ty in these feats of learning; and why the common law was entirely despised, and efteemed little better than heretical.

AND, fince the reformation, many caufes have confpired to prevent it's becoming a part of academical education. As, firft, long ufage and established cuftom; which, as in every thing elfe, fo especially in the forms of fcholaftic exercise, have justly great weight and authority. Secondly, the real intrinfic merit of the civil law, confidered upon the footing of reafon and not of obligation, which was well known to the inftructors of our youth; and their total ignorance of the merit of the common law, though it's equal at least, and perhaps an improvement on the other. But the principal reafon of all, that has hindered the introduction of this branch of learning, is, that the study of the common law, being banished from hence in the times of popery, has fallen into a quite different channel, and has hitherto been wholly cultivated in another place. But as the long ufage and established cuftom, of ignorance of the laws of the land, begin now to be thought unreasonable; and as by these means the merit [22] of thofe laws will probably be more generally known; we

may hope that the method of studying them will foon revert to it's antient courfe, and the foundations at least of that fcience will be laid in the two univerfities; without being exclufively confined to the channel which it fell into at the times I have just been defcribing.

FOR, being then entirely abandoned by the clergy, a few ftragglers excepted, the fludy and practice of it devolved of courfe into the hands of laymen who entertained upon their parts a moft hearty averfion to the civil law, and made no fcruple to profefs their contempt, nay even their ignorance

of it, in the most public manner. But ftill as the balance of learning was greatly on the fide of the clergy, and as the common law was no longer taught, as formerly, in any part of the kingdom, it must have been subjected to many inconveniences, and perhaps would have been gradually loft and overrun by the civil, (a fufpicion well juftified from the frequent tranfcripts of Juftinian to be met with in Bracton and Fleta,) had it not been for a peculiar incident, which happened at a very critical time, and contributed greatly to it's fupport.

THE incident which I mean was the fixing the court of common pleas, the grand tribunal for difputes of property, to be held in one certain fpot; that the feat of ordinary juftice might be permanent and notorious to all the nation. Formerly that, in conjunction with all the other fuperior courts, was held before the king's capital jufticiary of England, in [ 23 ] the aula regis, or fuch of his palaces wherein his royal perfon resided; and removed with his household from one end of the kingdom to the other. This was found to occafion great inconvenience to the fuitors; to remedy which it was made an article of the great charter of liberties, both that of king John and king Henry the third, that "common pleas should "no longer follow the king's court, but be held in fome "certain place:" in confequence of which they have ever fince been held (a few neceffary removals in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Westminster only. This brought together the profeffors of the municipal law, who before were difperfed about the kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body; whereby a fociety was eftablished of

ty in these feats of learning; and why the common law was entirely defpifed, and efteemed little better than heretical.

AND, fince the reformation, many caufes have confpired to prevent it's becoming a part of academical education. As, firft, long ufage and established custom; which, as in every thing elfe, fo efpecially in the forms of fcholaftic exercife, have justly great weight and authority. Secondly, the real intrinfic merit of the civil law, confidered upon the footing of reafon and not of obligation, which was well known to the inftructors of our youth; and their total ignorance of the merit of the common law, though it's equal at least, and perhaps an improvement on the other. But the principal reafon of all, that has hindered the introduction of this branch of learning, is, that the study of the common law, being banished from hence in the times of popery, has fallen into a quite different channel, and has hitherto been wholly cultivated in another place. But as the long ufage and established cuftom, of ignorance of the laws of the land, begin now to be thought unreasonable; and as by thefe means the merit [22] of thofe laws will probably be more generally known; we

may hope that the method of studying them will foon revert to it's antient course, and the foundations at least of that fcience will be laid in the two univerfities; without being exclufively confined to the channel which it fell into at the times I have just been defcribing.

FOR, being then entirely abandoned by the clergy, a few ftragglers excepted, the fludy and practice of it devolved of courfe into the hands of laymen: who entertained upon their parts a moft hearty averfion to the civil law, and made no fcruple to profefs their contempt, nay even their ignorance

gloffatoris, quod tantam peritiam in
utroque jure babuit, ut publice in
fcholis legere aufa fit."

n Fortefc. de laud. LL. c. 25.

