396 ni. THE COLONIAL PERIOD " All persons guilty of murder or treason shall be sentenced by the general assembly, as they in the wisdom of the Lord shall judge meet and expedient." This would indicate a view of law similar to that held by the colonists of Massa- chusetts and New Haven. The early laws of East Jersey were founded largely on scriptural authority. ^ Thus the law of trespasses and in- juries by cattle, of injury by fire, of negligence, and the criminal law, are in agreement with the laws of the Exodus. In 1675 imprisonment for debt was prohibited except in cases of fraud. In 1698 the privileges of the English com- mon law were assured to every one. In Delaware no profes- sionally trained judge held office before the Revolution.^ Permsylvania The colony of Pennsylvania was fitted out with the most complete system of colonial codes. There was (1) the frame of government, which was unchangeable without the consent of the governor and six-sevenths of the freemen in council and assembly, all freemen at that time being members of the assembly; (2) there were the laws agreed upon in England in 1682, which had the same provisions as to alteration ; (3) the Great Law or body of laws enacted at Chester in 1682, containing sixty-one chapters and called the written laws to distinguish them from the foregoing two, called printed laws ; (4) the act of settlement passed in Philadelphia in 1683 ; (5) the laws made at an assembly in Philadelphia in 1683, consist- ing of 80 chapters; (6) the frame of government of 1683; (7) the frame of government of 1696; and, finally, (8) the laws of October, 1701. ^ These laws are of great interest to the student of legislation, containing the opinions of enlight- ened and thoughtful statesmen embodied in enactments and gradually modified by practical experience in colonial affairs. They show clearly how very necessary a complete and full
- Whitehead, East Jersey under the Proprietors, p. 239.
- Grubb, Judiciary of Delaware, p. 9.
- See the collection called The Duke of York's Laws and Pennsyl-
vania Colonial Laws, which will be cited simply as The Duke of YorW$ Laws.
