We have already dwelt at some length upon Edward’s character as a legislator; and his high rank as a commander requires no proof from us. But England, at this important crisis in her history, needed a man of power in a third capacity—that of a _ruler;_ and she found this also in Edward. Two reigns, of sovereigns in various ways unfit to rule, had so far relaxed the bonds of society, and weakened the authority of the law, as to call loudly for the effectual interposition of some one whose power should be sufficient to make the laws not only theoretically just, but also practically useful.
Forty or fifty years before this period, Henry III. had been obliged to sit in person on the bench of justice at Winchester, in order to secure the punishment of offenders who had rendered even the roads of Hampshire dangerous. Some years later we have seen earl Warenne assailing, sword in hand, one of the king’s judges in Westminster Hall. Edward had himself suppressed this mutiny; and, persevering in his determination to make the law respected, he next brought the judges themselves to trial, for corrupting that which it was their especial duty to preserve. His correction of the two earls, Hereford and Gloucester, who, in his twentieth year, had broken out into a vehement personal warfare; and his Statute of Winchester “for preserving the public peace and preventing robberies,” were further proofs of his sedulous and firm resolve to give his people the benefit of a government of law and order. But, about the thirty‐second year of his reign, he found a new evil uprearing itself; and, without any delay, he applied to it the most suitable remedy—a Special Commission.
The mischief itself, which this new authority was intended to suppress, was described in the writs which gave the commission its existence. Bodies of men had associated themselves together in various parts of the country, who, “for certain rewards, bargained to beat, wound, or evil‐intreat persons named to them, at fairs, markets, or other places;” and, by the fear which they inspired, these ruffians deterred the sufferers from preferring indictments against them. Such an evil required instant and strong‐handed suppression, and this it received at Edward’s hands.