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REVIEW OF THE LAWS, &c.

CHAP I.

Curfory Obfervations upon the Laws of the United States in general, and particularly thofe affecting Foreign and British Debts, &c. &c.

TH

HE Fundamental Laws of the United Laws of the United States. States are, as nearly as poffible, analogous to thofe of Great-Britain, which are ¡nterwoven into the very texture of their conftitution. The common law, together with the antient ftatutes of England were all either carried by the English Settlers into the American Colonies as their birth-right, or afterwards adopted by usage or positive acts of their respective Legiflatures. This will appear from a reference to their feveral Conftitutions formed at the great epoch of American independence.

NEW

New-Hampfhire and Maffachusetts*.

Rhode-Ifland

& Connecticut.

New-York.

New-Jersey.

Pennsylvania,

Delaware.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE and MASSACHU SETTS in forming their governments exprefsly provided, "That all laws thereto fore ufed fhould remain in force till altered."

RHODE-ISLAND and CONNECTICUT retained their antient forms and laws.

NEW-YORK declared that fuch parts the common and ftatute law of England, and acts of affembly as formed the law of the Province on the 9th April, 1775, should continue the law of the Commonwealth.

NEW-JERSEY followed implicitly the example of New-York.

PENNSYLVANIA made the declaration of rights part of their fundamental conftitution.

The DELAWARE State referved expressly the common and ftatute law, as they had been formerly adopted and practifed.

* Hutchinson, in his Hiftory of Massachusetts, has given a particular account of the laws of the New-England States.

See an account of the laws of Connecticut in Peters's history, pages, 63, 82, 282, 298, 299.

MARY

MARYLAND declared that her citizens Maryland, were entitled to the common and ftatute law of England, which had been used and approved in the province.

In VIRGINIA the general web of their in- Virginia. dependence has been woven of the warp of the common law and the woof of antient ftatutes.

NORTH-CAROLINA enacted that the com- N. Carolina.

mon and ftatute law theretofore used fhould

continue in force.

SOUTH-CAROLINA

declared by her s. Carolina.

original affociation, that all laws then prac

tifed fhould remain till repealed.

GEORGIA adopted into her fundamental Georgia. conftitution nothing more than the Habeas Corpus Act, but their great law expofitor (Walton) afferted from the bench, That the law of England was STUDDED into the Georgia Syftem*. In fact they have been ftudded into all the American fyftems. The American youth still continue to read English law books, and the practitioners to quote them under the sanction of their judges

See Georgia Gazette, 13th May, 1784, and Chalmers's opinions page 156. and Pownal's adminiftration of the Colonics, vol.

.P. 46.

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