Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/661

 19. ZANE: THE FIVE AGES 647 a client already present in court by himself or by an attor- ney. The effect of this division in the profession may be indicated in a later place. At present it is enough to note the influence that is bound to be exerted by the body of pro- fessional lawyers. Their judgment upon legal matters is sure to be of controlling importance, and their influence upon the selection of judges has invariably caused in England the promotion to judgeships of men who have proved their ability by the attainment of leadership in the practice. The great advantage of appointive judges over elective is that the influence of professional opinion can be more easily brought to bear upon the appointing power than upon an untutored electorate. But the growing power of Parliament was making itself felt upon the growth of the law. Perhaps the conservatism of the profession assisted. It was now no longer possible' to devise new writs to meet new conditions and to offer new remedies. Parliament was insisting that the grant of new writs and the creation of new remedies was the making of new laws, a power which belonged to the nation's represen- tatives in Parliament. Thus the growth of the law was hin- dered by the growth of representative government. The English law is now ready to enter upon its second period, which began with the legislative activity of Edward I.'s reign. , ^ "t The peculiar feature of the development of the common law is that its moving force did not come from the mass of the people, but was imposed upon a population constantly demanding a return to old and barbarous methods. The universal jurisdiction of the king's courts, the most valu- able institution in the history of the law, was looked upon with the greatest jealousy. The extinction of the old or- deals — a measure which began with the sneers of William Rufus and was finished under John — was not demanded by vorsprecher, causidicus, or conteur, has been once for all set forth in Professor Heinrich Brunner's essay on " Die Zuldssigkeit der Anwalt- schaft im franzosischen, normannischen, and englischen Rechte des Mittelalters," first printed in the Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Rechts- wissenschaft, I, 321, and afterwards abbreviated in § 100 of his Deutsche Bechtggeschichte (1892, vol. II). i .f.