grandson was appointed, warned him to avoid the faults of Coke, and to imitate the virtues of his grandfather-at which, says James Whitelocke in his Liber Famelicus, "I merveyled, considering how unfortunate the end of his grandfather was." 1

James Whitelocke2 was made judge of the court of King's Bench shortly before the death of James I. He was the father of Bulstrode Whitelocke, historian, ambassador, and Keeper of the Seal under the Commonwealth; and, through his wife, was related to the Crokes, who, all through this period, had been connected with the law in different capacities. John Croke was one of the Six Clerks-the first to marry after the statute of Henry VIII. permitted them to do so and subsequently a master in Chancery. His son John was sheriff of Buckinghamshire; and he had in his turn two sons who became judges.3 John, the elder, was a judge of the King's Bench 1607-1620. George, the younger, was a judge of the Common Pleas 16251628, and of the King's Bench 1628-1640. He was distinguished for his independence on the Bench, both in the case of the members of Parliament committed to prison after the dissolution of 1629, and in the Case of Shipmoney; and his name is still familiar from the reports of cases in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., which bear his name.

3

Still more distinguished was the family of the Finches. Sir Thomas Finch, a soldier of some note, married Catherine Moyle -a family whose name is well known in the Year Books of Henry VI. and Edward IV.'s reigns. His second son was Henry Finch, serjeant-at-law, famous for his book on jurisprudence and the common law, to which Blackstone owed a considerable debt.5 Henry Finch's son was Sir John Finch-the speaker who was held down in his chair in 1629, the chief justice who, in the Case of Shipmoney, gave the clearest and the most impolitic exposition of the principles of prerogative government, the lord keeper who opened the Short Parliament and was impeached by the Long

1 At p. 51; for his end see below 349.

2 Foss, Judges vi 375-379; his own Liber Famelicus; vol. i of his son's Memorials.

3 Liber Famelicus (C.S.) 17; Foss, Judges vi 130-135; 293-297.

4 Dict. Nat. Biog.

5 Below 399-401; in Monro's Acta Cancellaria 703 there is a curious testimony as to his competence; it was alleged that he had made an insufficient answer in a suit in which he was defendant; it is stated that, if this is so, "His Lordship mindeth sharply to blame the said Mr. Henry Fynch, and to make him pay costs for the same, and the rather because he is learned in the laws, and knoweth well how to make a good answer.

"Clarendon, History of the Rebellion (ed. 1843) 29-" undoubtedly my lord Finch's speech in the exchequer chamber made ship-money much more abhorred and formidable, than all the commitments by the council table, and all the distresses taken by the sheriffs in England."

Parliament, and one of the judges of the regicides. Sir Thomas Finch's eldest son, Sir Moyle Finch, was the father of Heneage Finch, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1625-1626. Heneage Finch's eldest son was Lord Chancellor Nottinghamthe founder of our modern system of equity; and his second son was the leading counsel for the Seven Bishops.

No doubt the natural tendency of descendants to follow in their father's footsteps was strengthened by the legal atmosphere of these lawyers' homes. The sixteenth century was, as we have seen, the golden age of the educational system of the Inns of Court and Chancery. The preliminary training for the bar, the subsequent teaching incumbent on barristers and benchers, the large practice in courts new and old acquired by the leaders of the bar in this litigious age,1 left the successful lawyer little leisure for anything but law. Clarendon tells us in his Life that "he grew so much in love with business and practice that he gave up his whole heart to it." 2 And doubtless this was true of many other lawyers. At the same time the education of many of these lawyers was not quite so severely professional as in the preceding period. It became customary for many (as at the present day) to start their career at the universities; and there is at least one instance in which a student kept his terms in London while still at the University. James Whitelocke tells us that, while in residence at St. John's College, Oxford, he "was admitted of the Middle Temple 2o Martii 1592, and kept in commons from that time, at all sutche times as he coulde have dayes, by ordinarye licence, by grace, or for furtheringe of the colledge businesse, to be absent from thence." 3 One or two illustrations will show that the memory of and gratitude for the lessons which they had learned at the University often remained after they had made their mark as lawyers.

