was to descend to females, "although this be contrary to the custom of Wales."
The Statute of Wales closed the purely Welsh period, and heralded the introduction of English institutions into the Principality. Although the new political organization came into effect at once, the new legal provisions of the Statute of Wales took a considerable time in ousting and superseding the ancient Welsh laws.
In the Peniarth MSS. there is a copy of the Statute in Welsh, from which it appears that Edward ordered that two copies in Latin and one copy in Welsh should be kept in every commote for reference.
It will be seen that this Statute, based upon an extensive inquiry into Welsh laws and customs, laid down definite, well-considered, and effective procedure. It is striking evidence of a desire to adapt the procedure of the English legal system—modified by pre-existing national customs—to the wants of the Welsh people as understood by Edward and his advisers. The minute directions given in this enactment for the holding of the county courts, are the best evidence of the powers of the English shire moots existing at the end of the thirteenth century,[1] and they show clearly the defining and organizing process which was so remarkably developed by lawyers who advised Edward the First in the government of England. "The England that saw the birth of English law, the England of Magna Charta, and the first parliaments, was a much governed and little England."[2] A great part of the statute was highly technical, but the main purport of it shows the King's attempt to introduce into Wales a system that would, and did in fact, only require expansion to bring it into harmony with the necessities of a separate nationality. For more than two centuries after this Statute came into force the Principality of Wales remained isolated from the operation of general
