Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/548

 534 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY any lawyer of modern times. " Multi praeterea, quos fama obscura recondit." The sketch of EngHsh justice at Westminster Hall in, bygone days would hardly be complete if no mention were made of three important courts which, during the present reign, found their way thither, and have since followed the fortunes of the common law — the Court of Admiralty, the Court of Probate, and the Court of Divorce. The Admi- ralty in 1837 did not enjoy its present powers or importance. Borrowing from abroad the procedure of the civilians and the rules of foreign maritime law, confined for centuries within the bounds of a narrow jurisdiction by the prohibi- tion of the Court of Queen's Bench, the Admiralty Court had only been rescued from obscurity by the great wars of the reign of George III, by the prize cases for which it was the necessary tribunal, and by the genius of Lord Stowell. But its range still continued limited, and its rules occasion- ally conflicted with the rules of the common law. The spiritual or ecclesiastical courts of the country from an early period had exercised authority in matters of testacy and intestacy as regarded personal estate, had issued pro- bates of the wills of those who died possessed of personalty, and letters of administration of the estates of those who died without a will. The bulk of the testamentary business of the Ecclesiastical Courts was chiefly non-contentious — formal representative proceedings where no dispute arose. If the validity of a will or the title to administer was chal- lenged, a suit became necessary, and to this all parties in- terested were cited. A number of spiritual courts or cham- bers scattered through England took cognisance of this testamentary procedure — the courts of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the diocesan courts of the bishops, the archdeacons' courts, and other tribunals of still more limited jurisdiction. The Court of Arches, which belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury, served as the appellate centre for the province of Canterbury, and from it a further appeal lay to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a body that had been recently substituted for the Court of Delegates of Henry VIII. Doctors' Commons was the place