justice to the complainant or else to appear in court and answer the accusation against him. Whatever the sheriff does in pursuance of this writ, he must return or certify to the court of common pleas, together with the writ itself; which is the foundation of the jurisdiction of that court, being the king's warrant for the judges to proceed to the determination of the cause. For it was a maxim introduced by the Normans, that there should be no proceedings in common pleas before the king's justices without his original writ; because they held it unfit that those justices, being only the substitutes of the crown, should take cognizance of anything but what was thus expressly referred to their judgment. However, in small actions below the value of forty shillings, which are brought in the court baron or county court, no royal writ is necessary; but the foundation of such suits continues to be (as in the times of the Saxons) not by original writ, but by plaint; that is, by a private memorial tendered in open court to the judge, wherein the party injured sets forth his cause of action; and the judge is bound of common right to administer justice therein, without any special mandate from the king. Now, indeed, even the royal writs are held to be demandable of common right, on paying the usual fees; for any delay in the granting them, or setting an unusual or exorbitant price upon them, would be a breach of magna carta c. 29, "nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus aut differemus, justitiam vel rectum.”

(c) The King's Courts.

Extracts from HOLDSWORTH, HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW.

The term "Curia Regis" means (i) the place where the king resided attended by the chief officials of his court and household; (ii) the supreme central court of the country where the business of the government in all its branches was transacted. The names of the officials, the forms of the legal proceedings, and the terms used to describe them were Norman. It was, in fact, a strong central court of this nature which was wanting to the Anglo-Saxon constitution.

The king had in Anglo-Saxon times a certain exclusive jurisdiction. The laws of Cnut and of Henry I. give us a list of the pleas of the crown. Contempt of the king is a specified offence. Certain places like the royal streets, certain persons like the king's

thegns are under the king's immediate jurisdiction. The king has his special peace. But the county, the hundred and the greater lords have also their peace and their jurisdiction.

Under the Norman kings we get a strong central court but no very distinct separation into departments of government. The Exchequer, it is true, in Henry I's reign seems to be beginning to have a distinct organisation. But the Exchequer was staffed by the same body of officials who regularly took their places in the Curia Regis. At this period it is the personality of the king which gives to the Curia Regis its power, as the reign of Stephen clearly shows. The laws of Henry I. recognise the law of the king's court as supreme all over the country. It constitutes a fourth species of law, superior to the tribal customs of the West Saxons, the Mercians, and the Danes in its stability and power. But we can see from these same laws that it has not yet attained either a definite jurisdiction or a definite organisation.

The legal reforms of Henry II. gave to the Curia Regis a more definite jurisdiction; and, as a consequence we begin to see at the end of this period the beginnings of a more definite organization of the powers of the state.

The following is a list of the chief legislative acts which are of importance to legal history. (1) The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164). They were an attempt to settle the matters in dispute between church and state, and the limits of the jurisdiction of the lay and the ecclesiastical courts. (2) The Assize of Clarendon (1166). This is a set of instructions to the itinerant justices and sheriffs with reference to their duties and their jurisdiction. (3) The Inquest of Sheriffs (1170). This directs a general inquiry into the methods in which the sheriffs had been conducting the local government of the country. (4) The Assize of Northampton (1176) was a reinactment and enlargement of the Assize of Clarendon. (5) The Grand Assize provided a new method for the trial of actions relating to the ownership of land. (6) The Assize Utrum provided for the trial of the question whether land is a lay fee or held in frankalmoigne. (7) The Possessory Assizes. The Assize of novel disseisin provided for the trial of the question whether A has disturbed B's seisin. The Assize of mort d'ancestre provided for the trial of a dispute as to who is the heir of the person last seised of a given estate of freehold. The Assize of darrein presentment provided for the trial of a dispute as to who was

last scised of the right to present to a vacant living. In all these assizes the trial was by jury. In all these assizes the proceedings were by royal writ addressed either to the justices of the Curia Regis, to the sheriff, or to the lord of whom the land was held.

The result is that the Curia Regis draws to itself jurisdiction. over criminal cases, and over actions relating to the ownership or possession of land held by free tenure. The, pleas of the crown are now no longer described by the formless list which we find in the laws of Henry I. The opening words of Glanvil's treatise contain a classification which would have been impossible at the beginning. of Henry II's reign. "Placitorum," he says, "aliud est criminale, aliud civile. Item placitorum criminalium, aliud pertinet ad coronam domini regis, aliud ad vicecomitem.” The civil pleas of the crown determined in the Curia Regis are pleas concerning baronies, the advowsons of churches, status, dower, the non-observance of a fine made in the Curia Regis, homage, reliefs, purprestres, debts of the laity, ownership, and possession. The civil pleas of the crown determined by the sheriff are the ownership of freehold where the lord has made default, and the ownership of villeins. The sheriff hears these pleas of the crown "per breve domini regis.” In the laws of Henry I. the sheriff is vaguely stated to be unable to hear pleas of the crown "sine diffinitis prelocucionibus," but no attempt is made to describe the form which these royal mandates may take. Glanvil always gives the text of the various writs by which these proceedings are begun. We can see from Glanvil's book that the jurisdiction of the Curia Regis is an elastic jurisdiction. The register of original writs is constantly expanding. "As yet the king is no mere vendor, he is a manufacturer and can make goods to order; the day has not come when the invention of new writs will be hampered by the ciaims of a parliament; but still in Glanvil's day the officina justitiae has already a considerable store of ready made wares and English law is already taking the form of a commentary upon writs."

