402 ///. THE COLONIAL PERIOD lished by express law. It is, however, the first definite recog- nition in America of the power of the courts to apply the common law of England to colonial conditions, and to reject provisions deemed unsuitable. The rule stated in the act of 1662 was also contained in the commission of judges, and thus the proprietor seems to have sanctioned this adoption of the common law ; the later controversy turned more on the ques- tion of the adoption of the statute law of England. In 1674, an attempt was made to determine by law what English criminal statutes were in force in Maryland. The lower house insisted on the adoption of the whole English statute law, saving all laws of the province not repugnant to the laws of England. ^ The council argued with the lower house, asking them to consider the dangerous consequences of an adoption of the entire English criminal law. They referred to the volume of the English laws and to the difficulty of ascertaining what statutes are at present in force. On account of this uncertainty the lower house is requested to designate certain statutes which are to be re-enacted and thus be a guide to the judges. In 1678, we find that it is ordered to purchase Keble's Abridgment of the English Statutes and Dalton's Justice for the use of the various county courts. ^ The struggle between the proprietor and the people con- cerning English laws revived in 1722. The people claimed that the lord proprietor had already allowed them the benefit of the common law as their right according to the common opinions of the best lawyers, and that the controversy now was only concerning the applicability of the English statutes.^ Lord Baltimore resisted the introduction of the English statutes " in a lump," as he expressed it, as doing away with his veto power ; while the lower house insisted upon a complete adoption. By the act of 1732 the controversy was settled by the following somewhat equivocal statement that " when the acts and usages of the province are silent the rule of adjudicature is to be according to the laws and statutes and • Maryland Archives, Assembly Proceedings, 1666-1676, p. 374. • Maryland Archives, Proceedings of Assembly, 1678-83, p. 70. • See citations in McMahon's History of Maryland, Ch. III.
