much beholding to them whose best Title to and strongest Hold of his New-gotten Crowne was their Affection and Good-will towards him Therefore the Lords may very well owne the citing of that Record and not account it any Dishonour to them notwithstanding the gentle admonition given them to the contrary by the Writer of that Paper of Reasons And so I hope I have sufficiently evinced this truth that the sole Jâ—dicature of Parlament is lodged in the House of Peers and that all who come for relief to Parlament must have it there It now rests to shew that it extends to the Relieving of such as have suffered wrong in Courts of Equity and receiving of Appeales from those Courts We have already seen that in case of Delay of Justice the House of Lords doth give Relief and by the same reason they may do it in case of Deniall of Justice and of doing Injustice And in truth there is greater Reason for it for when Justice is but delayed a little waiting and patience may happily bring a Remedy but when an unjust Decree is given there is a Ne plus ultra in that Court no help is to be there expected and without such an Appeal the Party grieved must be without Remedy Then why not as well receive an Appeal from a Court of Equity and give Relief upon it if there be cause as to reverse an Erroneous Judgement upon a Writ of Error from a Court of Common Law as hath been said already there is more danger from a Court of Equity where ones Doome depends upon the will of one Man that is not tied to the strict Rule of Law than where there are four Judges who have that strict Rule to goe by And can it be believed that in a Government so well modelled and established by the Wisdom of our Ancestors as this is there should be a standing known Remedy appointed for the lesser evil which apparently will more rarely happen and none for the greater which probably may befall us much more frequently In the third place one may argue thus By the constitution of this Government generally from all Inferiour Courts where any Body is grieved he may appeale to a Superiour and so Gradatim till he come to the highest of all the Supreame Judicature in Parlament as 50. E. 3. n. 38. was said to the Bishop of Norwich that Errors in the Common Pleas were to be corrected in the Kings Bench and of the Kings Bench in the Parlament So from particular Courts that are in several Counties and from Judges of Assize yea from Ireland the Party grieved resorts to the Courts of Westminster and from them to the Parlament This is the ordinary Tract but where it is otherwise provided by Act of Parlament in special Cases to make some Judgements in some Judicatories finall Else the last resort where all appealing terminates is the supreame Court of Parlament whither they have still come from all the Courts in England sometimes Gradatim by steps going first to other Courts sometimes immediately Per saltum from the Court it self where the Judgement complained of was first given And so have they received Complaints and given Relief from Sentences in the Star-Chamber as in 1641. April 2. to Mr. Lambert Osbolston In the High Commission to Nicholas Bloxam 1640. Febr. 9. and to Sir Robert Howard December 22. the same Parlament and to Iohn Turner December 30. who had laine fourteen years in Prison by a Sentence of the High Commission So from an Order of the Counsel Table to William Waters and Thomas Waters Ianuary 25. who had been committed thence for refusing to pay Ship-Money and they made Dr. Clerk and Dr. Sibthorp reimburse their charges and pay them 100 l. damages for procuring them that trouble by a false Certificate The 9 th of February from a Sentence in the Ecclesiastical Court at Glocester by which Iohn Radway William Newark and Walter Coates had been committed to Prison and Excommunicated And February 23. The Lords gave Relief to Abraham Hill who had been committed to Prison by the Major of Colchester Multitudes of such Presidents may be produced who will take the pains to look over the Journals but these are sufficient to shew that upon complaint the House of Peers hath still given Redress to what ever hath been done amiss by any other Court Ecclesiastical or Civil Court of Law or Court of Equity and was never found fault with till now But now they must not meddle with Appeals from Decrees in Chancery and if a Member of the House of Commons be concerned it is then a Breach of their Priviledge and that House will punish any Counsel that shall appear at the Lords Barr to plead against a Member together with the Party himself that brings the Appeal and all others employed by him in the solliciting and following his business So then a Person that cannot obtaine Justice in Chancery who perhaps hath been brought thither against his will and is barred by an Injunction there from pursuing his Right in any other of the Kings Courts of Westminster and that wrongfully as Injunctions are some times laid on in Chancery There he cannot have Right but is opprest with an unjust Decree and he hath no Remedy but must lie under that Oppression and the Supreame Court of Judicature in the Kingdome which receives Complaints and gives Relief against the Erroneous Proceeding of all other Courts must be Impotent in this behalf This is not only a Derogation to the High Court of Parlament but it would be a great Defect in the general Administration of Justice in this Kingdome To this is answered Yes there is a Remedy proposed to prevent a Failer