ACCOUNT OF BOOKS.
gradually loft and over-run by the civil, (a fui'picion well jalUfied fronj the frequent tranfcripts of Juftinian to be met with in Brac- ton and Fleta) had it not been for a peculiar incident, which hap- pened at a very critical time, and contributed greatly to its fup- port.
The incident I mean was the fixing the court of common pleas, the grand tribunal for difputes of property, to be held in one cer- tain fpot ; that the feat of ordi- nary juftice might be permanent and notorious to all the nation. Formerly that, in conjundtion with all the other fuperior courts, was held before the king's capital judiciary of England, in the aula, regis, or fuc1i of his palaces where- in his royal perfon refidcd, and removed with his houfhold 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 fhould no longer
- follow the king's court, but be
- held in feme certain place:*
in confequence of which they have ever fince been held (a few ne- cefTary removals in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Weilminfter only. This brought together the profeflbrs of the mu- nicipal law, who before were dif- perfed about the kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body: whereby a fociety was eita- blilhed of perfons, who (as Spel- man obferves) addicled themfejves wholly to the ftudy of the laws of the land, and no longer confider- ing it as a mere fubordinaie fcience
457
for the amufement of lei fare hours, foon raifed thofe laws to that pitch of perfeflion, which theyfuddenly attained under the aufpices of onr Englifh Judinian, King Edward the firft.
In confequence of this lucky af- femblage, they naturally fell into a kind of collegiate order ; and being excluded from Oxford and Cambridge, found it neceflary to eftablilh a new univerfity of their own. This they did by purchaf- ing at various times certain houfes, (now called the inns of court and of chancery) between the city of Weltminller, the place of holding the king's courts, and the city of London ; for advantage of ready accefs to the one, and plenty of provillons in the other. Here ex- ercifes were performed, leftares read, and degrees were at length conferred in the common laws, as at other univerfities in the canon and civil. The degrfes were thofe of barrifters (iiril ftiied apprentices, from apprendre, to learn) who an- fvvered to our bachelors ; as the Itate and degree of a ferjeant, fer- •vientis ad Iceemf did to that of doclor."
The author has alfo rhe follow- ing mo;t ufefii remarks on cer- tain illiberal notion* and pradices with regard to a legal educa' tion.
" The evident want of fome afiiftance in the rudiments of legal knowledge, has given birth to a practice which, if ever it had grown to be general, muft have proved of extremely pernicious cypfequence : I mean the cuftom, by lome very warmly recommend- ed, to drop all liberal education, as of no ufe to lawyers ; and to place them, in its Head, at the
dek
