person or by his representative. Edward IV. and James I. actually presided in person more than once; and Alice Pierce, the imprudent mistress of Edward III. in his old age, usurped his royal prerogative, and actually sat in the Court of King's Bench on more than one occasion. Alice was, perhaps, the first, though not the only female that presided in a court of justice, since at a later period we find Henry VIII. granting a special commission to Lady Anne Berkeley; by virtue of which she sat on the bench in the public sessions hall at Gloucester, impanelled a jury, and received evidence on the trial of Sir Nicholas Porynz, and several others who were convicted of riots and other disorders which they were charged with having committed.