of Justice The King may grant a special Commission whensoever there is occasion to certain Persons to the Judges as it was 43. Eliz. to reheare the Cause and give relief to the Party grieved But it is replied First That it may be doubted if this can be done without an Act of Parliament Secondly Admit it may yet as the King may grant it so he may refuse it for there is no Law to make him do it Ex debito Iustitiae therefore if he doth it it will be but Ex gratia ex mero motu which doth not salve the Objection that there would be a defect in the established Rule for the Administration of Justice which ought to make the doeing of Justice a necessary Duty incumbent on the Magistrate be he Supreame or be he subordinate and not leave it voluntary to himself to be Ad libitum It cannot be believed that the Wisdome of our Ancestors would leave the Administration of Justice so loose and uncertaine We see how in the time of Henry the Eight when they annexed all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown they by Act of Parlament 25. H. 8. c. 19. gave the King power by Commission under the Great Seal to appoint such Persons as he shall Name to reheare any Cause
to the Jurisdiction of Parlament which one may boldly conclude both upon the general Reason of all Inferior Courts being subordinate to the Supreame Court and particularly from the Constitution of the Court of Chancery which in it's antient Legal capacity as it acts Secundum Legem consuctudinem Angliae is in such a subordination and A fortiore then ought it to be so acting in a capacity of a later Acquisition and in a more arbitrary and irregular way In latter times that is from 12. Iac. all the last Kings Reigne and so much as is past of the Kings Reigne that now is Presidents are frequent of Appeals in Parlament from Decrees in Chancery which yet is five and fifty yeares And it hath formerly been the Opinion of the House of Commons that moderne Presidents were best and strongly was it urged by them in the Case of the Earle of Clarendon to induce the Lords to commit him to Prison upon a general Impeachment of Treason without special Matter shewen from one single President of that being done in the Case of the late Earle of Strafford against multitudes of Presidents produced to the contrary But now they are of another Mind And because we find not in the antient Rolls of Parlament Presidents full in the Point of Appeals from unjust Decrees in Chancery they doe deny that the Parlament hath now such a Power of receiving Appeals To which it hath been already said That the antient Rolls since the time that the Chancery hath Acted as a Court of Equity in 17. R. 2. are many of them lost those that remaine are very general especially since Henry the sevenths time mentioning onely publick Bills scarce any thing of particular Businesses sometimes naming the Parties that had Sutes depending in the House of Peers but not expressing the Matter in difference that one cannot tell whether they were Appeals or Original Causes Let any body peruse the Journals of Parlament of H. 8. E. 6. Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth and he shall find it so But goe to the times before and you will see that the House of Peers did exercise their Jurisdiction over the Chancery as well as over all the other Courts of Westminster And this they have done in all times The Statute of 14. E. 3. shews they did it in case of delay of Justice And they have sometimes stopped a Proceeding in Chancery and ordered the Businesse to be proceeded in in another Court 3. R. 2. n. 22. Sir Philip Darey complained that the Prior of St. Iohn's of Hierusalem â—ued him in Chancery for two Mannors which he said that Edward the 3 d had granted to his Father and produced a Deed shewing that the Priors Predecessor had passed away the Fee of those Mannors to Edward the 2 d. The Lords order that Deed to be carried to the Barons of the Exchequer they to examine the King's Title and the Proceedings in Chancery to be stopped The same Parlament the Earle of Pembrook and William de Zouch complaine that Sir Robert Roes and Thomas his Son Sued them in Chancery for certain Lands in Yorke-shire that had been formerly belonging to William Cantloe pretending certaine Feoffments to have been made by Cantloe to their advantage and that they endeavoured likewise to get an Order for a Tryal in the Countrey where they were powerful The Lords take the Matter into their own hands and refer the Examination to three of the Judges Kneuet Cavendish and Belknap to examine and report who doe report those Feoffments to be otherwise then Sir Robert and his Son pretended The Chancellors have themselves sometimes Repaired to the Lords for direction in Businesses of Difficulty and of Consequence as 9. H. 5. The Abbot of Ramsey Sueing in Chancery for a Prohibition to stop Proceedings in the execution of a Sentence given in the Arches against his Tenants in a Case of Tythes the Bishop of Durham Lord Chancellor brought the business into the House of Peers to have their direction in it declaring all that had passed before him and Counsel then being heard on both sides the Duke of Bedford who was Guardian of the Realme in the absence of the King and the Lords asked the opinion of the Judges who were there present the Judges of ei Bench and the Chief Baron charging them to give Lour bon advis selone l'exigence de la ley pur de pluis seure exhibition de Iustice celle part to give