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Show 16 I:NTRODUCTION. causes, civil and cri1nina1, and comprehended the whole busin ess which is now shared out among four court -the Chancery, the ICing's Bench, the Conunon Pleas, and the I~xchequcr. " Such an accumulation of powers wa itself a gr at . ource of authority, and rendered the jurisdiction of the court ionnidable to all the subjects ; but the turn which j ndicial trials took soon after the conque--t served till1nore to incr a 'C it -authority, and to augment the royal prerogatives. "\Villiam, among the other violent changes which he attempted and effected, had introduced the Norman law into England, had ordered all the pleading-- to be in that tongue, and had iuterwoven with the Engli h jurisprudence all the 1naxims and principles which the Norman , more advanced in cultivation, and naturally litigious, were accustomed to ob .. erve in the admini ·tration of ju tice. "Law now Lecame a . cicnce,* which at fir --t fell cn~irely into the hands of the Normans, and eYen after it was comInunicated to the Englj 'h, required o n1uch ·tudy and application that the laity of tho c ignorant ages were incapable of attaining it, and it was a n1ystery abno t solely confineu to the clergy, and chie!ly to the rnonk '. "The great ofiicer"' of the crown, and the feuual baron who were military men, found themselves unfit to penetrate into these ob"curities; and though they w re entitled to a cat in the upreme judicature, the htr·inc .., of the court was wholly managed by the chief justiciary and the law LarOir, ,rho were men appointed by the king, and entirely at his dispo 'al. * It might rather be said, a scholastic art, in which forms and words ?eca~e matters of much greater consideration than subs tantial justice, and fma cwuhlt~lecsh. technical rules were substituted for the exercise of the reasoning INTitODuCTIO,. •• 17 This natural course of things wa.· forwarded by the multiplici ty of business which flowed into that court, and which daily augrnen ted by the appeals from all the u borcli nate j uc1icatu res of the kingclon1. For the great power of the Conqueror e - tabli .. hc<l at iir -- t in l~nglancl an authority wLich the n1onarch:-; in France were not able to attain till the r 0ign of St. Loui ~, who live<.l ncar two centuries after : he e1npowered hj ., court to r eceive appeal., both fr01n tliC court· of barony alld the county court,, and by that 1nean brought tbe admini traLion of justice ullimately into the bands of the sovereign.'* "And lest the expmLe or trouble of the j ourney to court should di ·courage ~u itors and n1akc them acquic:3ce in tlle decision of the inf )rior j ndicatu re~, itinerant j ullge., were af'tcrwanls cstaLli. hed, who n1ade their circuits through the kingdorn a1Hl tried all ca.:es that were brought before them. By thi , e .. ·pedicnL the co urt~ of barony were kept in awe, and jf th ·y still pre. cr,·cd , 01nc infiuenee it was only ii·mn the apprehension which the vas~nl: might entertain of di:obliging their ·uperior by appcaliug frmn hi-- jurisdiction. But the county courts were much discredited; and as tlJe freeholders were found ignorant of the intricate princi plcs and form ~ of the n ew law, the Iawy(!l'S gradually brought all bu--iness before the king's judges, an1l almndoncu that convenient, . imple, and popular judicature." 1"'h0 innoyations of the Uouqueror ana hi~ succ ssor.:; basing rc<lncccl tbc old local .. Anglo-Saxon tribunal. to con1parat ivc in: ignii1 eancc, the whole judicial authority, except that whi('h had· b en scizc(l upon hy t lte ccclc~i a. ticn l court", * Not merely were these appeal ~ introduced, but process was im en ted by which suits commenced in these local courts might, ueforc they were finished, be removed into the king's courts, by the writ of pone and others. 2 :!(< |
