ORIGIN OF TITHES.

Selden, in his History of Tithes, says, they were anciently disposed of by the owners of the land where they arose, at their pleasure, to such monasteries, and in such portions as they thought proper. Every person founding a church for his own use, and that of his tenants, appropriated to it the tithes of his lands.

When Christianity was first introduced into Britain, and prior to its distribution into parishes, all tithes, oblations, and ecclesiastical profit, belonged exclusively to the bishops, who invariably resided with their clergy, presbyters, and deacons in their Cathedral church. Such was the practice of our British, as well as afterwards of our more recent Saxon ancestors. The first charter by which tithes were granted in England, may be considered as a curious historical document. The following is given as a literal translation of it:-"I, Ethelwolfe, by the grace of God, King of the West Saxons, &c., with the advice of the Bishops, Earls, and all persons of distinction in my dominions, have, for the health of my soul, the good of my people, and the prosperity of my kingdom, taken the honourable resolution of granting the tenth part of the lands throughout my whole kingdom to the Church and Ministers of religion, to be enjoyed by them with all the privilege of a free tenure, and discharged from all the incumbrances incidental to lay-fees. This grant has been made by us in honour of Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin, and all Saints; and out of regard to the Pascal Solemnity, and that Almighty God might vouchsafe his blessings on us and our posterity.-Dated at Wilton, Ann. D., 854, at the feast of Easter."

Prædial tithes are such as are produced from the ground, as grain of all sorts.—Mixed tithes are those animals which are nourished from the ground.-Personal tithes are such profits as are derived from personal industry.-Great tithes consists of corn, hay, and wood.-Small tithes, as the prædial tithes of other kinds, together with those which are called mixed and personal.

EXCHEQUER BILLS.

In the years 1696 and 1697, the silver currency of the kingdom being, by clipping, washing, grinding, filing, &c., reduced to about half its nominal value, acts of parliament were passed for its being called in and recoined: but whilst recoinage was going on, Exchequer Bills were first issued to supply the demand of trade. The quantity of silver recoined, according to D'Avenant, from the old hammered money, amounted to £5,725,933. It is worthy of remark, that through the difficulties experienced by the Bank of England (which had been established only three years) during the recoinage, they having taken the clipped silver at its nominal value, and guineas at an advanced price; bank notes were in 1697 at a discount of from 15 to 20 per cent.

"During the recoinage," says D'Avenant, "all great dealings were transacted by tallies, bank bills, and goldsmiths' notes. Paper credit not only supplied the place of running cash, but greatly multiplied the kingdom's stock; for tallies and bank bills did to many uses serve as well, and to some better than gold or silver; and this artificial wealth, which necessity had introduced, did make us less feel the want of that real treasure, which the war and our losses at sea had drawn out of the nation."

POOR LAWS AND POOR HOUSES.

The Poor Laws were enacted in the reign of Elizabeth. An eagerness for depopulating the lands, in order to traffic in sheep and wool, may be classed among the imperative reasons of that queen's government for the enactment of them. The people were thus as thoroughly deprived of the means of life, as if the grain should be given to the Moors of Africa. It is vain to say, that the benefit of the traffic would have returned to them in another shape. There was neither arts nor manufactures whereby they could create a claim to the lowest rate of provision. A good modern economist would say, that they ought to have been left to the pinching of their fate, to compel them to that discovery: but the laws had left them no such liberty, and they were mostly the property of the owners of the land.

That parish excrescence, the Poor-house, however, did not make its appearance till the reign of Queen Anne; an introduction which has created more dissolute and idle lieges in a century, than the poor laws of themselves would have done in five. Prior to that reign, the poor were farmed out; at length the alarming increase of pauperism in England occasioned, in 1832, the appointment of a commission of inquiry. Their report was presented in February, 1834, and was followed by the passing, in August 1834, of the Poor Law Amendment Act; the chief provisions of which are:--the appointment of a Central board; the further appointment of nine assistant commissioners; and the whole to be subject to the direction of the Secretary of State for the Home department. The administration of relief to the poor is placed under the control of the commissioners, whose rules are binding upon all local bodies. By the Act 1 and 2 Victoria, c. 56, the system was extended to Ireland. A compulsory provision for the poor has been in force for above two centuries in Scotland, and which resembles in many respects the English law, but has been more wisely administered.

GUILDHALL.

Guild signified, among our Saxon ancestors, a fraternity, derived from the Saxon word to pay, because every man paid his share towards the expenses of the community; and hence the

place of meeting was called Guild, or Guildhall. Hence also the term, the Guild of Merchants, in Dublin. The "hall of guilds,"

or the Guildhall of London, was erected in 1411, by sums raised for pardons of offences, and by fines. It was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, and afterwards rebuilt, in length 170 feet west to east, and breadth 68 feet north to south, at the cost of £40,000.

KING'S BENCH.

This court originated in the ancient Aula Regia, in which the king was accustomed (as he still is supposed in the King's Bench by fiction of law) to sit in person. The Judges of the Court of King's Bench, as well as of the other supreme courts, varied in number according to the royal discretion. They now number five, the Chief Justice and four younger Judges. The title of Capitalis Justiciarius ad placita coram Rege tenenda;" or as we now style it, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, was first conferred on Robert de Brus, March 8, 1268, 52 Henry III.— See Foss' Judges of England. vol. ii. p 155.

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COMMON PLEAS.

This Court was first designated by its present name in the reign of Edward the First, and was given merely to distinguish it from the King's Bench. The engines of the law, however, especially the Sergeants, have created other profitable technicalities, and who have been keenly satirized by the late Lord Erskine in the following celebrated impromptu :

"The Sergeants are a grateful race,
And all their actions shew it;

Their purple garments come from Tyre,
Their arguments go to it!"

COURT OF CHANCERY.

This Court, according to divers learned men, owes its name to certain cross bars of wood, or iron, wherewith it was enclosed, to prevent the officers who sat therein from being incommoded by the people. Such grates, or cross bars, were by the Romans denominated cancelli; which, according to the opinion of some, gave likewise the name to that part of a church called the chancel, from its being separated from the body of the church by such grates or lattices, by order of Pope Felix, for the use of the priests.

EXCHEQUER COURT.

This, which is one of the four great courts (says Maitland) of the kingdom, derives its name from a chequered cloth which

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.

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!