ranks of the profession in Venice or Padua were not so overcrowded as to make it possible for him to be ignorant that a fraud was being played upon him by Portia. The underhand game that was resorted to leads to the inquiry, could the judgment have stood after it had been made to appear that the assessor-the real judge-was incapacitated, both through her course of action, and by reason of her gender, from discharging the duties of the office? There lurks a suspicion in the writer's mind that the Duke had not been left in the dark with regard to Portia's designs. How did she learn, in advance, that Bellario was to be his assessor? And could he, any more than Bellario, have been unaware that Portia was not Balthazar? The identity of a practitioner, "the greatness of whose learning," as Bellario's letter says, "I cannot enough commend," and of whom her encomiast adds that he "never knew so young

a body in so old a head," ought not to have been difficult to verify. It rather looks as if the Duke had allowed Portia to name the assessor; and that she fixed upon Bellario as one whom-if not already manipulated by her-she felt satisfied she could bend to her purposes; that, in reality, the Duke knew every detail of the arrangement.

But the palpable bias exhibited by the character of the sentence forms the strongest argument for the belief that he was in her confidence throughout. When Antonio prefers the monstrous request that Shylock should change his faith, in return for the merchant's partial relinquishment of his right to a moiety of his creditor's possessions, the Duke at once falls in with it, backing his compliance with the announcement that, unless the Jew does so, "I do recant the pardon that I late pronounced here."

T

HE establishment of those people who are obliged to keep watch in the streets of cities during the night belongs to the oldest regulations of police. Such watchmen are mentioned in the Song of Solomon, and they occur also in the Book of Psalms. Athens and other cities of Greece had at least sentinels posted in various parts; and some of the thesmotheta were obliged to visit them from time to time, in order to keep them to their duty. At Rome there were triumviri nocturni, cohortes vigilum, etc.

The object of all these institutions seems to have been rather the prevention of fires than the guarding against nocturnal alarms or danger; though in course of time attention was paid to these also. When Augustus wished to strengthen the night-watch, for the purpose of suppressing nocturnal

commotions, he used as a pretext the apprehension of fires only. The regulations respecting these watchmen, and the discipline to which they were subjected, were almost the same as those for night-sentinels in camps during the time of war; but it does not appear that the night-watchmen in cities were obliged to prove their presence and vigilance by singing, calling out, or by any other means. Signals were made by the patrols alone, with bells, when the watchmen wished to say anything to each other. Singing by sentinels in time of war was customary, at least among some nations; but in all probability that practice was not common in the time of peace.

Calling out the hours seems to have been first practised after the erection of city gates, and to have taken its rise in Germany;

though, indeed, it must be allowed that such a regulation would have been very useful in ancient Rome, where there were no clocks, and where people had nothing in their houses to announce the hours in the night time. During the day people could know the hours after water-clocks had been constructed at the public expense, and placed in open buildings erected in various parts of the city. The case seems to have been the same in Greece; and rich families kept particular servants, both male and female, whose business it was to announce to their masters and mistresses certain periods of the day, as pointed out by the city clocks. These servants, consisted principally of boys and young girls, the latter being destined to attend on the ladies. It appears, however, that in the course of time water-clocks were kept also in the palaces of the great; at any rate, Trimalchio, the celebrated voluptuary mentioned in Petronius, had one in his dining-room, and a servant stationed near it to proclaim the progress of the hours, that his master might know how much of his lifetime was spent ; for he did not wish to lose a single moment without enjoying pleasure.

There were no clocks among the ancients which struck the hours, as has been already said; and as water-clocks were both scarce and expensive, they could not be procured by laboring people, to whom it was of most importance to be acquainted with the progress of time. It would, therefore, have been a useful and necessary regulation to cause the watchmen in the streets to proclaim the hours, which they could have known from the public water-clocks, by blowing a horn, or by calling out.

It appears, however, that people must have been soon led to such an institution, because the above methods had been long practised in war. The periods for mounting guard were determined by water-clocks; at each watch a horn was blown, and every one

could by this signal know the hour of the night; but there is no proof that these regulations were established in cities during the time of peace. Cicero, comparing the life of a civil with that of a military officer, says: "The former is awakened by the crowing of the cock, and the latter by the sound of the trumpet." The former, therefore, had no other means of knowing the hours of the night but by attending to the noise made by that animal.

