A\ « . Ns *\'-N'Nis- i ;/ - ^'^>-i:v^^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Mrs. Marion Keiper PLEASANTRIES OF EliGLISH COURTS jlND LAWYEIiS JOHN CORDY JEAFFRESON OF THE INNER TEMFLB JERSEY CITY: FREDERICK D. LINN & COMPANY, 47 MOXTGUMEKV StrEET. i CONTENTS. PAGE I, — The Lord Chancellors, i II. — Lawyers in Arms, 60 III. — Riding and Dining 92 IV. — Lawyers at Home 125 V. — Loves of the Lawyers, 167 VI. — Fees and Bribes 215 VII. — Gowns and Wigs, 280 7 THE LORD CHANCELLORS. CHAPTER I. WELL planned and well written, the story of the Great Seal would be a rare story. It calls up the dead of eight silent centuries, placing before the mind much of that which is most beautiful and noble, and not a little of that which is most to be deplored in the growth of England's greatness. The poet's song and the soldier's fame give music and bright- ness to the atmosphere that covers and surrounds the mystic emblem of sovereign will. For seven-and-twenty generations fair women and brave men have submitted meekly to its influence and bowed before it reverentially. More than a mere symbol of the ruler's power, it hrii been honored as the power itself by the flatteries of pliant courtiers, the prayers of wretched supplicLnts, the hopes of ambition, and the fears of cowardice. For twice four hundred years it has witnessed the most stirring scenes, held parley with the most famous personages, and been an actor in the grandert episodes of history. The right to guard it from danger has been placed amongst the chief honors of a highly-civilized people ; and to win that honor, and wear it for a few brief days, accomplished, resolute, and brilliant men nave in each generation striven with fierce rivalry and 2 PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH heroic steadfastness. Through days of toil and nights of study ; through long years of exertion, disappoint- ment, and despair ; against the difficulties of debt, and mental distress, and feeble health ; with an ascetic ab- stinence from pleasure, and with a terrible concentration of all their powers upon the one desired object, they have striven for that prize, and striven in vain. Boot- less their perseverence and self-denial, their learning and integrity, their sacrifices and unconquerable will ! Van- quished by the intensity of their own exertions, or worsted by some of those many circumstances and ad- verse influences w'hich at times stay the speed of the swift and defeat the strong, they failed to achieve their purpose. They " dropped under,"' and the mighty tide of life which rolled over them is their nameless grave. Many are the times that Fortune has wrenched the Seal from a firm grasp and dropped it into a feeble hand ; many a time has she led a knave to the Marble Chair, and cast a smile of derision on men too honest to woo her with falsehood ; anon she has turned her back on tlie entire crowd of eager aspirants, and with beautiful malice in her eyes has thrown the prize into the lap of a simpleton v/ho had never expected to touch it, had never even asked for it. Scarcely less startling than the most striking phe- nomena of science are the diverse effects which have been wrought in Keepers of the Great Seal by the mere custody of that royal property, To some its acquisition has been admission to new life, to others the first tri- umph of office has been followed by speedy death. It might be told how men, still in the middle t^rm of life — still in the sunshine of younger manhood — have snatched the coveted prize ere care liad plowed furrows in their faces, or time had placed frost upon their heads. It might be told how these singularly lucky and COURTS AND LAWYERS. 3 strangely unfortunate men have borne away the crimson purse before envious eyes, and from that time forth have never known a night of peaceful slumber — an hour of perfect repose. The story might reveal how one, more ■uccessful and wretched than all his fellows, could not endure the burden of that bauble : how its weight, so trifling in the scales, was immeasurable in his breast and ui>on his conscience ; how he fled from the eyes of men, and hiding his face, sought the mercy of Death — and fraud it. But more marvelous than aught and all that it has done are the vicissitudes which the Great Seal has expe- rienced, the perils which it has encountered, the deaths ivUich it has survived ! No charmed life of fairy lore surpasses in wonders and incredible incidents the life of th? Great Seal. It has seen much service in foreign lands ; when the Crusaders stirred all Europe it started in pomp and glittering magnificence upon the road for the Holy Land ; it has smiled at the feasts of kings, and starved with hunger in the garrets of continental cities ; in vain have Earth, Fire, Air and Water banded to- gether