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CHAP. III.

Of the ordinary Courts of Justice after the Norman Conquest.

THE distribution of justice, in the last

resort, was not the most brilliant or conspicuous, though it was, undoubtedly, one of the most useful departments belonging to the national council. During the latter part of the Anglo-Saxon government, this branch of business was commonly devolved upon occasional meetings of the Wittenagemote; which being called for discussing matters of inferior concern, were seldom attended by any other members than such as happened, at the time, to be retained about the king's person. But, after the Norman conquest, the changes which have been mentioned in the state of the country, contributed to produce farther alterations in the judicial establishments; and particularly, to divest more entirely the public assembly of the ordinary cognizance of lawsuits. By the completion of the feudal system in France, the administration of justice in that

country attained a degree of regularity which was formerly unknown; and upon the accession of William the first, to the English throne, the improvements in this branch of policy, which had been extended to Normandy, at that time a part of the French dominions, were gradually introduced into Britain. As the several districts of the kingdom, which had formerly been distracted by the feuds of their independent leaders, came now to be united under the feudal superiority of the crown, the decision of private quarrels by the sword was more effectually restrained; while the vigour and influence, possessed by the two first princes of the Norman race, co-operated with the natural progress of society in bringing the differences among all the inhabitants under the determination of the magistrate. From the consequent multiplication of appeals to parliament, the members of that assembly became daily less disposed to execute this part of their duty; at the same time that, from the increasing authority of the crown, their attendance was rendered proportionably less necessary. The number of crown-vassals, convend on such occasions, was therefore gradually diminished;

the absence of others was more and more overlooked; and at length there was formed, out of parliament, a regular tribunal, for the sole purpose of deciding law-suits, and composed of an arbitrary number of those persons who sat in the greater assembly. The great officers of the crown, being always upon the spot, whenever a meeting of this kind was called, became its ordinary constituent members; and to these were added by the king particular persons, who, from their knowledge of law, or experience in business, were thought qualified to assist in the inferior departments of office*.

* Account of this tribunal in Maddox's History of Exchequer. The great officers of the king's court are made by this author to be seven in number. 1. The chief justicier. 2. The constable. 3. The mareschall. 4. The seneschal or dapifer. 5. The chamberlain. 6. The chancellor. 7 The treasurer. Of these the chief justicier was originally the seneschal or high steward. But when the primitive high-steward, who had been the chief officer of the family, came to be possessed of great ministerial powers over the whole kingdom, a deputy was appointed to manage the affairs of the household, who acquiring high rank and authority, received the appellation of seneschal, or steward of the household, as the other was called the steward of the kingdom. The subordinate appointment of a steward of

This court, from the place in which it was commonly held, received the appellation of the aula regis. In its constitution and origin, it corresponded exactly with the cour de roy, which, after the accession of Hugh Capet, was gradually formed out of the ancient parliament of France; and with the aulic council, which after the time of Otho the Great, arose, in like manner, out of the diet of the German

the household, or comes palatii, is also to be found in France, Germany, and other feudal countries.

The office of constable, or chief groom, had come in England as well as upon the continent, to be divided into two branches, that of the constable and marshal; or of the groom and the smith, or farrier

The seneschal and dapifer ought, in all probability, to have been distinguished; as in France, and of course in Normandy, the offices of steward, and butler, or cup-bearer, had been long separated.

The treasurer is supposed to have been originally the deputy of the high-steward.-But in later times was more probably that of the chamberlain who came to have the principal charge of the revenue.

See an account of the rank and employment of these officers, in that branch of the king's court which had the management of the revenue, in the Dialogus de Scacario, published by Madox, from the black and the red books of Exchequer.

empire. In Scotland we meet with a court of the same nature; and there is reason to believe that in every European kingdom of considerable extent, the progress of the feudal system gave rise to a similar institution. In all these countries, as well as in England, it appears probable, that this tribunal was detached from the national council by connivance rather than by any positive appointment; from a disposition in the people to consult their own ease and conveniency, more than from any design upon the part of the crown to limit their privileges; in short, from no preconceived plan of altering the constitution, but from a natural and obvious accommodation to the circumstances of the community; and from an immediate prospect of advantage, by facilitating the distribution of justice. As this tribunal, therefore, has been formed in a slow and gradual manner, it seems difficult, in any of the countries above mentioned, to ascertain the precise date of its formation. In England, the institution of the aula regis is commonly ascribed to William the Conqueror; but this must be understood with relation to the first appearance of that court, as distinct from the