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 The Selden Society. [Circular of 1888.] The Selden Society was founded in 1887 to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of English Law. Its objects may be outlined as follows : I. The printing of MSS. and of new editions and translations of books having an important bearing on English Legal History; II. The collection of materials for Dictionaries of Anglo-French and of Law Terms; III. The col lection of materials for a history of English Law; IV. The holding of meetings for the reading and discussion of papers; V. The publication of a selection of the papers read at the meetings and of other original communications. The second volume of the Society's publications, which will be issued in respect of the subscription for 1888. will be a volume of Selections from the earliest Manorial Rolls extant, edited with a trans lation by Mr. F. W. Maitland, University Reader in English I^aw, Cambridge. The term " Manorial Rolls " may perhaps hardly give a fair impression of the contents of these records. Only a small part of them is taken up by conveyancing entries, such as surrenders, admittances, and the like. By far the greater part is taken up by contentious pro ceedings; and these are of many different kinds. In the first place, there are the actions for land held by villein services, and disputes between the lord and his tenants as to services and rights of common, and similar matters. In the second place, there are numerous personal actions for debts and trespasses, matters quite unconnected with land law. In the third place, the lord usually has the leet jurisdiction. The first stages of a criminal prosecution often take place in the local courts; and the pettier offences are punished there, the king's courts hardly as yet interfering with any crime which falls short of felony. The mediaeval law as to of fences answering to our modern misdemeanors and offences punishable upon summary conviction must be found in the rolls of the local courts, which were in truth the police courts of the neighborhood. The procedure before these local tribunals is of very great interest, as it preserved many archaisms which had disappeared from the king's courts be fore the time at which our extant records begin. Lastly, the whole system of local police, of frank pledge and so forth, is displayed. In short, the whole legal life and much of the social life of a mediseval village is recorded in one way or another

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upon the manor rolls. In the Public Record Office there is a rich collection of these rolls, many dating from the reign of Edward I., and a few even from the reign of Henry III., relating to manors which at one time or another came into the hands of the Crown. It is probable that there are rolls equallyearly in other libraries and in private hands; and about such the Council will be grateful for any in formation. If the number of subscribers is suffi ciently large, more than one volume will be issued in respect of the year's subscription. The first publication of the Society, issued in respect of the subscription for 1887, is a volume of Thirteenth Century Pleas of the Crown from the Eyre Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, edited with a translation by Mr. F. W. Maitland, University Reader in English Law, Cam bridge. Many of these criminal cases are very interesting, and they throw more light than cases of almost any other class on the manners and cus toms of the people. They are not, however, on that account the less valuable from the point of view of the legal historian. The criminal cases in the Year Books are not many, and yet they have to fill the long interval between Bracton and Staundford. Many points are still obscure, andnone more so than the history of the petty jury. The volume begins with the year 1 200, the point at which the Rotuli Curia Regis, published by Sir Francis Palgrave for the Record Commissioners, comes to an end, and contains many cases from the reign of John, which illustrate fully the working of the ordeals of fire and water. It contains also many cases from the first part of Henry III.'s reign, which may serve to show how a substitute for the ordeals was gradually found in trial by jury. Though for the most part the cases are cases of felony, still many of the grievances redressed by the Great Charter are illustrated, and care has been taken to collect whatever throws new light on the procedure of the ancient local courts, — the system of frankpledge, the representation of counties and boroughs for judicial purposes, the condition of the towns, their corporate privileges, and the like. The Council hope soon to continue the publica tion of Select Pleas of the Crown, suspended for the present in order to give variety to the Society's work. In course of time it may be possible to carry on the selection as far as the year 1500. Every volume should be more interesting than its