Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/636

 The Duchy of Cornwall. such a pitch did the excitement rise that two dogs were accused of witchcraft, tried and put to death. Increase Mather had at last to admit that it was possible for the devil to impose on the imaginations of persons bewitched and to cause them to believe that an innocent, yea, that a pious person does torment them, when the devil himself does it, and that Satan may appear in the shape of an innocent and pious as well as of a nocent and wicked person to afflict such as suffer from diabolical molesta tions.

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We must not be too surprised at the New Englanders solemnly trying and executing dogs in 1692, for from the twelfth to the end of the seventeenth century many were the dogs, hogs, sows, horses, cows, bulls, rats and ponies that were accused, tried and con demned and publicly executed in France, Italy and Spain for crimes and misde meanors. Many of these animals were ac cused of murder. In England, as late as 1771, near Chichester, a dog was tried by four justices of the peace—what for and with what result, I wish I knew.

THE DUCHY OF CORNWALL. IN our legal annals Princes of Wales have often figured as litigants, by reason of their possession of the Duchy of Cornwall, with its valuable mineral and other rights; and the Prince of Wales may sue or be sued in the name of his Attorney-General for matters relating to the duchy. It is not, however, every Prince of Wales who is Duke of Cornwall. The devolution of the dukedom is both curious and unique. It was created in 133/ by a charter of Edward III, in favor of the Black Prince and his heirs, being eldest sons (Jiliis primogcnitis) of the Kings of England. This charter was soon after the accession of James I, declared in the Prince's Case (8 Co. I ) to have the force of an Act of Parliament. There is also a statement in the report of that case that only a first-born son of the Sovereign can become Duke of Cornwall, but that, said Lord Hardwicke (i Ves. sen. 294), was only an observation of Coke's; and a few years afterwards, on the death of James' eldest son, Henry, it was solemnly deter mined that the dukedom passed to his

brother Charles. Thus, whenever there is an heir-apparent who is a son of the Sover eign, the dukedom vests in him. At other times the dukedom is merged in the Crown, even though there be an heir-apparent, grandson of the Sovereign. For instance, George III, though heir-apparent after his father's death, was not Duke of Cornwall. Richard II was, indeed, Duke of Cornwall after the death of the Black Prince, but, as Hale points out (" Pleas of the Crown," vols, i, p. 126), only under a special grant. There is, according to Christian, one of the most learned editors of " Blackstone," au thority in the records of Parliament for the curious proposition that the Duke of Corn wall is born of full age, or is subject to no minority in respect of the possessions of the dukedom. Care was taken after the birth of the present King that the question should not arise, for an Act of 1842 ( 5 & 6 Viet. c. 2) provided, amongst other things, that during his minority his rights in respect of the duchy should be exercised by the late Queen. — The Law Journal.