ugh
him down--that no company of performers could retain public favor when
they had lost the countenance of law-colleges. Something of this power
the young lawyers retained beyond the middle of the last century.
Fielding and Addison caught with nervous eagerness the critical gossip
of the Temple and Chancery Lane, just as Congreve and Wycherly, Dryden
and Cowley had caught it in previous generations. Fashionable tradesmen
and caterers for the amusement of the public made their engagements and
speculations with reference to the opening of term. New plays, new
books, new toys were never offered for the first time to London
purchasers when the lawyers were away. All that the 'season' is to
modern London, the 'term' was to old London, from the accession of Henry
VIII. to the death of George II., and many of the existing commercial
and fashionable arrangements of a London 'season' maybe traced to the
old-world 'term.'

In olden time the influence of the law-colleges was as great upon
politics as upon fashion. Sheltering members of every powerful family in
the country they were centres of political agitation, and places for the
secret discussion of public affairs. Whatever plot was in course of
incubation, the inns invariably harbored persons who were cognisant of
the conspiracy. When faction decided on open rebellion or hidden
treason, the agents of the malcontent leaders gathered together in the
inns, where, so long as they did not rouse the suspicions of the
authorities and maintained the bearing of studious men, they could hire
assassins, plan risings, hold interviews with fellow-conspirators, and
nurse their nefarious projects into achievement. At periods of danger
therefore spies were set to watch the gates of the hostels, and mark who
entered them. Governments took great pains to ascertain the secret life
of the collegians. A succession of royal directions for the discipline
of the inns under the Tudors and Stuarts points to the jealousy and
constant apprehensions with which the sovereigns of England long
regarded those convenient lurking-places for restless spirits and
dangerous adversaries. Just as the Student-quarter of Paris is still
watched by a vigilant police, so the Inns of Court were closely watched
by the agents of Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, of Burleigh and Buckingham.
During the troubles and contentions of Elizabeth's reign Lord Burleigh
was regularly informed concerning the life of the inns, the number of