151 SHORT NOTICES January public opinion and the geographical isolation of officials, unscrupulous men or corrupt bailiffs and justices could abuse the forms of justice. Conspiracy, as defined in 33 Edward I, was primarily a combination falsely to indict, or falsely to move or maintain pleas. Com- binations to refuse suit and service, or to exact unauthorized tolls, to bring a false charge or interfere with an inquest were among the com- monest occurrences ; they fully justified the growth of writs of conspiracy, the savage ' villainous judgement ', and the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber. Dr. Winfield illustrates from Lancashire the value of geographical knowledge in detecting conspiracy. False indictments were especially easy in that county owing to its geographical peculiarities. Morecambe Bay so splits the county that juries drawn from either division of it might well be ignorant of the existence of places in the other, and indictments and appeals of treason and felony were falsely procured against persons who were accused of having committed them in a fictitious place. Dr. Winfield's paper is continued in the October issue of the Review. The October issue (no. 144) also contains another article by Dr. Holds- worth on the historical background of the recent decisions in the house of lords in the two cases of Bowman v. The Secular Society and Bourne v. Keane. He traces very clearly the modern history and decline of the common-law rules, as distinct from statutes directed against religious non- conformity, and maintains the illegality of the expression and teaching of definitely anti-Christian beliefs. The changes in common-law doctrine during the last century have in their turn reacted on the interpretation of early statutes, especially the preamble to the Chantries Act of Edward VI. Dr. E. F. Churchill contributes a paper on the protection given by the Crown to the alien in England between 1066 and 1689 (pp. 402-28) which forms an instalment of his researches into the history of the royal pre- rogative. F. M. P. The 1919 volume of the Collections for a History of Staffordshire (London : Harrison, 1920) is not quite so substantial as some of the recent issues of the William Salt Archaeological Society, but it contains several solid contributions worthy of the high traditions of that body. Among these are (1) ' Notes on the Early History of the Parish of Blithfield ", by its late rector, the Rev. D. S. Murray, who died while the article was passing through the press ; (2) ' The Staffordshire Hidation ', by Messrs. C. G. 0. Bridgeman and G. P. Mander, wherein a valiant and systematic effort is made to investigate the part played in local history by the ' five hide unit ' which Mr. J. H. Round has shown to be so important in the history of other counties ; and (3) ' Gregory King's Notebook, 1679-80 ', edited from a manuscript in the William Salt Library by Mr. Mander. We note that Colonel Wedgwood has now retired from the secretaryship of the - society, to which he has so long devoted a large share of his unflagging energy. T. F. T. In Annates de Bretagne, vol. xxiv, no. 1, M. E. Deprez publishes from the Ancient Correspondence in the Public Record Office (L, no. 135) an interesting ' lettre missive ' of John of Montfort, the claimant to the
