lk paid a sum that
they might be fairly dealt with; the borough of Yarmouth, that the
king's charters, which they have for their liberties, might not be
violated; Richard, son of Gilbert, for the king's helping him to
recover his debt from the Jews; * * Serlo, son of Terlavaston, that
he might be permitted to make his defence, in case he were accused of
a certain homicide; Walter de Burton, for free law, if accused of
wounding another; Robert de Essart, for having an inquest to find
whether Roger, the butcher, and Wace and Humphrey, accused him of
robbery and theft out of envy and ill-will, or not; William Buhurst,
for having an inquest to find whether he were accused of the death of
one Godwin, out of ill-will, or for just cause. I have selected these
few instances from a great number of the like kind, which Madox had
selected from a still greater number, preserved in the ancient rolls
of the exchequer.

Sometimes a party litigant offered the king a certain portion, a
half, a third, a fourth, payable out of the debts which he, as the
executor of justice, should assist in recovering. Theophania de
Westland agreed to pay the half of two hundred and twelve marks, that
she might recover that sum against James de Fughleston; Solomon, the
Jew, engaged to pay one mark out of every seven that he should
recover against Hugh de la Hose; Nicholas Morrel promised to pay
sixty pounds, that the Earl of Flanders might be distrained to pay
him three hundred and forty-three pounds, which the earl had taken
from him; and these sixty pounds were to be paid out of the first
money that Nicholas should recover from the earl."--_Hume, Appendix
2._

"In the reign of Henry II., the best and most just of these (the
Norman) princes, * * Peter, of Blois, a judicious and even elegant
writer, of that age, gives a pathetic description of the _venality of
justice_, and the oppressions of the poor, * * and he scruples not to
complain to the king himself of these abuses. We may judge what the
case would be under the government of worse princes."--_Hume,
Appendix 2._

Carte says:

"The crown exercised in those days an exorbitant and inconvenient
power, ordering the justices of the king's court, in suits about
lands, to turn out, put, and keep in possession, which of the
litigants they pleased; to send contradictory orders; and take large