PREFATORY
To the Lumber Room you drag furniture no longer fit for daily use, and there it lies, old fashioned, cumbrous, covered year by year with fresh depths of dust. Is it fanciful to apply this image to the Law? Has not that its Lumber Room of repealed Statutes, discarded methods, antiquated text-books—"many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore"?
But law, even when an actual part of the life of to-day is like to prove a tedious thing to the lay reader, can one hope to find the dry bones of romance in its antiquities? I venture to answer, "Yes." Among all the rubbish, the outworn instruments of cruelty, superstition, terror, there are things of interest. "Benefit of Clergy," the "Right of Sanctuary," bulk large in English literature; the "Law of the Forest" gives us a glimpse into the life of Mediæval England as actual as, though so much more sombre than, the vision conjured up in Chaucer's magic Prologue. "Trial by Ordeal" and "Wager of Battle" touch on superstitions and beliefs that lay at the very core of the nation's being.
"As full of fictions as English law," wrote Macaulay in the early part of the century; but we have changed that, we are more practical, if less picturesque, and John Doe and all his tribe are long out of date. Between the reign of James I. and that of Victoria all the subjects here discussed have suffered change, with one exception. The "Press-Gang" is still a legal possibility, but how hard to fancy it ever again in actual use!
I fear that these glimpses of other days may seem harsh and sombre; there is blood everywhere; the cruel consequences of law or custom are pushed to their logical conclusions with ruthless determination. The contrast to the almost morbid sentimentalism of to-day is striking. So difficult it seems to hit the just mean! But the improvement is enormous. Gibes at the Law are the solace of its victims, and no one would deprive them of so innocent a relief, yet if these cared to enquire they would often find that the mark of their jest had vanished years ago to the Lumber Room.
The plan of these papers did not permit a detailed reference to authorities, but I have mentioned every work from which I derived special assistance. I will only add that this little book originally appeared as contributions to the National Observer under Mr W. E. Henley's editorship. I have made a few additions and corrections.