MEDIEVAL JUSTICE AND COURTS. 133 



The ancient rights of a manor court are perhaps exhibited 

 more completely in the private law of the University of 

 Oxford than any where else. By charters, identical in sub- 

 stance with many others, it has the high jurisdiction in the 

 court of its seneschal or high steward, who is empowered, 

 in theory at least, to try felonies committed by privileged 

 persons within the r verge, perhaps even when committed on 

 such persons. It can determine pleas for debt, for breaches 

 of the peace, and for injuries against persons. It has, and 

 still exercises, the assize of weights and measures, and the 

 police of the market. It grants probate of wills to the ex- 

 ecutors of deceased persons, and letters of administration for 

 intestate estates. But it is restrained from taking cognizance 

 of real actions, or of any process which may involve the right 

 of land or of any of its incidents^ 



The exercise of the judicial functions possessed by the Uni- 

 versity is limited, just as I imagine all manorial jurisdiction 

 has been limited, by the necessity, if objection be taken, of 

 shewing the charter which confers the privilege. This neces- 

 sity did not, perhaps, arise when there were thousands of 

 manor courts, all administering local customs, and when 

 there was no great disposition on the part of superior courts 

 to challenge the procedure. As soon, however, as the statute 

 law became copious and its application general, and when 

 the store of precedents and adjudicated cases became abun- 

 dantly sufficient to cover most legal questions that might 

 arise ; and when, moreover, the rule was firmly established, 

 that no public statute needed to be pleaded before it became 

 law, the ordinary law-courts put the ancient manorial system 

 in a position of such serious disadvantage as to rapidly 

 bring about first, that its authority should be limited to the 

 convenience of a petty police, and lastly, to consign it to 

 desuetude and oblivion. 



