Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/88

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THE STATUTES OF WALES

archery. Henry the Eighth encouraged and practised the use of the long-bow. It is uncertain when the long-bow of the Welsh ceased to be carried into battle, but it was not used after the early part of the seventeenth century.

A.D. 1558.—The ancient customs and liberties of the inhabitants of Anglesey, Flint and Carnarvon as to landing foreign merchandise and the payment of customs were preserved to them by 1 Elizabeth, c. 11, s. 11.

A.D. 1562.—In 1562, by the 31st section of 5 Elizabeth, c. 5, it was provided that the wines of France could be brought into the ports of Cardiff, Newport, Carnarvon, Beaumaris, and other ports in Wales in limited quantities. By the 6th section of 5 Elizabeth, c. 23, passed in the same session for correcting the laxity that had crept into the practice in the ecclesiastical courts with reference to the process of excommunication, we find that Writs de excommunicato capiendo in Wales, where the Queen's writ did not then run, were directed to be sent to the Chief Justice or Justices there, and were not to be returnable to the Queen's Bench in England. In the same year an Act (5 Elizabeth, c. 25) extended a previous measure made in 1542 as to the summoning of jurors. The latter was a "wholesome and profitable statute" concerning the appearance of Juries in Nisi Prius, which did not apply to the twelve shires of Wales in certain cases. It was deemed necessary to remedy the procedure in the Courts of Great Sessions of the Principality in this respect. In civil and criminal trials in the latter courts, where, by reason of the default of the jury or of challenges to the jury, there was not a sufficient number of the jurors empanelled to try the issues, the Judge was to direct the sheriff to add to the jury panel the names of a sufficient number of persons qualified to act as jurymen who might be present or could be found. These jurors were called tales de circumstantibus.

But the Act for the translation of the Bible and the Divine Service into the Welsh tongue (5 Elizabeth, c. 28)