This remarkably appeared in the cafe of the abbot of Torun, M. 22

Edw. III. 24. who had caufed a cercain prior to be fummoned to answer at Avignon for erecting an oratory contra inhibitionem novi operis; by which words Mr. Selden, (in Flet. 8. 5.) very justly understands to be meant the title de novi

of it, in the most public manner. But ftill as the balance of learning was greatly on the fide of the clergy, and as the common law was no longer taught, as formerly, in any part of the kingdom, it must have been fubjected to many inconveniences, and perhaps would have been gradually loft and overrun by the civil, (a fufpicion well juftified from the frequent tranfcripts of Juftinian to be met with in Bracton and Fleta,) had it not been for a peculiar incident, which happened at a very critical time, and contributed greatly to it's fupport.

THE incident which I mean was the fixing the court of common pleas, the grand tribunal for difputes of property, to be held in one certain fpot; that the feat of ordinary juftice might be permanent and notorious to all the nation. Formerly that, in conjunction with all the other fuperior courts, was held before the king's capital jufticiary of England, in [ 23 ] the aula regis, or fuch of his palaces wherein his royal perfon refided; and removed with his houfehold from one end of the kingdom to the other. This was found to occafion great inconvenience to the fuitors; to remedy which it was made an article of the great charter of liberties, both that of king John and king Henry the third ", that "common pleas should "no longer follow the king's court, but be held in fome "certain place:" in confequence of which they have ever fince been held (a few neceffary removals in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Westminster only. This brought together the profeffors of the municipal law, who before were difperfed about the kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body; whereby a fociety was established of

[24]

perfons, who, (as Spelman obferves,) addicting themselves wholly to the study of the laws of the land, and no longer confidering it as a mere fubordinate science for the amuse, ment of leisure hours, foon raised those laws to that pitch of perfection, which they fuddenly attained under the auspices of our English Juftinian, king Edward the firft.

IN confequence of this lucky assemblage, they naturally fell into a kind of collegiate order, and, being excluded from Oxford and Cambridge, found it neceffary to establish a new univerfity of their own. This they did by purchasing at various times certain houfes (now called the inns of court and of chancery) between the city of Westminster, the place of holding the king's courts, and the city of London; for advantage of ready accefs to the one, and plenty of provifions in the other. Here exercifes were performed, lectures' read, and degrees were at length conferred in the common law, as at other universities in the canon and civil. The degrees were thofe of barristers (first stiled apprentices from apprendre, to learn) who answered to our bachelors: as the ftate and degree of a ferjeant', fervientis ad legem, did to that of doctor.

a Glossar. 334,

Fortefc. c. 48.

$ Apprentices or barriflers feem to have been first appointed by an ordinance of king Edward the first in parliament, in the 20th year of his reign. (Spelm. Gloff 37. Dugdale, Orig. jurid. 55.)

The first mention which I have met with in our law books of ferjeants or countors, is in the ftatute of Weltm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c 29. and in Horn's Mirror, c. I. § 10. c. 2. § 5. c. 3. § 1. in the fame reign. But M. Paris in his life of John II. abbot of St. Alban's, which he wrote in 1255, 39 Hen. II. fpeaks of advocates at the common law,or countors, (ques banci nari atores vulgariter appellamus,) as of an order of men well known. And we have an example of the antiqui

ty of the coif in the fame author's history of England, A. D. 1259. in the cafe of one William de Buffy; who, being called to account for his great knavery and mal-practices, claimed the benefit of his orders or clergy, which till then remained an entire fecret; and to that end voluit ligamenta coifae suae folvere, ut pa_ lam monftraret fe tenfuram babere clericalem; fed non eft permiffus. -Satelles vero eum arripiens, non per coifae ligamina fed per guttur eum apprehendens, tı axit ad carcerem. And hence fir H. Spelman conjectures, (Gloffar. 335) that coifs were introduced to hide the tonfure of fuch renegade clerks, as were ftill tempted to remain in the fecular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwith ftanding their prohibition by canon.

THE