Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/582

 574 REVIEWS OF BOOKS October perspective the so-called Statute of Rageman de iusticiis assignatis. The ' statute ' has hitherto been confidently dated 1276 because it fixes Michael- mas in that year as the lower limit of the period of the justices' inquiry, but some reasons are given for assigning it to a date two years later. It is to be hoped that Coke's error in identifying the Statute of Rageman with the ordinance of Trailbaston, which has misled many high legal authorities, is now finally rooted up. The placita de Ragemannis belonged to the old system of the eyre ad omnia placita, while the Trailbaston inquisitions, despite superficial resemblances, co-operated with the commission of the peace in the supersession of that system. Miss Cam is of opinion that the change was not for the better : ' to the disappearance of the eyre, amongst many other factors in the breakdown of the central control, we may attribute the necessity for the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber.' The analysis of the Hundred Rolls in the second chapter contains useful warnings for those who use the printed edition for historical purposes. It does not include all the surviving rolls, nor is any indication given that the Extract Rolls were not made up at once from the original returns, but apparently some years later. The omission of the Extract Roll no. 4, headed De Ministris, from the printed volume is particularly unfortunate, because it is complementary to Extract Roll no. 1, which deliberately omits the matter bearing on the misdoings of officials. From the legal point of view, the most interesting feature of the rolls is the appearance on them of querele of injured parties, sometimes in French, which are earlier than any bills in eyre found by Mr. Bolland. The statu- tory authorization for such plaints without writ, which he could not discover, is contained in the Statute of Rageman. A reference to an eyre roll for 1261 is thought to raise the question whether in practice procedure by bill was not even older. 1 Elsewhere Miss Cam throws interesting light upon the origin of the Bagae de secretis (p. 64). The elaborate tabular appendixes to chapters i and ii must have cost much labour and will be of great service to those who have to work over the same ground. Miss Cam's handling of a complicated subject is so accurate in detail, as well as fruitful in readjustment and suggestion, that we have > noticed only one slip. The phrase ' quia imposuit super eum quod fuit collector visesyme et non fuit ' (p. 171) could not mean that the sheriff had appointed him. The sheriff alleged, contrary to fact, that he was a collector, and fined him. The suggestion that the sums taken ' pur le despit de Colecestre ' (p. 174) were dues claimed by Colchester Castle does not seem to explain the phrase well. The quotations given by Ducange (s. despectio, despectus) point rather to contempt of attendance at a court or the like. As the misdoings of royal officials figure so largely in some of the Hundred Rolls, Dr. Ehrlich's elaborate examination of proceedings against the Crown in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is to a considerable degree complementary to Miss Cam's inquiry. Thus, for instance, it bears out her suggestion that if any proceedings were taken against peccant 1 But need querele de transgressionibus have been plaints by bill ? As a regular system of written bills or petitions to the Crown direct is shown by Dr. Ehrlich not to be older than the reign of Edward I, it seems unlikely that procedure by bill existed in a lower range under his father.