have lain to the Crown in Council, as well as such additional matters as are referred to it by the Crown. The report of the Committee to the Crown on these appeals to be read in open court.

V., VI. The decision to be by a majority of those present. The Crown may summon other members of the Council or any other judge of King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer.

VII-XIII. Evidence to be taken either viva voce on oath, or upon written depositions. New trials may be ordered.

XVI. The decrees of the Crown in Council to be enrolled.

XVIII. The Crown is empowered to appoint "a registrar of the said privy council" and to define his duties.

XXI. The order and decree of the Crown in Council on appeal from any court, whether in the East Indies or "other his Majesty's dominions abroad," shall be carried into effect as the Crown in Council shall direct, provided that "the powers, jurisdiction, or authority," "the constitution and duties" of the Privy Council (as a whole) are not "impeached or abridged" except where expressly altered by this Act.

XXII. Appeals permitted from the Superior Court in the East Indies. XXVIII. Power to enforce throughout the dominions of the Crown the decrees of the Crown in Council and of punishing contempts.

XXX. Two retired Indian or colonial judges, being members of the Privy Council, shall be appointed by the Crown to attend the Judicial Committee and shall be paid for their services.

XXXI. The rights under treaties made with foreign powers, for appeals from Admiralty Courts "in causes of prize" are safe-guarded.

(See Selborne, Judicial Procedure in the Privy Council; Holdsworth, H.E.L. i. 292-402; Pike, H.L. 279–307.)

B. THE COUNTY COURTS (9 & 10 Vict. Cap. 95), 1846.

An Act for the more easy recovery of Small Debts and Demands in England. . . . And whereas the County Court is a Court of ancient Jurisdiction having cognizance of all Pleas of Personal actions to any amount by virtue of a Writ of Justices issued in that behalf; and whereas the proceedings in the County Court are dilatory and expensive . . . and that the Courts established . . . should be holden . . . as branches of the County Court under the provisions of this Act . . . be it enacted. . . .

II. The Counties (including Counties of Cities and Towns) to be divided into districts, the County Court to be holden shall be holden for the recovery of Debts and Demands in each of such districts. The City of London excepted.

III. Every Court so holden to have the Jurisdiction and Powers of the County Court, to be a Court of Records, with a Judge "created under this Act" for each district.

IV. The Lord Chancellor to "appoint as many fit persons as are needed to be Judges of the County Court, each of whom shall be a Barrister at

Law of seven years standing" (or practised for seven years as a Barrister and Special Pleader).

XIV. "The lord of any Hundred, Manor, or Liberty having any Court in which Debts or Demands may be recovered" may "surrender the right of holding such a Court" with consent of persons interested.

XVIII. The Lord Chancellor (or in the Duchy of Lancaster the Chancellor of the Duchy) may remove a County Court Judge for Inability or Misbehaviour.

XXI. Every County Court Judge who shall be in the Commission of the Peace may act as a Justice of the Peace.

XXXI. Every Court to have one or more High Bailiffs, appointed and removable by the Judge.

XXXII. The High Bailiffs to serve all summonses and orders and execute all Warrants and Writs.

LVI. The Court to be held in such Place as is appointed by the Crown. LVIII. Jurisdiction limited to debt or damages not exceeding £20. (This jurisdiction has been widely extended by subsequent Acts, particularly 51 & 52 Vict. c. 43.)

LXX. "When the amount claimed shall exceed" £5 the action may be tried by a Jury when the Parties require it.

CXIII. The County Court Judge has power to commit for contempt. CXXIV. Judges, Clerks, and Bailiffs not liable to actions for proceedings taken.

CXL., CXLI. The Rights of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Courts of the Wardens of the Stannaries exempted from the operation of the Act.

(The greater portion of this long Act is occupied with minute provisions regulating the procedure of the Courts created.)

(See Holdsworth, H.E.L. i. 418-421; Redlich and Hirst, E.L.G. ii. passim.)

