Volume 1

Microcosm of London / [Anon].

Date:: [1808-1811]

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microcosm of London / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

208/248 page 196

exceptions of deceit, of fear, of minority, suits concerning wills, substitu- tion, &c. By the law Pretoria, they were to supply and correct the laws Varro, lib. v. de Ling. Lat. By the law Cornelia, they were punishable if they did not judge according to equity.—Cicero. Phil. ii. In the empire it was said to the chancellor, “ Fasces tibi judicium parent, et dum jussa prcetoriance sedis portare credcris, ipsam quodammodo potestatem reve- rendus assumis.” And again, “ Persona tua refugium sit oppresso, infirmo defensio, presidium aliqna calamitate concluso ; sic enim proprie nostros cancellos agitis, si Icesorum impia claustra solvatis.”—Spelman’s Gloss, p. 126, in which he cites Cassiodorus (lib. xii. for- mul. i.) who wrote above twelve hundred years ago. From the Roman empire it passed to the Roman church, and when the modem kingdoms and principalities of Europe were established upon the ruins of the empire, almost every state preserved this office ; and even subjects that had jura regalia, had likewise their chanceries and chancellors. The counties palatine in England have them to this day, and the lords marchers had them before the statute of Wales, 27th Henry VIII. % Neither can we subscribe to the opinion of Sir W. Blackstone, who, speaking of the reigns of Edward I. and Henry II. says, that “ in these early times, the chief juridical employment of the chancellor must have been in devising new writs directed to the courts of common law, to give remedy in cases where none was before administered.” In answer to this it has been well observed, that the antiquity and dignity

digitised image 1

digitised image 2

digitised image 3