that theſe petty tribunals have fallen into decay, and almoſt into oblivion: whether for the better or the worſe, may be matter of ſome ſpeculation; when we confider on the one hand the encreaſe of expenſe and delay, and on the other the more upright and impartial deciſion, that follow from this change of juriſdiction.
The order I ſhall obſerve in diſcourſing on theſe ſeveral courts, conſtituted for the redreſs of civil injuries, (for with thoſe of a juriſdiction merely criminal I mall not at preſent concern myſelf) will be by beginning with the loweſt, and thoſe whoſe juriſdiction, though public and generally diſperſed throughout the kingdom, is yet, (with regard to each particular court) confined to very narrow limits; and ſo aſcending gradually to thoſe of the moſt extenſive and tranſcendent power.
I. The loweſt, and at the ſame time the moſt expeditious, court of juſtice known to the law of England is the court of piepoudre, curia pedis pulverizati: ſo called from the duſty feet of the ſuitors; or according to ſir Edward Coke[1], becauſe juvtice is there done as ſpeedily as duſt can fall from the foot. Upon the ſame principle that juſtice among the Jews was adminiſtred in the gate of the city[2], that the proceedings might be the more ſpeedy, as well as public. But the etymology given us by a learned modern writer[3] is much more ingenious and ſatisfactory; it being derived, according to him, from pied puldreaux a pedlar, in old french, and therefore ſignifying the court of ſuch petty chapmen as reſort to fairs or markets. It is a court of record, incident to every fair and market; of which the ſteward of him, who owns or has the toll of the market, is the judge. It was inſtituted to adminiſter juſtice for all injuries done in that very fair or market, and not in any preceding one. So that the injury muſt be done, complained of, heard, and determined, within the compaſs of one and the ſame day. The court hath
d 4 Inſt. 272, e Ruth. c. 4. f Barrington's obſervat. on the flat. 337.
