CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Indian or colonial judges. Its principal jurisdic- 

 tion is in appeals from the colonial courts and the 

 Court of Admiralty. The Court of Admiralty 

 has jurisdiction in maritime contracts and crimes 

 committed on the high seas. It professes to 

 follow, not the special law of England, but the 

 general commercial law of modern Europe, 

 founded on the principles borrowed from the 

 Roman law, but modified by the practice of 

 merchants and the decisions given in the principal 

 Admiralty courts of Europe and America, particu- 

 larly in that of England when presided over by 

 Lord Stowell, the brother of Lord Chancellor 

 Eldon. In time of war, the court receives a 

 commission to adjudicate regarding prizes taken 

 from enemies, or from neutrals committing 

 breaches of neutrality. The Judicial Committee 

 also determines appeals from the ecclesiastical 

 courts. 



Besides the tribunals mentioned, there are 

 ecclesiastical courts in the two archiepiscopal 

 provinces of Canterbury and York. In the former, 

 there are the Court of Arches, the Prerogative 

 or Testamentary Court, and the Court of Pecu- 

 liars ; in the latter, the Prerogative Court and the 

 Chancery Court. There are also many inferior 

 ecclesiastical courts. If we were to complete the 

 list of English tribunals, it would be necessary 

 to include the justices of peace, who, besides 

 many special powers in revenue and other matters 

 conferred by act of parliament, sit, at the general 

 and quarter sessions, as judges in minor cases. 

 In addition to all these, there are various courts, 

 of greater or lesser jurisdiction, connected with 

 cities and boroughs. 



An important tribunal, called the County Court, 

 was instituted by an act of Lord Brougham, 9 and 

 10 Viet c. 95, for cases of minor value. Its juris- 

 diction was originally confined to common-law 

 cases, but has since been extended to certain 

 equity and bankruptcy suits. 



Changes effected by the Judicature Act, 1873. 



Such was, and still is, the system of the admin- 

 istration of law in England ; but by the act before 

 referred to, passed in 1873, called the Judicature 

 Act, the following changes will come into opera- 

 tion on 2d November 1874. By this statute : (r.) 

 The whole superior courts both of common law 

 and equity, the Courts of Admiralty, Probate, and 

 Divorce, the London Court of Bankruptcy, two 

 peculiar courts of common pleas which formerly 

 existed at Lancaster and Durham, are united into 

 one supreme court. (2.) This court is to be 

 divided into two branches the High Court of 

 Justice, for-the exercise of original jurisdiction ; 

 and the Court of Appeal, with an appellate 

 jurisdiction from the High Court (3.) The 

 appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords in all 

 English appeals is transferred to this new appeal 

 court, as well as the appellate jurisdiction of the 

 Committee of Privy-council in all Admiralty 

 causes. Power is also given to the sovereign by 

 orders in council to transfer to it the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Privy-Council in ecclesiastical and 

 colonial causes. It was proposed by the bill to 

 transfer to the new appeal court the jurisdiction 

 in Scotch and Irish appeals, but this was thrown 

 out by the Conservative leaders in the House of 

 Lords, and that jurisdiction will still, probably for 

 a short time only, remain vested in the House of 

 co 



Lords. (4.) The new High Court is to recognise 

 all rights, whether legal or equitable, which were 

 recognised by any of the courts to whose jurisdic- 

 tion it succeeds, and may give all remedies which 

 it was in the power of any of them to afford to a 

 suitor. (5.) A uniform procedure is to be followed 

 in all the branches of this new High Court, which 

 is intended to combine and adapt the best parts 

 of the procedure in the equity and common-law 

 courts. The pleadings under the new system 

 will nearly resemble those of the English Admi- 

 ralty Court and the Scotch Court of Session, in 

 which the suitor or plaintiff has to give a short 

 statement of the facts on which his claim is 

 founded, and the defendant an answer thereto, 

 with a similar statement of any defence in- 

 dependent of a mere denial of the claim. Jury 

 trial is still retained, but provision is made for 

 trying before a judge, or remitting to referees, 

 cases more suited for that form of tribunal. (6.) 

 The substance of the English law is in several 

 important particulars expressly altered in favour 

 of equity, and it is generally provided, that wher- 

 ever the rules of law *. e. the common law and 

 equity come into conflict, the rules of equity shall 

 be preferred. (7.) The High Court is to be 

 divided into five divisions called the Chancery 

 Division ; the Queen's Bench Division ; the Com- 

 mon Pleas Division ; the Exchequer Division ; and 

 the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division. 

 These divisions are in the first instance to receive 

 the business which belonged to the old courts 

 from which they take their names, but provision is 

 made for the transference of business from one 

 division to another whenever necessary for its due 

 despatch. (8.) The judges in the High Court are 

 to be the existing judges in the supreme courts, 

 but their number is to be reduced by vacancies to 

 twenty-one. The judges in the Court of Appeal 

 are to be five the Lord Chancellor, the Lord 

 Chief-justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, 

 the Lord Chief-justice of the Common Pleas, 

 and the Lord Chief-baron of the Exchequer ; 

 there is also provision made for the appointment, 

 as additional judges, of certain retired judges, 

 but no provision is made for any salary to be 

 paid to these additional judges. (9.) Finally, it is 

 provided that a council of the judges of the High 

 Court is to meet at least once a year, under the 

 presidency of the chancellor, to consider the oper- 

 ation of the act, and what changes may be 

 necessary in it ; and if such changes require the 

 authority of parliament, they are to report 

 their opinion on them to one of the principal 

 secretaries of state. It is evident that, though 

 the act directly deals with the constitution 6f 

 courts and forms of procedure, it really introduces 

 a complete change in the substance of English 

 law. No measure of equal magnitude relating 

 to the law has ever before been passed by the 

 parliament of Britain, and we may entertain a 

 hope that persons wise enough to devise, and 

 skilful enough to carry so valuable a change, may 

 proceed still farther, and produce a code of 

 British law. If they do not attempt or succeed in 

 this, they will at least leave an example to en- 

 courage those who come after them, and a proof 

 that, though difficult, it is not altogether impos- 

 sible to reform the law by the agency of the 

 English parliament, most of whose members are 

 ignorant in regard to it To attain this desirable 



