]
[Footnote 2: Journals, Aug. 5, Oct. 17, 23, Nov. 3. Exact Relation, 12-15.
The next year, however, Cromwell took the task into his own hands; and, in
1655, published an ordinance, consisting of sixty-seven articles, "for
the better regulating and limiting the jurisdiction of the high court of
Chancery." Widrington and Whitelock, the commissioners of the great seal,
and Lenthall, master of the rolls, informed him by letter, that they had
sought the Lord, but did not feel themselves free to act according to the
ordinance. The protector took the seals from the two first, and gave
them Fiennes and Lisle; Lenthall overcame his scruples, and remained
in office.--See the ordinance in Scobell, 324; the objections to it in
Whitelock, 621.]
regularly marshalled in hosts against each other; and the usages of
particular districts, only to be ascertained through the treacherous
memories of the most aged of the inhabitants. Englishmen had a right to
know the laws by which they were to be governed; it was easy to collect
from the present system all that was really useful; to improve it by
necessary additions; and to comprise the whole within the small compass of
a pocket volume. With this view, it was resolved to compose a new body of
law; the task was assigned to a committee; and a commencement was made by a
revision of the statutes respecting treason and murder.
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