304 Timehri. 
the record gets in a shocking state. You remember when they talked 
about the English Common Law Procedure Act, Baron Parke said, 
“ Think of the state of the record.” Record I suppose I ought to call it 
on this continent. ‘Think of the state of the record.” That was the 
old idea. The learned Baron suffered greatly. It is fair to say he had anew 
lease of life when he moved in the House of Lords as Lord Wensleydale. 
You will, no doubt, remember Sir William Earle, when Baron 
Parke said ‘‘ My monument is to be found in the sixteen volumes of 
Meeson and Welsby,” replying, ‘“‘ Parke, if there had been seventeen, 
the people of England would have risen up and wiped out the Courts 
entirely.” (Wise’s Index had not then been published, and so the Courts 
escaped extinction.) 
The other theory is that the Courts are instituted to do justice be- 
tween man and man, to see that every one gets his rights irrespective of 
the way in which his lawyer asks for them. Accordingly, the present 
practice which we try to follow—and our rules are laid down specifically 
in that view—is to get out what the fact are and if the pleadings do not 
enable the parties to prove or rely upon these facts, amend the pleadings. 
If one party is inconvenienced or put to disadvantage, make him who has 
made the mistake pay the costs. Amend your pleadings, get out all the 
facts that bear on the issue and determine the matter according to the 
very rights and merits of the case. It is the client, after all, who has to 
pay the shot, and it is the client that should be considered, what harm 
if the record does get a jolt now and then. 
I know too many lawyers, and perhaps too many Judges look upon 
the client as a simple Scotsman looked upon his wife. Donald met 
Sandy one day and said to him, “Sandy, ye’re lookin’ verra glum.” 
“ Aye,” said Sandy, ‘ma wife’s deid.” ‘Oh, man, an’ hoo did that 
happen?” ‘Weel, ye see,” said Sandy, “about a week ago, I was 
waukened up i’ the middle o’ the nicht be the woman grainin’ unco’ 
grievous—an’ I says to her, ‘ What’s wrang wi’ ye, woman ?’ and she said, 
‘Man, but I’m verra seek, wull ye no gang for the doctor ?’ and I said, ‘I 
canna gang for the doctor in the middle o’ the nicht.’ But she lay there 
grainin’ sae bad that I could no’ sleep, and I happened to think o’ some 
pooders the doctor had left for me the day afore ; and sae I got up an’ 
lookit at the directions an’ it said, ‘Take ane every three hours,’ an’ I 
thocht she was that bad that I better gie her eneugh—sae I gied her 
three at ance, an’ in half an hour she was deid, stane cault, an’ I had to 
gang for the doctor in the middle o’ the nicht after a’. Well, I buried 
her, an’ I’m unco louwely, for while she had her fau’ts like a’ folk, 
she was a guid wife, tak’ her a’ thegither ; but was it no’ God's merey I 
didna tak’ thae pooders mysel’?” (Laughter.) 
In the theory of law we first mentioned the lawyer may have the 
misfortune and mortification of losing a righteous cause by technicality ; 
but it’s God’s mercy that he is not personally ruined or deprived of his 
rights. This is the part of the unhappy client. 
