Britain, consisting of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, is
the largest island in the world, encompassed by the ocean, the
German and French seas. The largest and southern part of it is
England, so named from the Angli, who quitting the little territory
yet called Angel in the kingdom of Denmark, took possession here.
It is governed by its own King, who owns no superior but God. It is
divided into thirty-nine counties, to which thirteen in Wales were
added by Henry VIII., the first who distributed that principality
into counties; over each of these, in times of danger, a lord
lieutenant, nominated by the King, presides with an unlimited power.
Every year some gentleman, an inhabitant of the place, is appointed
sheriff; his office is to collect the public moneys, to raise fines,
or to make seizures, and account for it to the Treasury; to attend
upon the judges, and put their sentence in execution; to empanel the
jury, who sit upon facts, and return their verdict to the judges
(who in England are only such of the law, and not of the fact); to
convey the condemned to execution, and to dertermine in lesser
causes, for the greater are tried by the judges, formerly called
travelling judges of assize; these go their circuits through the
counties twice every year to hear causes, and pronounce sentence
upon prisoners.
As to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, after the Popes had assigned a
church and parish to every priest, Honorius, Archbishop of
Canterbury, about the year 636, began to divide England in the same
manner into parishes:
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