in a statement made by Thomas Denton, Nicolas Bacon, and Robert Cary to Henry VIII upon this subject1. It represents the grades of membership and the rules of study as well settled; and no doubt the information contained in it can be taken as applicable to our period. This statement deals with (1) the grades of membership within the Inns, (2) the periods of study, and (3) the mode of education.

(1) The Benchers and Readers are those who have publicly lectured in the Inn. As we have seen, they rule the Society; and at their head is the Treasurer or Pensioner. It is from the Readers that the serjeants-at-law are usually appointed. Below them come the Utter-Barristers. They are

'such that for their learning and continuance are called by the said Readers to plead and argue in the said house doubtful cases and questions which amongst them are called motes, at certain times propounded and brought in before the said Benchers or Readers; and they are called utter-barresters for that they, when they argue the said motes, sit uttermost on the forms, which they call the Barr 2; and this degree is the chiefest degree for learners in the house next the Benchers; for of these be chosen and made the Readers of all the Inns of Chancery, and also of the most ancient of these is one elected yearly to read amongst them, who, after his reading, is called a Bencher or Reader. All the residue of learners are called Inner-Barresters, which are the youngest men, that for lack of learning and continuance are not able to argue and reason in these motes; nevertheless whensoever any of the said motes be brought in before any of the said Benchers, then two of the said Inner-Barresters sitting on the said forme with the Utter-Barresters, doe for their exercises recite by heart the pleading of the said mote case in Law French, the one taking the part of plaintiff, and the other the part of the defendant 3.'

These were the three chief classes of members of the Inns; but they were not all the members. We can see from Fortescue's description, and from the Paston Letters, that many joined the Inns of Court or Chancery in order to acquire some knowledge of law to be used in their own business without any thought of becoming practising lawyers. It was a wise step for any to take who had property to protect. Thynkk onis of the daie of youre faddis counseyle to lerne the lawe,' wrote Agnes Paston to her son Edmund at

1 Printed by Waterhous, Fortescue Illustratus, 543-549.

For another explanation of the terms 'Utter' and Inner' Bar see Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. x.

3 The name 'barrister-at-law' does not become a usual name till the sixteenth century, see L. Q. R. xxi. 252, 253; we have an early use of the term in the Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. 264. Even now 'barrister-at-law' is a popular term to mean an utter-barrister, L. Q. R. xxi. 253; the term 'inner barrister' has long been obsolete.

'Clyffordis Inn' in 1445, 'for he seyd manie tymis that ho so ever schuld dwelle at Paston, schulde have nede to conne defende hymselfe 1. Moreover it is clear that at this period attornies at law were rapidly becoming a distinct class. The old distinction between the attorney and the pleader was still preserved 2; unprofessional attornies were still legally possible; but there are many evidences that attornies for the purposes of legal business were recognized officers of the court and under the supervision of the judges. As such they were allowed to plead their clients' cases in court 5, and to become members of the Inns. They may perhaps have been more numerous in the Inns of Chancery than the Inns of Court; but they might clearly be members of either. They were not yet confined to the Inns of Chancery. In fact there was as yet no clear division in these respects between the two branches of the profession. Attornies and junior apprentices were classed together at this period, as in the reign of Edward I". As the old legal distinction between the office of an attorney and the office of a pleader tended to grow more faint with the enlarged powers which litigants had of appointing attornies, and with the rise of professional attornies, it might well have happened that the distinction would have been obliterated. But in the following period the distinction was revived, and given its modern significance, mainly by the action of the Inns of Court and the judges in first discouraging and then excluding attornies. The result of this step was to deny the attorney the right to plead in court for his client, because, as we have said, it is only the call to the bar by the Inn which could confer this right. Thus the separation of the profession into two branches, though it has an ancient origin, has been perpetuated by an artificial rule; and, the ancient reasons for it having been lost sight of, it has

1 i. 58, no. 46.

2 P. and M., i. 191, 192; Y. B. 12, 13 Ed. III (R. S.), 102, 274.

9 Y. B. 18 Ed. III (R. S.), xxxviii, 'There is nothing to show that a party could not nominate any one whom he might please to act for him. He might even nominate his wife.'

* See e. g. Y. B. B. 11, 12 Ed. III (R. S.), 586; 17, 18 Ed. III (R. S.), 138-140; R. P. iii. 642 (11 Hen. IV, no. 63); ibid. 666 (13 Hen. IV, no. 49); iv. 80 (3 Hen. V, no. 34); 4 Hen. IV, c. 18; 33 Hen. VI, c. 8.

