Mr. Turner (“Minority of Henry III,” part I, pp. 270–276) has gone into this question with great care and in considerable detail. He sums up his conclusions about it in four passages. (1) “It is highly probable that the three great officials, the two justices” (_i.e._, the chief Justiciars of England and Ireland) “and the Chancellor, claimed the right to continue in office till the King’s minority had determined.... Direct evidence of the claim is not forthcoming, but there are facts which point to it having been put forward” (p. 271). (2) “The sheriffs and castellans claimed to hold their bailiwicks throughout the King’s minority” (p. 272). (3) “A dispute between Engelard de Cigogné and William de Warenne as to which of them was entitled to the shrievalty of Surrey shows that it was decided early in the reign that the sheriffs who had been appointed by King John claimed the right to continue in office until his successor attained his majority” (p. 274). (4) “It had been decided that John’s sheriffs held office as of right during the minority” (p. 275). Thus Mr. Turner--if I understand him rightly--regards the existence of this claim in the case of the great officers of state as merely a probable inference; but in the case of the sheriffs and castellans he regards not only the existence, but also the acknowledgment of the claim, as a fact, proved, so far as the sheriffs are concerned, by the case of the shrievalty of Surrey. That case is, briefly, as follows: Early in 1218 there were two rival claimants to the sheriffdom of Surrey; Engelard de Cigogné, who had been appointed to it by John in April, 1216, and William, Earl of Warren. The grounds of William’s claim are unknown. The most obvious conjecture is that he had received a grant, or a promise, of the sheriffdom in the summer of 1217 as the price of his return to allegiance; but this is only a conjecture; his claim may have been based on some old prescriptive right--his proper territorial designation was Earl of Surrey--or on some grant or promise made to him by John; John may have granted or promised the sheriffdom to William, before William’s defection from allegiance, on some special terms such as might justify William in arguing that on his “reversion” the promise was binding on John’s successor. The case was under consideration for nine months, from 1st February till November, 1218; and at the latter date it was still undecided, but Engelard was promised that if the decision went against him, he should be compensated by a grant of land and an annuity from the Treasury. The decision is unrecorded; the end, however, was that William got the sheriffdom and Engelard the promised compensation (Turner, pt. I, pp. 274–5). Whether this was the result of a formal judgement given by the Council in favour of Earl William’s claim, or of a compromise agreed upon between the two claimants and sanctioned by the Council, there is nothing to shew. On this case Mr. Turner comments: “The mere fact