for its destruction ; it has sunk to the bottom of the sea, and has risen again on the tops of the waves ; men compassed its death by hurling it into the Thames, but: it asked help of a waterman, through whose timely aid it v/as restored to the King's House ; thieves have stolen it, melted it down, and sold it for old metal ; it has been buried beneath the ground, but friendly hands exhumed it and reinstated in honor ; over and over again ruffians, armed with murderous instruments, have broken it into minute pieces — but still the Great Seal is \yith us, entire, sound, beauteous, flawless as ever. PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH CHAPTER II. IT was the humor of the last chapter to speak of the Great Seal, as though there had been no more than one Great Seal made since the kings of England first be- gan to place their royal wishes on sealed records. That each sovereign has used his own peculiar seal, and that the opening of each reign had witnessed an actual or formal destruction of the last monarch's broad device, are facts familiar to most persons ; but it is less gener- ally known that English kings have changed their seals, and even kept two or more great seals in use at the same time. There are also those who have read certain passages of English history with conscientious care, but have omitted to give due thought to the grave embar- rassments and laughable difficulties which have arisen from the existence of rival seals, or the customary uco of a Great Seal the genuineness and legal validity of which have been called in question. As becomes men who are about to consider a great historic subject, let the readers of this volume transport themselves to the tranquil ages of the past, and glance at seals designed and graven in times when art was low a'ld learning was infrequent. There is no need to analyze the terra sigillata of the Egyptians, or to speculate as to the proportions of clay and common wax that entered into the compositions of the cement used by Jewish doctcirs in olden time. Whether Roman scholars preferred seals of paste to seals of carefully prepared fuller's-earth ; by what slow gradations the cumbrous lump of dough was refined into the delicate wafer ; whether yellow or white wax has higher claims to respect on the score of an- tiquity ; and how far the viscous property of gum was turned ;:o account by writers of secret letters betwixt the COURTS AND LAWYERS. ■$ days of Jeremiah and the labors of St. John, are ques- tions for discussion in another place. Antiquaries ear- nest in the study of diplomatics may vex their brains in the study of these obscure points ; but the not labor- ious students of these light volumes shall go no further back than a bright sunny morning in the year of our Lord one thousand and forty-two, or thereabouts, when Edward the Confessor sat in solemn state " for his por- trait." On rare occasions certain prior Anglo-Saxon kings had executed deeds by sealing them with their seals ; but learned William Dugdale, Knight, rightly says in his " Origines Juridicia'es:" "But admitting these few examples, most certain it is, that as Sealing of Charters in the time of our Saxon kings was not common, so the office of chancellor was not originally denominated from the keeping of the king's seal ; and that for a con- stant succession of seals we are not to look higher than King Edward the Confessor." The Confessor was notable for length of limb, and he was induced to put himself on a low seat, which, had he occupied a throne of suitable height, might have served him as a footstool. Moreover, he sat with his face full towards the artist. Consequently his knees, sticking up in close proximity to his chin, were the most prominent points of his figure ; and the too faithful portrait makes him resemble a trussed fowl rather than a creature fashioned after the likeness of divinity. Had the evil ended with the production of one unsightly caricature, no great harm would have been done, but unfortunately the Confessor's picture was accepted as a guide by suc- ceeding artists, who in their likenesses of later sovereigns felt themselves bound to adhere to the ungraceful prece- dent. Conservative sentiment converting the blunder into a rule, tiie kings and queens of England throughout many centuries were trussed in like fashion, and until the 6 PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH middle of the eighteenth century were made to grin over t'ncir anguiar knees, like so many paupers fast set with rheumatism. In the equestrian image of William the Conqueror an effort was made in a happier direction ; but the Norman's war-steed having closer resemblance to a greyhound than a charger, and his legs being drawn as long and thin as spears, the effect is not altogether