The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England

BEFORE entering upon the Lives of the individuals who
have successively filled the office of Lord Chancellor in
England, I propose to take a general view of its origin,
functions, and jurisdiction,―reserving for future considera-
tion a more detailed account of the progressive changes which
it has from time to time undergone.

"Chan

The etymology of the word "Chancellor" sheds such a Etymology feeble and doubtful light on the subject of our inquiry, that of word I must decline engaging in the great controversy, whether cellor." "Cancellarius" be derived from "cancellare" or "cancelli?" - from the act of cancelling the king's letters patent when granted contrary to law, or from the little bars for fencing off the multitude from the recess or chancel in which sat the door-keeper or usher of a court of justice. Of the former opinion, the most distinguished champion is John of Salisbury, who flourished in the reign of Henry II., and in the verses prefixed to his Polycraticon thus glorifies the Chancellor :

"Hic est qui leges regni cancellat iniquas,
Et mandata pii principis æqua facit.”*

But more weight will probably be attached to the authority
of Gibbon, who, after exposing the profligate conduct of the

Antiquity of office in England.

Original duty of Chancellor to frame writs.

Emperor Carinus in having selected his favourites, and even his ministers, from the dregs of the populace, and intrusted a "Chancellor" with the government of the city, observes, "This word, so humble in its origin, has by a singular fortune risen into the title of the first great office of state in the monarchies of Europe."*

It would likewise be foreign to our purpose (though very curious) to trace the steps by which, under the later Roman Emperors, the "Cancellarius," like "the Justice-clerk" in Scotland, from being a humble scribe or secretary, came to be invested with high judicial powers. Nor should I be justified in inquiring how the office passed from the Roman Emperors to that body ever emulous of imperial state--the Roman Church, in which every bishop had his "Chancellor,"

or into the manner in which the office was established, with a great variety of powers and duties, in the different states on the continent of Europe founded by the Northern invaders, who, clinging to their own institutions, were fond of borrowing titles from the conquered. Our business here is exclusively with "the Chancellor of the Kings of England."

This office has existed from the most remote antiquity. The almost fabulous British King Arthur is said to have appointed a Chancellor. † The Anglo-Saxon monarchs, from Ethelbert downwards, certainly had such an officer, although we must not therefore assent to the statement of Lord Coke, that the Chancery dispensed justice as an ordinary tribunal, in the remote reign of King Alfred. The office then existed, but, as we shall see hereafter, centuries elapsed before it assumed the functions of a COURT.- How the office originally sprung up in England, and what it has since become, it will now be my endeavour to describe.

With us the King has ever been considered the fountain of justice. In very early times, as he could not himself in person decide all controversies and remedy all wrongs, tribunals were constituted, over which deputed judges presided, to carry the law into execution. Still, applications were made to him personally by injured parties for redress; these

* Dec. and Fall, i1. 99. ; and see Casaubon and Salmasius ad Hist. Aug. 253. + Mirror of Justices.

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The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England ...