Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/41

§. 1. this juridical univerity (for uch it is inited to have been by Fortecue and ir Edward Coke ) there are two orts of collegiate houes, one called inns of chancery, in which the younger tudents of the law were uually placed, “learning and tudying, ays Fortecue, the originals and as it were the elements of the law; who, profiting therein, as they grew to ripenes o were they admitted into the greater inns of the ame tudy, called the inns of court.” And in thee inns of both kinds, he goes on to tell us, the knights and barons, with other grandees and noblemen of the realm, did ue to place their children, though they did not deire to have them thoroughly learned in the law, or to get their living by it’s practice: and that in his time there were about two thouand tudents at thee everal inns, all of whom he informs us were , or gentlemen born.

it is evident, that (though under the influence of the monks our univerities neglected this tudy, yet) in the time of Henry the ixth it was thought highly neceary and was the univeral practice, for the young nobility and gentry to be intructed in the originals and elements of the laws. But by degrees this cutom has fallen into diue; o that in the reign of queen Elizabeth ir Edward Coke does not reckon above a thouand tudents, and the number at preent is very coniderably les. Which eems principally owing to thee reaons: firt, becaue the inns of chancery being now almot totally filled by the inferior branch of the profeion, they are neither commodious nor proper for the reort of gentlemen of any rank or figure; o that there are very rarely any young tudents entered at the inns of chancery: econdly, becaue in the inns of court all orts of regimen and academical uperintendance, either with regard to morals or tudies, are found impracticable and therefore entirely neglected: latly, becaue perons of birth and fortune, after having finihed their uual coures at the univerities, have eldom Rh