With the exception of Paris, the police establishment in cities is more modern than one might suppose. It appears that nightwatching was established in the above-mentioned city, as at Rome, in the commencement of its monarchy. De la Mare quotes the ordinances on this subject of Clothaire II., in the year 595; of Charlemagne, and of the following periods. At first the citizens were obliged to keep watch in turns, under the command of a miles queti, who was called also chevalier. The French writers remark on this circumstance that the term quet, which occurs in the earliest ordinances, was formed from the German words wache, wacht, the guard or watch; and in like manner several other ancient German military terms, such as bivouac, landsquenet, etc., have been retained in the French language. (Bivouac, from the German beiwacht, is an additional night-guard during a siege, or when an army is encamped near the enemy. Landsquenets were German soldiers added by Charles VIII. of France to his infantry, who were continued in the French army until Francis I. introduced his legions). In the course of time, when general tranquillity prevailed, a custom was gradually introduced of avoiding the duty of watching by. paying a certain sum of money, until at length permanent compagnies de quet were established in Paris, Lyons, Orleans, and afterwards in other cities.

The establishment of single watchmen, who went through the streets and called out

the hours, was peculiar to Germany. In Berlin, the Elector John George appointed watchmen in the year 1588, but in 1677 there were none in that capital, and the city officers were obliged to call out the hours. Montaigne, during his travels in 1580, thought the calling out of the night-watch in German cities a very singular custom. "The watchmen," says he, "went about the houses in the night-time, not so much on account of thieves as on account of fires and other alarms. When the clocks struck, the one was obliged to call out aloud to the other, and to ask what it was o'clock, and then to wish him a good night." This circumstance he remarks also when speaking of Innspruck. Mabillon likewise, who made a literary tour through Germany, describes calling out the hours as a practice altogether peculiar to that country. The horn of the watchmen seems to be the buccina of the ancients, and was at first an ox's horn, though it was afterwards made of metal. The rattle, which was most proper for cities, as horns were for villages, seems to be of later invention. From the name of this instrument, called in some parts of Germany a ratel, arose the appellation of ratelwache, which was established in Hamburg in 1671.

The Chancellor Von Ludwig deduces the common form of watchmen's cry, "Hear, my masters, and let me tell you," from the Romans, who, as he says, were most liberal with the word "master;" but the Roman watchmen did not call out. The city servants or beadles were most likely the first persons appointed to call out the hours. These, therefore, called out to their masters, and "our masters" is still the usual appellation given to the magistrates in old cities, particularly in the central and southern portions of Germany and Switzerland.

Watchmen who were stationed on steeples by day as well as by night, and who, every time the clock struck, were obliged to give a proof of their vigilance by blowing a horn,

seem to have been first established on a permanent footing in Germany, and perhaps before watchmen in the streets. In England there were none of these watchmen; and in general they were very rare beyond the boundaries of Germany. That watchmen were posted on the tops of towers, in the earliest ages, to look out for the approach of an enemy, is well known. In the times of feudal dissension, when one chief, if he called in any assistance, could often do a great deal of harm to a large city, either by plundering and burning the suburbs and neighboring villages, or by driving away the cattle of the citizens, and attacking single travellers, such precaution was more necessary than at present. The nobility, therefore, kept watchmen in their strong castles stationed on towers; and this practice prevailed in other countries besides Ireland and Burgundy. It appears by the laws of Wales that a watchman with a horn was kept in the king's palace. The German princes had in their castles, at any rate in the sixteenth century, tower watchmen, who were obliged to blow a horn every morning and evening.

At first the citizens themselves were obliged to keep watch in turns on the church steeples, as well as at the town gates, as may be seen in a police ordinance of the city of Einbeck in the year 1573. It was the duty of these watchmen, especially where there were no town clocks, to announce certain periods, such as those of opening and shutting the city gates. The idea of giving orders to these watchmen to attend not only to danger from the enemy but from fire also. and after the introduction of public clocks to prove their vigilance by making a signal with a horn, must have naturally occurred: and the utility of this regulation was so im portant that watchmen on steeples were retained even when cities, by the prevalence of peace, had no occasion to be apprehensive of hostile incursions. After this period persons were appointed for the particular pur

