an accurate knowledge of the common law. Draftsmen in equity are the fame with refpe to the equity courts which fp cial pleaders are to thofe of common law: and conveyancers are employed in the preparation of every fpecies of deed, contract, and will, and in perufing drafts laid before them, in order to afcertain whether the title, fecurities, and terms of obligation are fufficient. All thefe, by a late act of parliament, are obliged to take out an annual certificate on a 10. ftamp.

STUDENTS. Before any perfon can be admitted to practife as an advocate, he must be regularly entered in, and be a member of, one of the inns of court five years, and must have kept his commons in fuch inn twelve terms. In favour of those who have taken a degree of M. A. or LL.B. at an English university, three years are allowed as fufficient to be a member of the inn, but the twelve terms must be duly kept. The fee on admiffion to an inn is about 374. of which a great part is a ftamp duty; and thofe ftudents who have not taken a degree depofit 106/. to pay their fees on being called to the bar, but this fum, fhould 'they ever renounce their original intention, they are at liberty to draw out again. Thofe who have taken a degree are excufed from making the depofit at firft; but their fees, on being called,. are of the fame amount; and each member of an inn of court enters into a bond, with two houfekeepers, or one member of the fame fociety, for the due payment of his fees, and obfervance of the rules of the inn. Anciently, there were many ceremonies, and certainly not altogether unprofitable ones, of readings, mootings, and other exercifes, preparatory to a call to the bar, but as thefe are now difcontinued, or, if nominally obferved in fome inns, confidered as mere matter of fport, it is not neceffary to dwell on thn. Instead of any public demonftration of ability, the ftudent is now to rely on his induftry for future fupport, and on his exertions after he is become an advocate for fame; in the mean time his hopes mut depend on the ufe he makes of his time in his private ftudy, his attendance in the courts, and in the office of the fpecial pleader, the draftfman, or the conveyancer.

INNS OF COURT. As the Inns of Court are objects of much curiofity, fome account of them in this place will not be improper.

It has been before obferved, that previous to, and immediately after, the Norman conqueft, the knowledge of the laws of England, as well as the adminiftration of them, was chiefly confined to ecclefiaftical perfons, the unfettled ftate of the kingdom obliging the nobility and gentry, rather to addict themselves to the practice of arms, than the attainment of literature; and in confèquence it most probably happened,

that

that the decifion of controverfies in civil cafes was then fo frequently by combat, and in criminal ones by fire and water ordeal. On this account likewife, many of the juftices of the king's courts, as well as thofe called itinerant, before the time of Henry III. were bishops, abbots, deans, canons in cathedral churches, archdeacons, &c.; and the chancellorship was exercised by clergymen even fo late as the reign of Henry VII. But when by magna charta it was ordained, that " com"mon pleas fhould not thenceforth follow the court, but "be held in fome certain place," and that certain place was fixed at Westminster-hall; this eftablishment, gave rife to the inns of court, where the whole body of common lawyers was collected, as ftations most proper for their ftudies, conference, and practice. These colleges of common law foon attracted the attention and gained the approbation of government: the study of the law was ordered to be carried on in them alone; and means were taken for placing them under the regulation of the judges.

These inns, or hotels, as they were anciently called, were from their first inftitution divided into two forts, denominated inns of court, and inns of chancery. The former were so named from the students in them being to serve the courts of judicature; or because these houses anciently received the fons of noblemen and the better fort of gentlemen," who (fays Fortescue)" did there not only study the laws, to serve the courts "of justice and profit their country, but did further learn to dance, "to fing, to play on inftruments, on the ferial days, and to "ftudy divinity on the feftival, ufing fuch exercises as they did "who were brought up in the king's court:" fo that these hostels being nurseries or feminaries of the court, taking their denomination from the end wherefore they were instituted, were called inns of court. The expences were very confiderable, and the gentility of the ftudents was proved by the declaration of their paternal stock, and the emblazonment of their arms; customs which are ftill continued. The inns of chancery were fo called, probably because they were appropriated to fuch clerks as chiefly studied the forming of writs, which was the province of the curfitors, and fuch as belong to the courts of common pleas and king's bench. These formerly were also a kind of preparatory houses for younger students, where many were entered before they were admitted to the inns of court.

THE INNER TEMPLE. The Temple is well known to have taken its name from that gallant, religious, military order, the Knights Templars, who came into England in the reign of Stephen. Their first houfe was in Holborn, near the fite of the prefent Southampton-street, and was called the Old TemKk4 ple;

ple; but in the fucceeding reign they began the foundation of a nobler structure, oppofite the end of Chancery-lane, then called New-ftreet, which, to distinguish it from the former, was called the New Temple. This occupied all that fpace of ground from the monastery of the Carmelites, or White Friars, in Fleet-ftreet, weftward to Effex houfe, without Temple Bar, where Effex-ftreet now ftands, and fome part of that too, as appears by the first grant of it to Sir William Paget, by Henry VIII. That the Templars then feated themselves at the New Temple, is evident from the dedication of their church, in the year 1185; and they continued till the fuppreffion of their order, in 1310. Between these two periods the church was again dedicated, viz. in 1240, probably on account of the greater part being re-edified. On the diffolution, the estates, together with the house in London, devolving upon the crown, Edward II. in 1313, bestowed the latter on Thomas earl of Lancaster. After that nobleman's attainder, a grant was made to Adomar, or Aimer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, by the fame monarch, of "the whole place "and houfes called the New Temple, at London, with the ground called Fiquet's Croft, and all the tenements and rents "with the appurtenances that belong to the Templars in the "city of London and fuburbs thereof, with the land called "Flete Croft, part of the poffeffions of the faid New Tem"ple." From Aimer de Valence this ftructure came into the poffeffion of Hugh le de Spencer the younger; and on his execution, in the first year of Edward III. the right once more reverted to the crown. Here it would probably have continued; but by a decree, which beftowed generally the lands of the Templars on the hospitals of St. John of Jerufalem, the above monarch granted this manfion to the knights of that order in England. Thefe poffeffed it in the eighteenth year of his reign, when they were forced to repair the Temple bridge; but they foon after demifed it for the rent of ten pounds per annum, to certain ftudents of the common law, who are fuppofed to have removed from Thaive's-inn, in Holbern. While the Temple was a monaftic institution, fuch was its rank and importance, that not only parliaments and general councils frequently affembled there, but it was a fort of general depofitory or treasury for the greatest perfons in the nation, as well as the place where many of the crown jewels were kept. Soon after the damage committed by Wat Tyler, but at what particular period is not known, the ftudents in this feminary fo far increafed in number as to occafion their divihion into two separate bodies, called the Society of the Inner Temple, and the Society of the Middle Temple, who had

