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One of the causes to which this improved state of affairs is attributed is the successful work of the Commercial Court. This court is really a branch of the Queen's Bench Court, and is presided over by one of its judges, generally Mr. Justice Matthews. It was established in order to dispose of purely commercial cases referred to it from the other courts, with a dispatch and celerity that would please business men and attract them back to the courts from their boards of arbi tration and compromise. Mr. Justice Matthew was a lead ing commercial lawyer before he was raised to the bench, and has a great sympathy with litigants and an abhorrence of delays induced by antiquated forms and rules of procedure.

Very little attention is paid to pleading in the com mercial courts, and evidence is not hampered by prescribed rule or excluded by technicalities. If the issue is joined with sufficient clearness to enable the judge to ascertain the causes of the dispute he takes the case into his own hands and disposes of it according to his idea of what is right. During the past year of its existence three hundred and ninety-eight causes were referred from the other courts to this court, of which only one hundred and fifty-eight were tried, the remaining two hundred and forty having been compromised. This is considered a proof that a litigant with an uncertain case had rather compromise than meet the judge. Stuff Gown.