to the duties of the watch, which are described in such like manner that Dogberry’s language seems a mere paraphrase.  Whoever wrote the play certainly had read the Statutes of the Realm for the year 1285, but so far as I am aware, the Baconians have not yet called attention to this.  And the same statute shows us how much better police protection the England of 1285 gave than the New York or Chicago of 1909; for all the people dwelling in the hundred or country (county) if they do not deliver the body of the offender, “shall be answerable for the robberies done and also the damages.”  The same year was a statute of “The common customs of the City of London,” among which was one that “taverns should not be open after 9 P.M. for the selling of wine or ale,” a regulation for their “tenderloin,” which itself is described in quite modern terms; “none shall walk the streets after curfew.”  Possibly the same year is the Statute of Bakers, with careful provisions against putrid meat, worthy of consideration by our cold-storage plants.  Butchers selling unwholesome flesh, or buying it of the Jews, were severely punished.

(1289) The Statute of Quo Warranto is another historical landmark, showing the jealousy our ancestors felt of officials, bureaucracy; a writ specially devised to enable them to challenge the right of any magnate who pretended to power by virtue of holding office, and the predecessor of our modern quo warranto, which we still use at all times for that purpose, not only as against officers but to test any special privileges or charters claimed, such as the right to a monopoly, a franchise, a ferry, etc.  These may be still tried by quo warranto; meaning, by what warrant do you claim to exercise this office, this monopoly, this privilege?

About this time is another statute forbidding usury, and permitting Christian debtors to retain half of all debts they may owe to the Jews, who are required to wear the mark of two cables joined on their coats; and there is the great Statute of Westminster III, Quia Emptores, affecting land tenures, still of importance to the conveyancers.  In 1295 we have the famous Model Parliament; that is to say, the first one where kings, lords, and commons were joined, the legislative branches sitting separately and the Commons represented.  Two years later Edward I, carrying on the war in Flanders, was compelled to grant that great confirmation of the charters already referred to, that no aid or tax should be taken but by the common consent of the realm and for the common profit; restoring thus into the recognized charter that important provision of the original Charter of John; and it provides that the great charter shall be read twice a year in every cathedral in England.  In our country I am aware of no provision for reading the Constitution, though the Declaration of Independence, an obsolete document, is occasionally read upon the Fourth of July.

In 1305 the Anglo-Norman law reports begin, the Year Books.  From then to now, at least, we have continuous written reports of all important cases decided in England.  This is not to say that we do not have them before (our people, first in the world’s history, has the records of all its cases in high courts for nigh a thousand years), but they are now for the first time systematic.