Church, and of long time have so done, without interrup tion or let of any person; it may therefore please your Highness of your most abundant grace, with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, in consideration of the premises, and also for that the said custom is not grounded upon any law, to ordain, enact, and establish that John Trevethan, Richard Welles, Oliver Leader, John Croke, William Jesson, and John Lemsay, now being in the office of the Six Clerks of the Chancery, and every of them, and all other which in time to come shall be in the same office, and every of them, may and do take wives and marry at their liberty, after the laws of Holy Church, and that they, and every of them so married, may have, hold, and enjoy their said Office of Six Clerks, in as ample, large, and like manner, as they did or should do before the said espousals, or as if they had never been married, the said custom or other custom or ordinance heretofore had or made to the contrary notwithstanding.

Sect. 2. Provided always, that by anything in this Act contained, the Master of the Rolls for the time being be not prejudiced either in the giving and disposition of the said Offices. from time to time, as hath been heretofore accustomed, the forfeiture of that Office by reason of marriage only except; and that the said officers which now be and hereafter shall be, do give attendance unto the said Master of the Rolls for the time being, as heretofore in the said Offices hath been accustomed.

The recitals in this Act clearly shew that at the period of this enactment the Six Clerks were still the exclusive practitioners, and that their duties consisted of transcribing or writing under the direction and subject to the control of the Master of the Rolls.

The social progress of the country, and the

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influx of business in the Court of Chancery, commencing with the enlarged jurisdiction exercised by Cardinal Wolsey, so increased the duties of the Six Clerks, as to render assistance necessary, and they were permitted by the Master of the Rolls to have assistants, -afterwards called "Sworn Clerks or Sixty Clerks," from each Six Clerk being allowed ten assistants, in gross number Sixty Clerks. In modern times their number has rarely exceeded twenty, because in fact the Court was opened to Solicitors at large, as will be hereafter explained.

The power which existed in the Master of the Rolls of supplying the vacancies amongst the Sixty Clerks, or Sworn Clerks, was exercised whenever application was made to him. Since 1729 all soli

citors of the Court were entitled to make such application for a seat; and had they done so, the number of Sixty Clerks, instead of being reduced to twenty, would have been increased to several hundreds, each of whom would have had as much right to compensation as the Sixty Clerks who existed at the time of the passing of the Act.

These Sixty Clerks (in number more or less) became in their turn the Solicitors of the Court, and continued to be such, with the privileges attached to their seats, down to the passing of the Act of 5th and 6th Victoria, chapter 103,-the duties of Six Clerks having for many years devolved upon them.

They performed their ancient duties to the extent of having copies made of all the pleadings in the suits in Chancery, and were allowed to charge the enormous sum of 10d. per folio of ninety words for their labour; but their material duties had for many years been discharged by the solicitors of the Court, who had not seats in the Six Clerks' Office.

The reduction in the number of Sixty Clerks or solicitors with seats, was made by the statute 2nd George II. cap. 23, A. D. 1729, which constituted attornies, admitted in the Court of Chancery under the provisions of that Act, solicitors of the Court of Chancery.

If the Court at that time, by a general order, had extended the privilege of a seat to all the solicitors so enfranchised, it would have rendered comparatively unnecessary any subsequent measure of abolition of the Six Clerks' Office.

The solicitors might have obtained the privilege of a seat had they applied for it; but as the seats were doubtless at the time considered valueless, they were too shrewd to claim what was "good for nothing."

In 1816, the loud demand for legislative relief by a reform of the Court of Chancery gained some attention, but the remedial proposals then made evinced a great want of knowledge of the real evils of the jurisdiction-which evils in fact remain chiefly unreformed to the present day.

DUTIES OF SIX CLERKS IN 1816, AND BEFORE THEIR

ABOLITION.

The Office of Six Clerks" had long been a "fat sinecure," and it was so dealt with by those who received the appointment. One of the six fortunate gentlemen occasionally attended at the receipt of Custom for an hour a day, to sign certificates of pleadings, and read the newspapers. The mysterious gentlemen were rarely visible to practitioners, but like miracle-mongers of ancient fraudulent priestcraft, they and their internal machinery were carefully shrouded from the public eye. When occasionally visible, they might be observed with their backs roasting at the fire and the Times newspaper in their hands. The whole of their "duties", were discharged by their Deputies, alias "Sixty Clerks." Mr. Spence, in his Pamphlet on the "Evils and Abuses of the Court of Chancery," (1831) describes their craft as follows:-

"In 1785, the Six Clerks finding it no doubt irksome for the "whole of them to attend to do what would not afford employ"ment for one, entered into a contract, under which they agreed, "that all the business of the Six Clerks should be performed "in one room; and that one or more of the Six Clerks should "attend there, in rotation, in such a manner as should be "agreed upon between them, and should do the business of "the absent Six Clerks, as well as their own, and that the "profits should be equally divided between them. This agree"ment was laid before the then Master of the Rolls for his ap"proval. It never occurred to that learned Judge, or indeed "to any official person, until the investigation before the late

"Chancery Commissioners, that this agreement afforded conclu"sive evidence that some of the Six Clerks might be dispensed "with altogether. The agreement was confirmed, and ordered "to be carried into execution. Each of the Six Clerks since "that time has taken it in turn to attend for two months in the "year only."-P. 8.

Mr. Smith (a Sixty Clerk), in his Chancery Practice, page 42, gives the following account of the duties of the Six Clerks, and by which he vainly endeavoured partially to disguise the sinecure nature of the office

"The duties of the Six Clerks are, to receive and file all "Bills, Answers, Replications, and other Records in all causes "on the Equity side of the Court of Chancery; and if, when "brought to them for that purpose, they appear to be fairly engrossed, and conformable to the rules and practice of the "court, to enter memoranda of them in books from which they "are to certify to the Court, as occasion may require, the state "of proceedings in causes.

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"They sign all copies of pleadings made by the sworn "clerks and waiting clerks, after seeing that the originals are

regularly filed, after each term they present to be set down "the causes ready for hearing in the ensuing term, either "before the Lord Chancellor, or the Master of the Rolls.

"They examine and sign Docquets of Decrees, and dismissions prepared for enrolment, and see that the Records and "Orders are duly filed and entered, which they certify pre"viously to the presentation of the Docquets to the Lord "Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls for signature. They "have the care of all Records in their Office which remain in "their studies for the space of six terms, for the sworn clerks "and waiting clerks to resort to without fee. They after"wards sort them, and lay them up in their Record Room in