gland, by David Jardine,
Esq., 1837.'

[378] Rot. Parl. vol. iv. p. 65.

[379] Rot. Parl. vol. iv. p. 202.

[380] This was written in 1811 or 1812; and is among many passages which
the progress of time has somewhat falsified.

[381] Philip de Comines takes several opportunities of testifying his
esteem for the English government. See particularly 1. iv. c. i. and 1.
v. c. xix.

[382] By a frankleyn in this place we are to understand what we call a
country squire, like the frankleyn of Chaucer; for the word esquire in
Fortescue's time was only used in its limited sense, for the sons of
peers and knights, or such as had obtained the title by creation or some
other legal means.

The mention of Chaucer leads me to add that the prologue to his
Canterbury Tales is of itself a continual testimony to the plenteous and
comfortable situation of the middle ranks in England, as well as to that
fearless independence and frequent originality of character amongst
them, which liberty and competence have conspired to produce.

[383] Brady's Hist. vol. i.; Appendix, p. 148.

[384] Matt. Paris, p. 330; Lyttelton's Hist. of Henry II. vol. iv. p.
41.

[385] If a man was disseised of his land, he might enter upon the
disseisor and reinstate himself without course of law. In what case this
right of entry was taken away, or _tolled_, as it was expressed, by the
death or alienation of the disseisor, is a subject extensive enough to
occupy two chapters of Littleton. What pertains to our inquiry is, that
by an entry in the old law-books we must understand an actual
repossession of the disseisee, not a suit in ejectment, as it is now
interpreted, but which is a comparatively modern proceeding. The first
remedy, says Britton, of the disseisee is to collect a body of his
friends (recoiller amys et force), and without delay to cast out the
disseisors, or at least to maintain himself in possession along with
them. c. 44. This entry ought indeed, by 5 R. II. stat. i. c. 8, to be
made peaceably; and the justices might assemble the posse comitatus to
imprison persons entering on lands by violence (15 R. II. c. 2), but
these laws imply the facts that made them necessary.

[386] No lord, or other person, by 20 R. II. c. 3, was permitted to sit
on the bench with the justices of assise. Trials were sometimes overawed
by armed parties, who endeavoured to prevent their adversaries from
appearing. Paston Letters, vol. iii. p. 119.

[387] From a p