balance of learning was greatly on the side of the clergy, and as the common law was no longer taught, as formerly, in any part of the kingdom, it must have been subjected to many inconveniences, and perhaps would have been gradually lost and overrun by the civil, (a suspicion well justified from the frequent transcripts of Justinian to be met with in Bracton and Fleta) had it not been for a peculiar incident, which happened at a very critical time, and contributed greatly to its support. m greatly as establish court of com Westmins ter; The incident which I mean was the fixing the court of which was common pleas, the grand tribunal for disputes of property, sisted by the to be held in one certain spot; that the seat of ordinary ment of the justice might be permanent and notorious to all the nation. mon pleas at Formerly that, in conjunction with all the other superior courts, was held before the king's capital justiciary of [ 23 ] England, in the aula regis, or such of his palaces wherein his royal person resided; and removed with his household 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, 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 and thus a the municipal law, who before were dispersed about the fessors was kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body; whereby the study of a society was established of persons, who, (as Spelmann law; 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. body of pro formed for the common lished the In consequence of this lucky assemblage, they naturally who estab fell into a kind of collegiate order, and, being excluded from inns of Oxford and Cambridge, found it necessary to establish a new chancery. court and 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. 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 styled apprentices P from apprendre, [24] to learn) who answered to the bachelors degrees conferred at the universities: as the state and degree of a serjeant, servientis ad legem, did to that of doctor. which was protected by the crown. Serjeants: their peculiar privilege abolished; The crown seems to have soon taken under it's protection this infant seminary of common law; and, the more effectually to foster and cherish it, king Henry the third in the nineteenth year of his reign issued out an order directed to the mayor and sheriffs of London, commanding that no regent of any law schools within that city should for the future teach law therein." The word, law, or leges, being a general • Fortesc. c. 48. P Apprentices or barristers seem to have been first appointed by an ordinance of king Edward the first in parliament, in the 20th year of his reign. (Spelm. Gloss. 37. Dugdale, Orig. jurid. 55.) The first mention which I have met with in our law-books of serjeants or countors, is in the statute of Westm. 1, 3 Edw. I. c. 29, and in Horn's Mirror, c. 1, s. 10, c. 2, s. 5, c. 3, s. 1, in the same reign. But M. Paris, in his life of John Il, abbot of St. Alban's, which he wrote in 1255, 39 Hen. III. speaks of advocates at the common law, or countors, (quo sbanci narratores vulgariter appellamus) as of an order of men well known. And we have an example of the antiquity of the coif in the same author's history of England, A. D. 1259, in the case of one William de Bussy; who, being called to account for his great knavery and malpractices, claimed the benefit of his orders or clergy, which till then re - mained an entire secret; and to that, end voluit ligamenta coifae suae solvere, ut palam monstraret se tonsuram habere clericalem; sed non est permissus. Satelles vero cum arripiens, non per coifae ligamina sed per guttur eum ̃apprehendens, traxit ad carcerem. And hence Sir H. Spelman conjectures, (Glossar. 335.) that coifs were introduced to hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks, as were still tempted to remain in the secular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwithstanding their prohibition by ca term, may create some doubt at this distance of time whether the teaching of the civil law, or the common, or both, is hereby restrained. But in either case it tends to the same end. If the civil law only is prohibited, (which is Mr. Selden's opinion) it is then a retaliation upon the clergy, who had excluded the common law from their seats of learning. If the municipal law be also included in the restriction, (as Sir Edward Coket understands it, and which the words seem to import) then the intention is evidently this; by preventing private teachers within the walls of the city to collect all the common lawyers into the one public university, which was newly instituted in the suburbs. [ 25 ] In this juridical university (for such it is insisted to have and formerly been by Fortescue" and Sir Edward Coke) there were two inns of sorts of collegiate houses: one called inns of chancery, in which the younger students of the law were usually placed, "learning and studying, says Fortescue, the originals and as it were the elements of the law; who, profiting therein, as "they grew to ripeness so were they admitted into the greater "inns of the same study, called the inns of court." And in these inns of both kinds, he goes on to tell us, the knights and barons, with other grandees and noblemen of the realm. did use to place their children, though they did not desire to have them thoroughly learned in the law, or to get their living by it's practice: and that in his time there were about In Fortestwo thousand students at these several inns, all of whom he there were informs us were filii nobilium, or