rial rights and emoluments,
and the patronage of the bishoprick[z] and other ecclesiastical
benefices) are unalienably vested in the crown, and subjected to the
regulations of the British excise and customs.

[Footnote u: 4 Inst. 284. 2 And. 116.]

[Footnote w: Selden. tit. hon. 1. 3.]

[Footnote x: Camden. Eliz. _A.D._ 1594.]

[Footnote y: 1 P.W. 329.]

[Footnote z: The bishoprick of Man, or Sodor, or Sodor and Man, was
formerly within the province of Canterbury, but annexed to that of
York by statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 31.]

THE islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, and their appendages,
were parcel of the duchy of Normandy, and were united to the crown of
England by the first princes of the Norman line. They are governed by
their own laws, which are for the most part the ducal customs of
Normandy, being collected in an antient book of very great authority,
entituled, _le grand coustumier_. The king's writ, or process from the
courts of Westminster, is there of no force; but his commission is.
They are not bound by common acts of our parliaments, unless
particularly named[a]. All causes are originally determined by their
own officers, the bailiffs and jurats of the islands; but an appeal
lies from them to the king in council, in the last resort.

[Footnote a: 4 Inst. 286.]

BESIDES these adjacent islands, our more distant plantations in
America, and elsewhere, are also in some respects subject to the
English laws. Plantations, or colonies in distant countries, are
either such where the lands are claimed by right of occupancy only, by
finding them desart and uncultivated, and peopling them from the
mother country; or where, when already cultivated, they have been
either gained by conquest, or ceded to us by treaties. And both these
rights are founded upon the law of nature, or at least upon that of
nations. But there is a difference between these two species of
colonies, with respect to the laws by which they are bound. For it is
held[b], that if an uninhabited country be discovered and planted by
English subjects, all the English laws are immediately there in
force. For as the law is the birthright of every subject, so wherever
they go they carry their laws with them[c]. But in conquered or ceded
countries, that have already laws of their own, the king may indeed
alter and change those laws; but, till he does actually change them,
the antient laws of the country remain, unless such as are against the
l