East India Company, "to be held of the King in free and common soccage, as of the Manor of East Greenwich, on the payment of the annual rent of £10." Authority also granted to Company to exercise all political powers necessary for the defence and government of the place. (Bombay was ceded to British Crown by King of Portugal under treaty, June 23, 1661.) 1673.-St. Helena granted to East India Company by charter. 1683-5.-"The servants of the Company were now invested with

unlimited power over the British people in India.”—Mill's History of British India, i. 119. But, query, how and by what authority?

1687.-Bombay erected into a regency, with unlimited power over the rest of the Company's settlements.

Madras erected into a corporate town, governed by mayor and aldermen. There was a discussion in the Privy Council whether the charter should be under the King's or Company's seal.-Mill's History of British India, i. 121.

1689. Instructions from Court of Directors, pointing to increase of territorial and political powers.

1698-9.-East India Company obtained permission from Emperor Aurungzebe to purchase the villages of Soota Nuttee (or Chutta Nuttee), Govindpore, and Calcutta; and began to build Fort William. The station made a Presidency.

1698. Sept. 5.-Charter by William III., incorporating a second East India Company under name of " English Company," the old Company being known as "The London Company."

1702. July 22.-Indenture tripartite between Queen Anne, the old Company, and the new Company.

1708. Sept. 29.-Earl Godolphin's award.

1709. March 22.-Surrender of rights of old Company, and all rights vested in "United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies."

1753.-Letters patent creating courts of judicature at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.

1756. Suraja Dowla became Subahdar of Bengal,

Aug. 5.-Calcutta taken, and English thrown into the "Black
Hole."

1757. Jan. 2.-Calcutta retaken by Lord Clive.

Battle of Plassey. (June 23.) First treaty with Nabob of Bengal.
Grant to East India Company of twenty-four Pergunnahs.
East India Company permitted to fortify Calcutta, and erect
a Mint.

1760. Treaty with Meer Kossim Ally Khan, by which East India Company obtained possession of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong.

1765.-Grant of the Dewanny by the Emperor Shah Allum to the East India Company of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.

D

Actions on

ments.

1772.-First Regulating Act, 13 Geo. 3, c. 16.

1773.-Act authorising the erection of Supreme Court of Judicature, 13 Geo. 3, c. 63.

1833. The East India Company ceased to be a trading company, but continued to hold the government of India in trust for the Crown, by 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 85.

1858. The government of India taken from the East India Company, and vested in Her Majesty, by 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106.

As to actions brought in this country upon colonial judgments, colonial judg- see Carpenter v. Thornton, 3 B. & Al. 52 (doubtful); Henley v. Soper, 8 B. & C. 16; Henderson v. Henderson, 6 Q. B. 288; Russell v. Smyth, 9 M. & W. 810; Sadler v. Robins, 1 Camp. 253; Obicini v. Bligh, 8 Bing. 335; Hutchinson v. Gillespie, 25 L. J. (Ex.) 103; Frith v. Wollaston, 7 Ex. R. 194; Bank of Australia v. Nias, 16 Q. B. 717; Buchanan v. Rucker, 1 Camp. 63; 9 East, 192, S.C.; Ferguson v. Mahon, 11 Ad. & Ell. 179; Cowan v. Braidwood, 1 M. & G. 882; Reynolds v. Fenton, 3 C. B. 187; Vallee v. Dumerque, 4 Ex. R. 290.

35

CHAPTER II.

ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL LAW APPLICABLE TO THE COLONIES.

(1.) OPINION of the Attorney General, SIR EDWARD Northey,

as to Roman Catholic Priests in the Colonies.

1705.

To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS,-In obedience to your Lordships' commands, signified to me by Mr. Popple, Jun., your Secretary, I have considered of the annexed extract of a letter from Colonel Seymour, Governor of Maryland, relating to the Jesuits and papists there; and the extract also sent me, of the grant of the province of Maryland to Lord Baltimore, relating to the ecclesiastical power; and the questions proposed thereon, whether the laws of England against Romish priests are in force in the plantations, and whether her Majesty may not direct Jesuits, or Romish priests, to be turned out of Maryland?

