the prisons
for the relief and discharge of the poor there."

[13] A portion of the oath prescribed for judges in the 'Ordinances for
Justices,' 20 Edward III., will show the reader the evils which called
for correction and the care taken to effect their cure. "Ye shall
swear," ran the injunction to which each judge was required to vow
obedience, "that well and lawfully ye shall serve our lord the king and
his people in the office of justice; ... and that ye take not by
yourself or by other, privily or apertly, gift or reward of gold or
silver, nor any other thing which may turn to your profit, unless it be
meat nor drink, and that of small value, _of any man that shall have
plea or process before you, as long as the same process shall be so
hanging, nor after for the same cause: and that ye shall take no fee as
long as ye shall be justice, nor robes of any man, great or small_, but
of the king himself: and that ye give none advice or counsel to no man,
great or small, in any case where the king is party; &c. &c. &c." The
clause forbidding the judge to receive gifts of actual suitors was a
positive recognition of his right to customary gifts rendered by persons
who had no process hanging before him. It should, moreover, be observed
that in the passage, "ye shall take no fee as long as ye shall be
justice, nor robes of any man," the word "fee" signifies "salary," and
not a single payment or gratuity. The Judge was forbidden to receive
from any man a fixed stipend (by the acceptance of which he would become
the donor's servant), or robes (the assumption of which would be open
declaration of service); but he was at liberty to accept the offerings
which the public were wont to make to men of his condition, as well as
the sums (or 'fees,' as they would be termed at the present day) due on
different processes of his court. That the word 'fee' is thus used in
the ordinance may be seen from the words "for this cause we have
increased the fees (les feez) of the same our justices, in such manner
as it ought reasonably to suffice them," by which language attention is
drawn to the increase of judicial salaries.

[14] Mr. Foss observes: "In 1350, William de Thrope, Chief Justice of
the King's Bench, was convicted on his own confession of receiving
bribes to stay justice; but though his property was forfeited to the
Crown on his condemnation, the king appears to have relented, and to
have made him second Baron of the Exchequer in Ma