Mr. Justice Darling's Critical and Humorous Survey of the Courts An interesting and humorous account of the institution and development of the Court of Justice was given by Mr. Justice Darling in a lecture to members of the Working Men's College, in East London.
The Courts of Justice, said Mr. Justice Darling, were started with the consent of the English people, and it was the consent of the people that kept them going. The strength which the Courts possessed was attributable.to the great confidence in which the people held them. The Courts of His Majesty could be traced back to the Witenagemot, the assembly of wise men, where justice was done, not exactly as it was to-day but according to the laws of the people of that day. Before the Normans came there were Courts well established. These were the Shirereeyes, and now when a- judge went to the assizes he was met by the Sheriff, an office which dated back thousand years.
In Alfred's day the county court sat, but it was somewhat different from the county court of to-day. Formerly bishops sat in the county courts, and for that there was good veason, for the clergy were practically the only people who could read and write. Very few of the nobility could—even in those days. In the county court justice was administered according to the Jaws of those days and it was not unusual when two people had a dispute to call them out to settle it by battle. ''You see," commented his lordship, "in those days people did not rise above the level of the audiences of the Albert Hall." Later people began think that there might be a better means of ascertaining right from wrong than by setting the parties to give each other blows, and so it was ordained that there should be compurgators to settle the matter. Thus when there was a dispute, 12 good men and true cam and said, We know all about thi: there is the man who is in the right and there is the man. who is in the wrong," and from that was derived trial by jury, which was one of the safeguards of the Eng. lish people,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.