And as to the said clause in the grant of the province of Maryland to Lord Baltimore, relating to the ecclesiastical power, I am of opinion the same doth not give him any power to do anything contrary to the ecclesiastical laws of England, but he hath only the advowsons of, and power to erect and consecrate churches, and such power as the Bishop of Durham had as Earl Palatine in his County Palatine, who was subject to the laws of England; and the consecrations of chapels ought to be, as in England, by orthodox ministers only.

As to the question, whether the laws of England against Romish priests are in force in the plantations, by the statute 27mo. of Elizabeth, cap. 2, every Jesuit, seminary priest, or other such priest, deacon, or religious or ecclesiastical person, born within this realm or any other her Majesty's dominions, made, ordained, or

professed, by any authority or jurisdiction, derived, challenged, or pretended, from the see of Rome, who shall come into, or be, or remain in any part of this realm or any other of her Majesty's dominions, is guilty of high treason. It is plain that law extended to all the dominions the Queen had when it was made; but some doubt hath been made, whether it extendeth to dominions acquired after, as the plantations have been.

By the statute 11mo. William, for preventing the further growth of Popery, it is provided that, if any popish bishop, priest, or Jesuit whatsoever, shall say mass, or exercise any other part of the office or function of a popish bishop or priest, within this realm, or the dominions thereunto belonging, such person, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, in such place within this kingdom as her Majesty, by the advice of her Privy Council, shall appoint. I am of opinion this law extends to the plantations, they being dominions belonging to the realm of England, and extends to all priests, foreigners as well as natives.

As to the question, whether her Majesty may not direct Jesuits or Romish priests to be turned out of Maryland, I am of opinion, if the Jesuits or priests be aliens, not made denizens or naturalized, her Majesty may by law compel them to depart Maryland; if they be her Majesty's natural-born subjects, they cannot be banished from her Majesty's dominions, but may be proceeded against on the last before-mentioned law.

October 18, 1705.

EDW. NORTHEY.

(2.) JOINT OPINION of the Attorney and Solicitor General, SIR PHILIP YORKE and SIR CLEMENT WEARG, on Convocations or Synods of the Clergy or Dissenting Ministers in New England. 1725.

To their Excellencies the Lords Justices.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCIES,-In humble obedience to your Excellencies' commands, signified to us by Mr. Delafaye, we have considered the several matters referred to us by letter of the 24th inst., transmitting to us the enclosed copies of some letters which his Grace the Duke of Newcastle had received from the Lord Bishop of London, concerning an address from the

General Convention of the Independent Ministers in New England, to the Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and House of Burgesses there, desiring them to call the several churches in that province, to meet, by their pastors and messengers, in a synod, to which the said Council and House of Representatives have given their consent, and directing us to inquire into this matter, and report our opinions upon several questions proposed in the said letter.

And we humbly certify your Excellencies, that, as to the several matters of fact contained in the said letters and papers therewith transmitted, we have been obliged to take the same as they are therein stated, having at present no opportunity of obtaining strict regular proof; and, therefore, such parts of this report as arise out of those facts, are grounded upon a supposition that the relations contained in those letters and papers are true.

The address of the General Convention of Ministers is mentioned to be in these words, to wit:

"To the very Honourable William Dummer, Esq., LieutenantGovernor and Commander-in-Chief, and to the Honourable the Councillors, to the Honourable the Representatives, in the great and General Court of his Majesty's province of the Massachusetts Bay, assembled, and now sitting, a memorial and an address humbly presented.

"At a General Convention of Ministers from several parts of the province, at Boston, 27th May, 1725:

"Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the growth of many miscarriages, which we may fear has provoked the glorious Lord, in a series of various judgments, wonderfully to distress us; considering also, the laudable example of our predecessors, to recover and establish the faith and order of the Gospel in the churches, and provide against what immoralities might threaten to impair them, in the way of general synods convened for that purpose; and considering that forty-five years have now rolled away since these churches have now seen any such convention ;—it is humbly desired that the honoured General Court would express their concern for the great interests of religion in the country, by calling the several churches in the province to meet, by their pastors and messengers, in a synod, and from thence offer their advice upon that weighty case, which the circumstances