or together, certain other official duties relating to the public business of the Corporation : That, for many years past, the office has been acquired by purchase, and the admission has been for life (subject to removal for misconduct), with powe of alienation on payment of a fine, the alienee being admitted by the court of Mayor af aldermen, which is a court of record, and records the admission: That the person admitted-makes the declaration required by law on admission to municipal offices and takes a peculiar oath (which was set forth): And that the clerks or attorneys never sign any roll,.bat practise immediately on admission, subject to the control of the court of Mayor and aldernten, who may suspend or remove them for misconduct; and that there is not, nor has been, during the existence of the Lord Mayor's Court, any roll which a person admitted as an attorney could sign. And for these reasons, &c Special demurrer.

Held, by the Court of Queen's Bench (assuming the objection of argumentativeness not to be insisted upon), that the Lord Mayor's Court was an "inferior court," within the letter of stat. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, s. 27 and that the incidents of the court, and office of attorney therein, as stated in the return, did not render the clause inapplicable; the statutory words being

express.

And that the want of a roll was no answer; for the statute must be taken to mean that, if the court had no rolt which a person entitled to admission could sign, a roll must be provided. Judgment, that the return is not valid, and that a peremptory mandamus issue.

On writ of error,

Held by the Court of Exchequer Chamber, without any decision on the above points: That the writ was bad, inasmuch as it did not show that the court was, within the terms of stat. 6 & 7 Viet. c. 73, s. 27, an inferior court "of law" or "of equity."

And that the defect was not helped by the return, since a peremptory mandamus could not go (as the court below had awarded it) in the terms of the present writ. Judgment reversed.

MANDAMUS. The writ recited, That William Henry Ashurst, gentleman, being an attorney duly admitted of some one or more of our superior Courts *of law at Westminster, and also a solicitor duly *2] admitted of our High Court of Chancery, hath, since the passing, &c., of a certain act of parliament, &c. (6&7 Vict. c. 73, «for consolidating and amending several of the laws relating to attorneys," &c.), duly produced before you the said Mayor and aldermen his admission as such attorney and solicitor as aforesaid, properly verified, and proved to be and continue in full force, and hath duly applied to and requested you, the said Mayor and aldermen, to admit him, the said W. H. A., an attorney of a certain inferior Court within the said city of London, held before and presided over by you, the said Mayor and aldermen, and called the Lord Mayor's Court, on signing the roll of the Court *31 as directed by the said act of parliament; but that you, the said Mayor and aldermen, have wrongfully refused to comply with the said application of the said W. H. A., or to admit him as such attorney of the said Lord Mayor's Court; in contempt of us, and in violation of the said act of parliament and other the laws of this realm, and to the great damage and grievance of him, the said W. H. A. The writ then stated. prayer of remedy by W. H. A., and commanded the Lord Mayor and aldermen that they should, without delay, admit or cause to be admitted the said W. H. A. as such attorney of the said Lord Mayor's Court, according" to the said act, or signify cause, &c.

Return. That the city of London is, and, from time whereof, &c., hath been, an ancient city, and that the citizens and freemen of the said city, during all that time, have been a body corporate and politic, &c.,

and that they now are a body politic and corporate, by the name of The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London. And that, from time whereof, &c., the said Court so called the Lord Mayor's Court, as in the said writ mentioned, of right hath been, and still of right ought to be, a court of record, and has, by custom, jurisdiction within the said city as a court of law and a court of equity; and that the town clerk of the said city is registrar of the said Court; and that, besides entertaining ordinary actions and suits at law and equity in the said Court, the said Lord Mayor's Court is a Court of peculiar jurisdiction, in which many actions arising out of the local customs of the city of London, are, by the laws and customs of England, alone triable; and particularly actions upon certain by-laws passed *by the assem[*4 bly of the Mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the said city, imposing penalties for breach of their prescriptive customs, and which penalties can only be sued for in the said Lord Mayor's Court: and that the law of foreign attachment, and the peculiar practice relating thereto, is secured to the citizens of London by prescriptive custom confirmed by statute law, and gives rise to the largest portion of the business transacted both on the common law side and equity side of the said Court: and that the said Court has likewise criminal jurisdiction, in the exercise of which freemen who have offended against the laws and customs of the said city, may, upon informations filed by the Common Serjeant of the said city, and trial had thereupon, be disfranchised by the judgment of the said Court. And that, inasmuch as the greater portion of the business carried on in the said Court, both in law and equity, arises out of peculiar laws and customs of the said city, the forms and practice of the said Court, as well as the laws and customs to which they relate, differ essentially from the forms and practice of the Courts at Westminster, and require great practice and experience to qualify an attorney properly to conduct the proceedings of the said Court. And that it is one of the immemorial customs of the said Court for the attorney of any party suing as plaintiff in the said Court, to administer an oath to his own client, and to retain in his own possession the affidavit sworn by his client, upon which an attachment issues: and it is also another immemorial custom of the said Court for the plaintiff in any. action upon which an attachment issues, before he obtains the fruits of his judgment, to give sureties to repay the amount to the defend[*5 ant in case he should within a year and a day come in and disprove the plaintiff's debt, and that the plaintiff's attorney under the said custom takes such sureties; and, in case it shall be made to appear that, from inadvertence or any other cause, the sureties were not, at the time they were so taken, solvent and responsible, the attorney is personally liable for the amount of such judgment; and it has occurred, in the course of practice in the said Court, that the attorneys of certain parties suing as plaintiffs in the said Court have been fixed with the amount