satis- factory. For many a day no attempt was made to straighten the legs of the sitting monarchs. The awk- wardness is displeasing in the men, but in the women it is offensive. The aspect of bloody Mary, for instance, as she sits by the side of Philip, her consort, confirms every satire on her want of feminine grace. Queen Elizabeth is preserved from ridicule by the expanse of her stiff petticoat, that leaves it open to discussion whether she is sitting or standing; but blushing chivalry looks away from poor Queen Anne, on whose fat legs the drap- ery lies in huge, unsightly rucks. A better state of things commenced during the Hanoverian dynasty. George I., indeed, fronts his liege subjects, clumsily sitting, knees foremost, like a butcher on his block; but George III., anxious to win the respect of a populace dangerously in- clined to laugh at Divine Right, offered a not ungainly side view to his limner, and George IV. had too much good taste not to follow his father's example. The sailor- king, as he is presented on his broad seal, enthroned and robed, is most artistically placed, and is a perfect pic- ture of a royal gentleman ; and by the gentle beauty and exquisite grace depicted on the present Great Seal — a triumph of art — future ages will be reminded of that fair Christian lady, for whose long life and safety all good Englishmen of thes^ passing days offer fervent prayers. The exact year in which the Confessor's seal was made is unknown. There is no proof that it existed during the official life of Edward's first chancellor, Leofric ; but COURTS AND LAWYERS. 7 in A. D. 1045 his second chancellor, Wulwius, affixed it to a royal charter quoted by Dugdale ; and the seal was used in like manner by his third chancellor Reimbaldus. Thus, at the outset of its history, the Seal was entrusted to the care of that officer, whose duties (however hum- ble at their beginning) caused him to maintain a close and constant intercourse with the king, and who in time became the Keeper of the Royal Conscience, and the chief lawyer in the realm. By the populace, chancellors and the Keepers of the Seal were soon spoken of as holding one and the same office, and for many genera- tions the titles were deemed to have one meaning; al- beit, the offices were distinct, and occasions frequently arose when they were filled by different persons. Even in the time of the Confessor, one man is found discharg- ing the office of chancellor, whilst another is employed to keep and use the seal. The first Lord Keeper on record (acting merely as a keeper) is Swardus, who, dur- ing the chancellorship of Reimbaldus, was employed to seal the royal charters: but in that instance, as in many subsequent cases, the Keeper of the Seal was no more than a deputy acting for the chancellor, and therefore, by a well-known maxim of law, the official acts of Swardus may be regarded as the acts of Reimbaldus. The Confessor's example in this matter was followed by his successors, whenever they found it coi venient to separate the two offices. While chancellors attended their kings on foreign travel, or were compelled to leave England on missions to continental states, keepers were appointed to use the seals ; and, on the other hand, the munarch, atteded by his Keeper bearing the Seals, would cross the seas, whilst his chancellor remained at home discharging his ordinary functions. In the latter case it was usual for the chancellor to hold a duplicate Great Seal, so that the king's business might be carried on, 8 PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH notwithstanding the iibsence of the Keeper and the veritable Great Seal from the country. Thus, Keeper cr Vice Chancellor Malchein attended Richard I. on the way to the Holy Land, whilst Chancellor Longchamp minded the king's affairs at home. Hence arose the practice of appointing a Lord Keeper to do the Chan- cellor's work, not merely during that minister's tempo- rary absence from the land, but at times when the chan- cellor's office was vacant, and when there was no inten- tion in the king's mind to fill it immediaiely. In time, Lord Keepers and Lord Chancellors came to hold, for all practical purposes, one and the same office. The occasions were rare when the two places were filled at the same time by different persons ; and when those occasions ceased to occur the distinction grew to be a mere affair of title — the Lord Chancellor being Lord Keeper with superior rank, the Lord Keeper being a Lord Chancellor with the less noble designation. But it was not till the reign of Elizabeth that an act of parlia- ment put the fact beyond question. When Sir Nicholas Bacon was made Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, an Act (drawn and made law by men not familiar with old usage) was passed declaring that the Lord Keeper was a Lord Chancellor in every respect save that of title. This enactment took from the crown the privilege of having a chancellor and a keeper at the same time. CHAPTER III. N the first }'ear of his reign, the infant king Henry III. affixed to letters-patent the seal of his protec- tor, William, Earl of Pembroke ; and he expressly states that the Protector a seal was employed because he haci COURTS AND LAWYERS. 