Anderson extend over a period of one hundred and thirty years; Owen, Saville, Brownlow, Gouldsborough, Popham, and Lane, from fifty to one hundred years. Down to Hanoverian times the same cases are constantly reported by different persons, sometimes by half a dozen at once. By comparing them some idea may be ob tained of the careless and slovenly methods of copying in vogue. For instance, the case of Clerk v. Day is reported by Croke,1 by Owen, by Moore, and is also printed in Rolle's Abridgment; yet Lord Raymond asserts that it is not accurately reported in any of the books named, even as to the names of the parties. Sometimes an author purports to give a case in full; at other times only in part; and to obtain the whole case the scattered fragments must be traced and put together. Thus the leading case of Manby v. Scott is reported in a way in Siderfin and in Levinz; the opinion by Sir Orlando Bridgman may be found in Bridgman's collection of his own opinions, Justice Hyde's in I Modern, Chief Baron Hale's in Bacon's Abridgment, while parts. of the case are scattered through Keble and Modern. One reporter will give the decision in the form of an abstract principle, another will state the facts upon which it was founded, a third will report the arguments of counsel, while a fourth may supply parts omitted by the others.

There were, moreover, other elements of confusion. Many manuscripts belonging to lawyers of high standing were published without authority and consequently without any revision. In at least two instances the manuscripts were stolen by servants and published as mere bookseller's speculations, with various additions from unknown sources. At best, posthumous publication, involving the deciphering of a strange manuscript, was attended with serious risks. An original manuscript was apt to be vitiated long before publication by repeated and careless copying. The editor of Dyer's reports refers to numerous errors "religiously preserved and carried on without the least attention to sense." Then many of these volumes are translations of Latin or French originals never published. In cases like Dyer, the first eleven parts of Coke, Yelverton, Saunders, and a few others, where the work was first printed in the original and subsequently translated, we have means of verification. But during the Commonwealth period, English having been made the court language, and reports in Latin and

1 Cro. Eliz. 313.

8 Page 593.

2 Page 148.

4 Fitzgibbon 24, 25; Fortescue 77.

5

1 Siderfin 109; 1 Levinz 4.

French prohibited, editors at once translated their manuscripts into English. Thus Croke, Winch, Popham, Owen, Leonard, Hetley, J. Bridgman, and some others, though originally written in Latin or French, first appear in English. Considering the cryptographic abbreviations which abounded in the handwriting of former times, the fact that the original manuscript, having been designed for private use, was likely to be filled with symbols understood by the writer alone, and the fact that the translator was exempt from comparison, the probable extent of the errors and imperfections is apparent. "I have taken upon me," says Croke's editor, "the resolution and task of extracting and extricating these reports out of their dark originals, they being written in so small and close a hand that I may truly say they are folia sybillina, as difficult as excellent." A score or more of the early reports have never been translated out of the Latin or French in which they were originally published.

The classical repositories of the old common law are the reports of Plowden and Coke. Their work maintained preeminence for more than a century, and exercised a profound influence upon early English law. Plowden was our first private reporter, and in many respects his work has not been surpassed by any of his successors. "The Commentaries or Reports of Edward Plowden of the Inner Temple, An Apprentice of the Common Law," extend from Edward III. to Elizabeth (1550-1580). They are the result of actual attendance in court, and are among the few old reports prepared for the press and published under the direction of their author. Plowden states in his preface, under date of 1571, the circumstances under which the work was undertaken :

"When I first entered upon the study of the law I resolved upon two things which I then purposed earnestly to pursue. The first was to be present at, and to give diligent attention to, the debates in law, and particularly to the arguments of those who were men of the greatest note and reputation for learning. The second was to commit to writing what I heard, which seemed to me to be much better than to rely upon treacherous memory, which often deceives its master. These two resolutions I pursued effectually by a constant attention at the moots and lectures, and at all places in court and chancery to which I might have access where matters at law were argued and debated. And finding that I reaped much profit and instruction by this practice, I became at last disposed to report the arguments and judgments made and given in the king's courts upon demurrers in law, as abounding more copiously in matters of improvement, and being more capable of affecting the judg

ment, than arguments on other occasions. Upon this I undertook first one case and then another, by which means I at last accumulated a good volume. And this work I originally entered upon with a view to my own private instruction only, without the least thought or intention of letting it appear in print."

Although often solicited by "some of the judges and other grave and learned men" who had seen his work to allow it to be made public, he modestly declined, "being conscious of the simpleness of his understanding and of the small spark of reason with which he was endued." He was at length led to alter his resolution by the following circumstances :

"Having lent my said book to a few of my intimate friends, at their special instance and request, and but for a short time, their clerks and others knowing thereof got the books into their hands and made such expedition, by writing day and night, that in a short time they had transcribed a great number of the cases, contrary to my own knowledge and intent, or of those to whom I had lent the book; which copies at last came to the hands of some of the printers, who intended (as I was informed) to make a profit of them by publishing them. But the cases being transcribed by clerks and other ignorant persons who did not perfectly understand the matter, the copies were very corrupt, for in some places a whole line was omitted, and in others one word was put for another, which entirely changed the sense, and again in other places spaces were left where the writers did not understand the words, and divers other errors and defects there were which, if the copies so taken had been printed, would have greatly defaced the work and have been a discredit to me."

