Again in the 33d, 36th, and 38th years of the queen. CHA P. (Dudg. Or. 310.)

XXXV.

The course of study seemed at this time to require ELIZAB. every one should commence by residing at an inn of chancery, and then proceed to some inn of court. As all the inns of chancery belonged to some one of the inns of court, they were under their government in all matters, and particularly in what concerned the education of students. The study of the place was, in a degree, ordered and promoted by readers, who were appointed to read lectures upon certain points, both in the inns of chancery and of court. These readings were very frequent both in term and vacation. Besides these, there were exercises which the students engaged in under the direction of the readers: these were called moots, and had various names in the different societies, according to the seasons and occasions when they were held. (Ibid.)

We have seen, that heretofore there were only two description of advocates: these were sergeants and appren-. tices. But we find in this reign (and no doubt it had been so some time), that the orders of the profession were these:

The lowest was a student, called also an inner barrister; and so distinguished from the next rank, which was that of an outer, or utter barrister; then came an apprentice; and next a sergeant.

We shall now consider the regulations which we just said were made by the judges concerning the professors of the law.

It should seem that the students commenced inner barristers, when they entered upon their exercises for the bar, which is much like the condition of a soph at the universities, who is performing his exercises for the bachelor's degree. None were to be admitted to the bar but such as had been at least of seven years' continuance, and had kept all their exercises, at least three years, within the house, and in the inn of chancery, according to the orders of the house. Only four were to be called every year. In some

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CHAP. houses the benchers called; in others, it was the business of the reader to call inner barristers to the bar; and in all, ELIZAB. the reader's report of their merit and qualifications was the supposed ground for calling.

When persons were called to the bar, they were still expected to preserve a silence; for no utter barrister was admitted to plead in any court at Westminster, nor to subscribe any bill or plea, unless he was a reader or bencher, or had been five years an utter barrister, and had continued all that time in exercise, or a reader in chancery, two years at least. An utter barrister was to keep his exercises, both in his house and in the inn of chancery, for three years after he was at the bar, otherwise he was not to continue an utter barrister.

It was probably at the end of these five years, or when utter barristers were by any of the other above-mentioned qualifications admitted to plead, that they arrived at the distinguished rank of apprentices of the law. It does not appear that they were yet called counsellors. A reader was not to practise but in his reader's gown, having a velvet welt on the back. Readers ranked before utter barristers, and next after apprentices. This is all that can be collected of the professors of law at this time, from the rules and orders settled for their government and regulation. (Dudg. Or. 310-316.)

There was a character and description in the law, which had subsisted from a very early period, but which had now grown to a high consideration: this was that of a clerk. It was the business of the three prothonotaries of the Common Pleas to draw and enter all declarations and pleas in causes depending there. To assist them in this business, they kept clerks, who had been brought up in the office, and were as well acquainted with the duties of it as the prothonotaries themselves; to which they in course of time succeeded. All attornies who had causes here were to employ some one of these clerks, to conduct that part of his cause which consisted in declarations, pleas, and entries. And it

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had lately become not uncommon for some of these clerks CHA P. to act also as attornies, and so sue out writs and manage an action from beginning to end.

The continual habit of business gave the persons conversant in this office a great dexterity in pleading and practice; and the appellation of clerk coming at length to signify the possession of these attainments, was assumed by the pleaders of these times with no small degree of complacency. The character of a good prothonotary, or a good clerk, was not a little addition to the praise of a lawyer.

Thus the prothonotary's office became the school for pleading; and young men used to be placed there at their entrance upon their studies, to learn this most essential part of legal knowledge. We find Sir James Dyer, when he was chief justice of the Common Pleas, in his address to the attornies and officers of that court, telling them that he had been himself sometime a clerk in that office. (Praxis Ut. Banc. 46.)

Many regulations were made by order of the court of Common Pleas for securing to the clerks in court their proper business, to prevent attornies from encroaching on them; to oblige attornies to make due payment of the fees to their clerks; and the clerks to account with prothonotaries. Many orders were also made to compel attornies to a regular attendance on the court, and to confine the officers to a proper discharge of their duty. (Prax. Ut. Banc. 35, 36.)

The privilege of entering was secured to the prothonotary by several orders. No continuance, says one order, nor discontinuance, no alteration or amendment, shall be made in any roll of the court, nor in any writing going out of the office of this court, by any attorney, upon pain of imprisonment. (Prax. Ut. Banc. 36.)

Attornies were now grown to a considerable body of men; and, therefore, to prevent persons acting in that capacity who were not known to the court, and so not easily amenable to censure, it was ordered by the court of Common Pleas, in 15 El. that no attorney of the court shall

ELIZAB.

250

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HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAW.

CHA P. give, let to rent, or lend his name to any person, nor suffer any person to use his name, under the penalty of forfeiting ELIZAB. for the first offence 20s., and for the second offence, of being expelled from the court. (Prax. Ut. Banc. 37.) For reformation of the excessive and unnecessary number of attornies, it was ordered, that an attorney absenting himself two terms, unless for good cause, to be allowed by the court, shall be no longer an attorney. (Ibid. 66.) And to lessen the causes of absence, it was ordered that every attorney of the Common Pleas shall satisfy himself with suits in that court; and shall not prosecute or follow for the plaintiffs, or plead to any action, bill, or suit, upon any process in any other court than in that, upon pain of forfeiting for the first offence 40s., and for the second of being expelled. (Ibid. 38. 55.) Attornies who did not pay for their entries before the end of the subsequent term, were to be put out of the roll.

In the 9 El. there was a formal and general enquiry made into the abuses of his court by Sir James Dyer, then chief justice of the Common Pleas. A writ issued custodi palatii nostri, Westminster, in the king's name, to summon a jury, as well of officers as of attornies of that court, to enquire of falsifications, rasures, contempts, misprisions, and other offences there committed. Upon the execution of this enquiry the chief justice made a solemn charge, which is still in being. (Ibid. 42.)

These were regulations made in the court of Common Pleas in this reign. There are no Orders of the King's Bench extant.

INDEX.

The NUMERALS denote the VOLUMES; the FIGURES the PAGES.