not in equity, as at law, follow the issue of the cause, but are entirely in the discretion of the court which awards them, as the equity of the case requires. It seldom happens that a final decree can be made at the first hearing in most cases it is found necessary in the first instance to refer the matter to a master for the purpose of making inquiries; and the further consideration of the question is postponed until he has made his report. The method of summoning parties before the master is by a warrant granted by the master for that purpose, fixing the time for their attendance. This warrant may be sued out by any of the parties, complainant or defendant, and must be served on all interested in the proceedings. If the parties on being served do not appear, the master proceeds ex parte. When the master's report has been obtained, it is carried up to the court and confirmed on a motion made for the purpose, unless any of the parties except to it, when the exceptions are signed; if allowed, the matter is usually referred back to the master; if not allowed, the report is confirmed and the cause set down for further or final directions, as the case may be. It sometimes happens that doubtful questions of fact arise. When this is the case, the court for its own satisfaction, before pronouncing a final decree, will direct the question to be tried as an issue before a jury in a common law court. The question of fact is tried upon a feigned issue, the pretended plaintiff at law declaring that he has laid a wager with the defendant that the affirmative of the question is true; and the defendant admitting the wager but insisting upon the negative, whereupon issue is joined. In certain cases this is as of course done, as where the validity of a will is in question. In a doubtful question of law the court frequently sends a case for the opinion of the judges, before whom it is argued, and who then certify their opinion to the chancellor or other judge; upon this certificate the decree is usually founded. The chancellor or other judge directing it, however, is not bound either by the verdict or the opinion of the judges, which is required only to assist the conscience of the court. If the court of equity is not satisfied with the finding of the jury on the first issue, it will direct another trial, or repeated trials; but there is no instance of its having decided in opposition to repeated verdicts to the same effect. So if it is dissatisfied with the opinion of one court of law, it sometimes sends the same special case to another court; and if both courts of law concur, the court of equity usually acquiesces in their opinion. All matters which occur during the progress of a cause on which it is necessary to have the opinion or the order of the court, are brought forward either by motion or petition. Of the two, motions are the least formal. Some, indeed, are of course, and do not even require to be mentioned to the court; in these the signature of counsel is sufficient, as showing all is correct. In others, again, when any matter is to be discussed, it is necessary to give two days' notice to the opposite party. Petitions, in like manner, are of two kinds, some requiring to be served on all parties, and others merely of course. Both motions and petitions, when not of course, require to be supported by affidavits ; which, in contested cases, must be filed for the information of the opposite parties, who file affidavits in answer. Affidavits are written

statements upon oath as to the matters in issue, sworn before a

master.

The only mode which a court of equity has in general of enforcing its decrees and orders is by attaching the person of the defendant and imprisoning him for contempt, or sequestering his goods and effects; which, in cases that admit of such a remedy, it may also sell, and out of the produce of the sale satisfy the complainant's demands. In some cases, indeed, the court is empowered to execute its own decrees; but there still are many in which, if the defendant be out of the jurisdiction of the court, or if he stand out all process of contempt, there is no remedy. By Sir Edward Sugden's late Act, one of the masters, four times every year, is appointed to visit the Fleet prison, and report upon the cases of contempt, in order to guard against an unjust deprivation of liberty.

A petition is addressed in Chancery to the Lord Chancellor or Master of the Rolls; in the Exchequer to the Chancellor and Barons of the Exchequer. It contains a statement of the case, with the points in which the petitioner thinks himself aggrieved, and concludes with a prayer for relief. The judge to whom the petition is addressed answers it by writing at the end of the prayer a memorandum, signed with his signature, directing all parties concerned in the matter of the petition to appear on a given day. No written answer is required from the respondent, who answers the allegation of the petition by his counsel at the bar.

