Inaugural Address. XV 
the great festivals, was rendered sedentary at Paris, and ap- 
pointed to be kept open the greater part of the year, under 
the appellation of the ** Parlement de Paris.” This was ef- 
fected by an Ordinance of Philip le Bel, passed in the year 
1302, and emphatically entitled ‘* Ordonnance pour le bien, 
butilité, et la réformation du Reyaume.”’(1) 
This Ordinance erected, also, a Sovereign Court of Assize, 
at the City of Troyes, in Champagne, under the title of 
“© Grand Jours,” re-established the Parliament of Thoulouse, 
a Court before held under the authority of the Counts of that 
Province, and confirmed a Court of Exchequer at Rouen, 
which had subsisted since the re-union of that City to the 
Crown of France, inthe year 1200, and was originally cre- 
ated by the Court of the Peers of France, by which John, 
King of England, was, by default, convicted, as a vassal of 
France, of the murder of his nephew Arthur.(2) Other 
Sovereign Courts of Parliament, making in all thirteen (a), 
were afterwards erected in the several Provinces of the Em- 
pire.(3) 
To the several Royal Courts, when established, the people 
were invited to have recourse for redress, by every means 
which policy could devise. ‘The Monarchs named Judges of 
abilities and legal acquirements—they added dignity to their 
character, and splendor to the administration of their office. 
To the Parliaments, which were the most respectable, and to 
the presidial Courts, which were established for their assist- 
ance, they granted the right of deciding, ultimately, in Ap- 
peal; and to the Baillis, whose judgments thus became lia- 
ble to reversion, an original Jurisdiction which, before, they 
did not possess.(4) They appointed a number of Counsel- 
lors 
(1) Conférence des il a igs Bouchel, p. 137. 
(2) Dictr, de Jurispr. vol. 3. p. 21 & 22. Ord, de Louvre, Tom. 1, p. 366. 
(a) Paris, Thoulouse, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rouen, Aix, Rennes, 
Pau, Mely, Besancon, Douai, Nancy.—Sce Répert. vol. 44, p. 296, verbo 
* Parlement,» and Dictr. de Droit, verbo Parlement, 
(3) Répertoire, 8vo, vol. 44, p. 296, 
(4) Dictr, de Droit, verbo Baillis, 
