Page:English Law and the Renaissance.djvu/90

 (Bacon, Amendment of the Law; Spedding, Life and Letters, vol. v., p. 86).

But, be all this as it may, the fact seems clear that the ancient practice of law reporting passed through a grave crisis in the sixteenth century. We know the reign of Edward IV and even that of Edward II better than we know that of Edward VI. The zeal with which Tottell from 1553 onwards was printing old reports makes the dearth of modern reports the more apparent. Then Plowden expressly says that he reported 'for my private instruction only,' and Dyer's Reports (which comprise some cases too early to have been reported by him) were posthumously published. The total mass of matter from the first half of the century that we obtain under the names of Broke, Benloe, Dalison, Keilwey, Moore and Anderson is by no means large, and in many cases its quality will not bear comparison with that of the Year Books of Edward IV. (J. W. Wallace, The Reporters, ed. 4, Boston, 1882, is an invaluable guide; see also V. V. Veeder, The English Reports, in Harvard Law Review, vol. xv., p. i.)

Burke, Report from Committee appointed to inspect the Lords' Journals: 'To give judgment privately is to put an end to reports; and to put an end to reports is to put an end to the law of England.'

Acts of the Privy Council, 1547—1550, pp. 48—50. Petition of divers students of the common