their Advice what was required by Law for the more certain rendring of Justice in that particular which they did And after mature deliberation Sentu suit per le dit Gardein Seignors selone l'advis de le dits Iustices Baron c. It was resolved by the said Gaurdian and Lords according to the Advice of the Judges that no Prohibition should be granted We see by these antient Presidents the Power that the House of Peers did heretofore exercise over the Court of Chancery It is true that we have not such frequent Examples of it in those times as we have of latter dayes within some fifty or threescore years since the work of that Court hath swelled to that bigness as now it is which hath furnished much Matter for Appeals and was never questioned till now In so much as in the Year 1666 when the Case of Skinner the Merchant complaining of Wrongs done him by the East India-Company was before the Lords the House of Commons interposing and declaring against the Lords meddling with an Original Cause and denying them that Jurisdiction to which notwithstanding their Lordships had an undoubted Right and maintained it to the last both by Reason and Presidents yet the House of Commons in all those Debates and Conferences upon that Subject alwayes allowed them their Judicature in Appeals and Writs of Error which they said they did not at all question but now they are come to question Appeals one step further and upon the same Ground and with as much Reason they may take away Writs of Error next and so put an end to all Judicature in the Supreame Court of Judicature But I hope I have made it clear that both those parts of Judicature are and must be Essentiall parts of the Supreame Judicature and the Matters they concern to be wholly within the Cognisance of it That which I heare sticks with many is the present Constitution of the House of Peers Composed of so many young Lords who have not Experience in Business and may be thought to mind Modes and Fashions more then serious things And perhaps the Prospect of what is coming on may in their Opinion not give better hopes However Right is Right If it be a Right belonging to them till there be a Law to dispose of it otherwise it ought not upon any prudential Ground to be taken from them that were to set the House of Peers very loose for by the same reason one may as well take away all their other Rights and Priviledges
But let us take the House of Lords as it is though there be many young Men there are some more Elderly and it is they commonly that sit out hearing Causes and even amongst the young Lords there be some that apply themselves to Business In the general it may be said of that House that many among them are Persons of Honour and of Integrity that will not be Byassed and of experience to Understand and Judge aright of such Matters as are brought before them The great Officers of the Kingdome are part of that Body who in all reason should be knowing Men the Chancellor of England is alwayes their Speaker who is commonly a Person skilled in the Law and they have all the Judges of the Land to be their Assistants with whom they advice and by whose advice they are guided in difficult Points of Law as it is said in Flouredew's Case 1 H. 7. Ter. Pasc. f. 20. Senescallus cum Dominis Spiritualibus Temporalibus per Consilium Iusticiariorum procedent ad Errorem corrigendum by the Counsel and Advice of the Judges they shall correct the Errors viz. of the Judgement complained of So it is probable and there is Ground to hope and expect one may find Justice here as soon as â—n any other Judicatory Nay perhaps sooner here For when a Lord Chancellor or a Lord Keeper is concerned as he is in all Appeals from Decrees in Chancery which is the proper Question at this time before us a Commission to the Judges or to any other Sett of Men is not so likely to relieve a poor Man that is opprest by an unjust Decree whereby those Commissioners may incurre the displeasure of so great a Person by censuring and vacating his Act as the House of Peers who are not in that Awe of him and Subjection to him as all particular Persons are Which consideration alone hath heretofore been sufficient to justifie the Lords interposing even in the ordinary Judicature of the Kingdome in Causes between Party and Party And the Commons themselves did then so farr approve of this as they made it their desire to the King that it might be so So as it passed into a Law to be an Act of Parlament and a Statute according to the Formality of making Lawes in those times 1 R. 2. m. 11. They pray Que querele entre parties ne soit attemptez ne terminez deuaunt Srs. ne Officiers du Conseil mes que la commune ley courge sans estre tarie es lieux on ils soloient dancien temps estre terminez sil ne soit ticle querele encontre si grande personne que home ne suppose aillours dauoir droit The Answer is Le Roy le voet They pray That Sutes between Party and Party may not be retained and determined before the Lords nor before the Councel but that the Law may have its Course and no Obstruction of it bâ— there where such Businesses did antiently use to be determined except it be in such a Sute and against so great a Person as one cannot otherwise hope to have Justice and the King grants it And 1. H. 4. n. 160. this Statute is again Confirmed Now I know not what Sâ—â—â—e nor what Business can be fitter to be within this Exception then where a Lord Chancellor or a Lord Keeper is concerned for the