OP ENGLISH LIBERTY. 17 



under Edward I gave rise, in the reign of Edward II, to loud 

 clamours and complaints, which had the effect, in the second year of 

 Edward lU, of reducing them under the ban of illegality. Yet so 

 closely had they become entwined with the practices of the age, and 

 the interest of individuals, that they were not easily suppressed, but 

 were to be met with even as late as the times of Queen Elizabeth. 



The management of judicial affairs, which, under the immediate 

 care of the crown or cabinet, was considered, in other countries, as 

 a violent but transitory encroachment upon the established institu- 

 tions of the state, constituted, in England, supreme and regular tri- 

 bunals, which existed for centuries under the presidency of the lord 

 high constable and commissioner of the star chamber. The equerry 

 (constabularius), in the early domiciles of the Germanic tribes, 

 might probably have been one of the elevated and favoured officers 

 of the opulent landholders, who had to maintain an extensive reti- 

 nue. As those possessors of the land increased their domains and 

 their lordly power in the provinces of the Roman Empire, it is very 

 likely that it suited their dignity, as well as convenience, to assign 

 a portion of their newly-acquired territory for the support of these 

 upper servants of their household, instead of maintaining them un- 

 der the lordly roof, as was hitherto the case. Thus the first step 

 was laid for their exaltation. Then came another remove : the 

 landholder was changed into a lord, and, as a matter of course, his 

 domestic retinue rose in rank with himself, particularly the upper 

 servants, who now, doubtless, assumed the appearance of court 

 officers, retaining their ancient names as a sort of title of honour ; 

 while the services attached to their offices were abandoned to infe- 

 rior servants, coachmen, and other upper menials, who might, also, 

 in their turn, have climbed upwards in dignity, had there been 

 another Roman Empire to be conquered and plundered. 



In the course of time, the office of constable assumed a very high 

 and important station at court ; for we find, at a certain period of 

 history, that the household of the court, which in England meant 

 neither more nor less than all the subjects of the king, were placed 

 under his direct care and management. This domestic discipline 

 soon assumed, in the camps of the conquering princes, the character 

 of a martial court, which soon became consolidated in the single per- 

 son of the constable, who then became invested with such a pleni- 

 tude of dictatorial power as to be at once incompatible with all 

 rational and peaceful purposes, and at the same time to give cause 

 of serious alarm even to the princes themselves. Henry VIII, the 

 most arbitrary monarch of England, at length abolished the office ; 

 yet he could not entirely sweep it away, it still clung like an un- 

 voL. X., NO. xxviir. 3 



