was firmly established; in fact, it was said by Lord Ellenborough, C.J., in 1814 (see Goodright against Williams, 2 Maule and Selwyn's Reports, p. 274), to have been a practice which had originated in the common law, and to have been followed time out of mind. The practice was to try all issues arising in South Wales in Herefordshire, and actions from North Wales in the county of Salop. It was a practice which was the subject of considerable controversy, and there is a very learned and elaborate argument on the point in Hargreave's Law Tracts. We have already pointed out that section 6 of 26 Henry 8, c. 6, provided in 1534, that felonies and serious criminal offences arising within the Lordships Marchers of Wales were to be tried in the next adjoining English county, which provision was afterwards confirmed by the 85th section of 34-35 Henry 8, c. 26, but the general practice in civil suits was said to have prevailed (see Ambrose against Rees, 11 East's Reports, p. 370) even before the time of Henry the Eighth. How this practice was affected by the jurisdiction of the Courts of Great Sessions is a matter upon which at present, owing to the absence of material information, we are unable to throw much light. But the truth most probably is that the assumption of the English Courts to exercise this jurisdiction, and to continue this practice, was founded on mere usurpation, and, like many other usurpations of jurisdiction, was supported by legal fictions. This Statute of 1773 provided that, after January 1, 1774, when actions arising within Wales were brought in any of his Majesty's Courts of Record outside Wales, and the plaintiff recovered a debt or damages under £10, no costs were to be given to him, and the defendant was to be entitled to a non-suit unless the Judge certified that the cause was proper to be tried in England, or that a question of title was involved. (The limit of £10 was subsequently altered in 1824 to £50.) Welsh Judges were authorized to appoint a deputy in certain cases. Special juries were to be struck in the Courts of Great Sessions as in the Courts at West-
