206 EQUITY WILL RESTRAIN CERTAIN DEFENCES. proceeds upon the principle that the party in possession ought not in conscience to use an accidental advantage to protect his possession against a real right in his adversary, if there is any circumstance which meets the reasoning upon this principle, the Court will not interfere. Therefore, if the possessor is a purchaser for valuable consideration, without notice of the title of the claimant, this is a title in conscience equal to that of the claimant, and the Court will not restrain the possessor from using any advantage he may be able to gain to defend his possession." On this principle was decided the case of Baker v. Mellish (p), where a landlord had through his own negligence allowed third parties to obtain a judgment against him, who thereupon induced his tenant, holding under an unexpired lease, to attorn to them: The tenant and those parties were thereupon restrained from setting up the lease in any ejectment to be brought by the landlord: and semble, the same law would apply where an heir claiming under an ancestor or an old settlement may be impeded by outstanding terms, which are usually held for those who have the legal estate in the inheritance. We have now gone through the principal heads of relief in Equity. Many of the instances cited may not arise under this Act, because, as has been before observed, the intention of the Legislature (p) 10 Ves. 549; see also Master of Clare Hall v. Harding, 6 Hare, 273; Blomfield v. Eyre, 8 Beav. 250, 259. does not seem to have been to extend the jurisdiction of Courts of Common Law to those cases where cross equities or other complicated questions arise, and in which those Courts, owing to their forms of proceedings, their comparatively limited powers of inquiry, and the strict technical forms of their judgments, are unable to do full justice between the parties. It has, however, been thought advisable to refer to the principal cases where relief is granted in Equity; the reasons being pointed out why it is conceived that the Act does not apply. APPENDIX. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 125. An Act for the further Amendment of the Process, Practice, and Mode of Pleading in, and enlarging the Jurisdiction of, the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, and of the Superior Courts of Common Law of the Counties Palatine of Lancaster and Durham. [12th August, 1854.] Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: by consent, of facts. I. The parties to any cause may, by consent in Judge may, writing, signed by them or their attorneys, as the try questions case may be, leave the decision of any issue of fact to the Court, provided that the Court, upon a rule to show cause, or a Judge on summons, shall, in their or his discretion, think fit to allow such trial; or provided the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster shall, in pursuance of the power hereinafter given to them, make any general rule or Two Judges may sit at trial of causes pending in the same Court. order dispensing with such allowance, either in all cases or in any particular class or classes of cases to be defined in such rule or order; and such issue of fact may thereupon be tried and determined, and damages assessed where necessary, in open Court, either in term or vacation, by any Judge who might otherwise have presided at the trial thereof by jury, either with or without the assistance of any other Judge or Judges of the same Court, or included in the same commission at the assizes; and the verdict of such Judge or Judges shall be of the same effect as the verdict of a jury, save that it shall not be questioned upon the ground of being against the weight of evidence; and the proceedings upon and after such trial, as to the power of the Court or Judge, the evidence, and otherwise, shall be the same as in the case of trial by jury. or any II. It shall be lawful for any one of the Judges same time for of any of the Superior Courts at Westminster, at the request of the Lord Chief Justice or Lord Chief Baron, to try the causes entered for trial at Nisi Prius in Westminster and London in either of the Courts, on the same days on which the said Lord Chief Justice or Lord Chief Baron, other Judge of the same Court, shall be sitting to try causes at those places respectively, or at either of them, so that the trial of two causes may be proceeded with at the same time; and all jurors, witnesses, and other persons who may have been summoned or required to attend at or for the trial of any cause before the said Lord Chief Justice or Lord Chief Baron, as the case may be, shall give their attendance at and for the trial thereof before such |