Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

INTRODUCTION. cxxix
the years 1659 to May, 166o, nothing occurred in the inn worthy
of record. But it was obviously ripe for a restoration of monarchy.
Huge bonfires of 300 fagots welcomed the arrival of the new king.
The royalist barristers who had firmly and courageously stood by
their principles and remained in the society, who had defended their
friends when in trouble and helped them when in distress, Orlando
Bridgman, Vaughan, Heneage Finch, Sir John Keeling, Sir Anthony
Jackson, were elected to the bench, while the puritans, equally
brave in their time of adversity, prepared to bear the burthen of a
lost cause.
The general curriculum of education, of discipline, and of expenditure,
established in the sixteenth century will be found in the
seventeenth with little, if any, modification. The grant of the
patent made no change in the administration of our affairs. Our
stream flowed on in the same even current before and after that
event. Buildings were erected, parliaments and bench tables were
held, entertainments and hospitality were continued. Gifts and
benevolences were granted, as of old, to needy members of our
society and to others who had established a claim to our generosity.
The collections for the protestant queen of Bohemia, the grant
towards the rebuilding of the celebrated but ruinous schools at
Oxford, the aid given to the decaying church of S. Mary Mounthaw,
shew that the benchers continued to hold a broad and liberal view
of their position as governors and guardians of the society. The
same scheme of tuition by means of readings and moots, and the
same method of government that were adopted under the Tudors,
were continued under the Stuarts. Several causes contributed,
during the latter period, to make the teaching less efficient and the
control less complete, but notwithstanding what we should now
consider imperfections, the system produced many great lawyers
and many distinguished statesmen. The fellows of our inn were still
drawn from the same class of the community, from the families of the
nobility and of country gentlemen, from graduates of the university,
and from sons of wealthy merchants or of otherwise distinguished
persons. The same clear and definite prohibition of any amalgamation
of the two branches of the legal profession was continued and
enforced. Stringent and repeated regulations required the barrister
and the attorney to occupy, in regard to their clients, distinct and
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