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cx amounts, and equitable matters had to be dealt with in the tortuous maze of the English Chancery Court as then existing. It is true that the old system of County Courts established during the reign of the First, remained in, but the jurisdiction of these ancient County Courts did not exceed 40s., and they were presided over by the under-sheriff, who was a judge for one year, and an advocate, when his yearly term of office expired. In these County Courts there were considerable grievances, so great, for instance, that in 1818 a meeting of the people of the county of Pembroke was held to discuss them, and it was then resolved thereat that the increase of litigation was destructive of public tranquillity and highly injurious to their county, and that the law of the land was made the instrument of the greatest oppression on the lowest orders. In the Carmarthen County Courts during nine years there were 10,912 pleas, and in the baronial courts of the same county, 3,024 pleas, giving plenty of work to the attorneys.

The long establishment of this separate jurisdiction shows that had until 1830, as Scotland still has, a provincial judicature which distinguished it from any other part of the United Kingdom; a law system adapted to its special needs and circumstances, expeditious, cheap, and in several marked features excelling the English system.

The Act of 1830, which put an end to the system, provided for an additional Justice for each of the three English Common Law Courts, viz., the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer of Pleas. The jurisdiction of the English superior Courts at Westminster was made to extend over and Chester, and the Courts of Great Sessions were abolished. The Act came into effect on October 12, 1830. All suits in the Courts, both in law and equity, were transferred to the Courts of Chancery or Exchequer in London. Welsh attorneys were to be admitted as attorneys of the Courts at Westminster. Assizes for the trial of criminal and civil matters were henceforth to