f*7 





COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE. 



Ml 



with their object, then U standing direction to the taxing 

 to tax successful plaintiff's costs upon lower scale where he 

 LJU reooTcred a debt of less than ZOI., unless a certificate for conU upon 

 the ordinary Male be granted by the judge of the superior court 

 before whom the oauae wa tried. 



In action* brought in the superior courU for causes within the 

 ordinary jurisdiction of the county court*, where the plaintiff recovers 

 sun not exceeding SO/., in actions based upon contract, or not ex- 

 ceeding 61, in actions based upon tort, he has judgment to recover that 

 urn only, and no costs, except where a judge certifies that there was 

 sufficient reason for bringing the action in such superior court, or 

 where an order for costs is made by a superior court, or a judge thereof, 

 upon the ground that there was mich sufficient reason, or that no plaint 

 could have been entered in a county court, or that the action was re- 

 moved into the superior court by oertiorari, or that the plaintiff dwelt 

 more than twenty miles from the defendant, or that the cause of action 

 did nut arise wholly or in Homo material iioint within the jurisdiction 

 of the court within which the defendant dwelt or carried on his 

 business at the time of the action brought, or that an officer of the 

 county court was a party, otherwise than in respect of chums to goods 

 tad under county court process or to their proceed*. Where no 

 iuch certi6cate or order is made a successful defendant is entitled to 

 his costs as between attorney and client 



The provisions of " The London (City) Small Debts Act, 1852 " (15 

 A 16 Viet c. 77), which regulate the costs recoverable in the superior 

 courts in cases within the ordinary jurisdiction of the City Small 

 Debts Act, are very peculiar, but are of too limited application to 

 justify explanation here. 



As to the manner in which the right or liability of a party to costs 

 may bo modified by the particular character which he sustains, a 

 -triking instance used frequently to occur in former days, in the case 

 of plaintiffs suing in the representative character of executors or admi- 

 nistrators. In favour of such parties it was held, that wherever they 

 sued for a cause of action which they could not have recovered in their 

 individual capacities, they would not be liable to the defendant for 

 costs, upon being nonsuited, or having a verdict pass against them. 

 For some time a notion prevailed that this exemption proceeded from 

 a consideration of the degree of ignorance under which they were sup- 

 posed to lie with respect to the contracts or other causes of action of 

 the deceased parties whom they represented. But the sounder opinion 

 at length obtained, that the true cause of this freedom from liability 

 was to be found in the particular language of the different enactments 

 bearing upon the subject 



After having been long considered too extensive, this privilege has 

 been effectually curtailed by the 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 42, s. 31, which 

 puts executors and administrators upon the same footing with other 

 plaintiffs, unless the judge before whom the action shall be brought, 

 or a judge of any of the superior courts, otherwise orders. The dis- 

 position of the courts, with regard to this Act, is not to interpose in 

 behalf of the plaintiff, unless the defendant has brought the action 

 upon himself by practising something like a fraud upon the plaintiff, 

 thus discouraging the practice formerly prevalent of bringing merely 

 speculative actions in a representative character, under the shelter of 

 immunity from costs. 



In penal or qui Ian actions, the plaintiff's right to costs depends 

 altogether upon the provisions of the statute which creates the cause 

 of action. There are also express statutes which impose additional 

 liabilities upon a plaintiff of this class under certain circumstances. 

 There are, moreover, numerous enactments relating to costs in par- 

 ticular actions, and in actions against persons clothed with special 

 statutory authority, too minute for detail here. 



When a party has obtained the permission of the court to sue in 

 formd pauperu, that is, to be provided, on account of his poverty, 

 with all necessary writs, as well as with counsel and attorney, gratis, 

 he is not liable to pay any costs, nor is he entitled to receive them 

 unless by order of the court or a judge. 



The mode in which the amount of costs payable between the parties 

 U ascertained, is by taking the Nisi Prius records, with all the papers, 

 briefs, and other documents, to the proper officer, or taxing master, of 

 the court, who then taxes the costs according to a certain prescribed 

 wale, allowing or disallowing particular charges at his discretion, sub- 

 ject to review by the court or by a judge sitting in chambers. 



Hitherto we have only considered sint/U costs, or those derived from 

 the Statute of Gloucester. In some cases double and treble costs are 

 expressly given by statute ; and wherever a statute gives double or 

 treble damages, the plaintiff was also entitled to double or treble costs. 

 But now, by 5 4 6 Viet. c. 97, s. 2, a party entitled to dou'Je or treble 

 costs under any public general Act is to receive in lieu thereof reason- 

 able indemnity as to his costs, to be taxed by the ordinary officer ; and 

 all provisions in local or private Acts for double or treble costs are, by 

 sec. 6 of same Act, repealed. 



Such are some of the principal matters relating to costs in actions at 

 law, a subject so purely technical in its nature, that any minute 

 inquiry into its rules and mode of administration would be foreign to 

 the purposes of this work. Between the courts of equity and those of 

 common law there is this important difference with respect to costs, 

 that tbo former are not bound by any of the enactments above enume- 

 rated, but are invcstcJ witli a discretionary power upon the subject. 



