Page:English Law and the Renaissance.djvu/61

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Notes 17, 18
49

The Court of Requests.17 Select Cases in the Court of Requests (Selden Society), 1898, p. cxxiii. Mr Leadam's introduction to this volume contains a great deal of new and valuable matter concerning this important court. The title of the 'masters of requests' seems certainly to come hither from France. Just at this time there was a good deal of borrowing in these matters: witness the title of the ' secretaries of state,' which, it is said, spreads outwards from Spain to make the tour of the world.

Smith's inaugural orations.18 Of Smith's two orations there is a copy in Smith's Camb. Univ. Libr. Baker MSS. XXXVII. 394, 414. Mr Mullinger (Hist. Univ. Cambr., vol. II., p. 127) has given an excellent summary. The following passage is that in which the Professor approaches the question whether in England there is a career open to the civilian. He has been saying that we ought not to study merely for the sake of riches. 'Tamen si qui sint qui hoc requirant, sunt archiva Londini, sunt pontificia fora, forum est praefecti quoque classis, in quibus proclamare licet et vocem vendere; est scriptura; singuli pontifices cancellarios suos habent et officiales et commissarios, qui propter civilis et pontificii iuris professionem in hunc locum accipiuntur.' The orator proceeds to ask whether there is any youth who ungratefully thinks that proficiency in legal science will not find an adequate reward. 'In quo regno aut in cuius regis imperio tarn stulta ilium opinio tenebit? In hoccine nobilissimi atque invictissimi nostri principis Henrici