Plowden took infinite pains to render his work accurate and complete.

"In almost all of the cases, before they came to be argued, I had copies of the records, and took pains to study the points of law arising thereupon, so that oftentimes I was so much master of them that if I had been put to it I was ready to have argued when the first man began ; and by this method I was more prepared to understand and retain the arguments and the causes of the judgments. And besides this, after I had drawn out my report at large, and before I had entered it into my book, I shewed such cases and arguments as seemed to me to be the most difficult and to require the greatest memory, to some of the judges or sergeants who argued in them, in order to have their opinion of the sincerity and truth of the report, which, being perused by them, I entered it into my book."

The result of such care is a report which presents with absolute clearness the points at issue, the arguments urged by the respec

tive counsel, and the grounds of the judgment rendered by the court. Moreover, in publishing his work he placed a title at the head of each case, together with the date, the nature of the action, the names of the parties, etc. Beyond their excellent form and arrangement the great authority of Plowden's cases has a sub-. stantial basis. Many of the early reports, particularly the Year Books, contain the off-hand opinions of the judges upon motions; whereas all of Plowden's cases are "upon points of law tried and debated upon demurrers or special verdicts, copies whereof were delivered to the judges, who studied and considered them, and after mature deliberation gave judgment thereon." This fact also explains the great esteem in which Plowden's work has always been held as a book of entries.

Although Plowden called his work a commentary he was sparing in comment. When he undertakes a full discussion of a topic1 he is very instructive; but he is always careful to separate his own views from the opinion of the court. His work is therefore really a report, although called a commentary. It remained for Sir Edward Coke to publish under the title of reports an elaborate commentary, in which the opinion of the court was often edited in accordance with the reporter's personal views.

The estimation in which Coke's reports were held by his contemporaries is indicated by their citation simply as "The Reports." While they were being issued no others appeared, "as it became all the rest of the lawyers to be silent whilst their oracle was speaking." ."2 Coke began as early as 1580 to take notes of the legal transactions of the day, perfecting his information during hours of leisure. At length in 1600 he published his first volume, and shortly afterward, while he was attorney-general, the second and third. In 1603 the fourth part appeared, and the fifth about two years later. The remaining six parts were issued between the years 1607 and 1616, while he was successively chief justice of the Common Pleas and the King's Bench. These eleven parts or volumes constituted all that were published during his lifetime, and, apparently, all that were designed for publication. In 1634, however, twenty-one years after his death, a twelfth part was printed, and about three years later the thirteenth and last. These last two parts had been left by Coke in an unfinished state, and are inferior in authority to their predecessors. Beside reports of

1 As in his note on equity in Eyston v. Studd, ii. 465.

3 Hob. 300; Bulst. preface; 10 B. & C. 275.

25 Mod. viii.

cases much more loosely stated than in the prior reports, they contain accounts of conferences in the Privy Council, of consultations among the judges, and notes of legal points in general. The fact that they deal largely with questions of prerogative is probably the reason why they were not published in the author's lifetime. The earlier parts had given offense to James I., who deemed certain doctrines contained therein injurious to his royal authority. Coke's ultimate suspension from judicial office was accompanied by a command to consider and revise his reports, and his "scornful treatment of this order" in reporting only five trivial errors, was one of the reasons given for his subsequent dismissal. In method Coke's reports are unique. They are not reports at all in the strict sense of the term. He says in his preface that he prepared these reports not merely for citation in court but also for educational purposes; and to a large extent, though just how far it is impossible to say, they contain his own statement of the law. Accordingly, they are much more elaborate than other early reports. Since, to Coke's mind, the art of pleading was the necessary foundation of all accurate knowledge of the common law, the pleadings are fully set out, not only for a proper understanding of the case but for the instruction of students as well. The reasons of the judgment are thrown into the form of general propositions of law, in the exposition of which earlier cases are collected with laborious care. Hence the report of each case forms a treatise on the point at issue. The arrangement of the cases, moreover, is not chronological, but more or less according to subjects.

Coke's reports are therefore summary in character. Without tracing any form of argument, he usually gives a statement of the case, following with the substance of all that was said in argument, and concluding with the resolutions of the court. He describes his method in Calvin's case :1

"And now that I have taken upon myself to make a report of their arguments, I ought to do the same as fully, truly, and sincerely as possibly I can; howbeit, seeing that almost every judge had in the course of his argument a particular method, and I must only hold myself to one, I shall give no just offense to any if I challenge that which of right is due to every reporter, that is, to reduce the sum and effect of all to such a method as, upon consideration had of all the arguments, the reporter himself thinketh to be fittest and clearest for the right understanding of the true reason and causes of the judgment and resolution of the case in question."

1 8 Rep. 4 a.