maintenance of a Decree which himself hath made Besides we know what Influence that great Officer hath in all Commissions that Issue under the Great Seal for naming and appointing the Persons that shall be Commissionated by them And certainly one that complaines of Injustice done by so great a Person would not willingly that he should have hand in appointing the Persons that must Examine and Redress it So as all things considered I do not see where such a Power as this could better be lodged then in the House of Peers if it were not already there and that we were now to chuse where it should be placed Yet all Men are fallible and Parlaments may erre and do erre many times and therefore as commonly second Notions and second Thoughts are better and consequently second Judgements so there lies even an Appeale from the first Judgement in Parlament but it must be still to the Parlament as the Law Books say Error in Parliament convient estre reverse per Parlament that is in another Parlament or another Session not in the same All this tends to shew that not onely the Right of Appeales is in the House of Lords but that neither can it be better any where else Yet there is still one Point behind not yet treated of which must be cleared before I make an end and that is Whether the Lords may proceed upon an Appeale if a Member of the House of Commons be concerned And the same question then may be moved concerning Writs of Error for if the Priviledge of that House extends to the one it must extend to the other the same reason being for both as likewise for the Lords not medling with any Business wherein any of their House is concerned In the first place let us consider what the Usage hath been heretofore and what the Judicature of the House of Peers hath been and how exercised in relation to the House of Commons That heretofore in the Antient times even till Henry the 8 th when the House of Commons did need any thing either for repelling any Injury done to them and punishing those who had done it or for supplying them with any thing they wanted and desired for their advantage and well being they did then come and pray in the Aide of the Lords who did examine the particular Businesses and apply the necessary Remedies they being altogether unable to help themselves hath I think been sufficiently proved already in the former part of this Discourse The Question is now as that was when they complained and when it was at their desire so if when others complained of them and sought remedy against them the Lords had then power to receive the Complaint and relieve the Party grieved Which questionless they had Nor was it ever knowen that ever the House of Commons did before pretend to such a Priviledge as that their Members should be exempt from being put to answer in the House of Lords when any Sute was there commenced against them 16. R. 2. n. 6. Sir Philip Courtney being Knight for Devonshire presents himself to the House of Peers Disant coment il auoit entendâ—z que certeins gentz lui avoient accusez esclandrez au Roi as Seig rs c. Saying he heard he had been accused and slandered to the King and Lords of doeing great wrongs and prayed he might be discharged from serving in Parlament untill he was purged and cleared of them and the Record saith A cause que sa priere sembla au Roi as Seig rs honeste le Roi luy ottroya sa requeste lui en dischargea because
no sending of Counsell to the Tower for pleading for their Clients at the Lords Bar no stop of the Current of Justice It was then observed what the Wisdome of our Fore-Fathers had enjoyned Westminster the 2 d. Nemo recedat a Curia Regis sine remedio But if that should be allowed which is pretended and challenged by the House of Commons as their Priviledge if a Member of theirs be concerned though a Man have received never so hard measure though never so erroneous and unjust a Judgement have been given against him in any of the Courts of Westminster Hall for there is the same reason for both for Writs of Error from a Court of Law as from Appeals from a Court of Equity if Priviledge of the Commons House exempts from the one it must exempt from the other there is no help for him he must sit down and lay his hand upon his Mouth and not once whisper but must Recedere a Curia Regis and that the chief Court the supreame Court sine Remedio So here is an absolute failer of Justice which as Sir Edward Cook saith the Law abhors And as it seemes to me it is upon an irrational ground For here is Priviledge of Parlament against the Parlament it self which makes a Parlament Felo de se to give a Priviledge which enervates it's Power a Power which is proper and peculiar to Parlaments the Dernier Ressort by which it helps when no other Court can help This is taken away and cannot exert it self when a Member of the House of Commons is concerned Against the Rule of all Courts for in other Courts as Chancery Kings Bench Exchequer the Officers that belong to those Courts claime a Priviledge to be sued no where else but no Priviledge to free them that they shall not be sued in their own Courts Now the House of Peers is a Court of Judicature as it is a Part of the Parlament Pars constituens of a Parlament and the Members of the House of Commons have Priviledge as they are Members of Parlament and as their House is the other Pars constituens of a Parlament for both together are Partes constituentes Parliamentum and both make but one Parlament though