gentlemen born. divided into court and inns of chancery. cue's time 2,000 students. Hence, it is evident, that (though under the influence of the monks our universities neglected this study, yet) in the time of Henry the sixth it was thought highly necessary and was the universal practice, for the young nobility and gentry to be instructed in the originals and elements of the laws. But by degrees this custom has fallen into disuse; so that in the reign of queen Elizabeth Sir Edward Cokez does not reckon above a thousand students, and the number at pre- In time of Eliz. 1,000 sent is perhaps not greater. Which seems principally only; owing to these reasons; first, because the inns of chancery, but the inns of chancery are now not much resorted to being now almost totally filled by the inferior branch of the profession, are neither commodious nor proper for the resort of gentlemen of any rank or figure: so that there are very rarely any young students entered at the inns of chancery; secondly, because in the inns of court all sorts of regimen and academical superintendence, either with regard to morals or studies, are found impracticable and therefore entirely neglected lastly, because persons of birth and fortune, after having finished their usual courses at the universities, [26] have seldom leisure or resolution sufficient to enter upon a join the inns new scheme of study at a new place of instruction. Whereof court but fore few gentlemen now resort to the inns of court, but such the profes- for whom the knowledge of practice is absolutely necessary; such, I mean, as are intended for the profession: the rest of our gentry, (not to say our nobility also) having usually retired to their estates, or visited foreign kingdoms, or entered upon public life, without any instruction in the laws of the land, and indeed with hardly any opportunity of gaining instruction, unless it can be afforded them in the The inns of universities. The inns of court are the Inner Temple, and few will such as are intended for sion. court and chancery. likely to ac attention to Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, from which societies alone students are called to the bar. The inns of chancery are Clifford's Inn, Clements Inn, Lyon's Inn, New Inn, Furnival's Inn, Thavie's Inn, Staple's Inn, and Barnard's Inn. These are subordinate to the inns of court, the three first belong to the Inner Temple, the fourth to the Middle Temple, the two next to Lincoln's Inn, and the two last to Gray's Inn. Admission to the inns of chancery with an intention of being called to the bar is now of no avail, with regard to the time and attendance required by the inns of court.a [ 30 ] The advantages that might result to the science of the Advantages law itself, when a little more attended to in the universities crue from perhaps, would be very considerable. The leisure and abilities of the learned in these retirements might either suggest expedients, or execute those dictated by wiser heads, for improving it's method, retrenching it's superfluities, and reconciling the little contrarieties, which the law at uni versities. a Mr. Christian's note. b See Lord Bacon's proposals and offer of a digest. practice of many centuries will necessarily create in any human system: a task, which those, who are deeply employed in business and the more active scenes in the profession, can hardly condescend to engage in. And as to the interest, or (which is the same) the reputation of the universities themselves, I may venture to pronounce, that if ever this study should arrive to any tolerable perfection either at Oxford or Cambridge, the noblity and gentry of this kingdom would not shorten their residence upon this account, nor perhaps entertain a worse opinion of the benefits of academical education. tures now Hitherto, however, the study of the law at our universi- Law lecties has not been cultivated with much success, even where delivered. facilities have been afforded to it. In 1758 a professorship of law was founded under the will of Mr. Viner, and Blackstone, as is known to all, was the first Vinerian professor. The professorship, however, although commenced under such brilliant auspices, has, according to Mr. Christian, long sunk into the inglorious duty of receiving the stipend. Within the last few years some additional facilities for the study of the law have been afforded in the metropolis. Two professorships of law have been established; the one at King's College, the other at the London University, where courses of lectures on various branches of the law are delivered. Law lectures are also regularly given at the Law Society. Lectures were also recently instituted by the Society of the Inner Temple, for the benefit of its students. They have, however, been discontinued; but it is to be regretted that as well at this as the other inns of court lectures on the various branches of the law should not be regularly delivered by competent persons. Among other advantages a practice of this kind would tend much to settle and improve the law, more indeed than a similar institution at the universities. of a univer But I think it past dispute that those gentlemen, who re- [ 31 ] sort to the inns of court with a view to pursue the profes- Advantages sion, will find it expedient (whenever it is practicable) to lay sity educathe previous foundations of this, as well as every other ous to comscience, in one of our learned universities. We may appeal study of the to the experience of every sensible lawyer, whether any tion previ mencing the law. |