affection. 170 The assurances of benefaction which appear in the title of the 
Stamp Act (1765) 171 have their precedent in the terms used in the writs 
communicating to Ireland the Act for the Scotch subsidy (1299) 172 and the 
Statute of Carlisle (1307) . 173 
The footing upon which the power of promulgating changes in the law of 
the dominions was placed not only immunized this power from the pressures 
which representation in fact could bring to bear (as happened within the 
realm), but likewise allowed for a greater flexibility in the process of enactment. 
In other words it was possible to exercise the power of ordinance in small council 
as well as great council, the particular medium being chiefly a matter of 
political convenience. The Welsh ordinances of 1318 174 were enacted at the 
Parliament of Lincoln (one of the few occasions on which the Welsh were 
summoned), but some years later the important Gascon ordinances were ordained 
in Council. 178 Some of the legislation for Ireland was by act of Parliament, 
but some of no less consequence was confected in Council. And in 1358 
certain regulations made in Parliament for the London goldsmiths were extended 
to Gascony by letters patent as the unilateral act of the crown. 176 In so 
far as any principle of choice is discernible, it seems to be this: that the act of 
Parliament will be used where the profit of the realm is involved especially in 
matters of general commercial interest; e.g., the staple and the traffic in 
wine. 177 Otherwise we have inconsistency, another manifestation of the 
medieval tendency to dispatch governmental business without regard to its 
170 For the early period, cf. Jolliffe, Constitutional 
History of Medieval England (1937) 337; 
and for the later, cf. Finance and Trade under 
Edward 111 (Unwin ed., 1918), xxii—xxiii. 
171 St. 5 Geo. 111, c. 12 ("toward further defraying 
the expenses of defending, protecting 
and securing" the colonies). 
172 1 Berry, Statutes, Ordinances and Acts of 
Parliament of Ireland (1907), 229 ("for the 
safety of our royal crown and for the common 
advantage of our Kingdom and of our lands"). 
173 Ibid., 241 ("for the common utility of the 
people of our realm and the improvement of the 
state of our entire dominion"). 
17i The Statutes of Wales (Bowen ed., 1908), 
27 et seq. 
175 3 Rymer, Foedera, 991. An important 
change in private law for Gascony was made 
47 Edward 111 with the "great council" (text 
in Prynne, Animadversions on the Fourth 
Part of Code's Institutes [1669],399). Henry 
V's order re the functions of the Constable of 
Bordeaux was apparently done without benefit 
of Council (cf. 16 Archives historique du departement 
de la Gironde, 63). Similarly in 1423 
an order re coinage was issued as the King's 
own act (10 Rymer, Foedera, 313). 
176 Livre des Bouillons in 1 Archives Mun. de 
Bordeaux, 122. 
177 Cf. the preamble to the Ordinance of the 
Staple, in 1 Stat. Realm, 332. On the wine 
traffic, cf. Sargeant, The Wine Trade with 
Gascony, in Finance and Trade under Edward 
111, 257 et seq. The statute 27 Edw. 111, c. 5-6, 
is constructed in terms of restrictions on English 
merchants, but has a territorial scope. The 
statute 38 Edw. 111, c. 10, imparts personal 
privileges of trade in England to Gascons. Both 
of these acts are interesting exhibits on legislation 
over persons on an allegiance theory. Similarly, 
the statute 23 Hen. VI, c. 17, is an injunction 
against impositions by King's officers 
in Gascony on wine buyers there without national 
limitation except they be lieges of the 
King. Note finally the statute 42 Edw. 111, c. 
10, permitting children born in Calais, Guines, 
Gascony, and elsewhere in lands belonging to 
the King, to inherit in England.