king’s capital juſticiary of England, in the aula regis, or ſuch of his palaces wherein his royal perſon reſided; and removed with his houſhold from one end of the kingdom to the other. This was found to occaſion great inconvenience to the ſuitors; to remedy which it was made an article of the great charter of liberties, both that of king John and king Henry the third[1], that “common pleas ſhould no longer follow the king’s court, but be held in ſome certain place:” in conſequence of which they have ever ſince been held (a few neceſſary removals in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Weſtminſter only. This brought together the profeſſors of the municipal law, who before were diſperſed about the kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body; whereby a ſociety was eſtabliſhed of perſons, who (as Spelman[2] obſerves) addicting themſelves wholly to the ſtudy of the laws of the land, and no longer conſidering it as a mere ſubordinate ſcience for the amuſement of leiſure hours, ſoon raiſed thoſe laws to that pitch of perfection, which they ſuddenly attained under the auſpices of our Engliſh Juſtinian, king Edward the firſt.
In conſequence of this lucky aſſemblage, they naturally fell into a kind of collegiate order, and, being excluded from Oxford and Cambridge, found it neceſſary to eſtabliſh a new univerſity of their own. This they did by purchaſing at various times certain houſes (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 acceſs to the one, and plenty of proviſions in the other[3]. Here exerciſes 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 thoſe of barriſters (firſt ſtiled apprentices[4] from apprendre, to learn) who anſwered to our ba-
