the Seal, technical knowledge had constantly been becoming more
and more necessary to his successors. Neither Nottingham
therefore, though he had a stock of legal learning such as is
rarely found in any person who has not received a legal
education, nor Halifax, though, in the judicial sittings of the
House of Lords, the quickness of his apprehension and the
subtlety of his reasoning had often astonished the bar, ventured
to accept the highest office which an English layman can fill.
After some delay the Seal was confided to a commission of eminent
lawyers, with Maynard at their head.23

The choice of judges did honour to the new government. Every
Privy Councillor was directed to bring a list. The lists were
compared; and twelve men of conspicuous merit were selected.24
The professional attainments and Whig principles of Pollexfen
gave him pretensions to the highest place. But it was remembered
that he had held briefs for the Crown, in the Western counties,
at the assizes which followed the battle of Sedgemoor. It seems
indeed from the reports of the trials that he did as little as he
could do if he held the briefs at all, and that he left to the
Judges the business of browbeating witnesses and prisoners.
Nevertheless his name was inseparably associated in the public
mind with the Bloody Circuit. He, therefore, could not with
propriety be put at the head of the first criminal court in the
realm.25 After acting during a few weeks as Attorney General, he
was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir John Holt, a
young man, but distinguished by learning, integrity, and courage,
became Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Sir Robert Atkyns, an
eminent lawyer, who had passed some years in rural retirement,
but whose reputation was still great in Westminster Hall, was