pose of watching; and small apartments were constructed for them in steeples. In most, if not in all German cities, the town-piper or town musician, was appointed steeple watchman, and lodgings were assigned to him in the steeple; but in the course of time, as these were too high and too inconvenient, a house was given him near the church, and le was allowed to have one of his servants or domestics keep watch in his stead. This is the case still at Göttingen. The city musician was called formerly the hausmann, which name is still retained here as well as at the Hartz, in Halle, and several other places, and the steeple in which he used to dwell and keep watch was called the hausmann's thurm. These establishments, however, were not general, and were not everywhere formed at a period equally early. If we can credit an Arabian author, whose travels were published by Renaudot, the Chinese were accustomed, so early as the ninth century, to have watchmen posted on towers, who announced the hours of the day as well as of the night by striking or beating upon a suspended board. Marco Folo, who in the thirteenth century, travelled through Tartary and China, confirms this account, at least in regard to the city which he cal's Quinsai, though he says that signals were given only in cases of fire and disturbance. Such boards are used in China even at present; and in St. Petersburg the watchmen who are stationed at single houses or in certain parts of the city, are accustomed to announce the hours by beating on a suspended plate of iron. Such boards are still used by the Christians in the Levant to assemble people to divine service, either because they dare not ring the bells or are unable to purchase them. The former is related by Tournefort of the inhabitants of the Grecian Islands, and the latter by Chardin of the Mingrelians. The like means were employed in monasteries, at the earliest periods, to give notice of the hours of prayer,

and to awaken the monks. Mahomet, who in his form of worship borrowed many things from the Christians of Syria and Arabia, adopted the same method of assembling the people to prayers; but when he remarked that it appeared to his followers to savor too much of Christianity, he again introduced the practice of calling out.

The steeple watchmen in Germany are often mentioned in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the year 1351, when the council of Erfurt renewed that police ordinance which was called the Zuchtbrief (letter of discipline), because it kept the people in proper subjection, it was ordered, besides other regulations in regard to fire, that two watchmen should be posted on every steeple. A watchman of this kind was appointed at Merseburg and Leisnig so early as the year 1400. In the beginning of the seventeenth century the town-piper of Leisnig lived still in apartments in the steeple. In the year 1563 a church steeple was erected in that place, and an apartment built in it for a permanent watchman, who was obliged to announce the hours every time the clock struck.

In the fifteenth century the city of Ulm kept permanent watchmen in many of the steeples. In the year 1452 a bell was suspended in the tower of the Cathedral of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, which was to be rung in times of feudal alarm, and all the watchmen on the steeples were then to blow their horns and hoist their banners. In the year 1476 a room for the watchman was constructed in the steeple of the Church of St. Nicholas. In the year 1509 watchmen were kept both on the watch-towers and the steeples, who gave notice by firing a musket when strangers approached. The watchman on the tower of the Cathedral immediately announced, by blowing a trumpet, whether the strangers were on foot or on horseback, and at the same time hung out a red flag towards the quarter in which he observed.

them advancing. The same watchman was obliged, likewise, to blow his horn on an alarm of fire; and that these people might be vigilant day and night, both in winter

and summer, the council supplied them with fur cloaks, seven of which, in the abovementioned year, were purchased for ten florins and a half.

To the American lawyer getting up his case who has constant occasion to consult the English Law Reports, it may be of interest to know how these reports are compiled. It should first be stated that while there are four different sets of reports covering practically the same ground, published every few years in England, viz., the Law Reports, the Law Times Reports, the Law Journal Reports, and the Times Law Reports, the first named aione are quoted as the Reports. They are all reliable, but the Reports is quoted much more frequently than all the others put together, and is the only one that is not published by private enterprise. The Times Law Reports occupies an unique field, as it is a carefully-edited compilation of the reports of the different courts made by qualified barristers. For this reason these reports are cited with authority and received as such by the judges, and being published daily in the Times newspaper, and in weekly parts, they are naturally kept closer up-to-date than is possible in the volumes of the other reports, although these, too, are published in parts.

The Law Reports are published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. This council consists of three ex-officio members, viz., the Attor

AUGUST, 1904.

ney-general, the Solicitor-General and the President of the Law Society; two members from each of the four Inns of Court; two members appointed by the council on the recommendation of the General Council of the Bar, and two members appointed by the Law Society, which is the organization representing the solicitors' branch of the profession. The reports are edited by Sir Frederick Follock, and seven volumes are produced each year, viz., one of Statutes, one of the Appeal Court, two of the Chancery, two of the King's Bench, and one of the Admiralty, Probate and Divorce Court. The interesting fact is, that over £22,000 a year is received for subscriptions for the reports; that the trading account shows a profit of £2649 for 1903, and that the Council has an accumulated reserve and contingency fund of over £50,000. The subscription for the seven volumes is four guineas a year. It is not improbable that a distribution of the fund may soon be made to the subscribers in the way of an abatement of the subscription price, and if this occurs English lawyers will enjoy a cheaper issue of the reports of the courts than can probably be obtained in any other English-speaking community.

STUFF GOWN.