of the Vice-Chancellor was argued with cluded under the title justiciarius or judex, great gravity by three sons of Oxford, while but this we take leave to doubt. The charthe other side was fitly represented by a ter, if it had meant to include the Chancellor, member of the University of London. It would have mentioned him by name, and was a contest of ancient privilege against not included him in general words. Having modern light, and it was not surprising that referred to these limitations on the charter, law was found on the side of antiquity. It Lord Coleridge said: "We are now asked was assumed that a charter alone could not to go further, and exclude defendants also take away the plaintiff's right to sue in the when the plaintiff lives beyond the limits King's Courts, but the charters of Oxford of the university." This expression is perwere embodied in an Act of Parliament of haps a little wanting in clearness. What 13 Eliz. This act referred to two of the more the Court was asked to do was rather to exmodern charters of the University dated 13 clude the case of a defendant having the Hen. VIII. and 3 Eliz., and provided that privilege and residing in the university bethey should be as effectual as if they had ing sued by a plaintiff residing elsewhere in been recited in the Act. The question respect of a cause of action arising elsewhere. thus turned on the terms of the first of these The plaintiff's contention seemed to have charters, which was the one dealing with been that the privilege only applied when the right of conusance. It gave jurisdiction both plaintiff and defendant were resident in to the Chancellor or his judges over certain Oxford or when the cause of action arose crimes, contracts, and wrongs (injuriæ) of there, or when all these facts concurred. But any sort, pleas and plaints personal (querela the charter, unlike that of Cambridge, was personales), whether arising in Oxford or not locally limited, but extended to causes elsewhere within the kingdom of England in of action arising in Oxford or alibi infra regwhich the scholars or their servants or any num. The judgment of the Chief Justice and other persons having the privilege of the Mr. Justice Mathew was, therefore, to the university may be parties. The judges of effect that the privilege applied to a cause modern times have occupied themselves of action arising anywhere within the kinglargely in breaking down these sweeping dom, when the defendant is resident in the words. In Hayes vs. Long, 2 Wils. 310, Lord university, whether or not the plaintiff is so Camden decided that the privilege was con-resident. duced to its technical limits. As it stands it is inconvenient enough. An Oxford tutor who may forget to pay his bills at Dolgelly or Grasmere this autumn cannot be sued in the High Court, but resort must be had to the Vice-Chancellor. Whether he would have the same immunity if this forgetfulness happened at Zermatt depends on the meaning of the somewhat obscure proposition fined to residents in the university. Prob- This seems the extent of the decision reably this decision can now hardly be questioned. Lord Camden, in the same case, expressed the opinion that the privilege was confined to defendants. Lord Coleridge made a just criticism on this dictum when he said that the distinction was not justified by the terms of the charter. In Draper vs. Crow ther, 2 Vent. 362, Lord Guildford refused to allow the plea in a Chancery suit for specfic performance on the ground that the charter infra. Some of the expressions of the Chief was confined to common law remedies. Lord Justice seem to suggest that residence in OxColeridge points out that not only is it re- ford is not necessary to give the Oxonian his quired that no justiciarius ad placita coram no- privilege. If so, a degree at Oxford will be biscum-that is, King's Bench judges-or of considerable pecuniary value. The unijusticiarius de communi banco-that is, Com-versity can hardly in the future refuse to mon Pleas judges-or justiciarius ad assisas others what they have allowed to Mr. Whitcapiendas vel gaolas deliberandas-that is, assize tingham. If they do, the graduate or underjudges, but also alii justiciarii vel judices graduate may raise the point on plea to the quicunque shall interfere with the privilege jurisdiction. The university has been bold of the university. The Chief Justice seems enough to bring its privileges to the surface, to suggest that the Lord Chancellor is in- and the result will probably be that an an tiquated privilege will cease to have so much beyond the comprehension of the intelligent of its interest as depends on its being recog-citizen. In fact he is as good a judge as a nized by law.-The Law Journal. ARE JUDGES ABOVE CRITICISM? rule, of what is right, what is equitable, or what is criminal, as the court itself. The rules by which these questions of equity, criminality, and innocence are determined, in courts of justice, it is true, are somewhat technical, and within the peculiar knowledge of the legal profession. That this is so, by no means relieves the courts from accountability or criticism; if the people and the press are not able to fully understand the rules by which judicial decisions are reached, they are fully able to understand the justice and wisdom, or injustice and ignorance of the decisions themselves. The editor may not be able to construct a modern Hoe press, but both he and the reader are competent to criticise the work of that press, whether it is good or bad, although they do not understand the rules, complications, and mechanical devices by which the work was performed. It is a well understood fact, that in this country at least, the just criticism of