C. THE JUDICATURE ACT OF 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. Cap. 66).

An Act for the constitution of a Supreme Court and for other purposes relating to the better Administration of Justice in England. (The operation of the Act was deferred to November 1, 1875.)

§3. The High Court of Chancery, the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, the Court of Exchequer, the High Court of Admiralty, the Court of Probate, the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes "shall be united and consolidated together and shall constitute one Supreme Court of Judicature in England."

§ 4. This Supreme Court "shall consist of two permanent Divisions" (1) "Her Majesty's High Court of Justice," with original jurisdiction (and appeals from inferior courts as determined); (2) "Her Majesty's Court of Appeal," with appellate jurisdiction.

§ 5. The first Judges to be the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice of England (and all other judges of the courts specified in § 1). New Judges to be appointed by letters patent of the

Crown. All the Judges to have "equal power, authority, and jurisdiction." The president in the absence of the Lord Chancellor to be the Lord Chief Justice of England.

§ 9. The Judges to hold office for life; (38 & 39 Vict. c. 77, § 5, substitute "during good behaviour" for "for life" and except the Lord Chancellor) subject to removal by the Crown on an address from both Houses of Parliament. No Judge to be capable of sitting in the House of Commons.

§ 16. The High Court of Justice to be a Superior Court of Record and to exercise the jurisdiction of the High Court of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, Admiralty, Probate, Divorce, Common Pleas at Lancaster, Durham, and jurisdictions by Commissions of Assize, oyer and terminer, Gaol Delivery, or any such Commissions.

§ 18. The Court of Appeal to exercise the jurisdiction of the Chancery Court of Appeal, of the Chancery Appeal Court of Lancaster as a County Palatine, of the Warden of the Stannaries, of the Court of Exchequer Chamber, and of appeals to the Crown in Council from the High Court of Admiralty.

§ 19. The Court of Appeal to have jurisdiction in appeals from "Her Majesty's High Court of Justice" as enacted by § 4 (save when expressly stated to the contrary).

§ 24. Law and Equity to be administered in the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, according to the rules prescribed, and in cases of conflict "the rules of Equity shall prevail."

§ 29. The Crown is empowered to issue Commissions of Assize and the like to the Judges of the High Court of Justice.

§ 31. The High Court of Justice is divided into five divisions—(1) the Chancery; (2) the Queen's Bench; (3) Common Pleas; (4) Exchequer ; (5) Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty. Any Judge, if required, may sit in any division or be transferred from one to the other.

§§ 40-44 provide for the constitution of Divisional Courts apart and distinct from the Five Divisions defined in § 31.

§ 45. Appeals from Petty or Quarter Sessions, a County or other inferior court to be determined by the Divisional Courts.

§ 47. The Jurisdiction "in relation to questions of law reserved in criminal trials," i.e. "Crown Cases Reserved," is vested in the Judges of the High Court of Justice, or at least five of them, of whom the Lord Chief Justice of England must be one.

(The remainder of the Act is occupied with procedure, and other purely technical or legal points.)

D. THE JUDICATURE ACT OF 1875 (38 & 39 VICT. Cap. 77).

§ 4. The Court of Appeal to consist of five ex officio Judges (Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer) and not more than three ordinary Judges, the first of whom shall be the existing Lords Justices of Appeal in Chancery. These ordinary Judges to be styled

Justices of Appeal. An additional Judge from the High Court of Justice may serve temporarily on the request of the Lord Chancellor.

§ 6. The Lord Chancellor shall be President of the Court of Appeal. § 23. Her Majesty empowered to regulate all circuits of assizes by order in Council laid before each House of Parliament, and such Orders may be annulled on address from either House.

E. THE APPELLATE JURISDICTION ACT (39 & 40 Vict. Cap. 59), 1876. An Act for amending the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, and for other purposes.

§ 3. Appeals to the House of Lords to lie from (1) the Court of Appeal in England; (2) the Courts in Scotland from which appeals had previously lain; (3) from the Courts in Ireland in the same way. (But by § 12 Appeals from Scotch and Irish Courts not hitherto by law or practice reviewed by the House of Lords are excluded.)

