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THE GREEN BAG
£1,500, 'and who holds his office for life, must be a member of the bar of some years' standing, and in several cases barristers have sacrificed a lucrative practice to accept a mastership. Six Masters are selected to attend as Masters in Chambers during the terms of the court, and three sit every day of the week. Each has his own room and his own list of causes. The procedure is most simple, as the Master gives audience to counsel and solicitors and their clients only as their cases are called. There are no chairs or benches in the room, except that occupied by the Master, and expedition and business promptness are rigorously insisted upon. Whatever order is made is endorsed by the Master upon the summons or applica tion. In this way each Master is able to get through a large number of cases in the day, to the general satisfaction of all parties. In case of an appeal from a Master to a Judge in Chambers (and in the King's Bench Di vision one judge constantly sits in Cham bers), notice thereof must be given within four days, and the appeal is heard within a week. The system works admirably, and relieves the judges who sit in court from all work of whatsoever nature except that which directly pertains to the trial of the causes in the day's list. (4) ABSOLUTE CONTROL OP THE JUDGE OVER THE CAUSE LIST. The moment a case is set down for trial it is absolutely under the control of the trial judge, and counsel have no power to delay it as of right or simply for their convenience. Applications to have causes "stand over" or to "postpone to next term," or to take some other place in the list, by agreement of counsel, which are so frequent in the American courts, and which are there generally granted as a mat ter of course, are seldom heard in the Eng lish Courts. In cases of requests for delay on account of illness the physician's certifi cate is carefully scrutinized, and if in the opinion of the court the evidence of the ab sent witness is essential his testimony is taken on commission rather than delay the
trial. Occasionally a day is specially set, upon application by counsel, for the trial of an important cause where there are a large number of witnesses from the country, or abroad, when it would be inconvenient or burdensome to the litigants to keep the witnesses in attendance. But any applica tion for delay, no matter upon what ground, is frowned upon and very rarely granted. (5) No BILL OF EXCEPTIONS. Any party who is dissatisfied with the verdict of the jury or with the finding or directions of the judge on any issue of law or fact, may apply to the Appeal Court for a new trial or to have the judgment of the trial court set aside and some other judgment entered in stead. His application must be by notice in writing served upon the other party in eight days from the time the judgment is entered. He prepares no bill of exceptions and submits no record to the trial judge for his approval. When the case is called in the Appeal Court counsel for the appellant simply explains the case to the judges and states what he complains of in the way in which the trial was conducted below or what he alleges the error is in the ruling of the judge or the verdict of the jury. The Appellate judges have been previously fur nished with copies of the pleadings, and of the evidence (either as taken down by shorthand writers or as it appears in the notes of the judge) and of any exhibits or documents of material importance. The re sult is that objections to evidence and re quests for rulings by the judge are rarely heard. Some years ago a well-known Fed eral judge from the West was asked to oc cupy a place upqn the bench with an English judge upon circuit, and nothing made so lasting an impression upon him as the fact that the judge rebuked counsel for inter posing an objection to a question his op ponent put to a witness. Upon the second offence the judge remarked that his dutywas to see that the trial was properly con ducted and that he was competent to dis charge that duty. When counsel ventured