5 See e. g. Y. B. B. 11, 12 Ed. III (R. S.), 138, 206, 436; 12, 13 Ed. III (R. S.), 2, 214, 304; 13, 14 Ed. III (R. S.), 74.

It is not until the sixteenth century that they were excluded from the Inns of Court, and then in terms which imply that they had formerly been members; thus in 1556 the Council of Lincoln's Inn ordered that, 'From henceforth no man that shall exercise th' office of Attornieship shalbe admitted into the feloship of this Howse wi'out the consent of vi of the Benche,' Black Books, i. 315; in 1557 the judges made a similar order that Attornies should be excluded from the Inns of Court from henceforth, Dugdale, Orig. Jud., 310; Middle Temple Records, 111.

7R. P. iii. 58 (2 Rich. II), the legal profession is assessed as follows:-serjeants and great apprentices, 40s. ; other apprentices, 208.; apprentices of less estate and attornios, 6s. 8d.

See L. Q. R. xxii. 379, 380 for a suggested explanation of this step taken by the judges.

There was,

appeared to many to be a meaningless division. perhaps, one survival which may date from this period when apprentices, attornies, and clerks of many sorts1 could all be members of the Inns. We know from the Rolls of Parliament that the officers of the courts sometimes acted as attornies 2. Perhaps some of them acted also as pleaders. If these officials were members of the Inns and resided there we may find an explanation of the fact that many of the offices of the courts were situated at these Inns 3.

(2) The periods into what we may call 'the academic year' were divided were Learning Vacations in Lent and summer; Term time; and Dead Vacation. Of these periods the Learning Vacations were the most important.

(3) The mode of education may be summed up in two words, lectures and argument. For the learning vacations the Benchers elected from among the senior Utter-Barristers a summer Reader. The same person often read during both the summer and Lent vacations. The person selected was given half a year's notice to prepare his lectures.

'Then the first day after Vacation, about 8 of the clock, he that is so chosen to read openly in the Hall... shall reade some one suche Act or Statute as shall please him to ground his whole reading on for all that Vacation, and that done, doth declare such inconveniences and mischiefs as were unprovided for ... and then reciteth certain doubts and questions which he hath devised, that may grow upon the said statute, and declareth his judgement therein. That done, one of the younger Utter-Barresters rehearseth one question propounded by the Reader, and doth by way of argument labour to prove the Reader's opinion to be against the law, and after him the rest of the Utter-Barresters and Readers one after another in their ancienties, doe declare their opinions and judgements in the same; and then the Reader who did put the case endeavoureth himself to confute objections laid against him, and to confirm his own opinion, after whom the judges and serjeants, if any be present, declare their opinions, and after they have done, the youngest Utter-Barrester again rehearseth another case, which is ordered as the other was. Thus the reading ends for that day: and this manner of reading and disputations continue daily two hours or thereabouts.'

These were the solemn readings; but work was not over for the day. After dinner cases put at the Reader's table were argued throughout the Hall; and every night after supper, and every

1 Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. xiii.

2 R. P. iii. 306 (16 Rich. II, no. 28). There is a complaint that the clerks of the King's Bench, Common Bench, and the Assizes act as attornies for the parties, and falsify the rolls in the interests of their clients.

3 Holdsworth, H. E. L., i. 403; Inner Temple Calendar, i. xxviii, xxix.

fasting day immediately after six of the clock,' the Reader and the Benchers discussed cases put by one of the Utter-Barristers. That done they held a mote. The Benchers acted as judges, and two Inner-Barristers and two Utter-Barristers acted as counsel. In the Inns of Chancery the Reader was an Utter-Barrister of the Inn of Court to which the Inn of Chancery was annexed. There a very similar procedure was followed1.

In term time cases were argued after dinner, and motes were held after supper; and even in the Dead Vacation the same course was followed, the Utter-Barristers then taking the place of the Benchers 2. This being the mode of education, we can see how important it was that not only the students, but also the Utter-Barristers and Readers should keep their vacations.' Numerous rules were made to ensure this—indeed to have kept so many vacations was, in the case of the students, a condition precedent to a call. UtterBarristers and Benchers were liable to a fine and other penalties *. It is not surprising that law schools conducted after this fashion made 'tough law 5.' The training which they gave was intensely practical; and no doubt it kept the practical, the argumentative, the procedural side of law prominently to the front-perhaps sometimes to the exclusion of legal theory. It produced the men who wrote the Year Books-the men who made the common law a system of case law. At the same time we cannot say that it gave no opportunities for instruction in legal theory. It also produced Littleton and Fortescue. We may conjecture that the students had some opportunities for private reading,' perhaps in the chambers of the elder lawyers; and to those whose minds are prepared by such reading, suggestions thrown out in argument, and the quick play of mind upon mind, will often give hints as to the existence of difficult problems, and clues to their correct solution. Moreover we may remember that this mode of instruction, if it began by making men pleaders, and continued by making them advocates

