the alluvial plains below, strewed with the remains of a former world of animated beings. The train of thought is then na- BY THE AUTHOR OF "RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS turally carried on from the effects which we behold, to their hidden and mysterious causes, until we are at last bewildered in a maze of difficulties, and humbly raise our minds in silent adoration, from nature's works to nature's God, by whom alone all our doubts can be cleared, and in whom the weary spirit can alone find a final repose in that uninterrupted happiness, to hope for which here below, is, alas! but a splendid dream.

sions. To be sure, three-fourths of the become a favourite place of promenade number are briefless; but they are equally useful notwithstanding, in the way of giving effect to the scene, as those who are most extensively employed. There they sit, day after day, brothers in adversity, and keeping each other in countenance. I am not particularly partial to the system of Lavater; but I think it applies with an almost unerring certainty to briefless barristers. There is a longitude about their faces which, as the Duke of Wellington used to say, there is no mistaking. But putting their physiognomies out of the question, they may be generally known from their attempts to kill time by making all manner of pen and ink sketches-men, women, beasts, houses, trees, &c. &c., which are usually most clumsy affairs.

From one cause or other there are always a great many strangers in the courts of law. On those occasions when an important case is expected to come on, the court in which the trial is to take place is crowded to excess. In such cases I have known a guinea to be offered for a seat. Some time ago, when a noble lord was the defendant in a case in which the husband of a literary lady of great personal charms was the plaintiff, five guineas, I believe, were offered by one gentleman for a seat. Fifty, however, would not, after the trial had commenced, have procured the accommodation. I doubt if a greater number of human beings were ever crowded together for an equal length of time, in so limited a space, as on that occasion. In most parts of the court the pressure was so great, that one might almost as soon have tried to break through the walls of Newgate, as to have forced his way through the dense mass of mortality, as some one happily phrased it, which surrounded him. Another instance of an excessively crowded court occurred in December last, in the Court of Exchequer, when the case of the proprietor of a well-known magazine, against an honourable gentleman who had assaulted him, was before it.

for the gentlemen of the long robe, and for strangers who have business at either of the courts. When I say gentlemen of the long robe, I must restrict, in this instance, the application of the terms to those who are well employed. They are glad to get out of court for a few moments, in order that they may enjoy a little exercise, and breathe withal, a little fresh air, after some great forensic effort-great in regard to the time they have been on their legs, if not always in point of brilliancy or eloquence. You never see a briefless barrister walking for five minutes at a time in Westminster Hall; nor, I will answer for it, anywhere else when encased in his long robe. Though literally doing nothing, he wishes it to be understood that he is so completely over head and ears in briefs and business, that he has not a moment to spare in exercising his locomotive powers. The unpractising "practitioners" in the courts are so busy in helping one another to do nothing, that they will not venture out on any account to have a few moments' walk in Westminster Hall.

The word court, as applied to the legal tribunals of the country, is generally understood to have been derived from the circumstance of all important questions having been anciently tried in an apartment of the king's palace appropriated for the purpose, and in his presence. These tribunals thus performed, as it were, a part of the court, and when they were removed from the palace, they still retained the name.

The origin of most of the present courts may be traced back to the latter part of the Norman dynasty. They underwent some modifications at the time of the passing of Magna Charta; but not to such an extent as materially to alter their constitution. They are all Courts of Record, which means, in contradistinction from other courts of inferior powers and importance, that every transaction which takes place in them is written out on parchment, and on receiving the signature of the judges becomes, from that moment, a matter of such sacredness and importance, that its truth must never be called in question, even were a party in a condition to prove it erroneous. All the courts at Westminster can take cognizance of all cases in which the pecuniary business of the question at issue exceeds forty shillings: all matters of less amount must be decided by the inferior courts, in which no records of the nature referred to are kept. The Courts of Record are all supposed to be The courts of law, like the Houses of directly derived from the special authority Parliament, are at Westminster. They of the king, represented by the constituare in the immediate neighbourhood of tion to be the fountain of justice. They Westminster Abbey, and communicated are instituted by his letters patent, and with the old House of Commons. The only entrance now is at the east end of Westminster Hall, a place which, since its recent fitting up with so much taste, has

It is my intention, in a series of papers, to give sketches of the Judges and of the leading men at the Bar, similar to those which I have given of the Members of both Houses of Parliament in my "Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons." But before doing this, it will be proper to give an introductory chapter respecting the origin, constitution, peculiar powers, &c. of the various courts. In this chapter, I trust I shall be able to communicate much information which will be at once new and interesting.

have the power, which is peculiar to themselves, of fining and imprisoning those who incur their displeasure.