public officers and servants, is not only the privilege, but the duty, of those who are served. It is claimed by some that the judges of courts are or should be an exception to this rule. That the official acts of the members of Congress, Governors, Legislators, and other officers, are justly subject to review and comment at the hands of the public press and the individual citizen, there can be no question. That these criticisms should be made with sense, decency and propriety, is equally true. That the official acts of the judges of our courts should be exempt from reasonable criticism, we are not prepared to admit, either upon principle or policy. It is claimed that the nature of the judicial office Legislators reflect, or should reflect, the is such that the decisions of the judges, how- immediate will of the people. Judges declare ever erroneous, should not only be received the sense of mankind on questions before with respect, but acquiesed in with good them as understood during a series of years grace, and without comment. It is also said If they fail to do this, the people and press that the peculiar character of the adminis- detect it at once, and it is not only their privitration of the law is such, and its technical lege, but their duty, to publicly criticise the rules are of such a nature, as to preclude the judge, and the decision which has thus failed possibility of intelligent criticism, upon the in its purpose. Once admit the doctrine that part of the people or the public press. While the decisions of judges, right or wrong, good it is true that the final judgments of courts or bad, are to be received by the public humshould be acquiesed in with due regard for bly and without comment, and there is at the authorities promulgating them, yet we once an end, not only to justice, but to the deny that there is anything, either in the ju- law itself. The decisions of the judges would dicial office, or in the nature of the subject speedily degenerate into individual, dogmatter with which it deals, that should ex-matic and tyrannical decrees. No human beempt it from just and fair criticism at the ing can safely be trusted to dispose of the hands of the people, whose rights and inter- most important interests of mankind, under ests are daily submitted to the decisions of cover of an office which is admitted to be bethese tribunals. We deny that there is any-yond criticism, comment or question. thing in the administration of justice with If there is any office, if there is any work which judges have to do, which is above crit- of an officer, which should always be open icism. It is their duty to declare the equities to the full light of day, and subject at all between man and man, and to secure the times to a fair, just, and open criticism, it parties who are suitors in the courts the just is the judicial office, and the judicial decisrights to which they are entitled; to see that ion. In this alone is there safety, by this crime is punished, and that the innocent are alone can we hope for justice, and to even acquitted. These are the objects for which maintain correct rules of law. It is a princicourts were instituted and are maintained. ple to which there is no exception, that the There is nothing in these subjects which is highest perfection in all the departments of life is only attainable when the results are ferred in the common law, as they are at subject to the criticism and suggestions of other universities in the present day in the those for whom the work is performed. canon and civil laws. The degrees were When we subject the work of judges to a those of barrister (first styled apprentices, just and fair criticism, we not only strength- from apprendre, to learn) who answered to en and purify the administration of justice, our bachelors; as to the state and degree but supply the stimulus upon which alone of a sergeant, servienties ad legem did to that improvement is possible.-Cen. Law Jour. of the doctor. These studies are now under the control of the Council of Legal Education, who have endeavored to reinvigorate them by holding out rewards for excellence in the various branches of legal study, and particularly in Roman law and jurisprudence. INNS OF COURT. Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, -Sir William Jones. It is doubtful whether the above advice was followed by the law students in the ancient Inns of Court. Perhaps this advice was not followed by the legal profession in the times of Sir William Jones, A. D. 1746 1794. Another advice to the legal profession is given in "Translation of Lines by Sir Ed ward Coke," the great lawyer, judge and law commentator, who lived between the years A. D. 1549-1634. This translation is found in "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," and is as follows: Six hours to sleep, in law's grave study six, Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix. Without discussing which of the above advices or suggestions is the best, or practicable for the lawyer or law student to follow, it may be safely assumed that the law students in the olden times Inns of Court followed neither of the two precepts above given in every particular. In Bouvier's Law Dictionary, vol. 1, p. 805, Inns of Court are described as voluntary non-corporate legal societies seated in London, having their origin about the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. They consist of the Inns of Court and Chancery. The four principal Inns of Court are the Inner Temple and Middle Temple (formerly belonging to the Knights Templar), Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn (formerly belonging to the Earls of Lincoln and Gray). The other Inns are the two Sergeant's