30 AUGUST 1851, Page 15

BOOKS.

FOSS'S JUDGES OF ENGLAND.* THE late Mr. D'Israeli made It lucky hit when he conceived the " Curiosities, of Literature." The work of Mr. Foss will turn out to be the " Curiosities of Law." Other and very important -saib- jects, indeed, are contained and learnedly treated in the work. A history of the rise -and' progress of our judicial system will be found there, as well as of our legal practice, if not exactly of our law. The facts or statistics connected with English lawyers are nume- rous and complete beyond all compare; the work, indeed, forms a repertory of the names and legal status of the Chancellors, Keepers, Masters of the Rolls, Masters in Chancery, Crown Law- yers, Sergeants, Apprentices " nobiliores," (supposed to be like the Queen's Counsel of theie days,) and the apprentices of a lesser sort or mere barristers, whose names and degrees have been preserved in records, deeds, books, or on monuments. There is also the most sensible, learned, and satisfactory account we have met with, not of the origin of the Inns of Court, their privileges, and powers, for that is lost in the night of the past, but of the period when any- thing connected with them is stated or indicated for the first time ; so that all the recorded facts on this obscure subject are brought together. Still, the curiosity is the prominent feature of the werk ; because the most remarkable points in the various subjects alliided to are curious for themselves, their antiquity, or the light they throw on laws and manners.

The book is of necessity not free from the dryness of antiqua- rianism ; but the greater and growing fulness of the materials enables Mr. Foss to impart more living circumstances to the bare record. The same plan is followed as in the former volumes. A coup d'aeil is taken of the lawyers of each reign, and of the history of the law so far as relatesto its practice. This regnal survey, com- mencing in the volumes before us with Edward the First and ending with Richard the Third, also contains the name of every known lawyer of the rank of what, as is supposed, we now call a barrister. The particulars connected with the appointment of the higher offi- cers—Chancellors, Judges, and so forth—as well as those which il- lustrate the history of a particular grade or class in the profession, are given with some fulness. The names of the whole are subse- quently exhibited in classified tables, which present a pretty com- plete view of the professional events in the career of every one who has risen above the grade of barrister. Such lists may seem to many nothing more than "a muster-roll of names"; yet it is not so. The more elaborate tables exhibit the skeleton history of the law-officers of the reign, and, examined in connexion with the text, possess interest. The very lists of pleaders, as soon as the reports enable the collector to present them, are curious for their mere names ; how they pass from Norman or rustic Saxon into modern English. By the time of Henry the Fourth-1399 to 1413 —they had assumed our present style. This list would excite no remark if now published in the daily papers as the namfts of gen- tlemen " eal1Pd:" " counsrx.

"The advocates mentioned in the Year. Books of Henry IV. are the fol- lowing. The initials added to the names show the courts to which those who became judges were first appointed.

" Alexander, Horneby, Russell,

Askham Horton, R.K.B., Skrene

Ireby, Sparow,

Juin, June, C.P., Stourton, T., Lodington, C.P., Stourton, W.,

Lopham, Star, (qu. the same ?) Martin, C.P.. Strange. (ma. Strange-

Maunston, ways?) C. P., Nedham, C.F., Tik, Norton, Ch. C. P., Tildesley,

Fawley Tirwhit, C. P., Persay. Th., Tremayne, Pole,-K. B., Wakefield,

Preston, C. P., Westbury, R. B.

Heade, Weston Rolfe, Wynard."

The regnal surveys are followed by what is the primal object of the work, the lives of the Judges. With the majority of these dignitaries, especially for the early period, the accounts are neces- sarily bald andjejune. Yet it is astonishing how many particu- lars, albeit of a formal or official kind, have been exhumed respect- ing them. Biography, as regards the manners and the mind, is hardly yet reached even in the more eminent men. Indeed, Mr. Foss fixes upon Sir William Gascoigne as the first Chief. Justice of whom we have any personal anecdotes ; and the most memorable in con- nexion with his name and that of Harry the Fifth shows that the punishment to the Prince of Wales was not " washed in Lethe and forgotten" by the King. Facts are stubborn things, and records the stubbornest of facts. Sir William did share the fate of Sir John.

"Notwithstanding the desire naturally felt, as well to corroborate Shak- spore's representations of history, as to raise the character of Henry. V., we have been compelled, in pursuing our memoir Of Sir William Gascoigne, to come to the conclusion that he was not reappointed Chief Justice at the com- mencement of this•Teign.

