SCENES IN COURT FROM THE YEAR BOOKS.
OW one would have liked to see one of those ancient Courts under the Plantagenets! " was the remark of Wills J. at a meeting of the Selden Society, — on an eyre say at Winchester or Hereford, — the King's Justices, the stout old sheriff with his posse, the bailiffs, the knights, the jurors, the serjeants of the law " ware and wise" in their hoods, the appellees and prisoners, and all the motley crowd of suitors and spectators. Where be they all now? They live forgotten in the dusty folios of the Year Books — those Year Books rich with the spoils of time to the student of our legal his tory, to the ordinary reader an arid waste of legal technicalities. Yet here and there, diversifying the dreariness, we come upon some little green oasis of human interest, a lively wrangle between counsel, a glimpse of national manners, an outbreak of testiness on the part of the judge, it may be a "good round mouth-filling oath," such as Queen Elizabeth in her best vein could swear, ac cording to Mr. Froude. A Scotch young lady, lamenting her brother's addiction to the bad habit of swearing, added apologeti cally, "but nae doubt swearing is a great set aff to conversation"; and no doubt swearing from the Bench is very effective at times. So at least the King's Justices thought, for they swear in the Year Books with the force and freedom of Commodore Trunion. " Do so in G—'s name," " By G— they are not," " Go to the devil" (Alez aut grant diable) — this to a bishop — are among the flowers of judicial rhetoric. When Hull J. flew into a passion at the sight of a bond in restraint of trade and swore " per Dieu si le plaintiff fuit icy, il irra al prison " (2 Hen. V. fo. 5, pi. 26), he was only keeping up the tradition of the Bench. Counsel swear by St. Nicholas, which has an appropriateness of its own (21 &22 Ed. I. Br. Chr. 31, iv. 480).
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' ' A good and virtuous nature may recoil In an imperial charge,"
says Shakespeare in " Macbeth." The jus tices felt they represented the King's person and were naturally inclined to be a little absolute in swearing and laying down the law. Cases did not then embarrass them. "Never mind your instances," says Metingham J. to counsel who was citing some previous decision (20 & 21 Ed. I. Br. Chr. 31, iv. 80). Here is a little scene, sugges tive of the Court in Bardell v. Pick wick : — Berriwick J. (to the Sheriff) . " How is it you have attached these people without warrant? For every suit is commenced by finding pledges, and you have attached though he did not find pledges." The Sheriff. " Sir, it was by your own orders." (Mem. by Reporter.) " If it had not been, the Sheriff would have been grievously amerced. Therefore take heed." (21 & 22 Ed. I. Br. Chr. 31. iv.) On another occasion a jury was shuffling, on a question of legitimacy. Roubery J. (to the Assize). "You shall tell us in another way how he was next heir, or you shall remain shut up without eating or drinking until to-morrow morning. (21 & 22 Ed. I. Br. Chr. 31, iv. 272.) This quickly brought the right answer. Counsel do not escape unscathed. Hertford J. (to Counsel). "You do bad service to your client. You only take care to get to an averment. You have pleaded badly." (21 & 22 Ed. I. Br. Chr. 31, iv. 180.) This must have been trying for poor Mr. Phunky. The following is more racy. In a writ of Monstravit de Compoto, &c. Hampone (counsel) begins in this seem ingly inoffensive manner: "Whereas he supposes by his writ that he has nothing whereby he may be summoned or attached
