The period which elapsed between the suppression of the great rebellion and the outbreak of the quarrel between Henry and his sons is the period of his greatest power. It is at this time that we find the greatest marks of his activity as a lawgiver. The year 1176 is marked by the great Assize of Northampton, an expansion of a similar Assize of Clarendon in the year 1166, the fruit perhaps of his experience in the late rebellion, and the knowledge gained by his inquiries into the conduct of the sheriffs in 1170. That inquiry, which was called for by the complaints of the exactions of the sheriffs, proved to him that their conduct had not been free from peculation, and led him to believe that the employment of local nobles as his chief officials was dangerous. He took the opportunity of making a general examination of the judicial system of the country, the fruit of which was the concentration and organization of the Curia Regis, and the arrangements embodied in the Assize of Northampton. The King’s court consisted originally, as has been already mentioned, of all those tenants who held their land direct from the crown (tenants _in capite_), and was the ordinary feudal court, and the natural parent of our present Parliament, and especially of the House of Lords. But for the ordinary despatch of business, whether judicial or financial, what may be regarded as a permanent committee of this body of immediate holders was employed. This committee consisted of the great officers of the household, such as the chancellor, treasurer, marshal and others, and other selected barons closely connected with the royal household. The head of this committee, or Curia Regis, was the great justiciary, the King’s representative. The royal chaplains or clerks were formed into a body of secretaries, at the head of which was the chancellor. The Curia Regis at first attended the King and had a twofold duty; when they sat as judges its members were called justices, in financial questions they sat in the exchequer[28] chamber, and were called barons. This administrative system, which had been organized in Henry I.’s reign, was entirely destroyed by the wild reign of Stephen. Its reconstitution was the great work of Henry II. In the earlier part of his reign the visitations were renewed upon the old system, the itinerant justice being usually either the great justiciary, chancellor, or some other great household officer. In the year 1168 four barons of the exchequer performed this duty; in 1176 the country was divided into six circuits. This number was not permanent, several alterations were made in it. Nor was the number of visitations thoroughly established. By Magna Charta in John’s reign commissions are promised four times a year, but shortly afterwards it would seem that the general journey of the itinerant justices was every seven years, until the reign of Edward I. It is to be remembered that these visitations were for all sorts