JIJDICIAL ORGANIZATION AND LEGAL ADMINISTRA¬
TION FROM 1776 TO THE CONSTITUTION OF 1846.
 

GREAT SEAL OF KEW TOBK.
 

IN order clearly to understand how the law was administered
in the State ot New York, after the Declaration oJ In¬
dependence, it is necessary that one
should have some knowledge of the
status of the law at that period of New York's
development.

In 1756 William Smith wrote a " History
of New York," which contains a good account
of the laws and of the courts of the Colony
or Province of New York immediately prior
to the Declaration of Independence. He was
well qualified to speak on the subject, because
he was himself a lawyer of ability, and was
at one-time the chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the province. He
says that the state ol the law opened the door to much controversy; that
the common law of England and such statutes as were enacted before the
province had a legislature of its own were generally received; and that
the practice of the courts was uncertain, some of the English rules
being accepted and others rejected. The courts named by him are the
Justices' Court, the Sessions and Court of Common Pleas, the Supreme
Court, the Court of Admiralty, the Prerogative Court, the Court of

the Governor and Council,
and the Conrt of Chancery.
Justices of the peace, he
says, were appointed by
commission from the gov¬
ernor ; some of them coxild
neither read nor write.
Besides their ordinary
powers they were enabled
by acts of the assembly to
hold court for the deter¬
mination of small cases of
£5 and nnder, but the
parties might have, if they
chose, a jury of six men. The justices had jurisdiction in criminal cases
under the degree of grand larceny, and any three of them might try