The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-03 00:00:00

COUNTIES PALATINE.

The civil division of the
,Kingdoni of England, for
the better adininistra'tLiOn of justice, has (Alen been a
subject of just admiration. Through a succession of
ages and a succession of changes, and under every va-
riety of government which • haS at different times held
the rule in England, the civil division, originally in-
troduced by the patriotic Alfred, was preserved; and
found in every respect to secure the object for Which
it was instituted. Out of this civil: division into
counties three have _been allowed a pre-eminence
over the others, and are distinguished by the term
Counties Palatine.. These are clieshire, Lancashire,
and the county of Durham, and vested in the fellow-
ing persons—the Earl of Chester, the Duke of Lan-
caster, and the BiShop of Durham. The two former
.of these are now utiited to the Crown, and the third
alone remains in the handS of .a *Oka: Besides
these three, two others were in former times also
Counties Palatine, viz. Pembrokeshire and 'Hexham-
Shire, now part,, of the county of Northumberland ;
but they have been long since abolished by Acts
passed in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth,
The reason for the erection of Chester and Durham
into Counties Palatine was in order to admit of kis,
tice being administered to their inhabitants in their
.
Own houses, lest, as they bordered upon t.lelost..o 1 a
Counties of Wales and gentland, the enemy should
take advantage 'of the absence of the chief- men of
the place, and make a sudden irruption into their
country. The term. Palatine is derived Of palatio, be-
cause the heads 'of therft eiereiser a royal authority
'within their extent as fully as the King had it in his
palace, and part of which authority is`still retained, al-
though, for the sake of convenience; a great many of
their minor privileges have been taken away. They
have distinct officers of State attached to them, and
Courts of JuStice having original jurisdiction. The
County Palatine of Lancaster became forfeited 'to the
Crown by the attainder of Henry VI., bin 'by Act of
Pal-1111104'0e County Palatine WaS preserved and
annexed to the Duchy, and vested in-Edward IV. and
his heirs; Kings of England. In the Ist Henry VII-,
another Act resumed part of the lairds which had been
dissevered 'front the May in the reign of Edward
IV., and the inheritade was vested in the King and,
his heirs for ever, as amply and largely, and in like
manner, form, and' condition, separate from the Crown
or England and possession of the sine, as the three
Henries and Edward' IV. had and held the sane. But
for this proviSion the County Palatine would have lost
its privileges, for, vesting in. the King, the minor juris-
diction as Duke of Lancaster would merge In the
higher authority as King of England: Cheshire still
retains its yrivilegea because it belongs more properly
to the Princes of. Wales than thy King of England,
and who ever since the reign of -Henrylll. has held
the title of Earl of Chester. Durham, as now, being
in the hands of a subject, holds its regalitieS still,, and
this by virtue of a decision of a body of commissioners
dispatched to Ilardepole, in the same county, at the
request of the then Bishop, and whose royal authority,
it seems, was at that time disputetL It would be im-
possible to enter into athe'rights 'and immunities
conferred on these counties as Palatines of the &ll-
pire ; they are far too numerous, and, moreover, greatly
encumbered with legal and highly-refined distinctionS.
However useful they have been in former days,' it ap-
pears that now they could be prOductiVe 'Of little ad-
vantage ; and we can hardly help expressing•our asto-
nishment that they have not excited the attention of
the. Parliament, or the more vigilant and scrutinizing
eye of the public. We do not -mean to say that any
case of mischief could be made against them, but
there, are very many reasons that. conspire to render
their abolition desirable : they interfere greatly with
the administration of justice, and questions of right, as
between the King as Duke or Earl, and the King as
King, and between the King and the Bishop, in the
exercise of their respective authorities, are often dis-
cussed at the expense of parties, plaintiffs and de-
fendants in .• 'Alit, and in which, oddly enough, the.
rights of these litigant parties are totally forgotten, or,
at least: 0vt...4. 904(1,- When Republicanism prevailed
in England, and Old Noll reigned Lord High Pro.;
tector of merry England, it is wonderful nothing was
done with these remains of royalty, so' as to require
the ameliorating hand of a Royal Parliament to
attention Or appearing
amend, %it salt is ; nothing of the ktoinhdali,se tobeeblel
Massedfound in
over, history,ne v anchdaillheenygisnege
mOf silfficient importance to can for summary proceed-
ings without it. Thus on the Restoration they slid
untwisted into their .ancient prerogatiyes,,and so have
remained and continued even unto this day ;~ and
doubtless will so remain aid continue, until Some great'
queStiOn arisc'as to the jurisdiction of one of
them, replete .with misaief to the parties, in a suit
instituted either in the Courts of Westminster; or one
of the superior' Courts of one of- the .Cdtuiti6s pala
tine.

