The Star Chamber : Us Practice and Procedure. 97 



raised to man's estate, from whence (being now altogether 

 unlimited) it is grown a monster." The truth is, the statute 

 of Henry VII. was the first statute that recognized the exist- 

 ence of the Star Chamber, and conferred upon it judicial 

 power ; but the court or council, or both in one, existed long 

 before Henry's reign. If we go to the length Hudson does, 

 we shall have to believe what he certainly suggests, that the 

 Star Chamber was " the council " referred to when a man was 

 told that he stood "in danger of the council" for saying to 

 his brother " Raca." But without carrying the matter quite so 

 far back, it will be found that in Edward the First's time distinct 

 mention is made of the Star Chamber, which appears to have 

 exercised the mixed functions of a judicial and governmental 

 council. At this time it was composed of the chancellor, the 

 treasurer, the justices of either bench, the escheators, Serjeants, 

 some of the principal clerks in Chancery, " and such others — 

 usually, but not exclusively, bishops, earls, and barons — as the 

 king thought fit to name." Palgrave says : " On certain occa- 

 sions it appears that the official members sat and acted alone ; 

 but that on others they were united to the rest." This 

 council is the same body which is alluded to in very many 

 statutes subsequently to Edward I. as that before which 

 offenders in certain cases are ordered to appear, and by some 

 of which authority is given to the " King's Council " to do 

 certain things. Hudson says, when ridiculing the notion that 

 his favourite court was established by the statute of Henry 

 VII., that it is "a doating which no man that hath looked 

 upon the records of the court would have lighted upon." 



In order rightly to understand the constitution of the 

 court, and to trace the source whence it derived its authority, 

 it should be remembered that there were three councils known, 

 in practice at least, to the English law — the Commune Con- 

 cilium, the Magnum Concilium, and the Privatum Concilium. 

 Of these three, the first was the general assembly of the military 

 tenants of the crown, answering to the House of Lords of 

 to-day ; the second was that large committee of the first to 

 which the king looked for advice in his government, and to 

 which he referred petitions and complaints made to himself; 

 the third was a select committee of the second council, supple- 

 mented by certain judges and Serjeants, who sat as assessors. 

 To this select committee were sent, in the course of time, not 

 only all questions as between subject and subject, which had 

 been submitted by petition to the king, or his Magnum Con- 

 cilium, but also all complaints — and they seem to have been 

 pretty numerous — of misconduct and injustice on the part of 

 the royal officers. If the second council may be said to have 

 borne to the first the same relation that the Privy Council now 



VOL. XI. — NO. II. H 



