barleycorn a nail, doubling it every nail. There were thirty-two nails in the shoes of the horse, and the amount came to five hundred quarters of barley. The cause was tried at Hereford, and by the direction of the judge the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for £8, being the value of the horse. There is another case of the same kind, although neither can very properly be said to belong to the Romance of Law. In this the defendant agreed to give the plaintiff in consideration of half a crown down, and five pounds upon the conclusion of the bargain, two grains of "rye corn" on the next Monday, four grains on the following Monday, and so on for a year. Of course the bargain could not be kept, because there was not enough rye corn in the world to pay the debt. But we must not tax our readers with arithmetical details. These instances will serve to show that the study of the law has its light side, and that it is not difficult to find plenty of light reading even in the library of an Inn of Court.—Pump Court.
PRIMITIVE LAW IN NEW ENGLAND.
THE legal proceedings of the early colonists in New England were, as would naturally be supposed, of the most simple character. The pioneers in this New World brought over with them none of the refinements of luxury, and had no time amidst the stern realities of that day to cultivate the graces of life or to be over-scrupulous about its forms. The forest pressed down to the very shore of the ocean; and the habitations which were erected in the midst of it had to be guarded day and night from the insidious assaults of an enemy subtle and vindictive. The means of subsistence, too, were limited and precarious, and oftentimes insufficient for the wants of the people.
Among other luxuries unknown at that day were lawyers and a nice exposition of the law. That profession could not live among a people of such simple habits. The article was not needed,—it was not among the wants of a primitive state of society; and in the division of labor which then took place, which was not very refined and scientific, there was no room for this occupation. The early colonists got along in their own rude way, without the aid of professional skill or technical form. The lawyers who at first attempted to establish themselves among this people wholly failed of success; they were regarded with jealousy and aversion, and were obliged hastily to abandon a field in which they hoped to reap an abundant harvest.
In Massachusetts it seems indeed to have been a matter of special reproach to one of the early magnates that he had been an "Atturney." In 1632 it was ordered, "that Thomas Dexter shall be set in the bilbowse, disfranchised and fined £40 for speaking reproachful and seditious words against the government here established, and finding fault to divers with the Acts of the Court, saying 'this captious government will bring all to naught,' adding, that 'the best of them was but an Atturney.'" In 1634 one John Lee was ordered to be whipped and fined £40 for speaking reproachfully of the Governor and saying "hee was but a lawyer's clerke and what understanding had he more than himself?"
In the case of a delinquency or a crime, the whole company took the matter in hand and made a common concern of it. See how they disposed of the first offence committed in Plymouth Colony in March, 1621. "John Billington is convented before the whole company for the contempt of the Captain's lawful command with opprobrious speeches; for
