English Law Courts at the Close of the Revolution of 1688

In view of the part which the judges played for a4d against the first two STUARTS, and in view of the grievances of the subject under the law as administered in the ordinary courts 2 -to say nothing of the Star Chamber and the High Commission-it was to be expected that, in the great political and religious upheaval resulting from the Puritan Revolution and the ensuing Civil War, the legal edifice could not remain unshaken. As is well known, one of the early acts of the Long Parliament, in the summer of 1641, was to ab6lish the Star Chambei, the Court of High Commission, the Council of the North, and greatly to curtail the jurisdiction of the Council of Wales and the Marches.3 However, this was only the beginning. The Nominated, Little or Barebones Parliament in its brief but ambitious session from July to December, 1653, had a far-reaching scheme of legal reform, proposing, indeed, to reduce the laws of England to a code that should be of “no greater bigness