OFFICE OF SHERIFF.

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upon to perform them. His deputy, the under-sheriff, transacts all the legal, judicial, and formal duties of the office; the police relieve him from the trouble of looking after criminals; and the time has passed in which our national defences could safely be trusted in his hands, however brave or loyal he may be. It is still a distinction to hold this post of high sheriff, as none but gentlemen of character and sufficient property are usually nominated to fill it. They have to accompany, and entertain the judges of assize through their county, and to provide a sufficient escort of javelin men for their protection. They sit on the right hand of the presiding judge at criminal trials, girt with a sword; and when there is a "maiden assize,” that is, one at which there are no prisoners to be tried, they present him with a pair of white gloves. When they have done this, and presided at any election that may take place during their year of office, they have done all that is required of them. So that when in future Letters I tell you that the sheriff has to do this or that, you will understand that his deputy, the under-sheriff, has to do it for him.

LETTER XV.

THE COURTS OF LAW AND EQUITY, AND THEIR

PROCEDURE.

The Superior Courts-Circuits of the Judges-Their several Commissions-District Courts of Record-Counsel and Attorney-The Inns of Court-An Action at Law-The Pleadings-The Jury-The Trial-The Verdict-Judgment by Default-The Costs-Execution -Judges in Equity.

A "COURT" is defined to be a place wherein justice is judicially administered. As the power of executing the laws is vested by our constitution in the Sovereign, it follows that all courts of justice derive their power from the Crown.

The principal courts of Common Law hold their sittings in Westminster Hall, and are three in number-the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Exchequer. The judges of the two former are called Justices, those of the latter Barons. The Lord Chief Justice of England and four justices preside in the Court of Queen's Bench; the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and the same number of justices sit in that court; and the Lord Chief Baron and four barons in the Court of Exchequer. These judges hold their offices for life, and can only be removed for misconduct upon a petition of both Houses of Parliament to the Crown. Formerly each of these courts had a separate jurisdiction: the King's Bench only heard criminal causes, and such as related to the controlling of inferior tribunals; the Common Pleas was for trials between subject and subject; and the Exchequer decided only such causes as related to the collection of the revenue. Now, however, these distinctions, long since evaded by legal fictions, are done away with by statute, and a private person may bring his action in any one of these courts. But the Queen's Bench still retains special jurisdiction in certain particulars; it keeps all inferior courts within the bounds of their authority, and may either order their proceedings to be

removed for its own consideration, or may prohibit their progress altogether. It controls all civil corporations in the kingdom, it commands magistrates and others to do what the law requires in every case where there is no other course precribed, and has both a criminal and civil jurisdiction.

Twice a year, in the spring and summer, the judges of these courts go round the whole country on circuit, to try actions at law and criminals. The sittings which they hold in the principal town in each county are called Assizes.

England and Wales are divided into eight circuits, as follows:

THE HOME CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Hertford, Chelmsford, Lewes, Maidstone,
Croydon, Kingston, and Guildford.

THE NORFOLK CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Aylesbury, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Norwich, Oakham, Leicester, Northampton, and Ipswich.

THE MIDLAND CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-York, Leeds, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby, and Warwick.

THE OXFORD CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Abingdon, Oxford, Worcester, Stafford,
Shrewsbury, Hereford, Monmouth, and Gloucester.

THE WESTERN CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Devizes, Winchester, Exeter, Dorchester,
Bodmin, Wells, and Bristol.

THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Durham, Newcastle, Carlisle, Appleby,
Lancaster, Manchester, and Liverpool.

THE NORTH WALES CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Newtown, Dolgelly, Carnarvon, Beaumaris, Ruthin, Mold, and Chester.

THE SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT:

Assize Towns-Cardiff, Haverfordwest, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Brecon, Preston, and Chester, where the Welsh Circuits join.

Two judges go on each of these circuits, except the last two, and in turn transact the civil and criminal business in its towns, except in the county palatine of Lancaster, in which the senior judge always presides in the criminal, or Crown court. On the Welsh circuits only one judge attends, on account of the smallness of the business to be transacted.

