The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 2, July 1898 - April, 1899 Page: 46

46 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
public, shall have .original jurisdiction of all suits of whatsoever
nature or description, when the matter in controversy shall be one
hundred dollars or upwards, and which are not especially cogniza-
ble in some other court established by law; and shall have power
to hear and determine all prosecutions in the name of the Repub-
lic, by indictment, information, or presentment for treason, mur-
der, and other felonies, crimes and misdemeanors, committed
within their respective jurisdictions, except such as may be ex-
clusively cognizable before a justice of the peace,, or in some other
court of this Republic; and shall, in criminal cases, have =and exer-
cise all the powers incident and belonging to a court of oyer and
terminer and general jail delivery, and generally to do -and perform
all other acts lawfully pertaining to a district court of this Re-
public. And the judges of said courts, 'and each of them, either in
vacation or term time, shall have authority to grant writs of habeas
corpus, mandamus, injunction, supersedeas, and all other remedial
writs known to the law, not repugnant to the Constitution, return-
able according to law, into the Supreme Court, or either of the
said district courts, as the case may be."
The provisions relating to appeals was as follows:
"Section 15. Any party may appeal from any final judgment or
decree of <any district court, during the term at which the decree
was rendered, to the Supreme Court, provided the amount in con-
troversy amounts to three hundred dollars, upon entering into
bonds and security, to be approved of by the court, in double the
amount of the debt or damages in the said suit, for prosecuting
the same with effect, or performing the judgment, sentence or
decree, which the Supreme Court shall make or pass thereon, in
case the applicant shall have the case decided against him."'15
The organization and jurisdiction of the county court was pro-
vided for by act approved December 20, 1836, as follows:
"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen-
tatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress .assembled:
"That there shall be established in the several counties of this
Republic an inferior court of law which shall be styled the county
court, of the county of , to be composed of one chief justice,
who shall be elected by joint ballot of both houses of Congress,

15 Acts of First Congress, p. 198.