§ 4. Appeals are to be by way of petition to the House of Lords for the matter to be reviewed before the Crown in Court of Parliament to determine what of right ought to be done according to the law and custom of the realm.

§ 5. Not less than three of the following must be present at the hearing of the Appeal, i.e. (1) the Lord Chancellor; (2) the Lords of Appeal in ordinary; (3) Peers of Parliament "who have held high judicial office."

§ 6. The Crown is empowered to create by letters patent two Lords of Appeal in ordinary, qualified either by (1) high judicial office, or (2) fifteen years as a practising Barrister in England, Scotland, or Ireland, to hold office during good behaviour, but removable on address of both Houses of Parliament, with an annual salary of £6,000 (paid out of the Consolidated Fund § 7), entitled to a writ of summons to attend, sit, and vote in the House of Lords, "but his dignity as a Lord of Parliament shall not descend to his heirs." If the Lord of Appeal is a Privy Councillor he shall also be a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

§ 14. By 34 & 35 Vict. c. 91, the Crown had been empowered to appoint four paid members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, but had not power to fill vacancies by death; the Crown is therefore empowered to fill two of these four paid places by creating two additional Lords of Appeal in ordinary (i.e. with the two in § 6, making four in all). The Crown may on the advice of the Privy Council summon, by order in Council, Archbishops and Bishops to sit as assessors of the Judicial Committee for "the hearing of Ecclesiastical Cases." Such order shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, and may be annulled by the Crown on address from either House.

§ 25. "High Judicial Office" means "any of the following offices, that is to say: The office of Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Ireland, or of paid Judge of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, or of Judge of one of her Majesty's Superior Courts of Great Britain and Ireland."

"Superior Courts" means (1) for England, "Her Majesty's High Court of Justice and Her Majesty's Court of Appeal and the Superior Courts of law and equity in England as they existed before the constitution of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice"; (2) for Ireland, “The Superior Courts of law and equity at Dublin"; (3) for Scotland, "The Court of Session.” (See Holdsworth, H.E.L. 402-417; Wilson, The Judicature Acts, ed. Chalmers and Mackenzie; Rogers, P.L. iii. 485–492.)

V. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

21 & 22 VICT. CAP. 106, 1858.

An Act for the better Government of India.

Whereas (by the Government of India Act, 1853') the territories in the possession or under the Government of the East India Company were continued under such Government, in trust for her Majesty, until Parliament should otherwise provide,... And whereas it is expedient that the said territories should be governed by and in the name of Her Majesty: be it therefore enacted . . . as follows: that is to say,

Transfer of the Government of India to Her Majesty.

1. The government of the territories now in possession or under the Government of the East India Company, and all powers in relation to government vested in or exercised by the said Company in trust for her Majesty, shall cease to be vested in or exercised by the said Company; and all territories in the possession or under the Government of the said Company, and all rights vested in or which if this Act had not been passed might have been exercised by the said Company in relation to any territories, shall become vested in Her Majesty and be exercised in her name; and . . . India shall mean the territories vested in Her Majesty as aforesaid, and all territories which may become vested in Her Majesty. . . .

...

2. India shall be governed by and in the name of Her Majesty; and all rights in relation to any territories which might have been exercised by the said Company... shall and may be exercised by and in the name of Her Majesty as rights incidental to the Government of India; and all the territorial and other revenues of or arising in India, and all tributes and other payments... shall be received for and in the name of Her Majesty, and shall be applied and disposed of for the purposes of the Government of India alone, subject to the provisions of this Act.

3. Save as herein otherwise provided, one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State shall have and perform all such or the like powers and duties in anywise relating to the Government or revenues of India, and all such and the like powers over all officers appointed or continued under this 116 & 17 Vict. c. 95. See also 24 Geo. III. Sess. 2, c. 25, p. 145.