Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/420

 406 ///. THE COLONIAL PERIOD desire to approach as near as possible to compliance by enact- ing that six men of the ablest and nearest of the inhabitants of the county shall be on the jury. ^ This reminds us of Sir John Fortescue's contention that France could not have the jury system, because there no neighborhood could produce twelve intelligent and substantial jurors. In this code the period of prescription for land is hmited to five years. ^ The system of itinerant judges existed in Virginia for some time, but was abolished in 1662 on account of the great charge to the country.^ The nature of the procedure in the county courts is seen from the provision that the bill or com- plaint must be filed the day before court, that the answer and judgment as well as evidence in the case is also to be filed, that the judgment is to be endorsed on the complaint if for the plaintiff, on the answer if for the defendant.* The administration of law in Virginia was in the hands of the country gentlemen who looked down upon the legal pro- fession, and in no state do we find more hostile legislation con- cerning lawyers than in the Old Dominion. In 1645 an act was passed expelling the mercenary attorneys. ^ In November, 1647, it is enacted that none shall plead for recompense. That in case the courts shall perceive that " either party by his weakness shall be like to lose his cause, they themselves may open the cause or may appoint some fit man out of the people to plead the cause, but shall not allow any other attor- neys." In 1656 the hostile acts were repealed, but only a year later there was again proposed in the house " a regulation or total ejection of lawyers," whereupon the decision was " by the first vote an ejection." ^ A new act was therefore passed ' forbidding any person to plead or give advice in any case for reward. The governor and council rather opposed this enact- ment, but promised to consent to the proposition " so far as it shall be agreeable to Magna Charta." A committee was appointed, who upon considering Magna Charta, reported that they did not discover any prohibition contained therein. In 1728, in a paper on the state of the colonies in America, » Ibid., 97. » Ibid., II, 179. * Hening, II, 71.
 * Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. II, 63.
 * Hening, I, 482. « Hening, I, 495. ^ Ibid., p. 482.
 * Neill's Virginia Carolorum, p. 264.