Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/56

44 as a part of the aula regia, though regulated and reduced to it's preent order by king Edward I ; and intended principally to order the revenues of the crown, and to recover the king's debts and duties. It is called the exchequer, caccharium, from the checqued cloth, reembling a ches-board, which covers the table there; and on which, when certain of the king's accounts are made up, the ums are marked and cored with counters. It conits of two diviions: the receipt of the exchequer, which manages the royal revenue, and with which thee commentaries have no concern; and the court or judicial part of it, which is again ub-divided into a court of equity, and a court of common law.

court of equity is held in the exchequer chamber before the lord treaurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, the chief baron, and three puine ones. Thee Mr Selden conjectures to have antiently been made out of uch as were barons of the kingdom, or parliamentary barons; and thence to have derived their name: which conjecture receives great trength from Bracton's explanation of magna charta, c. 14. which directs that the earls and barons be amerced by their peers; that is, ays he, by the barons of the exchequer. The primary and original buines of thi court is to call the king's debtors to account by bill filed by the attorney general; and to recover any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, any goods, chattels, or other profits or benefits, belonging to the crown. So that by their original contitution the juridiction of the courts of common pleas, king's bench, and exchequer, was entirely eparate and ditinct; the common pleas being intended to decide all controversies between ubject and ubject; the king's bench to correct all crimes and midemefnors that amount to a breach of the peace, the king being then plaintiff, as uch offences are in open derogation of the jura regalia of his crown; and the exchequer to adjut and recover his revenue, wherein the king alo is plaintiff, as the withholding and

c Madox. Hit. Exch. 109. d Spelm. ''Guil. I. in ced. leg. vet. apud'' Wilkins e 4 Int. 103—116 f Tit. hon. 2. 5. 16. g l. 3. tr. 2. c. 1. §. 3. Rh