FOREIGN CORN.

Mr. JACOB'S REPORT on the TRADE, in CORN, and on
the AGRICULTCRE of the NORTH of EVROPE.

[Continued from our paper of yesterday.]
The lands of the crown are differently circumstanced ; they
comprehend oue-third of the whole surface, or about 10,000,000
acres ; somewhat more than 2,000,000 of these are woods, which
are managed by a' department of the Government. 'he remain-
der is chiefly arable land, and is leased to tenants. The labour
of the peasants is a part of that which is leased. The tenants of
the crown arc exempt, as well as their peasants, from mane taxes,
to which all other Occupiers of land are subject, and In COIVIL
pience of it the estatca are better stocked with peasants. Wow,
as I was assured by the chief of the department, that the pea-
sants on the croupr lands form nearly one-ft:unit of the wholi,
population of the kingdom. To the farmers of these, this must
be a great advantage, which hut few, and only the richest and
humane lords, can partake with them.

With this fre!.thu from taxation, and ample analv of labour.
er4, the /ands are let vett- law ; the nominal rent 48,600,000
of acres of land is stated in the public accounts to be 4i000,600
florins, or about 93,000/. sterling, or somewhat less than three-
pence the English sent. In the average are ineltuksl many acres
literally of no,value. I was informed that the land actually 'un-
der cultivation might he. fairly stated to be worth from eight-
pence to fourteen-pence per acre. It is however tbund that the
present rent cannot be afforded, that the tenants are falling into
arrears, that the hope of recovering some parts must be aban-
doned ; and in other eases, the rent can only be paid in corn.—
The woods belonging to the crown, consisting, as before stated, of
more than 2,000,000 acres, and under the administration of a
public board, are felled in portions annually, so as to cut them
every 50 years. The 50th part which was cut last year, (the
price of wood having improved,) produced, es stated to me by
the chief of the department, the sutn of 48,000/. iferlin;T, being
at the. rate of
.fivepence halfpeney the acre r ou the whot: of the
woods, or 21s. on the part actually cut.
So little land belonginglo individuals is set, that it is difficultl
to form an opinion of what' is its iettuil average annual
That it is much lower than formerly I have no (ILIA.
One instance came under ray own observation. The proprte-
tor of a large domain had let a farm, consisting of about 7,000
acres, on a lease, for the usual term of six years, at a rent of
8501. That lease bad expired just behi.e I visited the place.
Ile tenant had lost a great deal of his property, and .the pea-
sants had diminished in number; and a new lease Ism! lwen
taken by the same tenant, for no other could be found, at the
•
rate of 1701.

I knew of one farm of aboUt 4,000 acres, let on a lease for
Aix years, about four years ago, tbr 1801. Toe, proprietor of it
assured me, that thou7,ll he receiVed his rent regularly; he was
convinced the tenant paid' the whole of it out of his capital, and
Was only enabled to maintain his engagenients from having other
pursuits which were profitable, This estate is net more than 12
Miles from Warsaw, and has an excellent road ti, u ithmn one mile
of it.
Another instance of an estate re(iiltly, let oh ,lease, Was related