In the more populous counties a Winter Assize, or Gaol Delivery, is held, for the trial of prisoners, and in a few instances the judges also take civil business at the same time.

The judges transact the business upon circuit by virtue of five separate authorities, only two of which I need mention here, in treating of civil procedure, namely, the commission of assize, authorizing them to hear and determine disputes relating to land, and the commission of nisi prius, which empowers them to try all actions pending in the superior courts that are ripe to be heard. These causes are appointed to be tried at Westminster, before a jury of the county out of which the dispute arose, nisi prius (unless before) the day fixed, the judges come into that county to hear and decide it.

There are also distinct Courts of Record, such as the Courts of Common Pleas of the counties of Durham and Lancaster, the Passage Court of Liverpool, and the Court of Record of Manchester, having the same procedure as the superior courts, and an unlimited, or limited jurisdiction, as to the amount they can award, according to their constitution.

Any person may bring, and defend, his own action in person, but almost all the business of our courts of law is carried on by counsel and attorneys, selected by the parties to act for them. The former are of two classes, serjeants-at-law, and barristers, some of whom are appointed Queen's counsel by patent from the Crown-all these fall under the general name of Counsel. From the most eminent of these the judges are selected. The Chief Justices and Chief Baron are appointed by the Prime Minister; the lesser, or puisne judges, by the Lord Chancellor. The privilege of calling persons to the bar to act as barristers in England is exclusively held by four ancient societies—viz., that of Lincoln's Inn, the Middle and Inner Temple, and Gray's Inn. Until recently students had only to pay some fees and to eat a certain number of dinners in the halls of these societies to entitle them to be called to the bar; but they have now to undergo a preliminary examination in general knowledge before they are admitted as students, and they must also pass an examination in law, or attend lectures instituted for their legal education, before they are granted the degree of barrister-at-law, which confers the liberty of practising in all English courts (except those in Doctors' Commons, in which those only who have taken the university degree of Doctor of Laws have audience as advocates), and gives a legal right to the title of esquire.

AN ACTION AT LAW.

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An attorney is one who is put in the place or turn of another to manage his affairs. Attorneys are now formed into a regular society, to which, in conjunction with some officials named by Act of Parliament, the examination of persons desiring to become members of this profession, and the charge of the rolls or lists of persons duly entitled to practise in it, is confided. Once admitted and sworn, an attorney may practise in any court except the Court of Chancery, to act in which he must be admitted a Solicitor thereof. Persons are admitted by the superior courts after they have served for a certain time as clerks in the office of an attorney or solicitor, under a legal instrument called articles of clerkship, and have passed an examination in law. They are then considered to be officers of the courts. The judges exercise strict supervision over their conduct, and may strike their names off the rolls, should it be proved to their satisfaction that they have been guilty of conduct deserving such a punishment. Attorneys and solicitors have to take out a certificate every year, upon which they have to pay a fee for leave to pursue their vocation.

The actions most commonly brought in the courts of Common Law are to recover disputed debts or demands, the possession of land, or a compensation in money called damages, for acts committed or neglected to be done whereby the plaintiff suffers an injury in his person, property, or reputation.

When an action is to be brought, the plaintiff lays his case before an attorney, who issues a writ summoning the defendant to appear to answer the complaint of the plaintiff. This "appearance" is made by his lodging with the proper officer of the court, a writing stating where notices and further proceedings may be served upon him. The next step is the delivery by the plaintiff of a statement in writing of his cause of action, called the declaration. The defendant's answer to this is called the plea; this is also in writing. Parties may now bring both the law and the facts of their cases into question. Formerly, by disputing the one, they were held to admit the other, and thus great injustice was frequently done. The declaration and plea form part of what is called the pleadings in an action, the objects of which are to ascertain what is really in controversy between the parties, so as to exclude all that is immaterial or irrelevant. Thus the plaintiff having stated facts constituting his cause of action, the defendant is obliged to deny them, or, confessing their accuracy, to avoid their effect by asserting fresh ones, or, ad