9 not as yet a seal of his own. It was not till the third year of his reign, that the youthful monarch had a seal ; and even when it had been engraved he was not permit- ted to use it until he had attained full age, a special act providing that no "charter or letters-patent of confirma- tion, alienation, sale, or grant of anything under perpe- tuity, should be sealed with the King's Great Seal until his full age ; and that if such were sealed with that Seal they should be void." This is a noteworthy instance of a king, sound in mind and body, permitted to sit upon the throne, but restrained from exercising his royal rights. In the feudal ages any needy clerk who had turned his attention to caligraphy, could have perpetrated for- geries in perfect confidence that they would endure the scrutiny of the most accurate and skillful of living read- ers. But the necessity for sealing placed almost insu- perable obstacles in the way of those who were best qualified and most desirous to triumph over right by fic- titious deeds. It was no easy matter to procure seals of any kind ; it was very difficult to obtain for dishonest ends the temporary possession of well-known seals. Pri- vate persons seldom had such cunning trinkets. Richard I. is supposed to have introduced seals ornamented with armorial bearings ; but it was long before they became general amongst the nobility, and the present century had begun ere they were universally. worn by all persons laying claim to gentility. Great barons, ecclesiastical dignitaries, secular and religious corporations, had dis- tinctive seals at an early date ; but they were confided to the care of trusty keepers, and were guarded with jeal- ousy. When an official seal was used, its keeper brought it with reverential care from its customary place of con- cealment, and it was not applied to any document with- out satisfactory cause shown why its sanction was re- quired. An obscure tamperer with parchments could not lo PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH hope to lay his hands on one of these important seals. If he procured an impression of a respected seal, he could nut obtain a fac-simile of the original. Seal-engrav- 'wvg was an art in which there were few adepts ; and the artists were for the most part men to whom no rogue would dare propose the hazardous task of counterfeiting an official device. In estimating the security given by seals, the reader must bear in mind that the forger of deeds in olden time liad not overcome all difficulties, when he had surrep- titiously obtained a seal. The mere act of sealing was by no means the simple matter that it is now-a-days. To place the seal on fit labels rightly placed ; and in all respects to make the fictitious deed an accurate imita- tion of the intended deeds to which the particular seal of a particular great man was applied, were no trifling feats of dexterity, ere scriveners had congregated into fraternities, and law-stationers had been called into exis- tence. To get a supply of suitable wax was an under- taking by no means easy in accomplishment. Sealing- wax was not to be bought by the pound or stick in every street of feudal London. Cire d" Espagne — sealing-wax akin to the bright vermilion compound now in use — was not invented till the middle of the sixteenth century. William Hone assures his readers that " the earliest let- ter known to have been sealed with it was written from London, August 3, I554> to Heingrave Philip Francis von Daun, by his agent in England, Gerrand Herman," and long after that date the manufacture of sealing-wax W-is a secret known to comparatively few persons. In feudal England there were divers adhesive compounds used for sealing. Every keeper of an official seal had his own recipe for wax. Sometimes the wax was white ; sometimes it was yellow; occasionally it was tinged with vegetable dyes ; most frequently it was a mess bearing COURTS AND LAWYERS. ii much resemblance to the dirt-pies of little children. But its combination was d mystery to the vulgar; and no man could safely counterfeit a seal-impression who had not at command a stock of a particular sealing-earth or paste, or wax. Eyes powerless to detect the falsity of a forger's hand-writing could see at a glance whether his wax was of the right color. Moreover; the practice of attesting private deeds by pr.blic or well-known