Y Cymmrodor. v. XIV. 1901.

i6 English Laiv in Wales anci the Marches.
felons, wrecks, wharfage and customs of strangers as
before the making of the said Statute."
The Statute-book throws much light on their powers.
The " Bìll concerning Councils in Wales" (26 Henry VIII,
cap. 6), after reciting that the people of Wales and the
Marches had been guilty of " scelerous deeds and abomin-
able malefacts", commands the inhabitants thereof upon
due summons to appear before the justice, steward, lieu-
tenant or other officer of the court in any castle, fortress,
or other place, and gives the right of appeal to the Council
of the Marches from the unlawful exactions and false
imprisonment of these same officers, to which the Statute
explains they are somewhat prone. It also empowers the
justices in the English shire, " where the king's writ
runneth", next adjoining any Lordship Marcher, to try
certain felonies committed in such lordship, and this was
especially coníìrmed in the " Ordinances for Wales."
The Act "for the abuses in the Forests of Wales"
(27 Henry VIII, cap. 7)
declares that the customs and
exactions in the forests of Wales and the Marches are
" contrary both to the law of God and man", and in-
stances that if any one is found on a path in a forest
without the forester's token, and not being a "yearly
tributer or chenser", 1
he has to pay a grievous fine, and if
twenty-four feet out of the path, he may
lose all the
money he has about him and a joint of one of his hands ;
also that " all beasts and quick cattle" found straying in
the forest are confìscated to the Lord. All these customs
are to be held for naught after the Teast of the Nativity
of St. John the Baptist, 1536.
The powers of the Earls Palatine were so great that
the Crown, when it was sufficiently strong, annexed their
1
L.L. ceìisarius, a farmer at a fixed ront.