Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/78

lxxiv upon him may be mentioned the collection of money for the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral; the supervision of certain royal forests, the removal of weirs and stakings in the Severn, and the arrangements for an Eisteddfod. Just as the Privy Council deliberated on all affairs of State, so in his narrower sphere the Lord President of was responsible for the good administration of the counties within his jurisdiction. Perhaps his position cannot better be summed up than in a letter to the Earl of Bridgewater from the Vice-Admiral of. "Nothing within this yr jurisdiction of can be strange to your Lordship, for that your Lordship is the true Center wher all other lines meete, and what is within the knowledge of any man of qualitie and understanding will be sure to finde a way under you."

In their decline, as during the period of their activity, the Court of Star Chamber and the Council of the Marches were closely linked. Much of the unpopularity of the latter body arose from its resemblance to the Star Chamber which in the England of the seventeenth century was a hated instrument of the royal prerogative. In the many articles of complaint against the Court of the Marches its resemblance to the Star Chamber is nearly always mentioned, and it is not surprising that both Courts were overthrown together.

The Council of the Marches also supervised the working of the Courts of Great Sessions. Thus in 1573 they were ordered by the Privy Council to see that there were two justices attending in person on each circuit at the Great Sessions to try the criminal cases before civil causes were disposed of.

The best description of the working of the Great Sessions and their relations to the Council of the Marches in the sixteenth century is given in George Owen's Dialogue on the Government of. He points out the inconvenience of holding the Great Sessions in Lent when oats are being