seals gave to transactions a pub- I'city which was the most valuable sort of attestation. A simple knight could not obtain the impression of his feudal chieftain's seal without a formal request, and a full statement of the business in hand. The wealthy burgher, who obtained permission to affix a municipal seal to a private parchment, proclaimed the transaction which occasioned the request. The thriving freeholder who was allowed the use of his lord's graven device, had first sought for the privilege openly. "Quia sigillum meum plurimis est inco^nitum" were the words intro- duced into the clause of attestation ; and the words show that publicity was his object. And to attain that object the seal was pressed in open court, in the presence of many witnesses. Indeed, the process of sealing was so much more re- spected than the act of signing, that in some countries the practice of sealing was alone employed ; and in Eng- land the seal was long regarded as that which imparted validity to a deed, v/hilst signature was held to be a needless ceremony. The Saxons, who seldom used seals, subscribed their names to their deeds; or if they were unable to write they signed with the sign of the cross, after the manner of King Ciisdwalla, one of whose charters ends with the following candid avowal of his inability to sign his name: — " Propria manu pro ignorantia literarum signum sanctse crucis expressi et subscripsi." In con- ri PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH trast to the Saxon immiijrants, the Normans sealed with- out signing". Edward the Confessor adopted the Norman practice, and attested his charter to Westminster Abbey by seal alone. Of course the conquering barons'did not depart in this matter from the usage of their fathers ; under their influence the practice of sealing became universal in England, and the necessity for signature ceased to exist. " Th s neglect of signing," says Black- stone, " and resting only upon the authority of seals, remained very long among us ; for it was held in all our books that sealing alone was sufficient to authenticate a deed ; and so the common form of attesting deeds ''scaled and delivered' continues to this day ; notwithstandingthe Statute 29 Car. IL c. 3, revives the Saxon custom, and expressly directs the signing, in all grants of lands, and many other species of deeds; in which, therefore, signing seems to be now as necessary as sealing, though it has sometimes been held that the one includes the other. And the more modern opinion perhaps is that the Stat- ute of Frauds is applicable only to mere agreements, and that signing is not essential to the validity of a deed." Notwithstanding the difficulties attending their fabri- cation, spurious seals were manufactured by the knaves of feudal England. The Statute of Treasons, 25 Edward III., declared it high treason for a man to " counterfeit the king's Great or Privy Seal ;" but rogues bent on gain- ing the sanction of the Broad Seal for a wrongful pur- pose knew how to achieve their purpose without subject- ing themselves to the penalties of high treason. They would carefully remove the impression of the king's seal from a genuine patent, and cleverly affix the stamped wax to fictitious letters. By this process a rascally priest con- cocted a spurious dispensation for non-residence ; and he was held not to have counterfeited the Great Seal, but to have abused it. COURTS AND LAWYERS. 13 But the priest's fraud sinks into insignificance when it is compared with the adroit rascality of a clerk in Chan- cery who lived in Sir Edward Coke's time. First, the dextrous knave placed two pieces of parchment, one above the other, and glued them together with such nicety and exactness that even on close observation the two skins seemed but one skin. That done, he drew out a patent on the upper piece, and in the usual manner procured the impression of the Great Seal, the label of the seal passing through both skins. Having thus obtained the seal, he dissolved the glue which held the skins in union, removed the parchment on which the genuine patent was written, and then inscribed upon the blank skin a patent in all respects accordant with his wishes. This trick was such a master-piece of fraudulent practice that its exposure must be mentioned in terms of regret. On the discovery of the fraud it was decided that the clerk in Chancery had not counterfeited the Great Seal, and had been merely guilty of a great mis- prision. But though he had only committed a compara- tively slight offense, such was the cruelty and such the injustice of public opinion that the artist was exposed to much obloquy and scornful satire ; and, if Sir Ed- ward Coke's warmth may be taken as a truthful indica- tion of prevailing sentiment, the unfortunate gentleman never