"William Hankford's patent for the office was dated March 29, 1413, eight days after the accession. lie continued to preside in the court through the whole reign.

"Almost all of his biographers have fixed his death to have taken• place on December 17, 1412, 14 Henry IV., and consequently have determined that Shakspere's introduction of him, as Chief Justice to Henry V., is a

The Judges of England ; with Sketches of their Lives, and Miscellaneous Notices connected with the Courts at Westminster, from the Time of the Conquest. By V Ed- ward Foss, F.S.A., of the Inner Temple. Volumes and IV. Published by Long- man and Co. Bird, Burgh, Burton, Burton, jun., Cheyne, K.B., CMpton,

Cokaine, Oh. B. E. Col. Culpeper, C.P., Conington, Denby, C.P., Frisby,

Fulthorpe, C.P., Graie, Hale, C.P., Hill, R.C.P.,

poetic fiction invented for dramatic effect. Whatever enthusiasm we may indulge for the works of our immortal bard, it cannot extend to our accept- ing them as authority for historical facts ; and unquestionably in a trial be- tween himand the biographers we should feeLbound in the absence of other evidence to give a verdict for the latter. But in'this ease there are mate- rials which render it unnecessary to rely wholly -on either,: and which enable us to arrive with a clearerjudgment atthe truth. The result of the inves- tigation proves that both are wrong,—the biographers wholly, the poet par- tially.

" The error of the biographers infixing the death of Gascoigne in Decem- ber, 1412, ia.manifest in many ways.

'In the first place, he is the judge in a cage reported in Hilary Term, 14 Henry IV., which was in January and February, 1413. Secondly, he was summoned to the first Parliament of Henry V., in Easter, 1413. Thirdly, on the Issue Rolls of the Runeyear the sum of 791. 3s. Old. is stated to have been paid-to him on July 7, for his salary and additional annuity. And lastly, his will has been found in the Ecclesiastical Court at York ; the date being on December 15, 1419, and the probate being granted on the 23d of the same month. Here is ample proof of the Chief Justice surviving King Henry IV. ; and the mutilated inscription on his tomb, which states that he died 'Die Dominica 17 Die Deeembris A.D.,' the remainder having been torn off, may be properly supplied with the date 1419, in which year December 17 did occur en n Sunda

" Thus, therefore, the poet correctly. introduces Gascoigne as alive on the accession of Henry V. ; but we fear we must convict him of falsifying his- tory in his desire to enhance the character of his hero, when be makes Henry with a noble generosity reinvest the inflexible magistrate with 'the balance and the sword' nor can we acquit lard Campbell of a similar charge, when he asserts that ho can 'prove to demonstration that Sir Wil- liam Gascoigne • * • actually filled the office of Chief Justine of the King's Bench under Henry V:

"The only evidence that has the slightest tendency to support this view is the summons to Parliament, which was dated March 22, 1413, the day after the accession, in which he is called ' Chief Justice of our Lord the King.' Thissingle fact, however, gives little assistance to the argument ; because the title of Chief Justice would be properly applied to him until he was actually superseded ; and because, the King having obviously had no more time than to order a Parliament to be summoned, the writs of sum- mons would be naturally addressed _by the persons on whom that duty de- volved, to those Peers, Judges, and others who were summoned to the pre- ceding Parliament, and consequently. to the judicial officers existing at the demise of the late King. But the alight presumption founded upon the fact is invalidated by numerous contrary proofs.

,

"Thus, in the Parliament held by virtue, of that summons, which com- ' menced on May 15, Gascoigne not only was not prerent, but his usual place among the triers of petitions was filled by Sir William Hankford, who, though previously only a Mule Judge of the Common Pleas, is named in precedence of Sir William .Thisaing, the Chief Justice of that court. "Again, although Dugdale defers Ilankford's elevation to the Chief lug- tieeship for more than ten months from the accession, and although he was not included in the new patents to the Judges of the Common Pleas which were issued on. May 2, aday or two before the opening of Easter Term, 1413; yet in several cases reported in the Year Books, not only of that term but of Trinity. also, we find him, not indeed acting in the Common Pleas, but pre- , siding in the King's Bench.

,

' Even if these two facts were not sufficient to remove any doubt upon the question, the two records to which reference has been already made contain such conclusive proof that Sir William Gascoigne was not reappointed to his platys as Chief Justice, that it seemsimpossible that any one can maintain the contrary.

"In one of them, the payment on the Issue Roll of July, 1413, Gascoigne is called. late Chief Justice of the Bench of Lord Henry, Father of the pre- sent King.'

