custody of a subject for the better protection of the rights of the subjects, but when the King went abroad, he not infrequently took the seal with him. During the absence of the Great Seal a lesser seal was made and used, which itself was always placed in a purse with much solemnity and kept under several other seals only to be taken out and used for great matters of state. The Plantagenet kings were wont to hold the Great Seal in their own hands for days together, much to the dissatisfaction of the barons. Thus we read that Edward II. sent the Bishop of Winchester to the Lord Chancellor, then in London, commanding the latter to hand over the seal, whereupon it was carried by Adam de Osgodby to the King at Windsor where Edward was hunting and was kept there for five days. Nor was this the only occasion when Adam de Osgodby carried the Great Seal to and from the King and the Chancel lor, for Edward would often send for it to seal some charter or gift on the interces sion of one of his favorites. In these days the seal goes with the Chancellor wherever he goes, but this is a modern growth in practice. The customs of the holders of the seal varied greatly. When the Chancellor of Henry III. went to France he surrendered the Great Seal into the custody of the Keeper of the Wardrobe to be retained dur ing his absence. It was carefully placed in a bag or purse to which were affixed three several seals. Whenever the seal was re quired each of the three great officers whose seals were thus used had to attend on the seals being broken and the Great Seal taken out; then they all carefully resealed the purse when the seal had been replaced in it. Again at another period we find that if the Lord Chancellor went on a journey to a dis tant part of the kingdom he usually entrusted the seal during his absence to two clerks of
the King. Very minute and elaborate are the recorded precautions to safeguard its existence and sanctity. In early days of course few could sign their own names. It was the common custom of every man to signify his consent to a document by his seal alone and to this rule the monarch was no exception. When he signed in his private capacity he had his signet for ordinary mat ters such as correspondence; other affairs which in some measure touched the public interest were put under the Privy Seal; but the business of the nation could only be transacted properly under the Great Seal. No signature was attached, the seal of itself sufficed. Occasionally the King would add his initials. At times of great urgency he might add a minute or note in his own hand writing, " we will that this matter be speeded without delay." One noteworthy exception appears to have arisen early and hardened into inveterate custom. When the monarch sent a message to Parliament he placed his signature at the head and at the foot thereof. The transfer of the Great Seal from one Chancellor to his successor has been made in strange places and on eventful occasions. The tent of the monarch in the hunting field, where in the presence of two ecclesiastics it was handed to a Bishop, the keep of a border castle, the hall of an Oxford college, the royal bedchamber, in turn have been recorded by the chronicler. The fitting spot for the surrender of the seal to the incoming Chan cellor was the marble table in Westminster Hall, and so the custom grew that "the occupant of the marble chair " was a syno nym for the Lord Chancellor. Until Stuart times the Keeper of the Seal was generally an ecclesiastic, since then he has been the political head of the legal profession. — The Saturday Review.
