The Star Chamber : its Practice and Procedure. 95 



THE STAR CHAMBER : ITS PRACTICE AND 

 PROCEDURE.* 



BY FEANCIS W. ROWSELL, 

 Barister-at-Law. 



The only complete treatise on the practice and procedure of 

 the Court of Star Chamber which has come down to us 

 was written by William Hudson, Barrister, of Gray's Inn, 

 who practised in the court. Hudson did not publish his 

 book, having, probably, before his eyes the terrors of a tri- 

 bunal that fined, without respect to the salvo contenemento 

 clause of the great charter, all who spoke " with great severity 

 against it, " and which '"' sometimes invented punishments in 

 some new manner for new offences." So wholesome a fear 

 had the author of his subject, that even in the manuscript 

 (which he did not mean to publish) he declined to discuss the 

 nature of the jurisdiction of the court. " I will not," he says, 

 <e dispute de jure el de facto, but declare, as briefly as I can, 

 what matters are there usually determined." Hudson left the 

 manuscript to his son, who gave it, as appears by a note 

 appended to it, to Chief Justice, afterwards Lord Keeper, 

 Finch, on the 19th December, 1635. The book was first 

 printed and published in 1791-2, in the Collectanea Juridica, 

 two volumes of Tracts relating to the Law and Constitution of 

 England. The original manuscript is No. 1226, vol. i. of the 

 Harleian MSS. From the printed copy in the British Museum 

 the following particulars relative to the Court of Star Chamber 

 have been chiefly drawn. 



As to the name of the court, Hudson says it was not 

 derived from the ornaments of the room in which the sittings 

 were held. He says, " I suppose the name to be given accor- 

 ding to the nature of the judges thereof" ; and to explain 

 what he means, he talks some nonsense about the judges being 

 stars who shine by the light reflected from the king, the sun 

 of their system. He further says, that the name could not be 

 derived from the ornaments, for they were in the room because 

 they were the device on the seal of the court. Content with 



* 1. A Treatise of the Court of Star Chamler. By William .Hudson. 



"I his treatise was compiled by William Hudson, of Gray's Inn, Esquire, 

 one very much practised and of great experience in the Star Chamber, and my 

 very affectionate friend. His eon and heir, Mr. Christopher Hudson (whose 

 handwriting this book is) after his father's death gave it to me, 19 December, 

 1635. 



"Jo. Finch.'' 

 (Lord Keeper — temp. Chas. I.) 



2. An "Essay upon the Original Authority of the King's Council. By Sir Francis 

 Palgrave, KI1. Published by the Record Commissioners, 1834. 