B

of such judgments, and have been obliged to pay the same in consequence of their having inadvertently taken sureties who were proved to be insolvent when so taken.

And that, from time whereof, &c., there of right have been, and still of right ought to be, certain clerks or attorneys of the said Court, not exceeding four in number; and that, from time whereof, &c., the said clerks or attorneys, not exceeding four in number as aforesaid, have enjoyed the exclusive right of practising in the said Court; which right has not ever been questioned until the time when such application was made by the said W. H. Ashurst to be admitted as in the said writ mentioned. And that the repertories and records of the said Court, and also the journals of the corporation of the said city of London, have been searched and examined, and that various ancient entries have been found in the said repertories, records, and journals, setting forth.the duties of such four clerks and attorneys; and, amongst others, certain entries of the reign of Henry VIII., proving that at that period the said four clerks or attorneys were clerks of the Town Clerk and Registrar of the said Court, and were *sworn and admitted by the Court of Mayor *6] and Aldermen, and, on admission, took the oath of office hereafter set forth; and that it was then, as appears from the said entries or some of them, the practice and duty of the said clerks or attorneys (besides acting as attorneys for suitors) to attend the Lord Mayor, and to act as his clerks in all matters of equity and of law, as well criminal as civil, in which the said Lord Mayor might have occasion for advice and assistance; and that the said clerks or attorneys were also required to be assistants to the said Town Clerk in the affairs of the said corporation; that one of them acted as clerk of the Court of Common Council and kept the minutes thereof; and that one of them acted as Clerk of the seals, to superintend and oversee the affixing of the Mayoralty seal to all documents which ought of law and of right to be sealed; and that one other of the said clerks or attorneys was called and acted as Clerk of the enrolments in the Court of Hustings of London: and that the whole of the said clerks or attorneys in rotation issued precepts for Courts of Common Hall and certain Courts of Wardmote, and attended the Lord Mayor as his law advisers and clerks at the Wardmote held for the elections of Aldermen and other business of the ward: and that it was their duty and practice to make returns of such elections to the Court of Mayor and aldermen. And that, except the attendance upon the Town Clerk and the Common Council and at the justice rooms at the Mansion House and Guildhall, the said several duties still pertain to the offices of the said four clerks or attorneys, and are performed by them at the present day.

*7]

That, previously to the year 1703, vacancies in the offices of clerks or attorneys of the said Court were filled *by the Lord Mayor, or the Town Clerk for the time being, by grants for pecuniary or other

considerations, which grants were made of the office sometimes in possession and sometimes in reversion, and sometimes with and sometimes without the power of alienation. That in the years 1703 and 1777 respectively, and again in 1789, various minor alterations in the mode of appointment took place; and that since the latter period the said clerks or attorneys of the said Mayor's Court have obtained the same by purchase from the holders thereof; and that, subject to amoval for misconduct, they have been admitted to the office for life, with the right of alienation upon payment to the funds of the corporation of an alienation fine of 60. And that George Thomas Robert Reynal, John Carter, and George Ashley, three of the clerks or attorneys of the said court, hold their said offices by that title, and have respectively paid for the same sums varying in amount from 3120l. to 90007.; and that the fourth office is held by the Solicitor of the said city, he having been appointed thereto in the year 1841 upon the decease of the former holder thereof, who died without having exercised his right of alienation. And that, upon alienation and new appointment to the said office of clerk or attorney of the said Court taking place, the alienee is admitted by the Court of Mayor and aldermen, upon his taking the oath of office hereinafter set forth, and also upon taking and subscribing the oaths and declarations required to be taken, &c., by the several persons admitted to corporate places, offices, and appointments. And that the said oaths and declarations are so signed and subscribed in the same book and on the same page in which the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, *Chamberlain, [*8 and other corporate officers, sign and subscribe the said oaths; and that the oath of office, which is taken but not signed, is in the words following.(a)

