2. Therefore the common law of England, and all such statutes as were enacted and in force at the time in which such settlers went forth, and such colonies and plantations were established, (except as hereafter excepted) together with all such alterations and amendments as the said common law may have received, is from time to time, and at all times, the law of those colonies and plantations.
Rem. So far as they adopt it, by express laws or by practice. B. F.
3. Therefore all statutes, touching the right of the succession, and settlement of the crown, with the statutes of treason relating thereto[107]; all statutes, regulating or limiting the general powers and authority of the crown, and the exercise of the jurisdiction thereof; all statutes, declaratory of the rights and liberty of the subject, do extend to all British subjects in the colonies and plantations as of common right, and as if they and every of them were born within the realm.
Rem. It is doubted, whether any settlement of the crown by parliament, takes place in the colonies, otherwise than by consent of the assemblies there. Had the rebellion in 1745 succeeded so far as to settle the Stuart family again on the throne, by act of parliament, I think the colonies would not have thought themselves bound by such act. They would still have adhered to the present family as long as they could. B. F.
Observation in reply. They are bound to the king and his successors, and we know no succession but by act of parliament. T. P.
4. All statutes enacted since the establishment of colonies and plantations do extend to and operate within the said colonies and plantations, in which statutes the same are specially named.
Rem. It is doubted, whether any act of parliament should of right operate in the colonies: in fact several of than have and do operate. B. F.
5. Statutes and customs, which respect only the special and local circumstances of the realm, do not extend to and operate within said colonies and plantations, where no such special and local circumstances are found.—(Thus the ecclesiastical and canon law, and all statutes respecting tythes, the laws respecting courts baron and copyholds, the game acts, the statutes respecting the poor and settlements, and all other laws and statutes, having special reference to special and local circumstances and establishments within the realm, do not extend to and operate within these settlements, in partibus exteris, where no such circumstances or establishments exist.)
Rem. These laws have no force in America: not merely because local circumstances differ, but because they have never been adopted, or brought over by acts of assembly or by practice in the courts. B. F.
6. No statutes made since the establishment of said colonies and plantations (except as above described in articles 3 and 4) do extend to and operate within said colonies and plantations.