two

two halls, &c.; but continued to hold their houses as tenants to the knights hofpitallers, till the general fuppreffion, in the reign of Henry VIII. and, after this event, for fome time, of the crown by leafe. In the fixth year of the reign of James I. all the buildings of the two Temples were granted by letters patent, bearing date at Westminster, 13th Auguft, by the name of the inns and capital meffuages, commonly known by the names of the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, otherwife the New Temple, London,' to Sir Julius Cæfar, knight, then chancellor and under treasurer of the exchequer, Sir Henry Montague, knight, recorder of London, William Towfe and Richard Dafton, efqrs. treasurers of the faid inns of court, and Sir John Boyfe, knight, Andrew Grey, Thomas Farmer, Ralf Radcliff, and others, efqrs. then benchers of these houses; to have and to hold the faid manfions, with the gardens and appurtenances, unto the faid grantees, their heirs and affigns, for ever, for lodgings, reception and education of the profeffors and ftudents of the laws of this realm; yielding and paying to the faid king, his heirs and fucceffors, for each manfion, the fum of ten pounds yearly.

INNER TEMPLE HALL. The Hall is fuppofed by Dugdale, from the form of the windows, to have been built near the age of Edward III. The fouth front was however erected about the year 1740, the old front having been recently destroyed by a great fire, which does not appear to have reached the north fide, nor the roof of the building. A femi-hexagonal window, in the fouth front, has been new cafed with ftone on the outfide, but has escaped the ravages of the flames within, and retains its original form. The contracted space on which the hall ftands, admitted of no great exertion of skill on the part of the architect: there is confequently little either to cenfure or approve. The infide of the hall retains but a small portion of its antiquity. The most prominent features are the very small, and truly Gothic windows on the north fide. They have the character of a very early style of building, most probably as ancient as that of Edward III. The room is very well proportioned, though fmall the ceiling has a Gothic curve, and is fupported by fix ribs in the fame bend; thefe fpring (which is fomewhat fingular) irregularly from the new piers on the north fide, as well as from the fouth or old front. The ribs are ornamented with grotesque figures, and the spaces between, in the ceiling, are filled up with large uncouth forms of roses, in chiaro ofcuro. At the lower end of the room is a neat screen supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. On the right of the paffage, at the grand entrance, are two very ancient apart

ments,

ments, that appear to have been out-offices; they are ceiled with groined arches, and the Gothic windows are in part blocked up they denote the full extent of the ancient buildings belonging to this hall. Between the two ancient windows at the upper end of the hall, within a Gothic compartment, is a large allegorical picture, painted by Sir James Thorn hill; who has introduced the story of Pegafus, in compliment to the creft of the fociety. It appears to be one of his best productions. Beneath are whole lengths of William and Mary, queen Anne, Coke, and Lyttleton, in their robes. At the upper end of the hall is an entrance to a handsome spacious parlour lined with oak, and decorated around, on the upper part of the wainscot, with the arms of the various readers of the fociety, emblazoned in fmall compartments, from the time of Henry VI. to the prefent period. This room is called the parliament chamber: in it, the Treasurer and benchers of the fociety meet to tranfact their bufinefs, which from hence is called parliamentary. Through this room is the way to feveral handfome apartments appropriated to the purposes of a library, which, by feveral donations, is furnished with books of great value. This repofitory is open to ftudents and others, on application to the librarian, from ten in the morning till one; and in the afternoon from two till fix. It contains alfo a large and curious collection of manuscripts.

Many of the courts and buildings in the Inner Temple are fpacious and elegant; the garden commands a beautiful view of the Thames, and is a favourite walk. In ancient times, Christmas, and some other festivals and grand occafions, were celebrated with mafques and revels; but thefe have been long difcontinued. ARMS. The armorial bearing of the Inner Temple, aflumed about the time of James I. is Pegafus.

THE MIDDLE TEMPLE. The hiftory of the Middle Temple is included in that of the Inner Temple, the conftitutions of the two were, however, fomewhat different.

HALL. The Hall of the Middle Temple is juftly celebrated. Of the outfide it is observed, that its effect is loft for want of fpace, and that it is difgraced by fome incongruous modern additions; but on entering the building the eye receives every gratification from an affemblage of the beft difpofed parts in the Gothic style of building, that could have been felected, and which are preferved with a degree of care and attention highly creditable to the members of the fociety. The length of this noble room, including the paffage, is about one hundred feet, the width about forty. The height of the roof, which is of oak highly wrought, is well proportioned to the general dimenfions of the building, and perfectly fatisfies the eye of

the