50 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



And an alias fi. fa. was issued Oct. •2nd for this sum — which writ was 

 returnable the first Court day in June 1790 — for 



£40 - 3-11 and subsequent costs, 



£ 1 - 15 - 



£41 - 18 - 11 



The costs seem fairly large; it may be that the Clerk did not tax 

 too stringently — in that respect being unlike a certain English taxing 

 officer. Mr. Quirk, of Quirk, Gammon & Snap, had, we are told, 

 "never been seen actually to shed a tear but once — when five sixths 

 of his little bill (£196 - 15 -4) were taxed off in an action on a 

 Bill of Exchange for £13." 



In cases under £10 sterling there does not seem to have been 

 any declaration or written pleading but otherwise the practice does 

 not differ from what I htive described. 



A somewhat curious feature is that the evidence, given as it is, 

 sometimes in English, sometimes in French, is taken down in the 

 language employed by the witness — the orthography in neither lan- 

 guage is unexceptionable and the syntax of the French sometimes is 

 very bad — no doubt what appear to be solecisms are really the expres- 

 sions of the witnesses themselves. The faulty orthography is just 

 that of a man who understands French as spoken, but has no need to 

 write it. 



For example, on May 26th 1791, in Graham v. McKenzie v. Louis, 

 Campeau, Mr. Roe appears for the plaintiffs: the defendant made de- 

 fault. J. B. Marin was called as a witness and he deposed as follows: 

 (I give the original French and all) "Qu'il est commis actuelment 

 cm):)loyer par le Demandeur et que de leur part il fut Dimanche dernier 

 chez Défendeur pour lui demander sa raison pour avoir pas acquitté 

 la demande actuel. Pour réponse le Défendeur a dit au Tremoin que 

 ce est bien vrai que lui devoit le vinght trois Ponds pour une Quart -^ 

 de Romme qu'il a eut tête passt' mais peut pas faire ceste somme bien 

 qu'il avoit demander en plusier maison." Accordingly judgment 

 went for £23 - 16 - 0, N.Y. Cy. with costs — and the formal judg- 

 ment for £14 - 17 - 0, and costs £6 - 8 - 2, in all £21 - 5 - 8, 

 Provincial Currency. The computation here is exact — the judgment 

 was for S59.50 of our pi-esent currency. 



Dollars were not wholly unknown in those days: at a Court holden 

 at L'Assomption, 9th June, 1791, in a case Samuel Edge v. John 



♦This does not moan what \\v. cull a (juart of rum— the "Quart" as is shown in 

 another case was "more tlian 30. gallons" — so that the "Romme" cost less tlian 

 $2 a gallon. 



