ue
specimen of the sumptuous architectural taste of the age in which it was
erected.

Down to as late a period as the year 1499, there existed in Normandy no
stationary court of judicature; but the execution of the laws was
confided to an ambulatory tribunal, established, according to the
chroniclers, by Rollo himself, and known by the name of the _Exchequer_.
The sittings of this Norman exchequer were commonly held twice a year,
in spring and autumn, after the manner of the ancient parliaments of the
French kings; the places of session depending upon the pleasure of the
sovereign, or being determined in general, like the English _Aula
Regia_, by his presence. The inconveniences attendant upon such a mode
of administering justice, became of course the more heavily felt, in
proportion as the country increased in population and civilization.
Accordingly, the states-general of the province, assembled in the last
year of the fifteenth century, under the presidency of the Cardinal
d'Amboise, petitioned Louis XII. who was then upon the throne, to
appoint in the metropolis of the duchy a permanent judicature, in the
same manner as had been previously done in others of the principal
cities of the realm. The king was graciously pleased to accede to their
request; and, by the words of the royal edict, not only was the
exchequer rendered permanent in the good city of Rouen, but permission
was also granted to the members to hold their sittings in the great hall
of the castle, till such time as a suitable place should be prepared for
their reception.

It was on this occasion that the _Palace of Justice_ was built; a piece
of ground was selected for the purpose, that had been known by the name
of the Jews' Close, from the time when Philip-Augustus expelled the
children of Israel from France; and the foundations of the new structure
were laid within a few months after the obtaining of the royal sanction.
The progress, however, of the work, was not commensurate, in point of
rapidity, with the haste with which it was undertaken; even in 1506 the
labors were not brought to a conclusion, though, in that year, the
exchequer was installed by the king in person, with great pomp, in the
new palace. The sitting will long be memorable in the Norman annals, not
only as being the first, but as having been selected by the sovereign,
as an opportunity for bestowing various important favors upon the city
and duchy.

The palace, in its present st