Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/423

Ch. 25. pleas. Alfo from the king's bench in Ireland to the king's bench in England. It likewife may be brought from the com- mon pleas at Weftminfter to the king's bench, and then from the king's bench the caufe is removeable to the houfe of lords. From proceedings on the law fide of the exchequer a writ of er- ror lies into the court of exchequer chamber before the lord chancellor, lord treafurer, and the judges of the court of king's bench and common pleas : and from thence it lies to the houfe of peers. From proceedings in the king's bench, in debt, de- tinue, covenant, account, cafe, ejectment, or trefpafs, originally begun therein (except where the king is party) it lies to the ex- chequer chamber, before the juftices of the common pleas, and barons of the exchequer ; and from thence alfo to the houfe of lords h : but where the proceedings in the king's bench are com- menced by original writ, fued out of chancery, (which muft be for fome forcible injury, in which the king is fuppofed to be a party, in order to punifli the trefpafs committed in a criminal manner) this takes the cafe out of the general rule laid down by the ftatute ; fo that the writ of error then lies, without any intermediate ftage of appeal, directly to the houfe of lords, the dernier refort for the ultimate decifion of every civil action. Each court of appeal, in their refpective flages, may upon hearing the matter of law in which the error is affigned, reverfe or affirm the judgment of the inferior courts; but none of them are final, fave only the houfe of peers, to whofe judicial decifions all other tribunals muft therefore fubmit and conform their own. And thus much for reverfal or affirmance of judgments by writs in the nature of appeals.


 * Finch. .480. Dyer. 250. * Stat. 27 Eliz. c. 3. Rh