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titution to extend the appellate power to the State courts. This was made a ground of attack by its enemies.

"It is an historical fact, that the Supreme Court of the United States have, from time to time, sustained this appellate jurisdiction in a great variety of cases, brought from the tribunals of the most important States in the Union."

The power of the National courts to entertain appeals from the State courts is necessary to uniformity of decisions upon all subjects in any way connected with the Constitution and laws of the United States. Different decisions might be made in different States, and if there were no revising authority to control and "harmonize them into uniformity, the laws, treaties, and the Constitution of the United States would be different in different States, and might, perhaps, never have precisely the same construction, obligation, or efficiency in any two States."

The judiciary department of our government has commanded the respect and veneration of the country. John Jay was the first chief justice. Washington offered him his choice of places when organizing the government, but intimated his belief that the judiciary was his proper place.

When he resigned in order to become Governor of New York, Oliver Ellsworth was appointed chief justice, and on his resigning in consequence of having

been appointed Minister to France, John Marshall of Virginia was appointed. He discharged the duties of the office for thirty-five years. He ranked among the ablest jurists of his time.

The superior courts of England are the court of chancery, and the three common law courts of king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer. They are all held at Westminster, and are often termed the Courts at Westminster.

The court of chancery is the highest court in the kingdom, and is both a court of equity and of common law. The equitable jurisdiction embraces the principal and most important business of the court.

"There are in fact five superior courts of chancery in England, viz.: the High Court of Chancery, presided over by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, to whom an appeal lies from the others; the Court of the Master of the Rolls, who is assistant to the Lord Chancellor, when present, and his deputy when absent; and the Court of the Vice-Chancellor of England. Two additional vice-chancellors have been recently appointed with powers precisely similar to those of the vice-chancellor of England." *

The king's bench is the highest court of common law in England. It consists of a chief justice and four associate or puisné justices, as they are termed. takes cognisance both of criminal and civil causes; the

It

* Burrill.

former in what is called the crown side or crown office, the latter in the plea side of the court. Anciently its jurisdiction was confined to criminal matters and pleas of the crown, and to civil actions of trespass, but it gradually usurped a jurisdiction over all actions between subject and subject, except real actions, in which it is now confirmed."

Real actions are actions brought for the recovery of real property, such as houses and lands.

The court of common pleas consists of a chief justice and four other judges. This court has al ways exercised an exclusive jurisdiction over real

actions.

The court of exchequer is inferior in rank to both the king's bench and the com.non pleas. Its judges are termed barons. It consists of a chief baron and four associate barons. It was originally intended principally to order the revenues of the crown, and to recover debts due the king, but it has long possessed the character of an ordinary court of justice between subject and subject. In fact nearly all cases between plaintiff and defendant may be indiscriminately tried in each of the three courts.

From the court of chancery, and from the courts at Westminster, an appeal lies to the House of Lords. The House of Lords is thus the highest judicial tri bunal in Great Britain.

The lords, when holding a judicial session, request the attendance and advice of the judges of the supe

rior courts, and the decisions are commonly made in accordance with their advice and that of the members learned in the law.

CHAPTER XVII.

TREASON-CITIZENSHIP-ADMISSION

MENTS.

OF NEW STATES-AMEND

ART. 3, § 3. “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."

Treason is regarded as the highest crime that can be committed against civil society. In past ages the term was a very indefinite one. Men have been convicted and punished for treason for a great variety of acts. Tyrannical governments have often disposed of obnoxious persons, by finding them guilty of treason. This occurred so frequently even in England, that in the reign of Edward III. Parliament interfered by declaring and defining the different branches of trea son. This clause of the Constitution is taken from said act of parliament. It secures every one against

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