anciently covered the table where the judges or chief officers sat; and being coeval with the Norman conquest, it was at first erected by William the Conqueror, for the trial of all causes relating to the revenues of the Crown. MARSHALSEA COURT. Marshalsea Court, says Maitland, is a corruption of Marshal's Court. This Court, which was held in Southwark under the Knight Marshal, was first established for the jurisdiction of personal actions within twelve miles of Whitehall. It was abolished in 1849. DOCTORS' COMMONS. The several courts and offices whereof this college is at present composed, says Maitland, were anciently dispersed, and held in several parts of the city; which being relative, and in some measure depending upon one another, occasioned great inconveniences to the respective practitioners; wherefore the Doctors and Proctors of the several courts unanimously united in a collegiate manner, and, by dining together in common, obtained the appellation of Doctors' Commons. This college, which is a spacious and stately edifice, situate on the west side of St. Bennet's Hill, is inhabited by several of the Doctors and Proctors of the civil law in this city; who, before they removed to this house, which was provided for them by Dr. John Hervey, Dean of the Arches, they cohabited in a small house, now the Queen's Head Tavern, in Paternoster-row. ARCHES COURT. This is the supreme Court of Appeal in the Archbishopric of Canterbury. It derives its name from having formerly been held in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, which is built on arches, from which place it was removed in 1567 to the Common Hall of Doctors' Commons, near St. Paul's Church, where it is now held. PREROGATIVE COURT. This Court, says Maitland, which is held in Doctors' Commons, is thus denominated from the Prerogative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, by a special privilege beyond those of his suffragans, can here try all disputes that happen to arise, concerning wills and administrations of persons who have left goods to the value of Five Pounds, without the diocese wherein he or she died; unless such things are settled by composition between the metropolitan and his suffragans, as in the diocese of London, where it is Ten Pounds. DUCHY OF LANCASTER COURT. This Court owes its origin to Henry IV., who, deposing Richard II., usurped the crown; and, possessing the Duchy of Lancaster in right of his mother, was seized thereof as duke, as well as king. But imagining his right to the duchy better than that to the crown, he resolved to secure the same by separating it from the crown; which being effected, he erected this court for its use, wherein all matters of law and equity belonging to the duchy, or County Palatine of Lancaster, are heard and decided by the Chancellor thereof. PRINCIPALITY OF CHESTER. In 1398, says Maitland, Richard the Second brought into Shrewsbury a numerous guard of the militia of Cheshire, who expressed so strong an inclination to serve him, that to gratify the county he erected it into a Principality, and added to the rest of his titles that of Prince of Chester. STAR CHAMBER. This Court was originally the privy council itself, sitting in the Star Chamber. It was mentioned as early as the reign of Edward III. By Henry VII. it was, however, carried to its greatest height, by an act passed in the third year of his reign. It is also said to be so called from its having its roof painted with silver or gilt stars, wherein the Chancellor, assisted by others appointed for that purpose, had authority to punish routs, riots, and other misdemeanours, that were not by common law provided against; but happily for future ages, the power and jurisdiction of this tyrannical authority was absolutely abolished by statute 17th of Charles. It is indeed extolled by Lord Bacon, who styles the statute for the erection of this most despotic court, a good law." And in like manner Sir T. Smith, in his "Commonwealth of England," advances in its defence, "that it was useful to govern those who were too stout for the ordinary courts of justice." It continued to exercise very important jurisdiction, both in political matters and in private concerns, during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his successors, until it was finally dissolved by Charles I. 66 BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH. This Board, which takes cognizance of all matters of court etiquette, from the shape of a buckle to the cut of a petticoat, takes its name from even a more simple circumstance than the preceding, viz., from the table where the most puissant council sit, being covered with green cloth! COURT OF PIE POUDRE. This is the lowest, and at the same time the most expeditious (as the title implies), court in the kingdom. It was established to settle on the spot disputes arising at fairs or markets. It is said to be called the court of pie poudre, curia pedis pulverizati, from the dusty feet of the suitors; or, as Sir Edward Coke says, because justice is there done as speedily as dust can fall from the feet; but Blackstone, who says thus much of this court, inclines to the opinion of Daines Barrington, who derives it from pied puldreaux (a pedlar in old French), and says it signifies, therefore, the court of such petty chapmen as resort to fairs or markets. Fosbroke says-Courts similar to pie poudre courts were usual both with Greeks and Romans, who introduced fairs into Germany and the North. TURNPIKES. The etymology of turnpike is as follows:-In early times it was the custom to fasten a pike, or spear-head, loosely to the top of a post, in order to prevent the intrusion of travellers not duly authorised to pass. This turning round, of course presenting a point on every side, gave rise to the name turnpike. They were erected as early as A.D. 1267, as we find a grant of a penny for each waggon passing through a manor.