Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/143

This page needs to be proofread.

which has certainly a better right to determine what shall be esteemed Law in Ireland than any of the inferior Courts) has positively declared, by the express Acts of the 19th of Edward II. and the 29th of Henry VI. before cited, that English Statutes shall not be of force in Ireland, unless allowed by the Irish Parliament! And agreeable to this is the Declaration of the Irish House of Commons in 1641, Article the first: That the Subjects of this his Majesty’s Kingdom of Ireland are a free people, and to be governed only according to the common Law of England, and Statutes made and established by Parliament in this Kingdome of Ireland, and according to the lawful Customes used in the same." p. 133.

Now, though the Conviction by these weighty Authorities will probably destroy the credit of Serjeant Mayart, as a writer,