The methods of procedure used by the council may be enumerated as follows:

(1) Writ of Scire facias. (z)

(2) Commissions of Oyer and Terminer.

(3) Writ of subpœna.

(4) Præmunire Writs, or Quibusdam certis de causis (since the first statute of Præmunire, 27 Ed. III. st. 1, c. 1).

(5) Bail (first found temp. Richard II.).

(6) Writ of Ne exeat regno (now used to restrain fraudulent debtors from absconding).

(7) Commissions of Rebellion, issued to the sheriff and justices, directing them to arrest the wrong-doer in cases of disobedience to the council's orders.

The council's methods of procedure were very unpopular, being considered, perhaps justly, uncertain and oppressive; and many instances of petitions against the various writs are to be found during the fourteenth century, (a) and various statutes were passed to remedy abuses. (b) Eventually the original jurisdiction of the council was abolished in 1640. (c)

The Court of Star Chamber.-The term Star Chamber (Camera Stellata or Chambre des Estoyers) occurs first about 1348, and refers to the decoration of a room at Westminster Palace in which meetings of the council were frequently held to exercise the criminal jurisdiction of the King in Council. These sittings of the council to exercise criminal jurisdiction became known as the Court of Star Chamber, and in the third year of Henry VII. the Star Chamber Act (d) was passed, which did not create, but remodelled the constitution of the court. As constituted by this Act, the court consisted of the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, one bishop, one temporal lord, and the two chief justices, or two other justices in their stead. The lord president of the council was added in the reign of Henry VIII. (e)

The court sat in the Star Chamber, and took over most of

(z) See Carter, H. E. L. I. 116.

(a) See the instances cited by Holdsworth, H. E. L. 268 et seq. (b) See 2 Ed. III. c. 8; 5 Ed. III. c. 9; 25 Ed. III. st. 5, c. 4. (c) 16 Car. I. c. 10.

(d) 3 Hen. VII. c. 1.
(e) 21 Hen. VIII. c. 20.

the criminal duties of the council with regard to such matters as "murders, robberies, perjuries, and unsureties of all men living." (ƒ) The chief offences tried by the court were perjury, forgery, maintenance, riot, fraud, libel, and conspiracy, and generally such offences as the common law did not take cognizance of. But when the Star Chamber was abolished in the reign of Charles I., the Act (g) recited that as the offences triable therein were then all known to the common law, there was no necessity for the court. The Star Chamber also endeavoured to exercise supervision over juries, as in Sir Nicholas Throckmorton's case, 1554. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench for high treason, but was acquitted by the jury. The jury were then committed to prison, and eight of them were eventually brought before the Star Chamber and heavily fined. (h) The independence of juries was, however, finally established in Bushell's case, 1670. (i)

The court was especially severe against libellers, and in 1623 William Prynn, on account of his book, Histrio Mastix, was sentenced by the Star Chamber to be disbarred and deprived of his university degrees, to stand in the pillory and have his ears cut off, to be fined £5000, and to be perpetually imprisoned without books, ink, or paper. (j)

Thus on account of the severity of its sentences, the arbitrary nature of its proceedings, and the fact that it kept no records, the court was justly held in national odium. It was finally abolished, together with certain other courts and all jurisdiction of the King in Council, in the year 1640. (k)

The Court of Requests.-This court was another branch of the King's Council, and took over some portion of its civil jurisdiction, hearing complaints of poor men and of persons of the king's household. Its jurisdiction was largely equitable. and the court was extremely popular as affording a cheap and easy remedy for small suits not sufficiently important to

TO THE

be brought in the Court of Chancery itself. In Elizabeth's reign it came into collision with the courts of common law, who considered its jurisdiction illegal, and endeavoured to restrain its exercise by the writs of prohibition and habeas

corpus.

In 1640 the original jurisdiction of the council was abolished; (2) the Court of Requests, however, remained until the outbreak of the civil war in 1642, when it died a natural death. After the Restoration Charles II. did not attempt to restore it.

The Court of Chancery. Risc of Chancery.-As we have seen, the chancellor derived his authority originally from the lords of the council, and at first he could only act judicially with the council's authority, his judicial duties being mainly secretarial, (m) and connected with the issue of writs. In early times he was generally an ecclesiastic, (n) and it has been said of him that he "kept the king's seal and the king's soul." By the Provisions of Oxford, 1258, he was prevented from issuing new writs without the council's leave, (o) but by the statute of Westminster the second (p) the clerks in Chancery were empowered to issue writs in consimili casu. This it appears they neglected to do, so that eventually such causes. as the courts of common law would not recognize came under the chancellor's jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction. The jurisdiction thus acquired by the chancellor extended to such matters as uses," which he enforced as being binding on the conscience, and which the other courts would not recognize (q)—fraud, force, unfair or inequitable transactions, covenants, agreements, and declarations of trust. To the Court of Chancery is also due the doctrine of specific performance of contracts.

