[Footnote 106: _Status integritati tam salubriter._ Our Author alludes to the consequences that befel the conquered champion: he lost his life, or his _law_ &c. But, in losing his law, his condition or state in society, as a civil character, was affected, being no longer capable of waging the Duel for another &c. The Assise, says he, is so regardful of the lives of men—of their condition, as civil Beings, that it exposes neither the one nor the other to any danger. The whole chapter is sufficiently crabbed and quaint: indeed, the most difficult parts of the whole work are those in which the author has aimed at being elegant. This observation applies with particular force to our Author’s Preface.] [Footnote 107: See Note page 40.] This legal Institution flows from the most profound Equity. For that Justice, which, after many and long delays, is scarcely, if ever, elicited by the Duel, is more advantageously and expeditiously attained, through the benefit of this Institution. This Assise, indeed, allows not so many Essoins as the Duel, as will be seen in the sequel. And by this course of proceeding, both the labor of Men, and the expences of the poor are saved. Besides, by so much as the testimony of many credible witnesses, in judicial proceedings, preponderates over that of one only, by so much greater Equity is this Institution regulated than that of the Duel. For since the Duel proceeds upon the testimony of one Juror, this constitution requires the oaths of twelve lawful men, at least. These are the proceedings which lead to the Assise. The party who puts himself upon the Assise should, from the first, and in order to prevent his Adversary from subsequently impleading him, sue out a Writ for keeping the peace, the suit being already pending between the parties concerning the Tenement, and the Tenant having put himself upon the Assise. CHAP. VIII. “The King to the Sheriff, Health. Prohibit _N._ that he hold not in his Court the Plea which is between _M._ and _R._ of one Hyde of Land, in such a Vill, which the said _R._ claims against the aforesaid _M._ by my Writ, unless the Duel be waged; because _M._ the Tenant hath put himself upon my Assise, and prays a Recognition to be made, which of them have the greater right to that Land. Witness &c.” If the suit be concerning a service, on account of which the Tenant has put himself on the Assise, as he is at liberty to do if he chuse, then, the Writ will be as follows. CHAP. IX.