they be two several constituting Parts And it is not rational to think that either of those Parts can be entituled to a Priviledge which shall abridge the other Part from doeing those Functions which are proper and natural to it As if the House of Peers should assume to themselves a Priviledge that the House of Commons could not without their leave and consent first had propose the Raising of Moneys by way of Tax or Subsidy This is against the nature and constitution of our Parlaments and therefore it cannot be imagined to be true that such a Priviledge can belong to the Lords by one that understands any thing of the Nature of Parlaments And truely it is even as great an Absurdity to say that the House of Commons hath a Priviledge to give a stopp to the Lords proceeding in the hearing of a Cause as a Court of Judicature if one of their Members is concerned in it For the hearing of Causes by way of Appeale or of Writ of Error is as proper and as natural to the House of Lords as a Bill of Subsidy to begin in the House of Commons is proper to that House But I have heard it said that this would be destructive to the House of Commons if the Lords could compell their Members to appeare at their Barr and attend their Causes there and if they would not appear commit them as is the use of other Courts For say they as they commit one they may commit more and even fetch them all out of the House to leave none or not a number to attend the Service there But first this is a mischief so unlike ever to happen that one need almost as little fear it as the Skie falling to kill all the Larks if it were so that they should take upon them to commit those that would not appeare and answer For it is not to be imagined that so many would be concerned in Appeals or Writs of Error at one time as that there would not be enough left to carry on the Business of the House since at most perhaps two or three in a whole Session may be concerned And if so small a number should for their particular occasions which they cannot avoid being sued by others be kept for some few dayes from attending the Publick Service the Matter seems not so great since all along this Parlament for twelve or thirteen years together this House hath had the goodness to dispense still with the attendance of at least two hundred of their Members who have remained at their several Homes for their pleasure many all for their private occasions without coming at all to beare their parts of the Houses Service This is more like to be an Inconvenience to that Service then if the Lords should commit two or three single Persons amongst them for not appearing upon Summons when they are sued before them But none of this need be feared For the House of Lords doth not pretend to a power of committing any Member of the House of Commons if they will not appear nor any Body else for not appearing or not answering being sued before them in a Civil Cause If they will not appeare by themselves or by their Atturney and put in their Answer being lawfully Summoned and having no lawful Excuse for not doeing what is required of them and what they ought to do but will stand out in contempt of their Jurisdiction they will proceede to hear the Cause Ex parte and determine it as they did in the Case of the Deane and Chapter of St. Cedde in Lichfield and the Prior of Newport-Pannel upon a Writt of Error 18. R. 2. n. 11 12. c. The Deane and Chapter had the Parlament before preferred a Petition An̄re S r. tres redoute le Roi a les nobles S rs de cest Parlement c. complaining of a Judgement in the Kings Bench by which an Annuity of 20 Mark per ann and an Arreare of an hundred which they had recovered in the Common Pleas was judged against them in the Kings Bench and had prayed a Scire facias for the Prior to appeare returnable this Parlament which was granted And the Prior now Solempniter vocatus non venit being solemnly called appeared not Whereupon the Record saith Decanus Capitulum petierunt Iudicium Parliamenti quod ob defaltam nunc Prioris procedatur ad examinationem Recordi Processus praedicti Brevis de Errore Quod in Parliamento concessum est The Dean and Chapter demand Judgement and that upon the Default of the Prior they will goe on to examine the Business which the Parlament granted They do so and then give Judgement for the Dean and Chapter And in truth there is all the
judged in Ecclesiastical Courts whereof any Person is grieved and will appeal and it cannot be denied him So in Queen Elizabeths time they provide for those who are grieved with Judgements given in the Kings Bench or Exchequer and because Parlaments were not so frequent as formerly that Men should not stay long for Relief 27 31. Eliz. they appoint a rehearing by all the Judges meeting in the Exchequer Chamber from whence they might afterwards have their Recourse to Parlament But still the Statute leaves it to their Election to sue in Parlament and not go to the Judges at all except they please Now can we imagine they would take no care to give relief from unjust Decrees in Chancery but that the Current of Justice must there be at a dead stand A Man perhaps be Ruined against all Law and Equity and no help for him no remedy for so it must have been if a Parlament could not relieve him For that way of having a Commission under the Broad Seale directed to the Judges was never thought on till about the 43. of the Queen in those few Cases nor hath it ever been Practised