he would go to the Park of Bois de Vincennes, and sitting down upon a green Sodd at the Foot of an Oak Tree, would command us to sit by him; and there if any one had Business, he wou’d cause him to be called, and bear him patiently.  He wou’d often himself proclaim aloud, That if any one had Business, or a Controversy with an Adversary, he might come near and set forth the Merits of his Cause; then if any Petitioner came, he wou’d hear him attentively; and having throughly considered the Case, wou’d pass judgment according to Right and Justice.  At other Times he appointed Peter Fountain and Godfrey Villet to plead the Causes of the contending Parties.  I have often (says he) seen that good King go out of Paris into one of his Gardens or Villa’s without the Walls, dressed very plainly, and there order a Carpet to be spread before him on a Table; and having caused Silence to be proclaimed, those which were at Variance with each other, were introduced to plead their Causes; and then he presently did Justice without Delay.” Thus far Joinvillaeus—­By which we may guess at the small Number of Law Suits and Complainants in those Days, and how careful our Kings were of preventing the Mischiefs that might arise from such as fomented Controversies.  In the Capitular of Charles the Great this Law is extant.—­“Be it known unto all Persons both Nobility and People, by these our Patents, That we will sit one Day in every Week to hear Causes in Person.”

We have the like Testimony in William Budaeus, a very famous Man, and a Principal Ornament of our Kingdom of France.  For in his Annotations on the Pandects (where he treats of this very Argument, and inveighs against this Kingdom of Brawlers and Petty-Foggers) he tells us, that he finds in the Regal Commentaries of Venerable Antiquity, (the free Perusal of which his Quality did intitle him to) “That in the Reign of the same King Lewis, [Anno 1230.] several Controversies arose between the King and the Earl of Britany; And that by Consent (as ’tis probable) of both Parties, a Camp-Court of Judicature was summoned to meet at Erceniacum, wherein sate as Judges, not Lawyers, Civilians and Doctors, but Bishops, Earls, and Barons.  And there the Earl of Britany was cast, and it was order’d that the Inhabitants of his County should be absolved and freed from the Oath of Allegiance and fidelity, which they had taken to him.  Again, in the same King’s Reign, [Anno 1259.] a Dispute having arisen about the County of Clairmont between the King and the Earls of Poitou and Anjou, a Court of Judicature, composed of the like Persons was appointed, wherein sat the Bishops and Abbots, the General of the Dominicans, the Constable, the Barons, and several Laicks.  To this he subjoyns:  Yet there were two Parliaments called each Year, at Christmas and at Candlemas, like as there are two