Page:Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland.djvu/302

Rh Previous to the seventeenth century an intercourse between Irish cities was kept up by sea, or through defiles and passes occupied by an envenomed and oppressed foe, with whom the legislation of the state forbade either coalition or friendship; any acquired portion of inland country was unwisely erected into Palatinates, whose chieftains preferred independent dominion to the salutary restraints of regular law. Sage Chroniclers imputed this to degeneracy of manners, but the principle flowed from that appetite for power to which human nature, untamed by art or education, is for ever prone. There were no circuits for centuries after the introduction of English law. Superior Courts alone afforded any encouragement or reward;—within each precinct local jurisdictions determined civil causes, and martial law guided by Strongbownian Palatines or Tanistical chiefs formed the criminal code. The spirit and perfect process of English law was thus confined to the capital and a narrow portion of the pale. An arrangement of legal officers had been regularly kept up, and courts constantly held which employed a few barristers who expected, after a practice more laborious than lucrative, to attain judicial stations. From this motive, such inhabitants as resolved to prepare by legal skill for professional eminence resorted to the Inns of Court in London, where English law was cultivated in the highest perfection. An Irish Inn of Court was established in the reign of Edward I.; it was called Collett's Inn, and lay outside the walls of the city where Exchequer and South George's Street now stand. In that precinct the superior courts of justice were also held, surrounding Palatinates or Irish chiefries rendering the active duties of the King's Bench and Common Pleas very trifling. The equitable jurisdiction of Chancery did not then exist, or at least had no extensive subject matter to operate upon—whilst an appetite for revenue gave to the Exchequer ample and constant business. An incident extremely natural to the existing government of Ireland and its proscribed opponents, disturbed the peaceful dissonance of this legal tribe—a band from the Wicklow mountains watched an opportunity, whilst the Deputy and