1 In Y. B. 37 Hen. VI, Hil., pl. 4, there is an allusion to the moots in the Inns of Chancery, Ceo este la forme de pleading en Inns de Chancery; mes la forme n'est bon.'

2 Cp. Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. ix-xi, xxiv-xxvii.

3 Ibid. i. 12, 41-43.

Ibid. i. 263, there is an order of 1563 that 'No Utter Barrester shalbe allowed to have any boyer pot, or clerke to sytt in comens, onless the same Utter Barrester gyve his diligent attendauns att all lernyngs, and especially yn the lernyng vacacyons, aswell within this House as att Chancery mootes.'

5 Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance, 27, 28, 'Now it would, so I think, be difficult to conceive any scheme better suited to harden and toughen a traditional body of law than one which, while books were still uncommon, compelled every lawyer to take part in legal education, and every distinguished lawyer to read public lectures'; see ibid. 89, 90 for Sir Thomas Smith's appreciation of the qualities of the 'Londinenses Jurisconsulti.'

In Y. B. 11 Ed. IV, Trin., pl. 4, Genney speaks of Mon master Cheine.'

and keen debaters, ended by making them judges. The Benchers in the learning vacations and in term time were the judges in the motes; and the Utter-Barristers in the Inns of Chancery, and in the Inns of Court in the dead vacations, played the same part. Thus the education provided by the Inns was a constant rehearsal and a preparation for the life of advocate and judge. All were learners in their various grades. A call to the bar was but an inception. The Utter-Barrister must still learn of the Readers and Benchers as well as assist to teach by the part he took in readings and motes. The learning of the ancients' was kept fresh by the queries and the difficulties of the inner bar. Even the Benchers themselves were, as compared with the serjeants and judges, but apprentices in the law 1.

(III) The Relation of the Inns of Court to the Serjeants and Judges.

3

The serjeants and judges were, as we have seen, the rulers of the profession of the law. They formed a guild of their own; and the member of an Inn who became a serjeant ceased to belong to the Inn. On his departure a presentation was made to him, and his former colleagues prayed him always to bear in mind the interests of his old Society; and he in turn thanked the Society, 'gevynge a gret lawde onto the maners of the house wher thorough they have atteynid to ther kownyng and promocyon 2.' Though the Inns were independent societies, they had probably, as we have said 3, gained their powers by the goodwill of the judges; and they still remained liable to obey the reasonable orders issued by the judges, who exercised in later days, and probably from the earliest period, a sort of visitatorial jurisdiction. It is but rarely that we hear of any objection made to these orders; for as a rule they only contained regulations affecting the education, the conduct, the behaviour, and the qualifications of the members of the Inns. They do not interfere with their peculiar customs and their internal economy; and they were sometimes made with the consent of the

1 Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, i. xxxix, note.

2 Dugdale, Orig. Jud., cc. xliii-xlvi. The following extract, taken from c. xliii, will give some idea of the common forms of address on such occasions. The occasion was the creation of three serjeants from the Middle Temple in 1504; one of the members of the Inn spoke, praising the serjeants, pro suo bono gestu et bona gubernatione, quae fuerunt causa electionis eorum, desiderando eos habere societatem in eorum favorem, &c. . . . Et tunc Thesaurarius deliberat eis xx marcas in auro et argento, inclusas in nova cyroteca; quibus acceptis regratiebantur Societatem, non solum pro pecunia, sed pro aliis beneficiis, ut erudicione legum et legatione eorum ad studendum per bonas regulas ordinatis per Comitivam, quae restrixerunt eis [corr. restrinxerunt eos] in juventute ab insolentia ad studendum,' &c. 3 See L.Q.R. xxiii, 459. 4 Dugdale, Orig. Jud., c. lxx.

5 Ibid. 314, 315. We hear sometimes of objections; the Society of Lincoln's Inn promises only a qualified obedience to the orders of the judges issued in 1594; in 1559 the same Society declined to enforce an order of the judges forbidding the wearing of beards, Black Books, i. xxxvi, 328, 329.