Foreigners were frequently granted the right of public hospitality by the senate down to the end of the republic. The public hospes had a right to entertainment at the public expense, admission to sacrifices and games, the right of buying and selling on his own account, and of bringing an action at law without the intervention of a Roman patron.
The supreme court has appellate jurisdiction in chancery cases only, but may correct errors at law in other cases.
They have original jurisdiction in all cases in equity, in all cases at law which involve the title or possession of real property, or the legality of a tax, impost, assessment, toll or municipal fine, and in all other cases at law in which the amount in controversy is $loo or more, in nearly all criminal cases, in matters of probate, in proceedings for divorce, and in various other cases; and they have appellate jurisdiction of cases originally tried before a justice of the peace or other inferior courts where the amount in controversy is more than $20.
These courts have original jurisdiction in cases at law and in equity in which the value in controversy exceeds $50, in criminal cases amounting to felony, in all matters of probate, in actions for divorce, &c., and appellate jurisdiction in cases arising in the inferior courts.
The circuit courts have original jurisdiction of all actions and causes, both at law and in equity and such appellate jurisdiction as may be conferred by law.