"In the other, the inscription on his monument in Harewood church, in Yorkshire, in 1419, he is. described as simper capit. juatie. de banco Hen. nuper refs Anglim quartt.'

t be for a moment supposed that in either of these records he would have been docked of histitle had he ever been Chief Justice of the reigning King ?

"Still, however, the difficulty remained arising from Dugdale'sdate of Hank -

ford's appointment as Chief Justice ; but this has been removed by reference, through Mr. Hardy's customary kindness, to the Roll itself. It turns out, on inspection, that the date, instead of being.January 29, 1414, as stated by Dugdale, is March 29, 1413, just eight days after King Henry's accession, and ten days previous to his coronation.

"The peculiar period chosen for this act, and its precipitancy in contrast

with the delay in issuing the new patents to the other Judges, seem strongly to show that it resulted from the King's peremptory mandate rather than Gasceigne's personal choice ; and consequently, to raise a suspicion that the indignity he had laid upon the Prince was not washed in Lethe, and for- gotten' by the King. " A royal warrant dated November 28, 1414, twenty months after his dis- missal, granting him four bucks and four does yearly during his life, out of the forest of Pontefract, was a favour too long retarded to warrant a more lenient ponstruetion of the conduct of the King.

Too high praise cannot be awarded to Mr. Foss.for careful and painstaking research. Hardly an available source whether printed or mannscript has been left unexplored, and when he doubted his own conclusions he consulted his antiquarian friends. Mere moil- ing, however, is not at all the characteristic of the " work and labour done" by Mr. Foss. He has rejected the husk of archae- ology and presented the kernel. His conclusions are not merely sound, his logic is inventive : he discerns the bearings of inferen- tial proofs, and the errors of predecessors, who, swayed perhaps by some foregone conclusion about a favourite theory, have allowed conjecture or insufficient authority to supply the place of esta- blished premises. The curious and conclusive manner in which records, or docu- ments of the nature of records, are used by Mr. Foss to establish facts or settle disputed opinions, has been seen in the ease of . Sir William Gascoigne. A similar industry and acuteness pervades the work ; every statement or inference is supported by record. The appointments of high officers, the first appearances and gradual rise in dignity of lesser functionaries, as Masters in Chancery, Attornies and Solicitors-General, Sergeants and " Apprentices:' are noted from the public records. Wills, inquisitions as to the property of the deceased, leases, pedigrees, and monumental in- scriptions, are used in like manner to arrive at the facts of a man's life and death, or to trace the history of an institution. Independ- ently of the direct forwarding of the particular object by these proofs, their application gives an idea of the art of the archaeologist, as their number and variety fill the mind with surprise at our antiquarian wealth. The facts recorded are for the most part of a formal kind, and devoid of circumstances ; but sometimes they con- tain or suvest them,—throwing light upon laws, upon manners,. and especially upon the past condition of London. In the able and elaborate tracking of the possession of the Temple from the

• time when the Templars were despoiled of their property, till its probable occupation by the lawyers as a body, it is shown that, circa 1336, the fruit from the Temple-garden sold for sixty shillings per annum—equal to from forty to fifty pounds of our money ; a large sum, unless we suppose that both the Tem- plars and Hospitallers had introduced a better cultivation and pro- bably choice fruits. Further indications of the early state of Lon- don continually occur, especiallyin the historical sketches of the Inns of Court ; some known, some new in their details or new altogether. In 1323, the manor of Portepole, the property of John de Grey, (which names still survive in Gray's Inn, and Po 1Lane,) would seem from the account in the inquisition held on Jo 's death to have been a sort of suburb ; the description tanning thus—" Purtpoll extra Barium, London, unum messuagium, 12 shop. 3 acr. terr. et molend. ventrit."; to which perhaps the next item may be added —" Holebourn clans. continens 8 acr. terr." On the death of John's grandson, in 1370, a mansion or inn (" hospitium") existed, of the value of 100 shillings per annum ; " at which it was their let, ' et sic dimittitur ad Erman.'" By 1441 the property had attained its present name : it is described as the Manor of Portpoole, " vo- eat. Grey's Inn." It is probable that the lawyers had rented Gray's Inn of the Greys for some time before 1460 (when four Inns of Court are mentioned by Fortescue) ; but the first proof that it was really occupied by them is in the early part of the sixteenth century ; leases, evidently for that purpose, being granted in 1506- 7 and 1515.