The courts at Westminster are eight in

number. They are, taking them accord- ward the Fourth sat there three consecuing to their respective localities, as you tive days in the second year of his reign. enter Westminster Hall, the King's Bench The object of the youthful monarch was -the Bail Court-the Court of Exchequer the praiseworthy one of a desire to wit-the Court of Exchequer Chamber-the ness the way in which justice was adminCourt of Common Pleas-the Vice-Chan- istered. James the First, it is also said, cellor's Court-the Court of Chancery-sat for some time on one or two occasions and the Rolls Court. The Bench, the Bail along with the judges in the Court of King's Court, and Common Pleas, are severally Bench; but as he was not allowed to take courts of common law. The Exchequer any part in the proceedings, that being is both a court of common law and a court the province of the judges alone, he soon of equity. The others are essentially tired of the thing. That monarch was so courts of equity, though also possessing the functions of courts of law.

strongly addicted to loquacity, that to be prevented from speaking for any length of time, was the greatest punishment which could have been inflicted on him. He and Sir Peter Laurie would never have agreed about the silent system. The former would have deemed it, judging from his own experience on the subject, immeasurably too harsh a remedy for any criminal, whatever the nature, or however great the magnitude, of his offences. The royal Solon was never more in his element than when over head and ears in some theological or other disputation.

The King's Bench is the supreme court of common law throughout the kingdom. It is the remnant of the Aulia Regia, a court established by William the Conqueror, and which not only sat in his residence to whatever part of the country he removed, but which was presided over by persons chosen from his household for the purpose. The King's Bench, though not held for nearly two centuries at any other place than Westminster and Guildhall, is, in consequence of the locomotive qualities of the institution which it succeeded, still capable By one of those fictions so numerous in of being removed at the pleasure of the the English law, the sovereign is still, as king, to any part of the country. In the just stated, supposed to be present during year of the great plague in London, nearly the sittings of the King's Bench. The two centuries ago, the King's Bench was writs which are issued by the court state transferred to Oxford, where it sat for a that the case is to be heard "before the considerable time. When Edward the king himself." As this court, as before First conquered Scotland, it followed him mentioned, derives its name from the asto that country, and actually sat at Rox-sumed presence of the king during its proburgh. When thus removed to any other part of the kingdom, it at once absorbs or sets aside all previous commissions for holding assizes in the particular county in which it sits. It proceeds to try the cases ipso facto. There is only one exception to this universal power of the Court of King's Bench. By an act passed in the early part of the reign of George the Third, it is provided that any session in the county of Middlesex began to be held on the jail deliveries of Newgate, shall continue to be held until the cases are all disposed of, notwithstanding the sitting of the Court of King's Bench at Westminster, or any other part of the county, at that particular time. În consequence of the King's Bench being liable to be removed to wherever the king shall be pleased to go, all the writs are returnable" wherever we shall then be in England."

The King's Bench derives its name from the circumstance of the king having been in former times, and being still assumed to be, in the habit of sitting in it along with the judges. Some historians tell us that Henry the Third repeatedly sat in the King's Bench during the proceedings in important cases. It is added, that he sat on an elevated bench, the judges being seated on a lower one at his feet. Other historians express doubts as to this monarch having attended in person in the King's Bench. Be the fact as it may, it is established beyond all question, that Ed

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ceedings, it changes its name to that of the Queen's Bench during the ascendancy of a female. It was so called during the reigns of Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne. The only case of perplexity which ever occurred as to the designation under which it should go was, when Oliver Cromwell assumed the protectorate of England. After a great deal of discussion among the judges and others, and the proposal of various other names, it was agreed to christen it "The Upper Bench."

I have already said that this is the supreme court of common law. Its jurisdiction is universal. A case may be removed to it, by writ of certiorari, from any part of England, or it can put an end to the proceedings in any other court in the most arbitrary or summary manner. It has a sovereign authority over all inferior courts, and superintends all civil corporations throughout the kingdom. It enforces the performance of their duty on magistrates, in those cases where the law provides no specific remedy. It can bail parties illegally committed to prison, either by the king and council, or by either house of Parliament: nay, so great are its powers, that it may, if it please, and there are instances on record in which it had done so, bail persons who have been imprisoned according to the most obvious letter and spirit of the law.

