- 7 < THE HI-STORY Book I.
like the third among both, the public judicature of the crown. The difputes betwixt the members of the different trevs being referred to the court of the commot, and betwixt the members of the different commots to the court of the cantred, the differ- ences betwixt the inhabitants of the different cantreds were car- ried to a moot which was fuperior to all and was therefore de- nominated the principal court *'. In this the fupreme judicature of the kingdom were determined all the various fuits that re- fpe&ed the fees of the royal feudatories, and foch other caufes as were too dubious to be decided in the inferior courts ". The king prefided in perfon or by deputy, the one judge of the principal court ; and the feudatories, of the kingdom were aflek ibre/with him * But befides thefe there were other affeflbrs, gtye regular and official judges of the kingdom, and by the no- mination of the king the prefidents in the courts* of a commot or a cantred **. Thefe were denominated Brehons in Ireland and in Caledonia, and were inverted with feuds that defcended with their offices to their fons * This is a branch of polity, which has been univerfally fuppofed to be merely Celtic, the refult of the Celtic genius untutored in judicial Speculations, and vainly imagining the knowledge of the law to be as inherit* able as the office and the feud But this was certainly founded upon as fenfible principles as the baronial judicatures, of the feu* dal nations, and was actually exemplified in the hereditary earl* doms of the Normans. And this was certainly an impsovemeot upon the common judicial principles of feuds, the brehoa being of courfe not charged for his fee to any of the military fervices, and being therefore at liberty to fix his whole attention and the attention of his fon upon the ftudy of the law. The fame ftrain ©f polity, however it has beea utterly unnoticed by the critics^ is difcovered equally in the judicial fyftem of thefe later agqs. ki a record of the 1.3th of John, the two lords, of Whithington . ucar Manchester are exprefsly declared to *■*. hold one knight's a fee under the baron of Manchefter in antient manner, . aiid •V fiuding one judge for the lord the Hing 2 V And in a word
