From these Considerations therefore, upon mature Deliberation, it has been deemed advisable that this Collection should include all such Instruments as have been inserted in any general Collection of Statutes printed previously to the Edition by Hawkins; with the Addition, only of such Matters of a public Nature, purporting to be Statutes, as were first introduced by him or subsequent Editors, and of such other New Matters of the like Nature, as could be taken from Sources of Authority not to be controverted; namely, Statute Rolls, Inrollments of Acts, Exemplifications, Transcripts by Writ, and Original Acts.
In the 31st Year of Henry VIII. the Distinction between Public Acts and Private Acts is for the first Time specifically stated on the Inrollment in Chancery.[1] No Private Acts passed after that Date have been admitted into this Collection: It has been thought sufficient to notice them, by the Insertion of their Titles only.
Sect. II.
Of the Sources from whence the several Matters have been taken.
I. The Sources from which the Materials have been taken for this Collection, are necessarily of a different Character and Description in different Periods of our History.
The earliest Statutes contained in the several Collections are those of Henry III; but no Parliamentary Record of Statutes is now known to be extant, prior to the Statute Roll 6 Edw. I. To this interval nevertheless belong the Statutes of Merton, Marlborough, Westminster the First, and several others, always included in the Printed Editions. For this early Period, therefore, Recourse must be had to inferior Sources for the Text of our Statute Law: And even in subsequent Times, there is not only an Interruption in the Series of Statute Rolls, namely, after 8 Hen. VI, until 23 Hen. VI, inclusive, during which the like Recourse must be had to Sources of an inferior Degree of Authority; but the Statute Rolls themselves do not, within their own Period, contain all the Instruments which have been acknowledged as Statutes. After 8 Edw. IV. the Statute Roll is not preserved; after 4 Henry VII. it ceased to be made up; and ultimately it was succeeded, for practical Purposes, by the Inrollment in Chancery;[2] though during a short Period the Statute Roll and the Inrollment appear to have been contemporary.
The Materials for the several Periods during which no Statute Rolls or Parliamentary Records exist, can only be collected from Records, on which Copies or Extracts of Statutes have been entered; or from other Manuscripts not of Record; or, in Default of other Authority, from the oldest Printed Editions in which such Matters were first inserted. With respect to Entries of Record, in these Periods, That has been judged to be the most authentic Evidence of a Statute, which has been preserved as a Record or authentic Copy from antient Times, in the Custody of the highest Courts authorized for that Purpose. Such are Copies or Extracts of particular Statutes found in the Close, Patent, Fine, and Charter Rolls, being Records of Chancery. Such also are the Red Books of the Exchequer of Westminster, and Dublin. On Failure of these Records, Recourse has, of Necessity, been had to Manuscripts not of Record, preserved in the Custody of Courts of Justice, Public Libraries, or other Public Repositories. Such are some antient Books of Statutes in the Exchequer at Westminster, in the Town Clerk’s Office, London, in the several Cathedrals, in the Public and other Libraries of the several Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, and in the British Museum: When all these Sources have proved deficient, and in such Case only, a Copy has been admitted, from the oldest Printed Edition, with Various Readings from subsequent Printed Editions.
- ↑ See Appendix E. subjoined to this Introduction.
- ↑ See post page xxxv. as to Inrollments in Chancery.
Statutes were repealed by it; and that Words of Enactment for Statute are expressly used therein. See Rot. Parl. 37 Edw. III. Part 1. nu. 38, 39: 38 Edw. III. nu.11: 1 Ric. II. nu. 15: Rot. Stat. 37 Edw. III. m. 5, 6: 38 Edw. III. m. 6 d: Chapters 16 and 19 of the Statute 37 Edw. III; and Chapter 2 of Stat. 38 Edw. III. Stat. 1. as printed in pages 378, 382, 383, of the Statutes in this Volume: and further, Rot. Parl. 38 Edw. III. nu. 9, and the Ordinances there recited, which were entered on the Statute Roll, and are printed as a Statute of that Year in all Editions, and in page 385 of this Volume. See also Prynne’s Irenarchus Redivivus, p. 27, &c. in which, contrary to Lord Coke’s Authority, 4 Inst. 25, he lays it down that Ordinances and Acts of Parliament were one and the same.
In Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion sub. an. 1641-2, Vol. I. Part. II. page 431. (8° Edit. Oxford 1707.) it is stated that “An Ordinance for settling the Militia was agreed on by both Houses, and sent to the King for his Approbation.”—The Form of the Ordinance follows: It is entitled, “An Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament for the ordering of the Militia,” &c.—After a short Preamble the formal Words are, “It is ordained by the King the Lords and Commons now in Parliament assembled, That,” &c.—In the first answer which the King sent, he said “that to avoid all future doubts and questions, he desired it might be digested into an Act of Parliament rather than an Ordinance; so that all his Subjects might thereby particularly know, both what they were to do and what they were to suffer for their neglect.” pa. 437, 8.—Afterwards the King in answer to a Petition presented by the Commons says, “For the Militia - - - - we never denied the thing - - - we only denied the way. You ask it by way of Ordinance - - - we tell you we would have the thing done - - - but desire a Bill, the only good old way of imposing on our Subjects. We are extremely unsatisfied what an Ordinance is, but well satisfied that without our Consent it is nothing nor binding.” pa. 70.—A Bill was afterwards prepared by the King’s Order, and submitted to both Houses, who made several Alterations in it.—In the King’s Message, refusing the Royal Assent to the Bill so altered, his Majesty told them “he was pleased they had declined the unwarrantable course of their Ordinance, to the which he was confident his good Subjects would never have yielded their Consent, and chosen that only right way of imposing upon the People.” pa. 503. In the King’s Declaration in answer to that made by the two Houses, whereby they assumed the Power of the Militia, “He said it was true that he had, out of tenderness of the Constitution of the Kingdom, and care of the Law, which he was bound to defend, and being most assured of the unjustifiableness of the pretended Ordinance, invited and desired both Houses of Parliament to settle whatsoever should be fit of that Nature by Act of Parliament.” pa. 524.