-See Index or Catalogue of the Patent Rolls, Henry III. 51, m. 21. A toll was also imposed in the reign of Edward III., for repairing the road between St. Giles and Temple Bar. The first act for the repair of the public roads was passed in 1698. When turnpike-tolls were first demanded, the lower orders of the people evinced much opposition to the measure, and many were punished for pulling down the gates, and maltreating the collectors. WAR WITH FRANCE. if not, "Peace be to France, if France in peace permit, Shakspeare. When the fair were accustomed to behold their lovers with beards, the sight of a shaved chin excited sentiments of horror and aversion; as much indeed as, in this effeminate age, would a gallant whose hairy excrescence should Stream like a meteor to the troubled air." To obey the injunctions of his bishops, Louis the Seventh of France cropped his hair, and shaved his beard. Eleanor of Acquitaine, his consort, found him some little time after their marriage, with this uncommon appearance, very ridiculous, and very con K temptible; and told him, that when she married him she thought she had married a man, not a monk. She revenged herself, by becoming something more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, who shortly after ascended the English throne as Henry II. She gave him for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for three hundred years ravaged France, and which cost the French nation three millions of men. All which probably had never taken place, had Louis VII. not been so rash as to crop his hair and shave his beard, by which he disgusted the fair Eleanor. THE AMERICAN WAR. The imposts on stamps, or, in other words, the Stamp Act, may be said to have originated this unnatural and impolitic war, and which commenced at Lexington in 1775. The following is a specimen of the feeling which animated the Americans at that day. When Patrick Henry, who gave the first impulse to the American revolution, introduced his celebrated resolution on the Stamp Act, in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, he exclaimed, when descanting on the tyranny of the obnoxious act, "Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third- -""Treason!" cried the Speaker. "Treason, Treason!!" echoed from every part of the house. It was one of those trying moments which are decisive of character. Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye flashing with fire, exclaimed, "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the best of it !"* It is said, that George the Third manifested an unbecoming impatience relative to the declaration of war against the Americans; and that when the American Commissioners for the peace were presented to him, he said, "I have been the last man in my dominions to accede to this peace, which separates America from my kingdom. I will be the first man, now that it is made, to resist any attempt to impugn it. LOTTERIES. The first lottery is said to have been drawn A.D. 1569. It consisted of 400,000 lots, at ten shillings each lot; the prizes were plate, and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of the kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St. Paul's cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th January, 1569, and continued incessantly drawing, day and night, till the 6th May following, as Maitland, from Stow, informs us in his History, vol. i., p. 257. There were then only three lottery-offices in London. The proposals for this lottery were published in the years 1567 and 1568. It was at first intended to have been drawn at the house of Mr. Dericke, her Majesty's servant (i. e. jeweller), but was afterwards drawn as above mentioned. The first State or Parliamentary lottery took place in the year 1709, and from that time down to 1823 they were annually licensed by Act of Parliament under a variety of regulations. During this century government constantly availed itself of this means to raise money for various public works, of which the British Museum and Westminster bridge are well known examples. But, at the commencement of the present century, a great repugnance began to be manifested in Parliament to this method of raising the public revenue, in consequence of the spirit of gambling which it tended to foster in the great body of the people. So that the government, in the year 1823, consented to the entire abolition both of state and private lotteries. NATIONAL DEBT. The contracting of the English National Debt cannot be said to have been begun before the Revolution of 1688. Even for some years after the accession of William and Mary, the borrowings of the government were for short periods only. The first transaction of this kind of a permanent character arose out of the chartering of the Bank of England in 1693, when its capital of £1,200,000 was lent to the public at 8 per cent. The debt at the time of the Revolution in 1688 amounted to £664,263; on the first of February 1817, when the English and Irish exchequers were consolidated, to £840,850,491; and in 1839, the total of unredeemed debt was £853,519,647. FRANKING LETTERS. In the Parliamentary History, vol. xxiii., is the following very curious anecdote concerning this privilege. It occurred in the debate on the Post-office bill in the year 1660. "Colonel Titus reported the bill for the settlement of the post-office, with the amendments. Sir Walter Earle delivered a proviso, for the letters of all members of parliament to go free during their sitting. Sir Heneage Finch said, 'It was a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honour of the House.' Mr. Prynn spoke also against the proviso. Mr. Bunckley, Mr. Boscawen, Sir George Downing, and Sergeant Charlton, for it; the latter saying, the counsel's letters were free. The question being called for, the Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, was unwilling to put it, saying he was ashamed of it: nevertheless, the proviso was carried, and made part of the bill, which was ordered to be engrossed. The Lords subsequently disagreed to this proviso, and it was ultimately thrown out. At a subsequent period, however, both Houses did not feel it to be below their honour to secure for themselves this exemption from postage." All parliamentary and official |