Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/106

cii £50, which penalty could be recovered in at the Courts of Great Sessions.

A.D. 1824.—The business of the Courts of Great Sessions had greatly increased before 1824, and it was found from experience that suitors experienced many inconveniences from the delays occasioned by the want of powers in the Judges to make alterations in the practice, in order to assimilate the procedure to the Courts in England. Therefore an Act (5 4, c. 106) was passed in that year enlarging and extending the powers of the Judges in the several Courts of Great Sessions in  and amending the laws relating to the same. Until the abolition of these Courts, the uniform course of practice which was followed was regulated mainly in accordance with this Act, and such of the preceding Acts as were applicable. It is not necessary to refer here to all its provisions, but some may be noticed. Before this Act, whenever a suit was commenced in any county every stage of the legal proceedings had to be followed in that county; and all further proceedings, whenever the Sessions for such county ended, were suspended until the ensuing Sessions. By the 11th section the Judges were empowered, when Courts were sitting in any county, to make rules and orders in suits depending in the other counties. By the 12th section, when the Courts were not sitting in, the Judges were authorized, if necessary, to make orders in London or other places outside the jurisdiction. By the 13th section, writs could be issued from one county to another. By the 19th section, the Act of 1773 relating to the trial of causes at the Assizes in the next English county was repealed, and in lieu thereof it was provided that if an action were brought wherein the plaintiff did not recover £50 he was to be non-suited and the defendant was to recover costs against the plaintiff, unless the Judge certified that there was a title to the land in question, or that the case was proper to be tried in such English county. The intention