The first mention of the Master or Keeper of the Rolls is in 1302, when Adam de Osgodby is named by that title on the seals being delivered to him, to keep till the King should provide him- self with a Chancellor; so that the office must have been already in existence. The first mention of the Rolls House (in Chancery Lane) is in 1311, when the same Adam, the seal being again com- mitted to him on the Chancellor's absence in France, sealed writs with it at his " hospitium " in the " Domus Conversorum." This domus was originally a house of refuge for oonverted Jews. It was founded by Henry the Third (about 1232) ; and of course proves that the expulsion of Jews under his uncle Richard could not have been thorough. The residence of the Master of the Rolls being in this house, is explained by the fact that he was often keeper of the converts as well as of the seals. The number of ec- clesiastical edifices that have been used for official purposes is worthy of note, as being probably the only buildings in those early days that were erected with sufficient solidity and convenience, except royal palaces ; for the baronial castle was for military pur- poses, and its owner not so easily dispossessed. The origin—the first appearance of any law-officers, as well as the lower grades of the lawyers themselves—is hidden in impene- trable darkness. They grew up gradually and fitfully as necessity arose, and it was not till the occasional advanced into permanency that they can be traced. The reign of Edward the First is rich in crop, as it were. In his reign the orderly administration of jus- tice was established much upon its present footing. The order of the Judges, the list of Masters in Chancery, Attornies- General, and Sergeants, appears : if the Court of Chancery does not to a certainty look full-grown till the reign of his son, it may fairly be attributed to the father, and was doubtless complete, though no proof exists. The following extracts not only furnish curious information, but give an idea of the style and mode of Mr. Foss's work.

" The designation Attornatus Regis' was certainly adopted before 6 Edward I., inasmuch as there are two instances in that year of such an officer appearing, without any name being mentioned. The title was not yet, how- ever in common use, for though some few are so called, the ordinary mode of description is qui sequitur pro rege.' In the following list of those who are distinguished by one or the other of these terms, it will be apparent, as several are acting in the same years, that some were only locally engaged on special occasions. It is equally clear, also, that in most years two were regularly employed, who may perhaps be supposed to answer to our modern officer; the Attorney and Solicitor General. The latter title, however, had certainly not been adopted ; and, as far as I can find, was not used till the reign of Edward IV.

'That there was an established advocate on the part of the Ring, appears probable from the fact, that in the last year of Edward's reign, John de Mut- lord was called before the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, to inform them of the King's right in the matter of a petition then presented. In that year also, both John de Chester, who followed for the King,' and the 'King's Serjeants,' are mentioned as arguing a case on the King's behalf.

" ATTOUNATI REGIS.

VI. 1277-8. William Boneville, in Essex. VII. 1278-9. William de Giselbam; and in 8, 9, 10, 14 Edw. I. He is called Attornatus Regis in 9 Edw. I., and also King's Serjeant, and was raised to the bench in 18 Edw. I. VIII. 1279-80. Gilbert de Thornton; and in 10 and 13 Edw. 1. In 10 Edw. I. he and William de Giselham are called narratores pro rege in the same process. In 9 Edw. 1. he was a King's Serjeant, and was made Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 18 Edw. I. IX. 1280-1. Alan de Walkingham, in Yorkshire. X. 1281-2. John le Pawconer ; and in 14 Edw. I.

XIII. 1284-5. William de 8eleby, in Warwickshire. XV. 1286-7. William Inge ; and in 18, 19, 20, Edw. I. Justice of Assize in 21 Edw. I., and Chief Justice of King's Bench under Edw. II. XVIII. 1289-90. John de Bosco, in Norfolk.

Nicholas de Warwick ; and in 23, 28, 29, 32, 33 Edw. I. A King's Serjeant in 21 Edw. 1. ; died about 34 Edw. I. John de Hayden, for the King and Queen-mother.

XX. 1291-2. Richard de Breteville, Attornatus Regis.

Hugh de 'Anther, in Salop.

XXI. 1292-3. Roger de Hegham, in York ; made a Baron of the Exchequer in 26 Edward I.

XXII. 1293-4. John de Mutford; and in 30 and 35 Edw. II. In the latter year a Justice of Assize; and a Justice of the Common Pleas under Edw. II.

XXIX. 1300-1. John de Chester; and in 32 and 35 Edw. I. He also acted in the same character under Edw. II.; in the tenth year of whose reign he was made marshall of the court.

XXXIII. 1304-5. John de Drokenesford is also mentioned on one occasion, but evidently only in connection with his office of treasurer.

" The Queen also had an attorney to attend to her separate interests, but the name of no one who held the office is recorded.

