| OCR Text |
Show 18 I~TRODUCTION. remained for a hundred and fifty years after the eonquc~t concentrated in the Aula Regis. BuL as Nonuan and Saxon became thoroughly intennixed, with the first faint dawn of modern Eng1i3h liberty the judicial power thn "' Uwrouo-hly centralized became again subdivided and distributed, though in a 1nanncr very different from that of the axon tin1c ". The A.nglo-Norman king of England were perpetually on the n1ove : the only way of dispo ing of the products of the landed estates which ·cattered oYer England afforded the n1ain part of the royal revenue, was to go thither with the royal household and con ume it on the spot. \Vherever the king went, the Aula Regi followed, occa::;ioning thereby rrreat inconvenience and delay to "u itor~. This wa ·· eon1plain \<1 of as a grievance, and the barons who extort eJ 1\Iagna, Charta from their r eluctant overeign insi.;;ted, a1nono- other thino- ·, - b 0 that Common Pleas, that is, ci \'il ui t · Lei ween 1nan a ucl lll<lll, should he held in :ome certain place. It wa in thi · provision of l\Iagna. Charta that originated the ]~ngli:h Court of C01nmon Plea,, which became fixecl at \V c::;tluin;-;tcr II all, the place of session of the Aula Regi. when the king was in the vicinity of London. Tbi ~ Court. of Cornmon l)J ca:-;, or Con1mon Bench as it wa sometime· called, seems to hnse been at first but a 1nere committee of the Aula l~cgis ; and the disintegration of Lhat tribunal, thus Legun, "ra~, on the acces ion of Edwanl I. in 1272, complet J by it re: olu tion into three or rather five di. tinct triLunal . Of these new court', that which 1nore i1nn1ediately represented the Aula Regi."' wa. the Court of l{ino·'s Bench which 'll 0 ' sti continued to follow the king and to be held in his pres-ence. In the language of its procc , uch is still su ppo:Scd to be the case; but like the other English court:·, it has long INTRODUCTION. 19 since been fixed at \Vestminster I-Iall, and acln1its nobody to participate in its proceedings save its own me1nLers- a chief ju tice, who, though of inferior position in point of precedence, 1nay be con id red as in . ome re"pects the succe ... or of the chief ju ticiary, which offtcc was now aboli:;hed - and three or four pui no j uuge , the nutnber having varied at different time . The Court of Com1non Pleas \Vas now al ~o organized like the ICing's Bench, with a chicfju tice and three or four pui ne juugcs. As thi... court had exclu.'ive jurisdiction of civil suit", (except tho e re]at ing to n1arriage, di Yorce, will~, tithes, and the di. tribution of the personal property of intc tates, which had been u:::mrped Ly the eccle ia tical courts,) Pleas of the Grown, that is, the criminal juris prudence of the realm, (except prosecution, for heresy, of whieh the ecclc ia tical court clain1ed jurisuiction,) and al 'O the hardly less ilnportant duty of superintending the other tribuna] , eYen the Con1mon Pl '}as itself; anu ke 'ping the1n wilhin their due lin1it., was a ~ j rrne<.l to the l{in O''s Bench. 0 b T'o a third court, that of Exchequer, of which, be~ iues a chief baron and three or four puisne Larons, the tr a urer and the chancellor of the exehequer origina1Jy formed a part, were as ' ib()'necl all case" tou ·hino· the kincr's revenue and 0 b ' e ·pecially the collection of <1 ·L>t, due to hi1n, in which light were regarded not only all ilne."", forfeiture~, and feu<..lal due ... , but the impost. and aiel· occa. ion ally grantet.l by Parlimu n t. 'I' here wa, aL o a ConrL oC Chivalry or " Ilonor Court," presided over by the ·on,'table and 1narshal, and having jurisdiction of all que~ Lion.· touehing rank auu precedency; and another, over which the ·tewarcl of tlte household presiued, to regulate the king's don1estic ·ervants ; but these courts, |