A decree by the Master of the Rolls, or the Vice-Chancellor, may, as before stated, be appealed from and carried before the Chancellor : an appeal from the Chancellor must be carried before the House of Lords. In strictness, an appeal to the Chancellor is only a rehearing, the decrees of the Vice-Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls being, in fact, his decrees, and as such signed by him; when therefore a decree has been once signed and enrolled, it cannot be reheard by the Chancellor, but must be carried by appeal before the Lords. The method of bringing on an appeal is by petition stating the decree, and the ground on which it is alleged to be erroneous, and praying to have it reversed. A cause may, however, if sufficient ground for it can be shown, be reheard before the same judge who pronounced the decree; or if new matter be discovered, the decree may be reversed on a bill of review. The proceedings on a bill of review are much the same as on an original bill. It states the previous pleadings, the decree, the new matter, &c.; and concludes by praying the former decree may be reversed. A bill of review is also brought in the same court in which the cause was originally heard.

The Court of Chancery is also, in certain cases, as in cases where lunatics or infants happen to be trustees, especially empowered by acts of parliament to proceed summarily on petition. This, however, the court never does except in clear cases; wherever there is any doubt a bill is always ordered to be filed, that the matter may be brought fully before it.

The following Extract from the Parliamentary Returns made a few years ago will show the average Business got through in the Court of Chancery.

The average number of bills filed in a year amounts, perhaps, to about 2,300; a number, curiously enough, not greatly exceeding the number filed nearly a hundred years ago, although the property in court has increased in the same period from scarcely 2,000,000l. to nearly 40,000,0007. On this fund, Mr. Cooper, in a work entitled "A Proposal for a Public Record Office," makes the following remarks: "A great part of the business of Chancery consists in the management and application of the corpus and income of the vast property which, for the security of the rights of infants, lunatics, annuitants, remainder-men, and others, is placed under its superintendence. This property, though necessarily changing, does not appear ever to have experienced any diminution in value or amount. That portion of it which consists of monies and stock paid and transferred to the accountant-general is stated, soon after the institution of that office, to have exceeded 1,723,000l.; and for several years it has averaged nearly 40 millions. It will excite no surprise that so immense a deposit should, in the course of a century, from non-claim and other causes, have produced large profits. It is from these that the suitors' fund is for the most part derived. Different sums, amounting in the whole to 950,000l., have, under various acts of parliament, been taken out of the cash of the suitors lying dead and unemployed in the bank, and have been invested in the three per cents. to an account entitled 'An Account of Monies placed out for the Benefit and better Security of the High Court of Chancery.' This fund forms, in consols and reduced, 1,183,0581. Part of the income of these investments has been applied by virtue of the same act of parliament in payment of the salaries of sundry officers of the court and in defraying the expenses of building different offices; and the surplus income has been carried to an account called An Account of Securities purchased with Surplus Interest, arising from Securities carried to an Account of Monies placed out for the Benefit and better Security of the Suitors of the High Court of Chancery.' This last sum amounts, in consols and reduced, to a sum of 771,9571. A small part of the income is applicable in the same manner as the income of the lastmentioned fund. In round numbers, the total income of both the above mentioned funds may be called 60,000l., and the total amount

of the present yearly charges upon it may be stated at 35,000l., leaving a surplus revenue of 25,000l. per annum.'

The principal local Chancery courts are those of the counties palatine, each of which has exclusive jurisdiction within its respective county. Their constitution and mode of proceeding are similar to that already described. There are also some other local courts of Equity, which are not of sufficient general interest to demand a separate notice.

SECT. VI.- Court of Bankruptcy.

This court was established by an act passed in the 1st and 2d of William IV. It is subdivided into three branches.-1. The Court of Review; 2. The Subdivision Courts; and, 3. The Courts of the Commissioners.

