a piece of gold, and said, 'Sirs, I desire you
forthwith to tell me whether I have any right or title to Hastings'
lordship and lands.' Whereupon Pinchbek stood up (the rest being silent,
fearing that he suspected them), and said, 'No man here nor in England
dare say that you have any right in them, except Hastings do quit his
claim therein; and should he do it, being now under age, it would be of
no validitie.'" Had Charlton, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
taken gold for his opinion on a case put before him in his judicial
character, he would have violated his judicial oath. But in the earl's
house in Paternoster Row he was merely a counsellor learned in the law,
not a judge. Manifest perils attend a system which permits a judge in
his private character to give legal opinions concerning causes on which
he may be required to give judgment from the bench; but notwithstanding
those perils, there is no reason for thinking that Charlton on this
occasion either broke law or etiquette. The fair inference from the
matter is, that in the closing years of the fourteenth century judges
were permitted to give opinions for money to their private clients,
although they were forbidden to take gold or silver from any person
having "plea or process hanging before them."

In the year of our Lord 1500 the corporation of Canterbury paid for
advice regarding their civic interests 3_s._ 4_d._ to each of three
sergeants, and gave the Recorder of London 6_s._ 8_d._ as a
retaining-fee. Five years later, Mr. Serjeant Wood received a fee of
10_s._ from the Goldsmiths' Company; and it maybe fairly assumed, that
so important and wealthy a body paid the sergeant on a liberal scale. In
the sixteenth century it was, and for several generations had been,
customary for clients to provide food and drink for their counsel. Mr.
Foss gives his readers the following list of items, taken from a bill of
costs, made in the reign of Edward IV.:--

_s._ _d._
For a breakfast at Westminster spent on our counsel 1 6

To another time for boat-hire in and out, and a
breakfast for two days 1 6

In like manner the accountant of St. Margaret's, Westminster, entered in
the parish books, "Also, paid to Roger Fylpott, learned in the law, for
his counsel given, 3_s._ 8_d._, with 4_d._ for his dinner."

A yet more remarkable custom was that which enabled clients to h