since that wee know so as wee may be bold to affirme that our Ancestors knowing the Parlament to be the Supreame Court to which all Persons aggrieved with the proceedings of Inferior Courts did apply themselves for Relief and there had it thought it not needful to make any other Provision for those who should receive wrong in Chancery where heretofore they did not often doe wrong because in those dayes they had little worke not meddling with many Causes and the Chancellors were commonly Church-Men Sir Edward Cook saith That the first Decree in Chancery that ever he observed was 17. R. 2. and that an Act of Parlament had passed that same Year which gave the first ground for those Proceedings giving the Chancellor power to award Dammages according to his discretion to such as were vexed in that Court upon untrue Suggestions such Suggestions being duely found and proved untrue Certain it is they were in those times very rare the same Sir Edward Cook saith That none are found reported in their Law-Books before the Reigne of Henry the 6 th And this is one Reason why we find no Appeales in the antient Journals Besides as we have said before that the Journals are many of them lost and those that remaine are very imperfect Yet some there are That very first Decree before mentioned of the 17. R 2. n. 10. came to be examined 〈◊〉 the House of Lords The Case was tâ—â—s Iohn de Windsor being put out of Fossession of three Mannors in Cambridgeshire by Sir Robert de Lisle they referr themselves to the Arbitration of the King and Privy Councel who find it reasonable that Sir Robert de Lisle should restore them to Windsor and a Decree is made in Chancery to put this in Execution Lisle then petitions that he may be left to the Common Law The King grants it sends a Privy Seal to the Bishop of Winchester who was then Lord Chancellor and not William Courtney Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as Sir Edward Cook hath it to remand the whole Matter to be tried at Law The Chancellor doth it by a Writ de Procedendo under the Broad Seale Sir Robert de Lisle in the Interim sells these Lands to Sir Richard le Scroope Iohn de Windsor sets forth all this in a Petition to the King and Lords in Parlament and accuses Sir Richard le Scroope of Champerty The Lords order all the Proceedings to be brought into the House what passed in Chancery and what at the Privy Seal All which was viewed and examined by them and upon the whole Matter they gave this Judgement Quod non fuit nec habebatur aliqua Cambipartia Quod predictus Johannes nihil capiat per Petitionem suam Quod prediâ—lus Ricardus eat inde quietus ac Quod predictus Johannes proâ—equatur ad Communem Legem in hac parte si sibi viderit expedire The Lords here doe examine and Judge of what was done in Chancery which shews their Jurisdiction to extend thither And even their taking notice of any delay there is Argument sufficient of this Jurisdiction which Jurisdiction the Statute 14. E. 3. c. 5. doth fully prove to have been in them before the making of that Statute for that Statute doth onely provide for the placing it in some Lords named by the House to be exercised by them after the Parlament is Risen until it meet again and for that Interval of time Which shews that during the Parlaments 〈◊〉 such an expedient needs not for the relief of those who are deâ—ayed in Chancery because then the House doth it by a Power inherent in them and which so hath been time out of mind For there is no Record when that Power began no more then for their Power of rectifying Erroneous Judgments at the Common Law So that if the Lords be asked when that Power was given them and where it is Recorded They may answer as the House of Commons answered them in another Case about Imposing upon Merchandize that it will be found on the back-side of the Record by which they are Authorised for Erroneous Judgements For in truth there is no more a Record for the one then for the other Both those Powers are naturally of the Essâ—nce of a Parlament not conferred upon it by any Law extant But as the Common Law of the Land it is by Prescription time out of mind which is the difference between the Common Law and Statute Law The Common Law is by anâ—ient Usage and Custome of which no Man knowes the beginning Statute Lawes have a knowen time of beginning when first they were made and established by King Lords and Commons in Parlament before which time they were not in being Now we may say that the Power to correct the Errors of Inferior Courts as well of Law as of Equity and so of the Chancery is lodged in Parlament as a part of their Judicature by the Common Law of the Land I say of the Chancery both as it is a Court of Equity and as it is a Court of Common Law For both those Courts are in Chancery that of Common Law Coram domino Rege in Cancellaria is of all Antiquity and upon a Judgment given in this Court lies a Writ of Error returnable in the Kings Bench and consequently from thence to Parlament that of Equity is not so antient it is a Power growen up by degrees Sir Edward Cook saith That some are of Opinion that a Statute made 36. E. 3. did first give the Chancellor this Authority which Opinion he confutes and refers it rather to another Statute of 17. R. 2. as hath been said before however it is certain that In principio non fuit sic in the beginning it was not so And when ever or how ever it began when once it was begun and had a being it became subordinate