THE objects and plan of this work, together with the methods of investigation pursued by the transcribers and Editor, have been sufficiently explained in the Preface to Part I, and the nature of the documents selected for the purpose of the present volume is briefly stated in the introductions to the several sections. It is only necessary therefore to make a few general observations here on either subject.

In the first place, it should be remembered that the ministerial and judicial Records which now occupy our attention instead of Charters, Writs and Letters, have not usually been considered worthy of a “diplomatic” examination. When, however, such an examination is applied, even in the slight degree that has been attempted here, the familiar Record assumes in many cases a very different character from that in which it has hitherto been regarded by the historical student. But it was not enough to have merely indicated a method of investigation. Some attempt to carry it out on a connected plan had to be made, although the undertaking was known to be beset with many difficulties. The unrecognized character of this branch of diplomatic study must furnish some excuse for the obvious artificiality of the design of this compilation. Its limitations also are considerable owing to the fact that the evolution of judicial procedure is a subject that still occupies the anxious attention of legal scholars and scarcely permits of trivial discussion for the information of lay students, especially as numerous formulas are given in classical editions as well as in recent histories of English Law.