altogether recovered that good esteem which he had forfeited by a delicate and ingenious, though indis- creet, attempt to control circumstances. T CHAPTER IV. HERE being no constitutional provision for secur- ing an unbroken occupation of the keeper's place, 14 PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH ' similar to the precautions taken by the Constitution of the United States of America against the chances of a vacant Presidential throne, there has always been a greater or less interval between the close of each lord keeper's official life and the commencement of his suc- cessor's tenure of place; and during these intervals the seal has always been for a greater or less length of time in the actual or nominal possession of the monarch. During these periods of personal tenure of the Great Seal, kings have often amused themselves with applying it to letters with their own hands. For instance, Richard II. himself sealed the commission by which he appointed certain trusty and noble servants to proceed to Germany, and act as escort and convoy to the Emperor's sister, Lady Ann, about to become His Britannic Majesty's queen-consort. Henry IV., on the dismissal of Thomas Arundel from the chancellorship, with his own hand affixed the seal to charters, letters-patent, and writs. In like manner when Wolsey had placed the seal in the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, Henry VIII., by sealing certain letters-patent, sliowed that if there were need for him to do so, he could act as his own lord keeper. At York, Charles I. kept the Great Seal in his own hands, entrusting it to Sir Edward Littleton when there was need for an impression, but requiring the lord keeper to restore it to him as soon as the sealing was finished. Before the Restoration, Charles II. acted for years as his own lord keeper. Notwithstanding the statement inscribed upon his wife's tomb in Kingsthorpe, it is doubtful if Sir Richard Lane v/as ever lord keeper to the exiled monarch ; but if Lane held the office, Charles unquestionably kept his first Great Seal for him- self whilst he was in Scotland, and uatil the Battle of Vv^orcester. Again, between the date of his compulsory departure from Paris and Hyde's installment at Bruges, COURTS AND LAWYERS. 15 the exiled monarch oersonally held the seals. After the Restoration he actt^ as his own lord keeper on a memo- rable occasion. When the not too scrupulous Lord Chancellor Nottingham wanted courage to put the seal to Danby's pardon, Charles II. took the broad device from the timid lawyer, and either with his own royal hand, or by the hand of an obsequious servant, sealed the pardon which he forthwith presented to the Earl of Danby. This unkingly business done, Charles returned the seal to his chancellor, saying, " Take it back, my lord ; I know not where to bestow it better." Many similar cases, where British monarchs have themselves used their own broad seals, could be men- tioned, but Nottingham's momentary resignation and immediate return to office may be pointed to as marking the shortest period during which an English king has been his own lord keeper. At times when the Great Seal has not been in the hands of the crown, it has often occurred that the country has been without a lord keeper, and also with- out a lord chancellor. In such cases the seal itself has been entrusted to a committee of several persons, and the seal itself has been said to be " in commission." One of the earliest instances of this arrangement occurred in the reign of Edward III., when in the interim between Robert Parnynge's death and Robert de Sadyngton's chancellorship the Great Seal was entrusted to the Master of the Rolls and two other officers. After an interval of a few years, on the sudden death of Chan- cellor John de Offord, the seal was again in commission — three persons assisting the Master of the Rolls to use it : and since that time the seals have frequently been in commission for longer or shorter periods. In the seventeenth century commissions were very common. The parliamentary soldiers or leaders entertained illogi- r6 rLEASANTRIES OF EXGLISH cal but wholesome prejudices against lawyers; and dur- ing the Commonwealth the Great Seal of Great Britain was entrusted to various commissions, of which, n.ore will be said elsewhere. Following the established cus- tom, and thereby gratifying public opinion, William III. was averse to the thought of appointing a chancellor ; and Somers was not raised to the high place on which he shed undying lustre, until the king had found reason to distrust commissions. William's first set of commis- sioners — Maynard (aetat 87), Keck, and Rawlinson — not- withstanding Maynard's learning, wit, and high repute, caused much dissatisfaction among lav/yers and suitors ; and the