1921 WRITS OF ASSISTANCE, 1558-1700 371 exemplified by the judges, and that of the persons whom we should call Attendants at the present day. 1 Hitherto we have dealt with writs of assistance that were issued by the Crown, but there are also two very interesting Pawns in this collection giving the writs that were sent out in 1658 and 1659 respectively, and the names of the persons to whom they were sent. As was pointed out above, they are in English, and are warrants for the preparation of the writs and not enrolments of them. Moreover, the senior assistant summoned is not, as was normally the case, the chief justice of the king's bench ; in the Pawn for 1658 he was William Lenthall, master of the rolls, though he, as well as the chief justices of the king's bench and common pleas, was a peer in his own right. In 1659 the senior assistant was Sir Thomas Widdrington, chief baron of the exchequer. To the parliament of 1658 there were also summoned as assistants, two justices of the king's bench, three justices of the common pleas, three barons of the exchequer, and one serjeant-at-law ; to that of 1659, two justices of the king's bench, two justices of the common pleas, and three barons of the exchequer. 2 The attorney and solicitor general and the secretary were omitted on each occasion. In these two parliaments the lords made vigorous efforts to follow in full the precedents set by their more legitimate pre- decessors. The judges were called upon to assist at the lords' committees ; 3 judges were entrusted with the drafting of a bill ; 4 sometimes his highness's serjeant-at-law was to prepare the bill and two judges to peruse it and report it to the house ; 5 messages were sent down to the commons by two judges, 6 for there appear to have been no masters of chancery in attendance ; sometimes the judges asked the house for leave of absence, 7 and sometimes they seemed to stay away without troubling to consult the house. 8 In a way the whole procedure is an interesting com- mentary on the desire that was being felt to restore not merely the realities of the old constitution but even its ceremonial. 1 Occasionally in the Lords' Journals the term ' assistant ' is used merely in the sense of one who is present, and not with any technical meaning ; for instance, Mr. Henry Barker, deputy to the clerk of the Crown in chancery, was ' admitted to sit in this House as an Assistant ' on 26 April 1660 (Lords' Journals, xi. 5). 2 See these Pawns at the bottom of bundle i. 3 House of Lords' Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 1699-1702, pp. 527, 529, 530, &c. (this is an appendix containing the journals of the house of lords for 1658 and 1659). 4 e. g. Mr. Baron Hill was to draft the bill for disannulling and disclaiming the pretended title of Charles Stuart (ibid., p. 531). 8 Ibid., p. 530. • Ibid., pp. 511, 524. 7 e. g. 5 March 1659 (ibid., p. 545). 8 The attendance of the judges during term time was dispensed with, unless they were sent for (25 January 1658 ; ibid., p. 514), but on 30 March 1659 the daily attendance both of members and assistants was ordered (ibid., p. 554). Bb2