Procedure. The chancellor made use of the following writs (1) The writ of subpoena, by which a person was

(1) 16 Car. I. c. 10.

(m) See Reeves, H. E. L. i. 96.

(n) Nicholas Bacon, in the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1579), was the first professional lawyer to be appointed.

(0) See Stubbs' Sel. Chart., 393, 395.

(p) 13 Ed. I. c. 24.

(9) Uses of land were introduced about the end of the reign of Ed. III. See Steph., Comm., iii. 350.

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ordered to attend before the chancellor. In case of disobedience the commission of rebellion was issued ; (r) (2) the Præmunire writ, which commenced with the words, quibusdam certis de causis; (3) writ of Scire facias, to repeal letters patent, or upon recognizances, directed to the sheriff bidding him cause the defendant to appear; (s) (4) writ of Corpus cum causa, used in cases of a complaint of unlawful imprisonment. The chancellor could not, like the common law courts, issue writs of execution, but acted in all cases in personam; that is to say, in cases of disobedience to a decree, the delinquent was punished by attachment and committal as for a contempt, until he submitted to the decree. The commission of sequestration, by which a person's lands were sequestrated, was sometimes used, and was the nearest approach to the common law writ of execution.

The system of administering interrogatories, or making the defendant answer questions on oath, was also due to Chancery, whilst at common law the parties themselves were not even competent witnesses until 1851. (t) The use of the injunction was also due to Chancery, and this seems to have first been introduced about the reign of Henry VI. It was principally in connection with the use of injunctions that the courts of common law came into collision with the Chancery, and it was specially used to prevent persons taking advantage of their strict common law rights in matters connected with mortgages and trusts, in which the Court of Chancery eventually acquired a monopoly. The method adopted by Chancery was to issue an injunction restraining a person from bringing a suit at common law, or to prevent his executing a judgment given in the common law courts, (u) and in 1616 occurred the famous battle between Lord Chancellor Ellesmere and Lord Chief Justice Coke. Lord Ellesmere issued an injunction to prevent a judgment obtained before Lord Coke by gross fraud from being executed. The parties, solicitors, counsel, and even a master in Chancery were then indicted by Lord

(r) The writ of subpana is said to have been introduced by John Waltham, chancellor to Richard II. See Steph., Comm., iii. 35. (8) See Holdsworth, H. E. L. 227, 427.

(t) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 99.

(u) See Courtney v. Glanvil, (1615) Cro. Jac. 343.

Coke for having questioned his judgment. The king was called in to settle the dispute, and, having taken the advice of the principal law officers, supported the chancellor on the ground, however, of prerogative. (v) Since then the right of Chancery to issue an injunction has not been questioned.

Equitable System.-Equitable rules and doctrines were at first ill defined and without system; they varied, according to Selden, "with the length of the chancellor's foot." Gradually rules and precedents grew up and an equitable system was evolved, such men as Lord Bacon (who succeeded Lord Ellesmere) and Sir Heneage Finch, 1673 (afterwards Lord Nottingham), doing much to further that end, and in more modern times Lord Hardwicke (1737-1757) and Lord Eldon (1801-1820), until at the present day the rules and principles of equity are almost as well ascertained as those of the common law itself.

Composition of the Court.-Originally the lord chancellor sat sometimes with the lords of the council, sometimes alone, and later on he was assisted by the master of the rolls, whose judgments, however, were at one time subject to be discharged or altered by the lord chancellor. (w) A vicechancellor was subsequently appointed, (x) and later on, in 1841, two additional vice-chancellors (y): On the equity business. of the Exchequer being transferred to the Court of Chancery. In 1851 (2) two lords justices of appeal in Chancery were created, who, with the lord chancellor, formed a Court of Appeal in Chancery, from which appeal lay to the House of Lords, and this system prevailed until the passing of the Judicature Acts.

The Appellate Jurisdiction of the Council.-After the establishment of the Court of Exchequer Chamber to review errors in the courts of common law, and the recognition of the House of Lords as the ultimate court of appeal from the Exchequer Chamber, there still remained to the council

(v) See Steph., Comm., iii. 353.

(w) See 3 Geo. II. c. 30, and 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 94, s. 24.
(x) 53 Geo. III. c. 24.

(y) 5 Vict. c. 5, s. 19.

(z) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 83.