A View of Canadian Law. 299 
ficial than perhaps fifty of the other rules is this, all amendments are to 
be made which are necessary in order that judgment shall be given 
according to the very right and justice of the case. (Applause.) No 
case in Ontario fails from defect of form—that is one of our rules. 
Again, no disregard of forms laid down, or disregard of the time under 
which certain proceedings should be taken, no disregard of terminology, 
according to our practice, bars a man who has a right, of his right. 
Disregard of form does not nullify the proceedings. 
Then if the Divisional Court is thought by either party to have 
made a mistake, there is an appeal to the Court of Appeal composed of 
five Judges. Those appeals are heard by the full Conrt of five Judges, 
but are not very common. The more common practice is to appeal from 
the trial Judge direct to the Court of Appeal, skipping the Divisional 
Court ; and those are not so very common either. These appeals from 
the trial Judge to the Court of Appeal direct may be heard by three 
Judges of the Court of Appeal or all the five. I will read you from the 
article which I wrote some years ago of the appeals in 1908. * In 1908, 
1,153 cases were tried by the High Court, 180 of these were appealed to 
the Divisional Court and 130 dismissed, 37 allowed, 10 varied and 2 
still undisposed of. The appeals direct from trial to the Court of Appeal 
were 62 ; 28 were dismissed, 14 allowed, 8 varied, 12 remained undis- 
posed of.” Because even at that late date people tried to settle their cases. 
All appeals from the County Court, which has jurisdiction up to six 
or eight hundred dollars, come to the Divisional Court, as appeals from 
the High Court of Justice come to the Divisional Court. County 
Court Judges are members of our Bar of 10 years’ standing. They are 
appointed by the Dominion Administration for life. The practice is 
precisely the same as in the High Court. Of all the cases in the 
Divisional Court, 544 in all, including the 180 from trials, only 43 
appeals to the Court of Appeal, of which 23 were dismissed, 11 allowed, 
3 varied. The above figures are derived from the report of the Inspector 
of Legal Offices. From the Court of Appeai to the Supreme Court at 
Ottawa in 1908 are reported in the Supreme Court Reports, 9 cases, 7 
dismissed, 2 allowed (there may be, no doubt are, some cases not reported, 
but very few). 
From the Court of Appeal, important cases may be taken to the 
Supreme Court of Canada. Rarely is there an appeal from the Divi- 
sional Court to the Court of Appeal; still rarer is there an appeal from 
the Court of Appeal, to the Supreme Court of Canada, which is an 
entirely different Court. If you practise in Canada you had better 
have your pleadings in proper shape before you get to the Supreme 
Court of Canada because that being a different Court, it takes the 
pleadings as brought to it from the inferior Court. From the Court 
of Appeal to the Supreme Court at Ottawa in 1908 there were 
reported in the Supreme Court Reports nine cases, seven dismissed, 
two allowed. In very rare cases there are also appeals from our 
Court of Appeal which are taken across the Atlantic instead of going to 
