VOL. XV NOVEMBER, 1937 No. 9 T E 113HS ®F COURT. In the slow growth of centuries, while the British Constitu- - tion was being evolved under the guiding genius of British statesmanship, the profession of the law in England came into being and grew to full stature by similar almost imperceptible stages of development, and is now represented by what we all- know as the HQ.nourable Societies of the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn-the four Inns of Court. The history of the Inns of Court, whose origins are only dimly discernible in the mists of antiquity, is really the history of the administration of British Justice: Sir Frederick Pollock has defined the Inns of Court as "A survival of medieval republican oligarchy, the purest, I should think, to be found in Europe". (50 L.Q.I . 304) Clustered together in the heart of London and occupying a site, bounded on one side, to the East by the old City of London; to the West, by the City of Westminster; on the South, by the River Thames, and on the North, by Holborn, stand now the imposing structures of these four great Institutions, referred to by Sir William Blackstone as "Our Judicial University". Much, if not all, of the ancient splendour and ceremony of these Associations of the law has- vanished, but they remain today, great in their traditions, the dignified pillars of- the British judicial system. It is true that British Barristers do not now dance in the ancient -halls of the Inns of Court. No longer do these venerable rafters ring to the sound of festivity and merriment. Gone are the "Moots" and "Bolts" of other days. The intending aspirant to the law is now only required to eat meals three times per term for the University man, six for others-during each term of the year, for a period of three years. Under direction of the Council of Legal Education, 676 The Canadian Bar Review [Vol. XV lectures are delivered in the Inns and the modern student, even though possessed of a Univeristy Degree in Law, must still pass examinations to be admitted to the Bar of his Inn of Court. Long did the contending champions of the various Inns dispute the relative antiquity of these ancient houses of learning. The faded pages of yellowing documents were searched to find evidence conclusive of the pre-eminence in age of one Inn over its rivals. But antiquity has held its secret inviolate. The search was futile. At length, an early writer composed these differences, and, as now generally accepted, described the relation of the four Inns of Court as follows . The four Inns of Court stand upon a footing of equality. No precedence, priority or superior antiquity is conceded to or claimed by one Inn beyond another . Nihil prius aut praeterius, nihil magnas aut minus. They form together one University . Their powers, jurisdiction and privileges are co-equal. The zeal of individual members has sometimes ascribed to one Inn eminence or antiquity above its sister Inns, but they are now what they were when Shirley (in 1663) dedicated to them his Masque-"The Triumph of Peace"-the four equal and Honourable Societies of the Inns of Court. The precise date of the founding of the Inns is unknown, but it is certain that they were in existence and flourishing at the end of the 13th century. There is no history, nor does tradition present any connected picture of the process of evolu- tion through which they passed. Henry the Sixth's great Chief Justice, Sir John Fortescue, who accompanied his master into exile, and is known for his work, "In Praise of English Laws", about 1468 draws a vivid picture of the Inns of Court, which were then in the full plenitude of their power, with traditions already old and a high reputation for usefulness. Lord Mansfield, himself a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, in 1780, in the celebrated case of King v. Benchers of Gray's Inn, (1 Douglass, 353), which arose upon a Writ of Mandamus sought by one, William Hart, to compel the Benchers of that Society to call him to the Bar, sets out with clarity the relation between the Inns and the Judges. He says :- The original institution of the Inns of Court nowhere precisely appears, but it is certain that they were not corporations, and have no constitution by Charters from the Crown. They are voluntary societies which for ages have submitted to Government analogous to that of other seminaries of learning. In every instance their conduct is subject to the control of the Judges as visitors . From the first traces of their existence to this day no example can be found of an interposition by the Courts of Westminster Hall proceeding according 1937] Thé Inns of Court 677 to the general law of the land; but the Judges have acted as in a domestic forum. The ancient and usual way of redress is by appeal to the Judges. As early as 1292, in the reign of King Edward the Mrst, we find an Order-in-Council (sometimes erroneously referred to as a statute) addressed to Sir John de Metingham, the then Chief Justice, and his fellow ,judges,, dealing with attorneys and apprentices, and directing that a certain number of these gentlemen be drawn from every county. Apprentice was probably then the title applied to a Pleader below the rank of Serjeant- at-law. It was supplanted, after the Restoration, by the term "Barrister", which properly denotes the man's standing within his Inn of Court, the original use of which was to describe the position that the member occupied in the "Moots" ~t the Bar. In the 12th and 13th Centuries, legal education in England seems to have been confined to the Clergy, as they were then possibly the only men of instruction . This clerical control, however, in harmony with the trends of policy of the day, was displaced by Sovereign authority. A Royal Decree, in fact, prohibited the holding of any schools of law in London. Pursuant to a clause in Magna Charta, the - Court of Common Pleas was established at Westminster Hall, and students of law, severed from their accustomed clerical instruction, gather ed and concentrated, in increasing numbers, in the vicinity of the judges and lawyers. Thus was gradually evolved a colony of lawyers and their adherents, automatically forming them- selves, with the fashion of the day, into distinct groups or guilds. In - these early days, or shortly thereafter, the Inns took shape as also did a number of other lesser legal guilds or societies which came to be known as the Inns of Chancery, to the number of, perhaps, ten. In fact, the latter probably preceded in date, the formation of the Inns of Court. In process of time these Inns of Chancery, which never attained to the prominence of the greater Inns, were finally absorbed by the four Inns of Court referred to. The inferior Inns seem to have gravitated to and become particularly associated with one or other of the Inns of Court, serving, as it were, as preparatory colleges or, schools, to their greater "University". The most promising students of an Inn of Chancery were, from time to time, transferred or promoted to the parent Inns of Court. The closeness of the Association is attested by the control and direction exercised by the Inn of Court over its subordinate Inn, not only from the point of view of discipline, but from the 678 The Canadian Bar Review [Vol. KV more important aspect of instruction. Thus, we find Lincoln's Inn sending Thomas More as "Reader" to Furnivall's Inn, and no less a legal dignitary than Edward Coke, in his earlier days, taught at Lyon's Inn, a dependent of the Inner Temple. This grouping and readjustment of young men interested in the law probably took shape under the guidance of what were then known as Serjeants-at-law, specially appointed by the King, with great solemnity, to be his legal advisors and ambulant attorneys upon his voyaging abroad to dispense justice. They occupied a position of great dignity and reputation, and by reason of their high office were comparatively few in number. This was the Order of the Coif, so named because of the white head-dress bestowed upon the members when appointed. They alone had the right of practising in the Court of Common Pleas, and no man, however eminent, could hope to be named to the Bench unless he had previously been admitted to this Order. In fact, all the members of the Inns were either learners or teachers till they took the degree of Serjeant-at-law, and left their Inns of Court to become members of the Serjeants' Inns, and often, in due course, judges. (Holdsworth, History of English Law, Vol. II, pp. 229.) It came to be a practice for the Serjeants-at-law to have about them younger men desirous of legal instruction and as the number grew, and the Serjeants could not cope with the instruction and training required, societies formed in various parts of London at or near Westminster Hall where the King's justice was dispensed . Little is known concerning this stage in the development of the profession . The stage, though set, is dark, but when the curtain rises the Inns of Court appear, already well established, substantially upon their present footing. These Inns, as well of Court as of Chancery, took their names from the locale in which they first originated.