"Ye shall swear that ye shall well and lawfully examine your clients and their quarrels, without champerty and without procuring of any juries, or any enquests embracing: and that ye shall change no quarrel out of his nature, after your understanding. Also ye shall plead ne ley, or suffer to be pleaded or leyed by your assent no foreign release, acquittance, payment, arbitration, playne accompt whatsoever it be to put the court out of his jurisdiction, nor none other matter, but it be such as ye shall find rightful and true by the information of your clients, whose information and saying upon your oath and conscience ye shall think to be true. And ye shall not inform ne enforce any man to sue falsely against any persons by false or forged actions. Attendant ye shall be upon the Mayor of the said city for the time being, and ready ye shall be at all times to come at the warning of the said Mayor, but if ye be letted about the business of the said city or by some other reasonable cause. Ye shall not deliver any book, or any manner copy, to any person, of any thing that toucheth the liberty of this city, without license and oversight of the Mayor, Recorder, and Town clerk of this city for the time being, or of two of them; or show to any person any book concerning the customs of the said city, nor suffer any person to look upon any such book of eustoms at any time, saving only the council of this city; but that ye shall keep the said books secret among yourselves. Ye shall keep and not disclose any thing there spoken for the common weal of the said city, that might hurt any person or brother of the said court, unless it be spoken to his said brother, or to other which in his own conscience and discretion ye shall think it to be for the common weal of this city. And that well and lawfully ye shall do all such things that to the office of attorney pertaineth to do, as God you help."

The

a) The oath is printed in "Lex Londinensis, or The City Law," p. 2, London, 1680 commencement there is: "You shall swear that you shall well and lawfully do your office of

That the said oath is the same as that which has been immemorially administered to the said clerks or attorneys upon their admission to the said office. And that the court of the Mayor and aldermen, by whom the said oath has been and still is administered, is a *court of *9] record; and that the record of the admission of one of the present clerks or attorneys, which is in the same form as the other admissions thereto, is in the words following.

"Court of Aldermen, 9th March, 1819. This day William Drake, one of the four clerks or attorneys in the outer Court, being here present, did freely surrender up unto this Court his said place and office, and all his right and interest therein, which said surrender this Court doth accept and allow. This day John Carter, citizen and cloth worker, having produced Mr." Chamberlain's receipt for the sum of 60l. at length as an alienation fine paid, pursuant to an order of the Common council of the 6th day of February, 1777, for his admission to the place or office of one of the four clerks or attorneys of the Mayor's Court of this city, is by this Court admitted the youngest of the four clerks or attorneys of the said Court in the room of Mr. William Drake; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said place or office, with all fees, profits, and commodities thereunto due and of right belonging, so long as he shall well and honestly behave himself therein; and was here sworn for the due execution of the said place, and also took and subscribed the oaths, and made and subscribed the declaration, according to the several laws made for those purposes."

And that the said entries of the admissions of the said clerks or attorneys are made in the manner of all entries of admissions of other corporate officers, and other proceedings in the said Court of the said Lord Mayor and aldermen, in chronological order, and not in any separate form.

And that the said clerks do not sign, and never have signed, any roll, or anything in the nature of a roll, either upon their admission or at any other time before or after the same; but that, immediately after their admission by the court of Mayor and aldermen, they practise as attorneys of the said Lord Mayor's Court, and receive the fees and emoluments arising from their said offices, and are by custom subject to the government and control of the court of Mayor and aldermen, who may suspend or remove them for misconduct from *their said *10] offices. That there have been frequent occasions on which the power of the said court of the Mayor and aldermen has been put in force for their correction. And that there is not, and that there never has been at any time during the period of the existence of the said Lord Mayor's Court, a roll in which have been inscribed or entered the names of the said clerks or attorneys practising or having the right of practising in the said Lord Mayor's Court; nor is there now, nor has there been during any part of the said time, any roll, or any document or any other thing in the nature of a roll, which the said W. H. Ashurst could sign as directed and required by the act of parliament in the said writ mentioned.

And for these reasons and causes we, the said Lord Mayor and aldermen, cannot admit, nor ought we, &c.

attorney, and well and lawfully examine," &c. (as above). Last sentence but one: "The secrets of this Court ye shall keep, and not," &c. (as above). There were also some slighter variances, not requiring mention.