shion, and speak French as fluently as his
mother tongue, might hope to sell his knowledge in a good market. As the
steward of a Norman baron he might negotiate between my lord and my
lord's tenants, letting my lord know as much of his tenant's wishes, and
revealing to the tenants as much of their lord's intentions as suited
his purpose. Uniting in his own person the powers of interpreter,
arbitrator, and steward, he possessed enviable opportunities and
facilities for acquiring wealth. Not seldom, when he had grown rich, or
whilst his fortunes were in the ascendant, he assumed a French name as
well as a French accent; and having persuaded himself and his younger
neighbors that he was a Frenchman, he in some cases bequeathed to his
children an ample estate and a Norman pedigree. In certain causes in the
law courts the agent (by whatever title known) who was a perfect master
of the three languages (French, Latin, and English) had greatly the
advantage over an opposing agent who could speak only French and Latin.

From the Conquest till the latter half of the fourteenth century the
pleadings in courts of justice were in Norman-French; but in the 36 Ed.
III., it was ordained by the king "that all plees, which be to be pleded
in any of his courts, before any of his justices; or in his other
places; or before any of his other ministers; or in the courts and
places of any other lords within the realm, shall be pleded, shewed, and
defended, answered, debated, and judged in the English tongue, and that
they be entred and enrolled in Latine. And that the laws and customs of
the same realm, termes, and processes, be holden and kept as they be,
and have been before this time; and that by the antient termes and forms
of the declarations no man be prejudiced; so that the matter of the
action be fully shewed in the demonstration and in the writ." Long
before this wise measure of reform was obtained by the urgent wishes of
the nation, the French of the law courts had become so corrupt and
unlike the language of the invaders, that it was scarcely more
intelligible to educated natives of France than to most Englishmen of
the highest rank. A jargon compounded of French and Latin, none save
professional lawyers could translate it with readiness or accuracy; and
whilst it unquestionably kept suitors in ignorance of their own affairs,
there is reason to believe that it often perplexed the most skilful of
those official interpreters who were n