existence of a native language. Deprive a nation of its language, and deprivation of national consciousness will be relatively easy. But allow the language to live, and no power on earth can ever kill the national spirit. It is therefore not surprising to read in the Act that "No Person or Persons that use the Welsh Speech or Language shall have or enjoy any Manner Office or Fees within this Realm {136} of England, Wales or other the King's Dominions, upon pain of forfeiting the same Offices or Fees, unless he or they use and exercise the English Speech or Language." Except in Edward IPs two Parliaments of 1322 and 1327 Wales had never been represented in the English House of Commons. Now it was enacted that every shire should send one knight to Parliament, and that every county town, excepting that of Merioneth, should send one burgess. These representatives were to be paid the usual fees for attendance. In 1542 an Act bearing the simple title, "For certain ordinances in the King's Majesty's Dominions and Principality of Wales," was passed. This statute reaches what was, for those times, the portentous length of a hundred and thirty clauses; but it is neither verbose nor ambiguous. Indeed it is one of the most comprehensive, and one of the most ably drafted, statutes ever enacted. It finally abolished the Lordships Marcher. It gave Wales the geographical limits which it has ever since retained, dividing the country into twelve shires, and cutting off Monmouth. It placed upon a statutory foundation the Court of the Council of the Marches; a Court which, save for a brief period of suspension during {137} the Commonwealth, remained active down to 1688. It created a new legal system for Wales by instituting the Court of Great Sessions, a legal system which persisted until 1830. It introduced a system of local government, dividing the shires into hundreds, and providing for lords-lieutenant, sheriffs, coroners, constables, and bailiffs.