• • • •

" In this reign the list of Serjeante commences. All those named by Dug. dale and by Wynne are called Servientes Rears ad legem ; and the only one I find, to whom that title is not given, is Thomas le Mareschall, who, as we have seen, calls himself a common sergeant-narrator, or counter.'

" The following is the order in which their names appear; but as they are extracted from Liberate Rolls, their actual appointments probably took place at earlier periods.

" SEHJEANTS.

III. 1274-5. Thomas de Weyland, John de Cobbeham, John de Metingham,Elias de Beckingham. IX. 1280-1. Gilbert de Thornton, William de Gis4ham. 1X.X. 1291-2. William Inge. XXI. 1292-3. Nicholas de Warwick. All those had some allowance out of the Exchequer, perhaps for their service to the king ; and all, except the last, became judges: indeed Thomas de Weyland and John de Cubbeham appear to have been paid after they were raised to the bench ; but this might have been only for an arrear then due.

'XXV. 1296-7. Thomas le Xlareschall."

In the reign of the same great lawgiver, some professional divi- sion would seem to have taken place, and the privilege of the legal man only to do legal business to have been established.

" The word Apprentices, as applied to the law., was first used in this reign. By an ordinance of the Parliament 20 Edward I., entitled 'De Attornatis et .Apprenticiis ' John de Metingham and his companions were enjoined to pro- vide a certain number for every county of the better and more legally and liberally learned, according to what they conceived to be for the convenience of the court and the people ; and none but those were to follow the court or interfere in its proceedings. The mandate suggests that 140 will be suffi- cient, but gives these judges power to increase or diminish the number. The words attornatis et apprcnticiis' are probably used here synonymously, and were intended to apply to pleaders in the court. The necessity for this addition no doubt arose from the division of the courts being carried into full: effect, and the Common Pleas being fixed at Westminster, while the King's. Bench and Exchequer frequently followed the King. About the same time, also, all Justices of Assize were appointed to perambulate the kingdom, while all the courts were sitting."

The abstract functionary who plays so important a part through-: out English history, the taxgatherer, enables us to see the relative value of the different classes at a later period. This is the assess= ment to a poll-tax of Richard the Second, where the grades of the profession stand pretty much as they do now.

"In the poll-tax of 2 Richard II., members of the legal profession were divided into four classes, and were thus assessed— "I. The Judges and Chief Baron of the Exchequer

10011111ings.

2. Each serjeant and ' grant apprentice du 40 .:

3. Other apprentices who pursue the law 20 „

4. All other apprentices of less estate, and attorneys fix. 8d. "The 'grants apprentices,' named in the second class, were uo doubt the leaders of the court who were of &standing to be called to the degree of Ser- jeant, answering to the wearers of silk gowns in our time, but certainly not bearing the title of King's Counsel. The better apprentices of the law,' named in the commission of 5 Richard II. for inquiry into abuses, were no doubt some of these. Those in the second class were the regular pleaders in the court ; and the 'other apprentices of less estate' were perhaps the students who had not yet served long enough to be called to the bar. The attorneys had evidently by this time become a separate body."

Professional dignity in those days, as in ours, was sometimes accompanied by the loss of professional profits. Men declined the honour of King's Sergeant on account of the expenses at- tending it, till a second and more peremptory order compelled the reception of the honour. Under Henry the Sixth, one Wil- liam Ayscoghe, who was raised to the bench, complains in a peti- tion, that by being made a Justice "or he had been fully two yere " a Sergeant, " all his winnings that he sholde have had in the said office of Sergeant, and alle the fees that he had in Englande, werre and be cessed and expired, to his grete empoorysslayng." The King paid his Judges out of his own pocket, and, following the false economy of some absolute monarchies now, underpaid them. Under Edward the Third the following was their pay and perquisites.

"The salary of the Chief Justices of both Benches, at the beginning of the reign, was 401. each, and that of other judges 40 marks each. The latter stipend was all that was then given to the Chief Baron and his associates in the Exchequer. " By stat. 20 Edward III. chap. 1., after enacting that the Judges are to take no reward from any one but the King, it is especially stated, that ' for this cause we have increased the fees (lea feez) of the same our justices, in such manner as it ought reasonably to suffice them.' This increase is also particularly referred to in the proceedings against William de Thorpe for cor-

ruption four years afterwards. • " The word fee ' in the statute evidently meant the salary paid to them by the King, that being the ordinary name given to it; and had no reference to any larger payments to which the Judges were entitled on proceedings be- fore them.