It has a special jurisdiction extending not only to all capital offences, but to mis

demeanors of every kind of a public nature, where the tendency is to a breach of the peace, or to the oppression of individuals or bodies of persons. It also possesses the discretionary power of inflicting summary punishment in any way that it shall think fit;-whether by fine, or imprisonment, or other "infamous punishment,"-as the clause conferring this power is worded. Nor does its authority rest even here. It has the prerogative of making use of any prison in the kingdom, for the purpose of carrying its views of punishment into effect; so that, in point of fact, any prison in the country is as much its prison as that which goes by its name, and is ostensibly its prison. This was a question on which some doubts at one time existed; and it was tried about a quarter of a century since in the case of Messrs. Hart and White, the proprietors of "The Independent Whig," a well-known liberal journal of that period. These men having been convicted of a libel on the government, the Court of King's Bench sentenced one of them to imprisonment in the Gloucester jail, and the other in the Dorchester jail. The parties appealed to the House of Lords against the right of the court to send them to any prison out of the county of Middlesex; but the sentence of the court was affirmed. No other tribunal in the country, can bail a person sentenced to imprisonment in this court.

The Court of King's Bench is divided into two sides, the crown side and the plea side. On the crown side, all criminal causes are tried, from high treason down to the most trifling breach of the peace.* In criminal matters the jurisdiction of the court is so great, that even an Act of Parliament appointing that all offences of a certain class shall be tried before certain judges, does not deprive the King's Bench of its right to interfere and to take the direction of the matter into its own hands; unless, indeed, such Act of Parliament shall specifically denude it of that jurisdiction. On the plea side are tried all actions of trespass, forgery of deeds, conspiracy, cases of fraud, &c. In such cases the actions are called civil, the remedy sought to be obtained being a civil one, though the offences are, in point of fact, of a criminal nature. The number of cases of this class which come before this court is very great.

A curious fiction exists with regard to the mode of procedure in civil cases in this court. An action cannot be brought against a party in the same simple way as in the other courts of law. He must be brought up before the court for a supposed trespass committed in the county of Middle

* Even actions of debt may, however, under certain circumstances and by the plaintiff having recourse to certain expansive and troublesome forms, be brought before this court, though we never hear of any such cases.

sex. If the case be a bailable one, he is assumed to be in the actual custody of the marshal when he has put in bail; if not bailable, he is presumed even to be in the marshal's custody when he has entered an appearance. The plaintiff then may proceed against him in any civil case, the criminal offence with which he was charged being no more heard of. This fiction, a most despotic one in theory, though comparatively, if not absolutely, harmless in practice, had its origin in the dictum of the judges some centuries ago, that a party once brought into that court, either in the actual or supposed custody of the marshal, could not be proceeded against, even in any civil matter, in any other court.

There are only two tribunals in the country to which there lies an appeal from this court; these are, the Court of Exchequer Chamber and the House of Lords, into either of which the case may be removed by writ of error, according to the nature of the suit, and the way in which it has been prosecuted.

In cases of great doubt or difficulty, the judges in the King's Bench, so far from regretting that their decisions may be reversed by a superior tribunal, hesitate to give any decision at all themselves, but refer the case to the judges in the Court of Exchequer Chamber.

In connexion with the Court of King's Bench there is the Bail Court. It adjoins the other, and is presided over by one of the puisne judges, by rotation, or by some private arrangement amongst themselves. The Bail Court is to the King's Bench what a chapel of ease is to a church. It assists in disposing of the business which has accumulated in the larger court. It chiefly, however, confines itself to the less important description of business.

The Court of Exchequer is the next court to that of the King's Bench in locality, though inferior in point of importance to the Court of Common Pleas. Originally it was held in the king's palace. It is supposed, by many persons, to have derived its name from the circumstance of a chequer-wrought carpet, similar in appearance to a chess-board, having formerly covered the table. Others, again, think the origin of the name may be traced to the fact of the pavement of the court having been chequered; while a third class maintain that the name originated in the circumstance of the accountants in the court having been in the habit of using cheques, or chess-boards, to assist them in their arithmetical computations. But whatever may have been the origin of the appellation, the purpose for which the court was instituted was to hear and determine all causes affecting the rights of the crown and the revenue of the country. It is a very ancient court. It is generally supposed to have been coeval with the reign of William the Conqueror. Its institution, indeed, is usually ascribed to him, and is

is to the House of Lords. The appeal from the law side lies in the first instance to the Exchequer Chamber, whence the party may, if he please, appeal to the House of Lords.

