SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Haim in this column does not necessarily pracluds shhirMmal trriricl
Year Books of Edward II. VoL XVIIL Edited by W. C. Bolland. (Quaritch for the Selden Society. 52s. 6d.)—This is the thirty-seventh volume of the invaluable series issued by the Selden Society, which prints the original records in order to throw light en the history of English law and English institutions. The volume contains the Year Book, or Law Report, for the eighth year of Edward II., 1314-15--the year of Bannockburn
giving the principal pleas of Michaelmas term of 1314 in our mediaeval law-French with an English translation on the oppo- site pages. Most of the pleas relate to disputes about land, but there is one about a presentation to a living in which the King's Bench book the opportunity of encroaching on tho Church jurisdiction, and there is another in which an unscrupulous Prior of Blythburgh sought, on a technical plea, to evade pay- ment of a debt. The arguments of counsel and the dechave remarks of the judges are often curiously modern in tone. Mr. Rolland, a most scholarly editor, devotes his introduction to the troubles of the mediaeval juror and the methods by which the mediaeval judge gained a living. He thinks that travelling was easier and the roads better in the reign of Edward LI., n hen pilgrimages to Canterbury were frequent and visits to Items very common, than in the reign of Elizabeth. Yet it was an onerous task for a Northumberland landholder to make the keg journey to Westminster, at his own expense, in order to testiiy concerning a neighbour's land or family. In many cases, Mr.
Bonand thinks, the jurors failed to appear. The sheriffs profited by summoning reluctant jurors and taking bribes in return for their release from the obligation. The judges, whose small salaries were usually years in arrear, took pensions from the religious orders and other corporations which might need their friendly offices. The introduction is well worth reading.
Previous page