" It is curious, however, that the salaries themselves were not increased; but the expressaons of the statute and the King are explained by entries on the Issue Roll of 44 Edward III., 1370, which has been published in extern.° by Mr. Frederick Devon ; where the following payments to the Judges will show that, though no change was made in their stipulated salaries, additional allowances were separately granted to them. "John Rnyvet, Ch. K. B., had 401. yearly for his fee in the office ; but he had also, by letters patent 'lately granted,' 100 marks yearly, to be received so long as he should remain in the office. Of this he received 201. on Novem- ber 14, in part payment of 50 marks then payable to him ; and on Novem- ber 28 he received 131. 68. 8d., the balance. In the latter entry the grant is stated to be for his good service, and that he might more fitly maintain his estate.'

" Thomas de Ingelby, the only Puisne Judge of the King's Bench at that time, received 40 marks as his annual fee ; but he also received 201. a year as a judge of assize ; and likewise an additional grant of 401. per annum, be-

yond the fee, appointed to be paid to him as long as he should remain in the office.

" Robert de Thorpe, Ch. C. P., had 40/. for his fee of office . with an addi- tional 401., which is described as having been granted to him for life, for his good service, and that he might more fitly maintain the military order which he had received from the King.

" The other Judges of the Common Pleas mentioned in this roll are John de Monkey, William de Wychingham, and William de Fyncheden ,• all of whom have 40 marks as their fee, also 201. as justices of assize; and Mou- bray 40 marks, and the two others 401. by additional grants.

" The Chief Baron, and the two other Barons of the Exchequer had each of them 40 marks for their annual fee; but the chief had also 201. as a jus- tice of assize, which the others had not ; showing that they were not em- loyed in that duty. One of them, however, Almaric de Shirland, had an additional grant of 40 marks, for services rendered and to be rendered, until otherwise provided for.

"The same record shows us that there were also some serjeants who were employed as justices of assize, and received salaries for that duty of 201. a year each.

"The records of this reign afford us the first description of the materials which were allowed to the Judges for their robes. Of these they were pro- vided with three ; .the keeper of the great wardrobe having an annual man- date to deliver to each of them, for their summer robes, dimidium pannum curcum et unam peciam sindonum et dimidium,'—half a cloth of a colour called curcus, and one piece and a half of fine linen silk ; for their winter robes,..' unum aliud dimidium pannum curcum cum uno capucio et tribus fururiis de bogeto albo,'—one other half of the cloth of the curcus colour, with a hood and three furs of white budge, or lambskin ; and for their Christmas robes, which seem to have been what we should now term their full dress, 'mum aliud dimidium pannum curcum cum uno capucio de triginta et duabus ventribus de merim, una fururia de aeptem cif de merim et duabus fururiis de bish','—half a cloth of the colour curcus, with a hood of thirty- two bellies of miniver, a fur of seven tires of miniver, and two furs of silk.

" The Justices of both Benches and the Barons of the Exchequer had all the same judicial dress • and the chiefs of the different courts are not noticed as having anything to distinguish them from their fellows."

Long as this notice is, we have only touched upon a few of the many curious matters that are to be found in the general account of the reigns leaving the biographies nearly altogether. Even if the materials were more ample, 473 lives, compressed into two vo- lumes, albeit goodly volumes, must of necessity be curt. Some of the most distinguished of the subjects—as William of Wykeham and Sir William Gascoyne—are, however, pretty full ; while it is curious how many facts have been hunted out respecting hundreds of obscure men, though eminent in their day. The course of the author's labours has now brought him to a period when fuller materials of domestic history are to be found ; and family papers and letters, and perhaps tradition, have preserved particulars of a more personal and characteristic kind. These, however, are not always so accessible to the inquirer as the recorded facts with which Mr. Foss has hitherto dealt; and at the close of his intro- duction he asks for aid, to which he is well entitled.

" My next volumes will embrace a period so far advanced that many of the families of the Judges who lived in it are still flourishing. From the repre- sentatives of several of these I have received, and from others have been promised, the most liberal assistance : and as I have now given proof of my perseverence, I trust that all of those who bear a judge's name, or pride themselves in being connected with a judge's family, will honour my pages by allowing me to record what they know of their ancestor's career. Let them not refrain from an apprehension that they have but little to communi- cate. The minutest fact often becomes important in an inquiry, and some- times supplies the very link in the chain of circumstances that is wanting to complete the history. I shall highly appreciate the information they may forward to me, and faithfully and gratefully acknowledge the source from which I derive it."