succeeding three, amongst whom Rawlinson again had place, did not fare better. Indeed. Commissioners of the Great Seal have seldom met with public approbation in these latter times ; and although in da}-s when the rule and practice of Chancery were less definite and complicated than they are at present, the division of the Chancellor's honor and responsibility afforded some securities for public welfare, and was attended by comparatively few inconveniences, it may be confidently asserted that no prime minister of the present reign will advise the Queen to place her Great Seal in the keeping of a board of honorable gentlemen for any long period of time. Of all known commissions of the Great Seal, that which was appointed after the tragical death of Charles Yorke became at the same time the most unpopular and ridiculous. It con- sisted of three puisne judges, whose familiarity with the Courts of Equity was not greater than that of most puisne judges. Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe, Sir Richard Aston, and the Honorable Henry Bathurst were the lawyers thus raised above their fellows, and in men- tal anguish they paid a high price for an elevation which lasted for about twelve months. At length, the COURTS AND LAWYERS. xj endurance of the public gave way, and to pacify lawyers and clients, it being found necessary to appoint a Chan- cery commander-in-chief, honest Henry Bathurst was advanced to the peerage, and authorized to dispense bad law without the trouble of having to consult a pair of equally inefficient assessors. When Sir Fletcher Norton heard of Henry Bathurst's advancement, he exclaimed ; " What three could not do is given to the most incom- petent of the three." Many are the good stories told of the blundering Henry Bathurst, son of tliat witty earl who was the friend of Swift, Addison, and Pope ; that old Lord Bathurst, who in his eighty-sixth year said to Lawrence Sterne, " Come home and dine with me." Since the commission which was followed by Henry Bathurst's installment in the Marble Chair, there have been four occasions when the Great Seal has been held by commissioners. Between Thurlow's first and second chancellorships, the Great Seal was committed to the care of Lord Loughborough, Chief Justice of the Com- mon Pleas ; Sir William Henry Ashurst, justice of the Common Pleas; and Sir Beaumont Piotham, baron of the Exchequer. In 1792, filling a gap between the second chancellorship of Thurlow and the installment of Lord Loughborough, there was a short-lived com.mission. On Lord Lyndhurst's resignation in 1835 the seals were put in commission — Sir Charles Christopher Pepys, Vice- Chancellor Shadwell, and Mr. Justice Bosanquet being the commissioners, until Sir Christopher Pepys became Lord Chancellor with the title of Lord Cottenham. Lastly, on Lord Cottenham's retirement, a commission — consisting of Lord Langdale, Vice-Chancellor Shad- well, and Sir Robert Monsey Rolfe — held the seals from June 18, 1850, to July 15, 1 850, on which latter day Lord Truro became Chancellor 1.— 2 1 8 PLEASANTRIES OF ENGLISH CHAPTER V. ALTHOUGH English inonarchs have usually had but one Great Seal at a time, it has from time im- nicniorial been customary t3 speak of the Lord Chan- cellor or Lord Keeper as holding "///£♦ jt^/j-." This usage has often created in uninquiring minds a misapprehen- sion that the Chancellor is invariably the keeper of at least two seals; and it has even led legal writers into mistake. The right explanation of the term is found in the formation of the Great Seal, which is made in two parts, its obverse and reverse being in fact two distinct and separate seals, the impressions of which are taken on wax interposed between them, and in combination are the stamp of the CI avis RcgJii. But few English sovereigns are known to have had two or more contemporaneous Great Seals ; and it is improbable that the monarchs who were thus rich in seals made it a rule to entrust them both or all at the same time to one officer. Kings who had occasion to travel in foreign lands not unfrequently had two different Great Seals, or a Great Seal and a fac simile — one for the use of royalty on his travels, the other for the use of the Chancellor entrusted with the conduct of affairs at home ; one being in the custody of the keeper in attendance on his liege lord, the other being left with the chief of the High Court of Chancery. But in cases where the two seals had different designs, common pru- dence would dictate that they should be kept from the grasp of one man ; and it cannot be doubted that in most instances prudence controlled the action of the crown with regard to this matter, as kings are continu- ally found destroying their discarded seals, for the sake of avoiding the confusion and troubles that mi