The Supreme Court of New Jersey. whom all processes issuing out of the County Courts were to be directed. The Court of Assize, the Supreme Court of the colony, now became the Court of Common Right. This new name is first mentioned in the in structions from Robert Barclay and the other proprietors to Gawen Laurie, the DeputyGovernor. This Court of Common Rightwas presided over by " twelve members, or six at least; " and instead of one yearly session, it was to hold four sessions a year at Elizabeth Town. Subsequently, after a severe struggle, in 1686, it was directed that it should be held at Perth Amboy. To this simple system, thus established more than two hundred years ago, may be traced the present jurisprudence of New Jersey. Justices' courts still exist with lim ited jurisdiction, — the justices now, as then, elected by the people, — before whom could be tried the smallest, most trivial of causes, meeting the wants of the common people; County Courts, now the Circuit and Com mon Pleas, with jurisdiction over all disputes arising between citizen and citizen; then the Supreme Court, with original and appellate jurisdiction; then the Governor and Coun cil, who formed simply an appellate tribunal. Until the new Constitution, established in 1844, the Council chosen by the people was the Court of Appeal in the last resort, where the Governor, if he chose, might preside, but which generally had for its presiding officer a President elected by the members. There was a remarkable fact connected with the legislation respecting these early courts. In the law constituting them there was no provision for their guidance; no rules by which they were to be governed; no mode established by which their judgments were to be enforced; there was no Practice Act, nor anything like it. The statutes con stituting them were the simplest possible; the tribunals were created, their titles given, and the times and places when and where they were to meet; and that was all. An officer, called the High Sheriff, was to he elected in every county; but the act pro
359
viding for his appointment failed utterly to state what were his duties, or to make any provision concerning him other than his mere title. The following is the act passed in 1682 : " An Act to appoint Sheriffs. For asmuch as there is a necessity of a High Sheriff in every County in this Province, Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council, and Deputies in General assembly met and assembled, that there be yearly a Sheriff constituted and commissionated for each County, and that each Sheriff may ap point his under Sheriff or Deputy." Grand juries were directed to appear at the County Courts; but what made them eli gible, of whom they should be composed, by whom they should be summoned, and what were to be their duties, was not stated. This all seems inexplicable, and it appears most difficult to understand the apparent in consistency or to solve the mystery. These laws can only be explained or interpreted in one way. The early settlers in East Jersey were mostly Englishmen, and as such were thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the common law as it existed in the mother country, where courts of similar name and like character were to be found. These courts in England were governed by the rules of that universal law so dear to every Englishman's heart. The English colonists had drunk deep and long draughts from the fountain of liberty, which, strange to say, had been opened in the time of Charles II., when Selden and Eliot, Pym and Hampden, had taught a wicked and sensual king that his subjects had rights which he must re spect, and when Sir Matthew Hale was Chief-Justice and Lord Nottingham was Lord Chancellor. These colonists had fled from their old home beyond the sea to es cape religious persecution; but they brought to their new home those unquenched and unquenchable aspirations for civil as well as religious liberty which impelled them ever to provide for absolute freedom from oppres sion and for the preservation of their politi cal rights. They were stern and unyielding
