cli 



CHAPTER II. 



FROM THE PUBLICATION OF THE WISDOM OF THE 



ANCIENTS TO THE PUBLICATION OF 



THE NOVUM ORGANUM. 



IN consequence of the limitation, in the court of King s Marshal- 

 Bench, (a) of the jurisdiction of the Marshalsea court to sea - 

 the officers of the King s household, a new court of record 

 was erected by letters patent, styled &quot; Curia virgi palatii 

 summi Regis/ to extend the jurisdiction; and the judges 

 nominated by the letters patent were Sir Francis Bacon 

 the Solicitor General, and Sir James Vavasour, then Mar 

 shal of the Household. (6) In this office he delivered a 

 learned and methodical charge to a jury upon a commission 

 of oyer and terminer, in which he availed himself of an 

 opportunity to protest against the abuse of capital punish 

 ment, (c) &quot; For life,&quot; he says, &quot; I must say unto you in 

 general that it is grown too cheap in these times; it is 

 set at the price of words, and every petty scorn and dis 

 grace can have no other reparation ; nay, so many men s 

 lives are taken away with impunity, that the very life of 

 the law, the execution, is almost taken away/ 



When Solicitor he argued in the case of Sutton s Hos- Charter 

 pital, or the Charter House, (d) against the legality of the H 



(a) Michelbonn s case, 6 Co. 20. 



(6) A history of this court, its officers, &c. may be found in a tract pub 

 lished by Clarke and Co. Law-booksellers, Portugal Street, A.D. 1812. 

 See also Buckley on Jurisdiction of Marshalsea, 1827. 



(c) See vol. vi. p. 85. 



d 10 Co. 1. 