Sir Robert Rede, judge of the King's Bench and chief justice of the Common Pleas in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., was a member of Magdalen Hall, in the University of Cambridge, and left money to found lectures in humanity, logic, and philosophya foundation which is now represented by the annual Rede

1The earnings of a fairly successful barrister can be seen from the Liber Famelicus of James Whitelocke; the editor has unfortunately not printed the entries relating to this matter, but he tells us, Introd. xiv, that Whitelocke's practice in his first term produced £5 3s. 8d., in his first year £39 38. 7d., in 1604 £188 6s. 8d., in 1605 more than £200, in 1607 more than £300, in 1608 more than £400, in 1612 more than £500, in 1615 more than £600, in 1619, £622, in 1620, £600 4s. Id.; no doubt leaders of the bar like Coke made a great deal more; and the earnings of the law officers were large; Bacon said the post of attorney-general was worth £6000 a year, Spedding, Letters and Life of Bacon v 242; and this is not incredible seeing the sums which were offered or paid for it in Charles I.'s reign, below 353-354. 3 Liber Famelicus (C.S.) 14.

2 Life (ed. 1842) p. 933.

Lecture.1 Maitland's Rede lecture 2 illustrated, in a manner which would certainly have delighted and as certainly astonished the learned founder, the results which could be attained by the application of humanity, logic, and philosophy to the history of the law. Coke was a member of Trinity College, Cambridge; and, in Bonham's Case, he went out of his way to praise his own and Oxford University-" Academiæ Cantabrigiæ et Oxoniae sunt Athenæ nostræ nobilissimæ, regni soles, oculi et animi regni, unde religio, humanitas, et doctrina in omnes regni partes uberrime diffunduntur." 3 Littleton was a member of Christ Church; and Clarendon tells us that he "had taken pains in the hardest and most knotty points of the law, as well as that which was more customary; and was not only very ready and expert in the books, but exceedingly versed in records, in studying and examining whereof he had kept Mr. Selden company, with whom he had great friendship, and had much assisted him; so that he was looked upon as the best antiquary of the profession, who gave himself up to practice." 4 Mr. Justice Dodderidge 5 was a B.A. of Exeter College, a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and a writer of books not only upon English law, but also upon topics of history and ecclesiastical law, which fell outside the ordinary run of a legal practitioner's knowledge. James Whitelocke, a judge of the court of King's Bench, was one of Mulcaster's pupils at Merchant Taylor's school, and a member of St. John's College, Oxford." At Oxford he studied the civil law, and was presented for the degree of B.C. L. by Albericus Gentili. His son tells us that he kept up his knowledge, not only of Greek, but also of Hebrew-a language with which Merchant Taylors and St. John's still maintain an hereditary connection; and that, "he had the Latin tongue so perfect, that sitting judge of assize at Oxford, when some foreignors, persons of quality, being there, and coming to the court to see the manner of our proceedings in matters of justice, he caused them to sit down, and briefly repeated the heads of his charge to the grand jury in good and elegant Latin, and thereby informed the strangers and the scholars of the ability of our judges, and the course of our proceedings in matters of law and justice.'

1 Dict. Nat. Biog.

2 English Law and the Renaissance.

8

a

38 Co. Rep. at f. 116b. 4 History of the Rebellion 228. 5 Dict. Nat. Biog. * Above 15; below 391-392, 397-398; Croke (Cro. Car. 127) spoke of him as 66 man of great knowledge, as well in the common law as in other humane sciences, and divinity."

7" I was brought up at school under Mr. Mulcaster, in the famous school of the Marchantaylors in London, whear I continued until I was well instructed in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongs. I was elected from the school to be probationer of St. John's Colledge in Oxon, 11 Junii, 1588, mr. Francis Willis being then president of the colledge," Liber Famelicus (C.S.) 12.

9 Memorials (ed. 1853) i 50.

8 Ibid 14.

On the whole the distinguished lawyers and judges of this period were better educated men than their predecessors in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; and this was, no doubt, one of the main reasons why the common law showed so many signs of improvement and so marked a capacity for expansion. Those who administered it were not wholly untouched by the new learning. They could therefore in some degree emancipate their minds from barren technicalities, and appreciate the large changes which were taking place in all spheres of the national life.