Inns. Here follows an account of the Inns of Chancery, nine in number, and their names, with the averment that they are connected with the respective Inns of Court, and also a reference to Enc. Brit. In Wharton's Law Dictionary, Inns of Court are described as being four in number, exercising the right of admitting per Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. No means of obtaining that rank (admission to practice at the Bar) exists, but that of becoming enrolled as a student in one or the other of these inns, and afterwards applying to its benchers for a call to the Bar. These Inns of Court were law colleges. sons at the Bar. Their names are the Archibald Brown of the Middle Temple, barrister at law, M.A., Edin. and Oxon. and B.C.L. Oxon., in his Law Dictionary (vide Brown's Law Dictionary-Sprague-A. D. 1882) gives, among other things, this description of the Inns of Court as follows: Inns of Court (Hospitia Curice) the societies of the Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lin- The rule of the Inns of Court given in the coln's Inn and Gray's Inn, are so called be- course of above mentioned description of cause the students therein do study the law Wharton are in some respects very curious to fit them for practicing in the courts at and interesting. These rules are thirty-three Westminster or elsewhere. These together in number, and were adopted by orders of with the Inns of Chancery and the Sergeant's the several societies of Lincoln's Inn, the Inns, are said to have formed one of the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple and Gray's most famous universities in the world for Inn, at Parliament Chamber, Middle Temple, the study of law; and here exercises were Hilary Term, 1852 (see Inns of Court-Wharperformed, lectures read and degrees con- ton). Here is rule 23, viz : "That it is ex pedient that the following forms should be risters and other members of that society adopted by the said societies on application dine together every day during the Law for admission as members: I,on of -of -aged the Terms. When the dinner is placed on the table, and the company are arranged to hear grace, the butler strikes three hard blows on the sideboard with a wooden mallet, and then grace is said by the chaplain. In like manner three blows are struck before the grace after dinner. This custom is called "knock-for the ing down." of in the county of (adds father's profession, if any, and the condition in life and occupation, if any, of the applicant) do hereby declare that I am desirous of being admitted a member of the honorable society ofpurpose of keeping terms for the Bar, and In "Weeks on Attorneys-at-Law," Ed'n A. that I will not either directly or indirectly D. 1878, pages 21-31, inclusive, appears an apply for or take out any certificate, to prac- account of the Inns of Court, up to the year tice directly or indirectly as special pleader, A. D. 1878.-Pitts. Leg. Jour. or conveyance, or draftsman in equity, with out the special permission of the masters of the Bench of the said society. DE MINIMIS NON CURAT LEX. [But its "limbs" sometimes do.] GIRONDIN JURISPRUDENCE. Moreover, pris And I do hereby further declare that I am not an attorney-at-law, solicitor, a writer to the Signet, a writer of the Scotch courts, a oner, you have committed the crime, clothed, proctor, a notary public, a clerk in chancery, without any right, in the garb of an ecclesiastic." "Exactly, my President; in order to obtain the benefit of clergy and be acquit a Parliamentary agent, an agent in any court original or appellate, a clerk to any justice of the peace, nor do I act, directly or indirectly, in any such capacity, or in the capacity of clerk of or to any of the persons above described, or as clerk of or to any officer in any court of law or equity. Dated this Signature day of ted."-Charivari. THE DOLLAR WENT FARTHER.-Lord Coleridge, on the occasion of his recent tour in this country, visited Mount Vernon in company with a party which included many notable men, amongst others Senator William M. Evarts. Standing on the bank of the Potomac and looking across, the story of Washington throwing a silver dollar over to the opposite bank came back to the mind of the Chief Justice. He remarked to Mr. Evarts that he had always been taught to regard the Father of His Country as the apostle of Truth; but now that he was on the -or, in his absence ground and saw the distance over, he felt some misgivings lest the dollar might have We, the undersigned, do hereby certify that we believe the above named to be a gentleman of respectability, and a proper person to be admitted a member of the said society. Barristers of Approved Treasurer, by two benchers." A very interesting historical and descrip- fallen a little short of reaching the distant tive account of "The Inns of Court," with shore. "The distance does seem great," rea picture of Middle Temple Hall, will be plied Mr. Evarts, "but then in Washington's found in the Penny Magazine, London, Eng-time a dollar went much farther than it does land, Vol. IV., year A. D. 1835, p. 250. In the now." same volume, page 253, is a picture of Lincoln's Inn Gateway, in Chancery Lane, London, England. The following custom in Lincoln's Inn is mentioned in above Penny Magazine, Vol. V., p. 104, viz.: "Knocking down in Lincoln's Inn :" At Lincoln's Inn Hall, the beuchers, bar BRINGING A JURY TO TIME.-" Bailiff,” said an Arkansas judge one day last week to the officer in charge of a jury, "will you please inform the jury that there will be a horse-race in Merrick's pasture at 3 o'clock?" The jury had been out for forty-eight hours, but in less than thirty minutes they came into court with a verdict. |