The Court of Review is at present, by the act for establishing a Court in Bankruptcy, composed of a chief judge and three puisne judges, a registrar, and other inferior officers. On the death of one of the three puisne judges originally appointed, the vacancy was not supplied; and as the quantity of business transacted by the Court of Review has not equalled the expectations upon which the provision for this part of the judicial establishment in bankruptcy seems to have been founded, it is understood that there will be no re-appointment. The chief judge must be a serjeant or barrister of 10 years' standing; and the puisne judges must also be serjeants or barristers of 10 years' standing, or five years' standing at the bar, having practised 5 years previously below the bar. They are appointed by commission under the great seal. The chief judge has a salary of 3,000l., the two others of 2,000l., per annum. They must not sit in parliament, nor practise as barristers. This court is at once a court of law and equity; it has power and jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters in bankruptcy, where, before the passing of the act by which the court was constituted (1 & 2 W. IV. c. 56.), were heard by the Lord Chancellor. The act, however, gives an appeal from the decisions of the Court of Review to the Lord Chancellor, upon a special case to be approved and certified by one of the judges of the Court of Review.

Mode of Proceeding. All matters to be heard and determined in this court are brought on by way of petition, motion, or special case, according to rules and regulations from time to time to be made by the judges. These forms of proceeding have already been described in what has been said of the Court of Chancery. This court, however, is enabled by the act, if it think fit, to summon witnesses, and examine them at the bar, in the same manner as a court of common law, which, it will be remembered, the Court of Chancery cannot do. This court, however, may, like a court of equity, send an issue to be tried before a judge of assize, or may direct a trial before one of its own judges, and summon a jury to attend before it for the purpose. An appeal lies from this court to the Lord Chancellor, and in some cases to the House of Lords. The appeal to the Chancellor is always upon a special case, which must be agreed on by the parties, and

settled by one of the judges. An appeal to the Lord Chancellor can be decided by him alone.

An appeal to the House of Lords is allowed only in cases which appear to the Chancellor of sufficient importance, or where both parties wish to have it decided there, when it may be carried up to the House of Lords direct from the Court of Review. An appeal, as has been already described, is brought on by a petition setting forth the special case, the decision, and praying the reversal of it. Barristers practise in this, in the same manner as in the other courts in Westminster Hall.

The

Subdivision Courts, and the Courts of the Commissioners. Courts of the Commissioners are held in Basinghall Street in the city of London, one being held before each. The commissioners are 6 in number, and are appointed in the same manner as the judges of the Court of Review. Their salary is 1,500l. a year. Like the judges of the Court of Review they are not allowed to practise as barristers, nor sit in parliament during such time as they hold their appointment. These commissioners are empowered to form 2 Subdivision Courts, consisting of 3 commissioners for each court. To these Subdivision Courts the single commissioner may, when any difficult question arises, adjourn the proceedings.

No single commissioner can commit any bankrupt, or any other person examined before him, otherwise than to the custody of the officer of the court; and he must be brought up before a Subdivision Court, or the Court of Review, within 3 days after his commitment. The Subdivision Courts, as well as the Court of Review, are courts of record. Besides the London commissioners, there are also commissioners in the country, for conducting such bankruptcies as can be better managed there, or are too trifling to be brought up to town. These are selected by the judges on the circuit, out of the barristers, solicitors, and attorneys on the circuit, and must be submitted to the Lord Chancellor for his approval. The business is conducted before the commissioners in the country in much the same way it is before the London commissioners. An appeal also lies from the decisions of the former to the Court of Review.

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Mode of Proceeding. A person is made a bankrupt by the fiat of the Lord Chancellor. To procure this, the creditor suing out the fiat must make an affidavit that the person against whom he seeks it is indebted to him to the amount of 100l. at the least; or if there be two creditors, to the amount of 150l.; if more, 2007.; that the person is a trader within the meaning of the bankrupt laws, and that he has committed an act of bankruptcy. Besides this, the petitioning creditor must enter into a bond for the payment of all costs and expenses, in case he should fail in supporting his application. These documents he lodges in the office of the Secretary of Bankrupts; and a petition is presented to the Chancellor, upon which the fiat issues as a matter of course. The fiat is a power or authority under the great seal to the court, or in the case of a country commission to certain commissioners specially named, to proceed, not only as against the bankrupt and his property, but also against all other persons who by concealment or otherwise, shall offend touching the premises, and to do and