In the exercise of this power they are guided, not merely by the event 

 of the suit, but by a consideration of its real merits, and of the interests 

 of the parties concerned. Thus, although the party failing is primd 

 facie liable for the coiiU, he will be relieved from tin- burden if he has 

 prosecuted the suit in the conscientious discharge of a duty imposed 

 upon him as a trustee for the beiie6t of others. On the other hand, a 

 party proceeding erroneously will not be allowed the costs of his 

 erroneous proceedings, even though the decree of the court may ulti- 

 mately be in his favour. 



In proceedings whereto the crown was a party, the old rule wax that 

 it neither received nor paid costs. This was long felt to lie both 

 oppressive in practice and unjustifiable in principle ; and by a recent 

 statute, 18 ft 19 Viet. c. 90, it is provided that in all inform 

 actions, suits, and other legal proceedings of a civil or quan civil 

 character, the crown shall receive or pay costs, according as it succeed* 

 or fails. 



In criminal proceeding* the rights and liabilities of parties to costs 

 depend altogether upon express statutory enactments. With a \ 

 forward the ends of justice, provisions have been mode by various 

 statutes to defray, out of the funds of the county, at the discretion of 

 the court, the expenses incurred by prosecutors and their witnesses in 

 oases of felony. 



For the practice respecting costs in special cases, see the various 

 titles throughout the work, BANKRUPTCY ; CERTIORARI ; MANDA- 

 MUS, 4c. 



(See generally, Archbold's ' Practice of the Court of Queen's Bench,' 

 by Prentice, 10th edition ; and Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' by Kerr, 

 title Coil*, in Index.) 



COTAKNINE. [0-Piun, Alkaloid* of.] 



COTE' DROITE, COTE' GAUCHE, the names given to tl, 

 great divisions of the Chamber of Deputies, or French representative 

 assembly, during the existence of the Charte. They took their names 

 from sitting on the right or left of the president, and represented what 

 in the English House of Commons are styled the ministerial and oppo- 

 sition benches. There were also subdivisions of the extreme droite and 

 the extreme gauche, the centre droite and the centre gauche, denoting 

 the ultras of each party, or the independents. In the present chamber 

 of deputies these party distinctions are out of use ; under the restric- 

 tive system of election the opposition members are too few to con- 

 stitute a division. 



COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE. The term " cottage " has H 

 wide an application that it is difficult to assign any very definite limits 

 to the style of architecture appropriate to it. There are " cottages with 

 three-stalled stables, cottages of gentility," and there are cottages 

 designed expressly for the residences of the labouring agricultural 

 population in those districts where the wages of day labour are so low 

 as to keep their recipients constantly on the verge of poverty. The 

 former of these classes of cottages tread so closely on the heels of 

 pleasure or country residences, that the consideration of their con- 

 struction may fairly be left out of the present article ; and it is proposed 

 in the following remarks simply to notice the principles which (Omul. I 

 be observed in the construction of labourers' cottages, storting always 

 with the assumption that the proprietor of the land to be cultivated 

 attaches more importance to the happiness and the respectability of 

 the parties he employs than he does to the nominal money rental he 

 may derive from his cottage property. Unfortunately, it is almost 

 always the case that the wages of agricultural labourers are so low that 

 they cannot afford to pay the money-rents which would be required to 

 make cottage-building a remunerative and self-supporting operation ; 

 and therefore it is that attention should be directed towards rendering 

 the contribution of the landlord as small as possible, by adopting every 

 possible economy consistent with the attainment of the object of 

 improving the moral condition of the tenants ; and to endeavouring to 

 bring the really remunerative rent within the capacity of the tenants, 

 so as to develop in them the habits of independence and self-reliance, 

 which are at the bottom of all honest and noble character. On these 

 principles it U possible that the artistic beauty of the cottages may 

 suffer, but so long as the residences themselves possess the requisite 

 conditions of healthiness and comfort, they fulfil the strict necessities 

 of the case ; and it does seem to be desirable that anything beyond the 

 details required for such purposes should be avoided, as they give a 

 species of eleemosynary character to the houses which tends to degrade 

 their inhabitants. 



The style of architecture to be adopted in cottage-building must 

 mainly be influenced by local considerations ; that is to say, it 

 must be regulated by the nature of the materials employed, by the 

 surrounding scenery, or by any associated buildings. It is, however, 

 essential to observe, that even in the most picturesque scenery sim- 

 plicity and economy of construction must be studied rather than 

 abstract picturesque beauty of outline. These common-place merits, 

 it is to be observed, can be attained simultaneously with a considerable 

 amount of architectural expression, if only due attention be paid to 

 the choice of materials ; but, unfortunately, it has been too often the 

 case that great sacrifices have been made, and very complicated and 

 costly details have been introduced, for the avowed object of giving 

 a picturesque appearance to building* which, generally speaking, are 

 the most consistent with the ends they are designed to fulfil when 

 they are simple and almost plain in their outlines. It should therefore 



