and on frequent occasions. 71 Action taken in the course of a meeting might extend into virtually any field of domestic administration. 72 Determinations arrived at by the Council were given force by means of conciliar orders or letters. Such a body can scarcely be regarded as well equipped for handling extensive judicial matters. During the earlier part of the reign of Elizabeth two orders were issued by the Council defining its appellate jurisdiction over Jersey and over Guernsey. 73 The order for the former island was issued on May 13, 1572, at the instigation of the jurats. 74 It provided that no appeal be allowed from any sentence or judgment in any matter or cause not exceeding the value of £j sterling; that no appeal be admitted before definitive sentence or other judgment having the force of a definitive sentence was given; that every appeal should be prosecuted within three months after sentence or judgment, except where cause was shown and allowed of by the Council; that no appeal be received without a copy as well of the sentence or judgment as also of the whole process under insular seal; that such copies be furnished to appellants by the Royal Court within eight days after request. 75 On October 9, 1580, a more extensive Order in Council regulating Guernsey appeals was issued. 76 This order directed allowance to the inhabitants of appeals from any judicial decree, sentence, or judgment of the Royal Court T1 Taking three random periods we find attendance in 1581 (n.s.) ranging from two to thirteen councilors, with most meetings having six to nine present. For 1591 (n.s.) the extremes were three and eleven, with the same frequency range. For 1601 (n.s.) the spread was from four to twelve. In the first of these random periods over 170 conciliar meetings are entered in the Council books, for the second over 150, for the third over 75. Council register entries are headed inter alia Whitehall, Richmond, Greenwich, Oadands, Nonsuch, Westminster, Hampton Court, Windsor, St. James, the Star Chamber. 72 The extensive jurisdiction of the Council is best described in the prefaces by J. R. Dasent to the Acts of the Privy Council, Domestic for the period; cj. Black, op. cit., 171-77; Beard, The Office of the justice of the Peace in England (1904), c. v. 73 It is difficult to explain why these jurisdictional limitations should have been desired at this time. There is no evidence of a great flood of appeals from the island courts, despite the insular origins of the clamor for jurisdictional limitations. To regard the limitations as selfmotivated and self-imposed overlooks the traditional policy of the Council to afford relief where necessary and the fact that excluded appellants could apply to the Council for relief in another guise. 74 The agitation for some appellate regulation was sponsored by Helier de Carteret, acting in behalf of the jurats of Jersey. His petitions were referred to be considered by the Attorney General, with the Judge of the Admiralty or some other person learned in the civil laws; upon return of opinions from the Attorney General and Dr. Lewis, Judge of the Admiralty, the orders were issued (8 APC, Dom., 75; cf. Dasent, ibid., viii, xii-xiii). 75 8 APC, Dom., 76. For the meaning of the phrase "difhnitive sentence or other judgment having the force and effect of a sentence diffinitive" see J. Poingdestre, Les Lois et coutumes de Vile de Jersey (1928), 222 et seq. 76 The regulations are not set out in the Council register. A notation of their issuance "according to a mynute remayning in the Councell Chest" is mentioned, September 6, 1580 (12 APC, Dom., 193).