CENTRAL COURTS 



171 



the court of king's bench, ^ and resulted in an examination 

 of a larger number of De Banco than of Coram Rege Rolls. ^ 

 The following account will show the extent of my re- 

 searches in these two series. For the period extending 

 from the beginning of the tw^enty-fifth year of Edw. Ill to 

 the end of his reign, assuming one roll for each law term, 

 there should be 107 rolls in existence for each court. ^ Of 

 the De Banco Rolls I made a complete examination of 41, 

 — between a half and a third of the total number, — as well 

 as a partial examination of 6.* Counting only those ac- 

 tions on the statutes or involving the statutes that are fin- 

 ished, or that are argued out to an issue of law or of fact, 

 or that have at least reached the stage of an attachment of 

 the defendant, it appears that the 41 rolls contain 270 cases, 

 and the 6 rolls, 18, an average of 63^ cases per roll or 

 per term.^ If this average be maintained through the 

 remaining 60 terms, — there seems no reason to doubt that 

 it will be, — there will be for the whole reign about 700 

 cases. Further, on each roll there are many instances where 

 it is recorded that the plaintiff has brought a writ, but 

 where there is no indication that the defendant has ever 

 been produced, or that any subsequent process ever takes 



' The form of writs in the Registrum is given for both courts; cf. p. 175, 

 note I, for references. 



^ It has already been emphasized that my primary object was the iden- 

 tification of the reported cases; cf. s. i. 



•'* There are in reahty not quite so many. Of the De Banco Rolls six 

 are missing, while the 37th year has two rolls for the Easter term, a 

 total of 102; the compiler of the List of Plea Rolls, in numbering these 

 rolls consecutively, has by a slight error omitted the number "385." 

 Of the Coram Rege Rolls two are missing, leaving a total of 105. 



* In each of these, the reported case chanced to occur early in the roll, 

 thus obviating the necessity of reading all the membranes. 



*The two may be considered as synonymous, since there is only one 

 exception. 



