Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/274

266 REVIEWS OF BOOKS April that the separate existence of the area, with the jyrevotes of Laon, Mont- didier, Roye, Saint-Quentin, Chauny, and Peronne, was clearly established. In the fourteenth century its bounds were extended eastwards to the Meuse, while on the Aisne to the south Soissons and Vailly were included as prevotes. The town of Tournai was an outlying part of the bailliage until 1383. Since its incorporation with France in 1187, Tournai has objected to inclusion in any new area with its detested neighbours Douai and Lille, which observed strange customs. If we exclude Tournai, the bailliage of Vermandois majf be described in geographical terms as the upper valley of the Somme, and most of the area between the Oise, the Meuse, and the Marne. And in addition to the domain here comprised ' almost the whole county of Champagne, with the county of Rethel, Chateau-Porcien, the lands of the church of Reims and those of the church of Chalons ' were dependent upon it. Iji short, it contained what has lately become the best-known bit of country in the world. M. Waquet reviews in turn the personal position and functions of the bailiff, his judicial duties and relations with the central administration, police, military, and financial organization, the position and duties of the prevdts and other ofl&cials including the receiver, and the bailiff's relations with his council. He adds useful annotated lists of bailiffs, bailiffs' lieuten- ants, keepers of the seal, the royal procureurs, the jrrevdts, and the recorders. These are followed by the text of twenty documents, most of which are here printed for the first time, including the accounts of the bailiff ' de termino Ascencionis ' 1305 (pp. 215-22). Last of all we have the index and a good sketch-map of the bailiwick and prevotes. For the purposes of comparison with English institutions, we could not desire a clearer picture of French local administration in the middle ages. A few points of interest may be noted. The seneschal of the earlier counts of Vermandois survived with certain privileges, but in a purely honorific administrative capacity (p. 20). The ordinance of 1303 forbidding the appointment of local ofiBcers in their native districts was not carefully observed (p. 22). The history of Vermandois illustrates the ' family ' character of provincial administration — the influence exercised, for example, by a bailiffs wife — ^and explains the significance of the regulation of 1256, by which bailiffs were forbidden, without special permission, to marry their sons and daughters to members of local families, or to place them in local convents or benefices (p. 27). The bailiff's salary and the length of his vacations were fixed ; in 1394 it was decreed that the former was to be paid in proportion to the amount of time actually given by the bailiff to his duties (p. 34). The bailiwick of Vermandois was one of those in whose courts judgement was given, not by the bailiff, but by the ' hommes jugeurs '. M. Waquet's discussion of this subject, as also of the right of appeal to the curia regis, is interesting and important. The systematic arrangements made for the hearing of hard cases by the court in parliament, with the variety of cases heard, provide one of the most striking examples of the difference between French and • In this connexion the recent articles of M. £mile Chenon on the appeals from Berry should be noted — ' Les Jours de Berry au Parlement de Paris de 1255 a 1318 * (NouvelleRevue historique de Droit franfaia et etranger, 1918-19).