Some organization of the Curia Regis becomes necessary. For some years after the accession of Henry I. the Curia Regis does not begin to split into departments. What division there is is rather a division between officials than between departments. The different members of the king's household-the justices, the chancellor, the treasurer, the chamberlain, the constable and the marshal-distribute among themselves the powers of government.

The court itself is now a large court composed of all the greater vassals of the crown and the leading officials of the state, now a small executive body, now a law court consisting of a few royal judges. Sometimes the king himself, sometimes the members of the Curia or of the Exchequer travel over the country. But any court whether held before the king himself or before his justices is Curia Regis-the court which administers royal justice as distinct from the justice administered by the communal or the feudal courts. At the end of this period we find that the court is beginning to split into various divisions in which we can discern the judicial system of the future.

I. The Common Law Courts.

Before describing in detail the various courts of common law we may notice that the courts were royal courts and that judges of these courts were royal justices. From this three consequences followed. (1) The king had originally a large control over the business before the court. We have seen that in early days the king actually decided cases. There are instances of this in Henry III., Edward I. and Edward II.'s reign. But when Fortescue wrote at the end of the 15th century it had ceased to be usual. Coke merely stated the existing practice in answer to James I.'s claim to decide cases for himself. Though the crown had thus ceased to take part in the proceedings of courts of law, he had many privileges and prerogatives in relation to such proceedings. It was claimed for him in James I.'s reign that he could peremptorily interfere to stop proceedings in any common law court by the writ of Rege Inconsulto. It was clear that he could sue in what court he pleased. In addition he had other smaller procedural advantages. Perhaps the right of the Attorney or Solicitor General to reply in a criminal case, though the prisoner has called no witnesses, is one of the last surviving of that "garland of prerogatives" which the older law gave to him. (2) The judges held their offices as a rule during the royal pleasure. The manipulation of the bench by the Stuarts led to the clause in the Act of Settlement which provided that the judges should hold office "quamdiu se bene gesserint"; but that it should be lawful for the crown to remove them on an address by the two Houses of Parliament. (3) They vacated their offices. on the demise of the crown. An Act of Anne provided that the judges, with other officers of the crown, should continue to hold their offices for a space of 6 months after the demise of the crown.

An Act of George III.'s reign provided that the judges' tenure of office should be unaffected by the demise of the crown.

The following courts comprised the Courts of Common Law:1. The court of Common Pleas. 2. The court of King's Bench. 3. The court of Exchequer. 4. The court of Exchequer Chamber.

GLANVILL, DE LEGIBUS ET CONSUETUDINIBUS REGNI ANGLIAE, Cap. 3, 4 (1187). (Beames's translation.)

Civil Pleas are divided into such as are discussed and determined in the King's Court only, and such as fall within the Jurisdiction of the Sheriffs of Counties. In the former Court, are discussed and determined, all such Pleas as concern Baronies, Advowsons of Churches, questions of condition, Dower, when the Woman has been entirely debarred from receiving it; for breach of Fine made in the King's Court; concerning the performing of Homage, and the receiving of Reliefs, and concerning Purprestures, and Debts owing by lay persons. These Pleas, indeed, relate to the propriety of the thing only: concerning those which refer to the possession, and which are discussed and decided by Recognitions, we shall speak in their proper place.

To the Sheriffs of Counties these Pleas appertain: the Plea concerning the Right of Freehold, when the Courts of the Lords are proved to have failed in doing justice, the nature of which we shall speak of in another place; and the Plea concerning Villeins-born: such Pleas being, in each instance, sanctioned by the King's Writ. Extracts from DIALOGUS DE SCACCARIO (1178-1179). Henderson, Historical Documents of the Middle Ages.) Disciple. What is the exchequer ?

(From

Master. The exchequer is a quadrangular surface about ten feet in length, five in breath, placed before those who sit around it in the manner of a table, and all around it it has an edge about the height of one's four fingers, lest any thing placed upon it should fall off. There is placed over the top of the exchequer, moreover, a cloth bought at the Easter term, not an ordinary one but a black one marked with stripes, the stripes being distant from each other the space of a foot or the breadth of a hand. In the spaces moreover are counters placed according to their values; about these we shall speak below. Although, moreover, such a surface is called exchequer, nevertheless this name is so changed about that the court itself which sits when the exchequer does is called exchequer; so that if at any time through a decree any thing is established by