The strict technical training which was given by the Inns of Court, and the high ideals which they set before their students, ensured the professional competency of the Bench, and a high standard of professional honour in both Bar and Bench. All through the sixteenth century there was an abundance of good men at the Bar; and good judicial appointments were made. As a result the respect both of the king and of the people for the common law was in no way diminished.' There is only one doubtful instance in Elizabeth's reign of the dismissal of any judge for political reasons; 2 and all through the sixteenth century there are very few instances in which a judge was proved to be guilty of bribery or other unprofessional conduct. No doubt it may be said with truth that the judges were under no temptation to take bribes. We have seen that, though their salaries were small, their fees added to their salaries gave them a very adequate income; and that, in the case of the chief justices, the value of the offices which were in their gift made their remuneration much more than adequate. But we have seen that the standard of public morality in other branches of the civil service, and even in a branch of it so closely connected with the law as the Chancery, was by no means high. On the whole in this, as in the preceding period, the standard maintained by the judges

3

1 What Clarendon says upon this matter, History of the Rebellion 29, is very true" It is very observable, that in the wisdom of former times, when the prerogative went highest, (as very often it hath been swoln above any pitch we have seen it at in our times) never any court of law, very seldom any judge, or lawyer of reputation, was called upon to assist in an act of power; the crown well knowing the moment of keeping those the objects of reverence and veneration with the people; and that though it might sometimes make sallies upon them by the prerogative, yet the law would keep the people from any invasion of it, and that the king could never suffer, whilst the law and the judges were looked upon by the subject, as the asyla for their liberties and security."

2 Robert Monson, Foss, Judges v 527-528; cp. Gardiner, History of England ii 7-8. Roger Manwood, Foss, Judges v 520-522, vol. i 505; the judges of the other courts have not quite such a good record; charges of bribery were proved against John Beaumont M.R. in 1550, Foss, Judges v 290, 291; Francis Bacon L.C., and Benet, the judge of the Prerogative Court; the last named escaped condemnation on his impeachment by the dissolution of Parliament, but was condemned and fined for his offences by the Star Chamber, Gardiner op. cit. iv 350. 5 Above 244-245.

4 Vol. i 252-255, 257-259.

and the legal profession was above the average. "Cast thine eye," said Coke,1 upon the sages of the law that have been before thee and never shall thou find any that hath excelled in the knowledge of these laws but hath plucked from the breasts of that divine knowledge, honesty, gravity, and integrity. . . . For hitherto I never saw any man of a loose and lawless life attain to any sound and perfect knowledge of the said laws: and on the other side I never saw any man of excellent judgment in these laws, but was withal . . honest fruitful and virtuous." There was more truth in this eloquent panegyric than is usual in such compositions.

4

3

The Bench, too, in the sixteenth century worthily upheld the independence of the law. No doubt the control of the Council was strict, no doubt the Council often did things which later ages have no difficulty in denouncing as unconstitutional; but we have seen that its action was in that age generally approved as necessary for the safety of the state; and it should be remembered that the Council in the sixteenth century was careful not to draw the judges into discussions as to the legality of doubtful exercises of its authority. No doubt the manner in which some of the state trials of this period were conducted has led historians to criticize severely the conduct of the judges. But, as we have seen, it was not an age in which the supremacy of the state was so well assured that it could afford to be lenient. This severity was generally considered to be necessary for the maintenance of its security; nor are we in a position to say that this belief was unfounded. On the whole the Council and the judges worked together harmoniously, and with popular approval, at the task of maintaining order and administering justice in these troubled times. On circuit the judges were quick to detect and expose cases of oppression. Dyer efficiently protected a poor widow against the partiality of the whole bench of justices of Warwickshire, and successfully defended his action when complaint was made to the Council," Whitelocke tells us how Williams and Yelverton, when acting as judges of assize, dealt with his adversary Sir William Pope, who was guilty of maintaining by force a claim to property in defiance of the award of the arbitrators, to which they had both submitted.

12 Co. Rep. Pref. x, xi.

3 Ibid 87, 105.

5 Above 346 n. 1; vol. iv 190.

2 Vol. iv 83-87

4 Ibid 106, 190.
• Above 189-190.

If the

7 Foss, Judges v 483, 484; see the text of Dyer's answer printed in Vaillant's life prefixed to his English translation and corrected edition of Dyer's reports.

8 Liber Famelicus (C.S.) 22—“ I remember when he arrose up in his place upon the benche, making accoumpt to answear the accusation, thear as he stood, he was commanded by the court to go to the bar, and justice Yelverton told him he was