Provision is thus made for holding before the king’s travelling justices, frequently and in a convenient manner, three species of judicial inquests known as “the three petty assizes.” These are of exceptional interest, not only in relation to Magna Carta, but from their intimate connection with several constitutional problems of prime importance; with the reforms of Henry II. on the one hand, and with the genesis of trial by jury and of the Justices of Assize on the other. I. _The Curia Regis and the travelling Justices._ From an early date, certainly from the accession of Henry I., it was the Crown’s practice to supplement the labours which its officials conducted within the precincts of the royal exchequer by the occasional despatch of chosen individuals to inspect the provinces in the royal interests, collecting information and revenue, and, incidentally, hearing lawsuits. Justice was thus dispensed in the king’s name by his delegates in every shire of England, and a distinction arose between two types of royal courts: (1) _the King’s Council and its offshoots_ (including the three courts of common law and the court of chancery) which at first followed the king’s person, but gradually, as already shown,[549] found a settled home at Westminster; and (2) _the courts of the itinerant justices_ which exercised such delegated authority as the Crown chose from time to time to entrust to them. The natural sphere of the labours of these royal commissioners as they passed from district to district was the court of each shire, specially convened to meet them. They formed in this way the chief link between the old local popular courts and the system of royal justice organized by Henry II.,[550] subordinating the former to the latter, until the county courts virtually became royal courts. These travelling justices passed through two stages, two different types receiving royal recognition at different periods, the Justices in Eyre and the Justices of Assize respectively. ----- Footnote 549: See _supra_, c. 17. Footnote 550: Cf. _supra_, p. 106. ----- (_a_) _The Justices in Eyre_ were the earliest form of travelling judges, though their original duties were rather financial and administrative, than strictly judicial. Their history extends from the reign of Henry I. to the end of the fourteenth century.[551] Their outstanding characteristics were the sweeping nature of the commissions under which they acted (_ad omnia placita_), the harsh and drastic way in which they used their authority, and their intense unpopularity. Their advent was dreaded like a pestilence: each district they visited was left impoverished by fines and penalties. On one occasion, the men of Cornwall “from fear of their coming, fled to the woods.”[552] ----- Footnote 551: See W. S. Houldsworth (_History of English Law_, p. 115), who cites 1397 as the date of the final abolition of Eyres. Footnote 552: This was in 1233: see Pollock and Maitland, I. 181. -----