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 The English Law Courts. an expert, and to fix his remuneration, with the consent of the Treasury. If there is no opposition, or, in case of opposition, if the decision is in favor of the applicant, the Comptroller causes letters patent to issue under the seal of the Patent Office. No proceedings for the infringement or revoca tion of a patent once issued can be taken in the Patent Office, or it may be added, in the county courts. Patent practice is in England one of the most, perhaps we might say without exag geration the most lucrative branch of legal business. Among the leading patent experts at the bar were Sir Richard Webster (while he was in general practice), Mr. Fletcher Moulton, Q. C, Mr. Lewis Edmunds, Q. C, who recently attained the almost unique distinction of taking " silk" at the age of thirty-five, and Mr. Roger Wallace. The Patent Office is also the headquarters of designs and trade-mark business, and similar rules of procedure to those just de scribed apply to these branches of industrial property, except that the appeal from the Patent Office is not to the Law Officer, but to the Board of Trade, who may, and fre quently do, refer it to the High Court. In recent years there has been a move ment in England in favor of the naturalization here of some form of the preliminary exam ination into the novelty of patents prevailing in America. But as yet nothing practical has come of it. THE COUNTY PALATINE COURTS.

Three English counties have had Palatine Courts : Chester, Durham and Lancaster. Of these the first two were created by

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immemorial usage, the last by Edward III. The County Palatine of Chester was abol ished by the statute 1 : George IV and 1 William IV, ch. 70. The Judicature Act of 1873 transferred to the High Court of Justice the jurisdictions of the Court of Common Pleas at Lancaster and the Court of Pleas at Durham. But the equity sides of those Palatine Courts were retained and are now regulated by various statutes which closely assimilate their procedure to that of the Chancery Division. The judge of the Lan caster court is styled Vice-Chancellor, and appeals lie from his decisions to the Court of Appeal. The office of Vice-Chancellor of the Palatine Court of Lancaster, which has attached to it a salary of .£3500 a year, has recently been vacant. It was conferred by Lord James of Hereford, the present Chan cellor of the duchy of Lancaster, on Mr. Samuel Hall, Q. C, formerly the AttorneyGeneral of the duchy. THE STANNARY COURTS.

The "tinners" of Devonshire and Cornwall are provided with local tribunals called the Stannary Courts — of the same limited juris diction as those of the Counties Palatine, "in order that they may not be drawn from their business, which is highly profitable to the public, by following their law-suits in other courts." The judge of these courts is styled a Vice-Warden, and an appeal formerly lay from his decisions to the Lord Warden, and finally to the Privy Council. But the Judi cature Act of 1873 transferred all the juris diction of the Lord Warden to the Court of Appeal. Lex.

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