects land, some penal matters, and marriage, virtually identical with the law of England.
 * It has undergone little or no change in the process. The Celtic cus-