Willis: Anglo-American Law 155 
Shakespeare. He was admitted to Middle Temple, called to 
the bar, made bursar of his college, and steward of manors. 
His progress at the bar was slow and unproductive, and he 
had determined to retire in 1753, when Lord Mansfield rec- 
ommended him for a professorship on civil law. The Duke 
of Newcastle gave the position to another, but on Mansfield's 
advice Blackstone read his lectures anyway. He was ap- 
pointed professor of law on Viners’ Foundation in 1758. His 
treatise on Consideration of Copyholders brought an act of 
Parliament giving them the vote. He refused the honor of 
the Coif and chief justiceship of the Common Pleas of Ireland, 
but resumed his attendance at the bar in 1759. His mar- 
riage two years later terminated his fellowship of All Souls, 
but he was appointed principal of New Inn Hall and given a 
patent of precedence in court and became a member of Parlia- 
ment. He published the first volume of his Commentaries 
in 1765 and the remaining volumes by 1769. He declined the 
solicitor-generalship in 1770, but in the same year accepted 
a judgeship in the Common Pleas. He went to the King's 
Bench in exchange with Yates, who wished to avoid collision 
with Mansfield; but Yates died and Blackstone returned to 
the Common Pleas. Blackstone was a distinguished judge; 
he also took reports during his life and these were published 
after his death ; but his reputation in the United States rests, 
for the most part, upon his Commentaries, which came out 
just before our country gained its independence, and which 
after independence became the chief if not the only law books 
in every lawyer's library, and the chief if not the only text- 
books for every law student. Blackstone devoted the later 
years of his life to the reform of prison discipline, and the 
increase of judges' salaries £400. His corpulence increased 
in late life due to lack of exercise and the studious habits of 
his youth. 
Other lawyers of the Period of Equity who should be men- 
tioned are Henry Rolle (1589-1656), who compiled an 
Abridgement of Cases and Resolutions of Law, sided with 
the Puritans and was made chief justice of the King's Bench 
by the Commons in 1748; Edward Hyde (1608-1674), Earl 
of Clarendon, who was an enemy of Cromwell, resided with 
Charles II during his exile, and returned as chancellor in 1660 ; 
John Vaughan (1603-1674), who put an end to the practice 
