Atrocious Judges

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE text of the following BooK OF JUDGES has been derived from Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, and Lives of the Chancellors, with only a few verbal alterations for the sake of connection, some transpositions, the omission of some details of less interest to the American reader, and the insertion of a few paragraphs, enclosed in brackets, thus [ ].

Most biographers have been arrant flatterers. Lord Campbell is a distinguished member of that modern school, which holds that history is of no dignity nor use, except so far as it is true; and that the truth is to be told at all hazards and without reserve. Hitherto social and political position, obtained no matter by what means, has in general secured not only present but future reputation. It can hardly fail to be a serious check upon those who struggle for distinction

to understand, that, however they may cheat or dazzle their contemporaries, they must expect to encounter from posterity a Rhadamantine judgment.

The object of the present work, prepared as it is in the interest of justice and freedom, and designed to hold up a mirror to magistrates now sitting on the American bench, in which "to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very life and body of the time his form and pressure," will, I hope, induce Lord Campbell to pardon the liberty I have ventured to take with his writings.

BOSTON, November 20, 1855.

R. H.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

The administration of justice the great end of government, page 9. Polity of the Anglo-

Saxons, 10. County courts, 12. Policy of the Norman conquerors, 13. Their

scheme for the administration of justice, 14. Aula Regis, or King's Court, 15.

Law proceedings become a mystery, 16. Division of the Aula Regis, 18. King's

Bench, 18. Common Pleas, 19. Exchequer, 19. Court of Chivalry, or Honor Court,

19. Origin of the legal profession as it exists at present-Inns of Court, 20. Special

Pleadings, 21. Serjeants, Barristers, and Attorneys, 22. Justices of the peace, 23.

Appeals to Parliament, 24. Trial by jury, 25. Nisi prius trials, 27. Usurpations of

the courts upon each other, 28. Court of Chancery, 30. Court of Admiralty, 31.

Use of torture, 32. Suits for slander in the Court of Chivalry, 33. The courts the

ready tools of executive usurpation, 34. Courts of Star Chamber and High Com-

mission, 34. Sources and object of the present compilation, 35. Bearing of the fol-

lowing narratives on passing events, 35.

CHAPTER I.

ROGER LE BRABANCON.

His ancestry, page 37. Made a judge, 37. Edward I. claims sovereignty over Scot-

land, 39. The family of Bruce, 40. Robert de Brus, 41. Contest for the Scottish

throne, 43. Brabancon maintains Edward's claim, 44. Is rewarded with the office

of chief justice, 47.

CHAPTER II.

ROBERT TRESILIAN.

Appointed chief justice, 48. Ready for any dirty work, 49. Judicial opinion in fa-

vor of the arbitrary power of the King, 50. Preparations for judicial murders, 53.

The barons march on London, 54. Tresilian appealed of high treason, 56. Found

guilty, 57. Arrest and execution, 59.

CHAPTER III.

THOMAS BILLING.

Lancastrians and Yorkists, 61. Fortescue and Markham, 61. Removal of Markham,

63. Billing a judge, 64. His infamous character, 64. His previous life, 64. Be-

gins a Lancastrian, 65. The Yorkists having triumphed, becomes a Yorkist, 66.

Made a judge, 67. Trial of Walker, 67. A court favorite, 68. Chief justice, 69.

Trial of Sir Thomas Burdett, 169. Lancastrian revolution, 71. Billing changes,

and keeps his place, 72. Yorkist revolution, 72. Billing changes again, and keeps

his place, 73. Procures a pardon for Fortescue, 73. His law decisions, 74. Trial

of the Duke of Clarence, 74. Billing's death, 75.

CHAPTER IV.

JOHN FITZJAMES.

A friend of Wolsey's, 76. Who makes him attorney general, 77. Prosecution of Buck-
ingham, 77. Made a judge, 77. Chief justice, 78. Turns against Wolsey after his
1 *

(5)

fall, 78. Ecclesiastical pretensions of Henry VIII., 80. Trial of Fisher, 81. Trial of

Sir Thomas More, 83. Trials of the supposed gallants of Anne Boleyn, 85. Fitz-

james's opinion as to the mode of Anne Boleyn's execution, 85. His death, 85.

CHAPTER V. .

THOMAS FLEMING.

A rival of Bacon's, 87. His origin and progress, 87. Solicitor general, 88. Speaker

of the House of Commons, 89. Bacon his rival there, 90. Fleming chief baron of

the Exchequer, 90. His judgment in the case of impositions, 91. Made chief jus-

tice, 94. Case of the Postnati, 94. Trial of the Countess of Shrewsbury, 95. Wholly

eclipsed by Sir Edward Coke, 95. His death, 96.

CHAPTER VI.