Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/539

 16. BOWEN: THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 525 every earth. No layman, however intelligent, could compose the ' answer ' without professional aid. It was inevitably so elaborate and so long, that the responsibility for the accu- racy of the story shifted, during its telling, from the con- science of the defendant to that of his solicitor and counsel, and truth found no difficulty in disappearing during the operation. Unless the defendant lived within twenty miles of London, a special commission was next directed to solicit- ors to attest the oath upon which the lengthy answer was sworn, and the answer was then forwarded by sworn mes- senger to London. Its form often rendered necessary a re-statement of the plaintiff's whole position, in which case an amended bill was drawn requiring another answer, until at last the voluminous pleadings were completed and the cause was at issue. By a system which to lawyers in 1887 appears to savour of the Middle Ages, the evidence for the hearing was thereupon taken by interrogatories written down beforehand upon paper and administered to the wit- nesses in private before an examiner or commissioner. At this meeting none of the parties were allowed to be present, either by themselves or their agents, and the examiner him- self was sworn to secrecy. If cross-examined at all (for cross-examination under such conditions was of necessity somewhat of a farce), the witnesses could only be cross-exam- ined upon written inquiries prepared equally in advance by a counsel who had never had the opportunity of knowing what had been said during the examination-in-chief. If the examination was in the country, it took place at some inn before the comissioner and his clerk, the process seldom cost- ing less than 60/. or 70/. It often lasted for days or weeks, at the end of which its mysterious product was sealed up and forwarded to London. On the day of the publication of the depositions copies were furnished to the parties at their own expense; but, from that moment, no further evidence was admissible, nor could any slip in the proofs be repaired, ex- cept by special permission of the court, when, if such leave was granted, a fresh commission was executed with the same formalities and in the same secret manner as before. The expense of the pleadings, of the preparation for the hearing.