but that the legislature has carried the alteration still further, by directing, that the pleadings shall be enrolled in English. (Barrington on the Ancient Statutes, p. 291.)

The Reports of adjudged cases began, according to Sir Edward Coke, (See Preface to 3 Report, p. xxi.) to be written in French, in the reign of Edward III.; but it is observable, that in the Year Books, there are many reports of the time of Edward II. in French, while the fragments of cases of the reign of Edward I. are in Latin. It continued to be customary to report in French until the time of the Commonwealth, although an attempt was made by James I. to introduce the use of English. Wilson informs us, that James, in his speech from the throne to parliament, in the year 1609, recommended that the books of the common law should be written in the mother tongue, that the people might know what to obey, and that the lawyers in law, like the popish priests in the Gospel, might not keep the people in ignorance. (Wilson's Life of James I. p. 47.)

On the establishment of the Commonwealth, the deficiencies and corruptions of the law began to

known, and because they are pleaded, declared upon, and decided in the French Language, which is much unknown in this kingdom, so that parties to suits do not know what is said either for them or against them, by their Sergeants and Pleaders, &c."

be very nicely inquired into, and, amongst other questions of the same kind, we find it asked, "Why is the law kept in an unknown tongue?" (See The Corruptions and Deficiency of the Laws of England soberly discovered. London, 1649.) At last it was determined to abolish the use of the Law French altogether, and the following Ordinance was passed.

An Act for turning the Books of the Law, and all Processes and Proceedings in Courts of Justice, into English.

"The Parliament have thought fit to declare and enact, and be it declared and enacted, by this present Parliament, and by the authority of the same, that all the Report Books of the Resolutions of the Judges, and other books of the Law of England, shall be translated into the English Tongue and that, from and after the 1st day of January, 1650, all Report Books of the Resolutions of Judges, and all other books of the Law of England, which shall be printed, shall be in the English Tongue only.

:

"And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the first Return of Easter Term, which shall be in the year 1651, all Writs, Process, and Returns thereof, and all Pleadings, Rules, Orders, Indictments, Injunctions, Certificates, and all Patents, Commissions, Records,

Judgments, Statutes, Recognizances, Rolls, Entries, and Proceedings of Courts Leet, Courts Baron, and Customary Courts, and all Proceedings whatsoever, in any Courts of Justice, within this Commonwealth, and which concern the Law and administration of Justice, shall be in the English Tongue only, and not in Latin or French, or any other language than English, any law, custom, or usage heretofore to the contrary notwithstanding, and that the same, and every of them, shall be written in an ordinary, usual, and legible hand and character, and not in any hand commonly called court-hand." (Scobell's Collection, p. 143.)

This ordinance does not appear to have given much satisfaction to the lawyers, who were, probably, chagrined at the idea of their clients being enabled to form an opinion upon the merits of their own cases. Stiles, the author of the Reports, thus alludes to the ordinance : "I have made these Reports speak English, not that I believe they will be thereby generally more useful, for I have been always, and yet am, of opinion, that that part of the common law which is in English hath only occasioned the making of unquiet spirits contentiously knowing, and more apt to offend others than to defend themselves; but I have done it in obedience to authority, and to stop the months of such of this English age, who, though they be as confusedly different in their minds and

judgments, as the builders of Babel were in their languages, yet do think it vain, if not impious, to speak or understand more than their own mother tongue." (Preface to Stiles's Reports.) Bulstrode also was compelled, much against his will, to translate his Reports into English. (See the Address to the Reader prefixed to the 2d Part.) ·

Upon the Restoration, the Law French was likewise restored as the language of the reporters, and continued in use until the beginning of the last century. In the Preface to Fortescue's Reports, (who was one of the Judges of the Common Pleas in the reign of George II.) there is a laboured attack upon the use of the Law French: "And here I cannot but observe," says he, "that while the Saxon is totally neglected, some, not content to learn the Law French for what is already wrote in, seem fond of the use of it, and of writing new things in it; but for what reason I am at a loss, and at a greater yet, why any lawyer should write reports in that tongue; ***. If we consider the present state of Law French, as used by some modern reporters, wherein all the antiquated true French is lost, and instead thereof, English words substituted, with French terminations tacked to them, this still makes it worse, and thereby it is become even the corruption of an imperfect and barbarous speech, understood by no foreigner, not even by the French themselves, serving only as a mark of

our subjection to the Normans, and for the use of which the French despise us.' Mr. Justice Fortescue attacked this antiquated absurdity with much greater effect in his celebrated and very humorous report of the trial of Stradling v. Stiles, usually printed in Pope's Works, at the end of the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, and which will be found in another part of these volumes. At the conclusion of this case is an inimitable morsel of Law French, which it is impossible not to transcribe: Le reste del argument jeo ne pouvois oyer car jeo fui disturbe en mon place.

The Latin continued to be the language of the Records until the reign of George II., when a statute was passed directing them to be entered in English.

The motives of the lawyers in employing a dead or a foreign language for so long a period have been frequently questioned. It was objected, according to Sir John Davies, " to the professors of our law, that, forsooth, they write their Reports and books of the law in a strange unknown tongue, which no one can understand but themselves, to the end that the people, being kept in ignorance of the law, may the more admire their skill and knowledge, and value it at a higher price. As Cicero in his final book de Oratore, doth testify, that the like conceit was held of the first professors of the civil law, Quia veteres illi