CASES

ARGUED AND DETERMINED

IN

THE QUEEN'S BENCH,

AND EXCHEQUER CHAMBER.

IN

X., XI., & XII. VICTORIA. 1846-47-48.

THE following cases, as far as p. 99, were omitted in Vol. XII., for want of space.

The QUEEN v. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of LONDON. [Feb. 25, 1847.]

Mandamus to the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London recited that A., who had been admitted an attorney of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster, and also a solicitor of the Court of Chancery, had produced to the Mayor and aldermen his admission to those Courts properly verified, and requested them to admit him an attorney of a certain inferior Court within the said city, held before the Lord Mayor and aldermen, and called The Lord Mayor's Court, on signing the roll of that Court as directed by stat. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, s. 27; and that they had refused, &c.; and the writ commanded them to admit, or show cause, &c. Return: That from time whereof, &c., the Lord Mayor's Court was a Court of record, and had by custom jurisdiction in the city as a court of law and a court of equity: That, besides entertaining ordinary actions, it was a peculiar jurisdiction in which many actions arising out of customs of the city were alone triable, particularly actions on by-laws for breach of the city customs: That a large portion of the business, both in law and in equity, arose out of the law and peculiar practice of foreign attachment, established in the city by prescription: That the Court exercised criminal jurisdiction over freemen offending against the city laws and customs, on information filed by the Common Serjeant, which proceeding might result in disfranchisement: That the business arising out of the peculiar laws and customs differed in form and practice from that of the courts at Westminster, and required great experience to qualify a practitioner: That by the city custom, the attorney for a plaintiff administers an oath to his client, and keeps possession of the affidavit, on which an attachment issues: That in cortain actions, he takes sureties, which the custom requires his client to give, and he is answerable in case of their insufficiency: That, from time whereof, &c., certain clerks or attorneys not exceeding four have had the exclusive right of practising in the said Court: That, besides acting as attorneys, they attend the Lord Mayor and advise and assist him as his clerks in all matters of equity and law, assist the town clerk in corporation affairs, and perform, severally