Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/756

 742 F. BENCH AND BAR It is noticeable that the popularity of the King's Bench during this period was due almost entirely to the energy and ability of its chief justice. His sole associate of first-rate ability was Bay ley (1808-30), whose opinion in commercial cases carried great weight. During the tenure of Lord Ellenborough's successor, Charles Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden (1818-32), this condition of affairs was reversed; the reputation of the court was then due in large measure to the puisnes. Tenterden was inferior to his predecessor in force of intellect, and was surpassed by some of his associates in acuteness and learning. But he was a judge of liberal tendencies, moderation and good sense. These qualities are most conspicuous in his clear and practical opinions, which, particularly in commercial cases, still command respect. During this period the court was highly efficient. " I do not believe," says Lord Campbell, " that so much important busi- ness was ever done so rapidly and so well before in any other court that ever sat in any age or country." The labors of three distinguished puisnes, Bayley, Holroyd (1816-28), and Littledale (1824-41), contributed materially to this high standing. These three judges represent the best fruits of the system of special pleading, and their labors, so far as they are capable of separation from an antiquated procedure, have stood the test of time. The wave of reform precipitated by the Reform Bill stirred even the stagnant waters of the law. The Court of Exchequer Chamber was made a regular and permanent intermediate court of appeal from each of the superior courts of common law. The ancient and anomalous High Court of Delegates, which had been established in the reign of Henry VIII to take up the appellate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters theretofore exercised by the pope, was at length abolished, and its appellate jurisdiction was conferred upon the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which was now made a definite and serviceable tribunal with a well-defined jurisdiction. By the Uniformity of Procedure Act the con- State Trials, volumes twenty-three to thirty-one. The most important of these are the trials of Peltier, Hardy, Horne-Tooke, Stone, Despard, Johnson, Hunt, Lambert and Watson.