Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/62

50 the original plan of partition. For though equity is mentioned by Bracton as a thing contracted to ftrict law, yet neither in that writer, nor in Glanvil or Fleta, nor yet in Britten (compo- fed under the aufpices and in the name of Edward I, and treat- ing particularly of courts and their feveral jurifdidtions) is there a fyllable to be found relating to the equitable jurifdiction of the court of chancery. It feems therefore probable, that when the courts of law, .proceeding merely upon the ground of the king's original writs and confining themfelves ftrictly to that bottom, gave a harm or imperfect judgment, the application for redrefs ufed to be to the king in perfon affifled by his privy council, (from whence alib aroie the jurifdiction of the court of requefls, which was virtually abolillied by the ftatute 16 Car. I. c. 10.) and they were wont to refer the matter either to the chancellor and a felect committee, or by degrees to the chancellor only, who mitigated the feverity or fupplied the defects of the judgments pronounced in the courts of law, upon weighing the circum- ftances of the cafe. This was the cuftom not only among our Saxon anceftors, before the inftitution of the aula regia, but alfo after it's diflblution, in the reign of king Edward I, if not that of Henry II.

thee early times the chief juridical employment of the chancellor mut have been in deviing new writs, directed to the courts of common law, to give remedy in caes where none was before adminitered. And to quicken the diligence of the clerks in the

' /. 2. f. 7. fol. 23. ' Nemo ad regein af pellet pro aliqua lite, nijl immediately before it's diflblution, were rum Jit, nllwiatio deinde quaeratur apud regem. 1 almoft all fuits, that by colour of equity, LL. Edg. c. 2. ' or fupplication made to the prince, might f Lambard. Arcbeion. 59. 'be brought before him: but originally E Joannes Sarifburienfis (who died A. D. ' and properly all poor men's fuits, which 1182, 26 Hen. II.) fpeaking of the chan- ' were made to his majefty by fupplication ; celloi 's office in the verfes prefixed to his ' and upon which they were intitled to have polycraticon, has thefe lines ; ' right without payment of any money for jj ic ^ qlli i eges regni caace // af i n ; qun! , ' the fame." (Smith's commonwealth, b-3-, ma ,,j ata pii princifis acqua facit. -) Rh
 * The matters cognizable in this court, jus iioii confequi non pojjit . Si jus nimis fe-vi-