The Court of Exchequer, like the Court of King's Bench, though not having properly any criminal jurisdiction, has the power, and is bound, if required, to exercise it, of discharging or bailing in any criminal cases. This power, however, it never exercises, unless called on to do so, which it scarcely ever is-the Court of King's Bench, or one of its judges, being the place or the person almost universally applied to in such cases. The judges in the Court of Exchequer go by the name of barons.

believed to have been formed on the plan, | Attorney General for any acts of injustice though with many improvements, of the which he may have committed. The only exchequer in Normandy. It underwent appeal from the equity side of this court, various alterations in the reign of Edward the First, and is understood to be now the same as it was when re-constructed by him. Its chief purpose still is, to decide on all matters affecting the rights and revenues of the crown, though many other causes of a different nature have of late been tried in it. This has been done by parties availing themselves of certain legal fictions which exist. For example, the law recognizes the right of any plaintiff to assume that he is the king's "minister," or debtor, and that by the defendant's refusing to pay him the debt he owes him, or having in any way committed an injury, he (the plaintiff) is less able to discharge the debt he owes his sovereign. By this fiction a jurisdiction is assumed by this court over all the private matters between The Court of Exchequer Chamber sits individuals, though neither the plaintiff nor in the same place as the equity side of the defendant owes a farthing to the king. Court of Exchequer. It is a court of apBy means of these fictions, taken in con- peal for rectifying the errors of the other junction with the implied provisions of an courts of law. This court always nomiact passed a few years since for establish- nally consists of the judges of the three ing a uniformity of process, actions, in courts of common law, and occasionally some cases of a strictly personal nature, of the Lord Chancellor also. It is usual, have been recently brought before this however, for the Lord Chief Baron to hear court. The late case of Fraser against cases alone. This court only sits two the Hon. Grantley Berkeley for an assault days every term. On the first day, which committed by the latter, is one in point. is usually fixed soon after the beginning Formerly, when the Court of Exchequer of each term, the judgments of the other restricted itself almost entirely to the hear-courts of law are affirmed or reversed; on ing of crown and revenue cases, the pro- the other day, which is fixed for some ceedings possessed but little public inte- time after, that which was left unfinished rest, and few, therefore, of the daily pa- at the first is completed. pers, thought of sending a reporter to it. Of late, however, the cases have been so interesting, that all the daily journals have gentlemen on their establishments for the purpose of reporting the proceedings in this court. In all cases where the king's revenue is affected, the Exchequer is the only court where the question can be tried; and its jurisdiction is exclusive, even in personal cases, where the public revenue is concerned.

The Court of Common Pleas is an institution, regarding the antiquity of which a diversity of opinion prevails. Gwyn, a well-known writer on legal matters, maintains that it was formed at the time of the granting of Magna Charta. Sir Edward Coke ascribes to it a much more ancient origin. His conviction is, that it existed as a distinct court some considerable time before the Conquest; and says, that it was only recognized, or confirmed, by Magna The Court of Exchequer sustains the Charta. Be this as it may, all writers double functions of a court of common seem to concur in the opinion, that at the law and a court of equity. The law side granting of the great charter of our liberof the court is presided over by Lord ties, the Court of Common Pleas, which Abinger, the Lord Chief Baron, Sir J. before, like the Court of King's Bench, Gurney, Sir William Bolland, Sir James was a moveable court from one part of the Parke, and Sir Edward Hall Alderson. country to the other, was permanently The equity side is held in the Exchequer fixed to hold its sittings in London. The Chamber. It is always supposed that the purposes principally contemplated by its Lord Treasurer, the Chancellor of the Ex- original institution, were the hearing of all chequer, the Lord Chief Baron, and three civil actions between subject and subject; puisne barons are present, though none but in process of time its jurisdiction bebut the Lord Chief Baron, in many cases, gan and still continues, to embrace peris actually so. Formerly there used to be sonal and mixed actions. Over mixed a good deal of business done in the equity actions, excepting in actions of ejectment, side of the Court of Exchequer, a large it has an exclusive jurisdiction. Its jurisportion of which consisted of the suits of diction is also so exclusive over real acthe clergy for the recovery of their tithes. Of late, however, the business has greatly diminished. This is the proper place for any of the king's subjects to prosecute the

tions, that were any such suit commenced either in the Court of King's Bench or Court of Exchequer, the whole proceedings, however tedious and expensive they