In all cases of distress for rent, if the tenant or owner do not, within five days after the distress is taken, and notice of the cause thereof given him, replevy the same with sufficient security, the distrainor shall cause the same to be appraised by appraisers, and sell the same towards satisfaction of the rent and charges, paying the overplus, if any, to the owner himself.

V. REPLEVIN (replegiare; that is, to take back the pledge) is when a person distrained upon applies to have the distress returned into his own possession upon giving good security, by a replevin bond, to try the right of taking it in a suit at law; and, if that be determined against him, to return the cattle or goods once more into the hands of the distrainor. This policy is still recognized; but recent statutes* have altered the practice. Any action of replevin may now be brought in the county court or in a superior court, and the registrar of the county court of the district is empowered to approve of replevin bonds, to grant replevins, and to issue all necessary process in relation thereto. An action of replevin commenced in the county court may be removed by the defendant into a superior court by certiorari, security not exceeding £150 being given that the defendant will defend the action.

The seizure of heriots, when due on the death of a tenant of copyhold land, is also another species of self-remedy, not unlike the remedy by distress for rent. Thus a heriot being, according to the custom of the manor, the render of the best beast or other chattel to the lord of the manor on the death of the tenant, the lord may seize upon that chattel at the death of the tenant; the thing claimed being frequently of such a nature as might be out of the reach of the law before any action could be brought.

Explain the "Redress" of Injuries by the Joint Act of all the Parties.

They are confined to two, viz., Accord and Arbitration.

ACCORD is a satisfaction agreed upon between the party injuring and the party injured, which, when performed, is a bar of all actions upon this account. As, if a man contract to build

* See 19 & 20 Vict., c. 108, s. 120; and 23 & 24 Vict., c. 126, s. 22.

a house or deliver a horse, and fail in it; this is an injury for which the sufferer may have his remedy by action; but if the party injured accepts a sum of money or other thing as a satisfaction, this is a redress of that injury, and entirely takes away the right of action.

ARBITRATION is where the parties, injuring and injured, submit all matters in dispute, concerning any personal chattels or personal wrong, to the judgment of two or more arbitrators, who are to decide the controversy; and if they do not agree, it is usual to add, that another person be called in as umpire, to whose sole judgment it is then referred; or frequently, there is only one arbitrator originally appointed. The decision in any of these cases after a full investigation of all the facts and circumstances of the case, and examination of witnesses on oath if necessary-must be in writing, and is then called an award; and the question is thereby as fully determined, and the right transferred or settled, as it could have been by the agreement of the parties or the judgment of a court of law. The right to real property could not formerly pass by a mere award; but an arbitrator may now award a conveyance or a release of land; and it will be a breach of the arbitration bond to refuse compliance. For, though originally the submission to arbitration used to be by word or by deed, yet both of these being revocable in their nature, it is now become the practice to enter into mutual bonds, with condition to abide by the award or arbitration of the arbitrators or umpire therein named, or in default thereof to pay a certain penalty; and which submission, if in writing, is now usually made a rule of a court of a competent jurisdiction, which will enforce compliance with the award if necessary. Experience having shown the great use of these peaceable and domestic tribunals, especially in settling matters of account and other mercantile transactions which are difficult and almost impossible to be adjusted on a trial at law, the Legislature has now established the use of them, as well in controversies where causes are depending, as in those where no action is brought.*

* See Arbitration Acts, 9 & 10 Wm. III., c. 15; 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 42; 14 & 15 Vict., c. 99, s. 16; 17 & 18 Vict., c. 125, ss. 3-17; also as to Joint-Stock Companies, 25 & 26 Vict., c. 96, ss. 72-73; as to Masters and Workmen, 5 Geo. IV., c. 96; 30 & 31 Vict., c. 105; as to Railway Companies, 22 & 23 Vict., c. 59.

What are the Remedies for Injuries by the mere Operation of Law?

The remedies for Private Wrongs which are effected by the mere operation of the law are principally these:-1. Retainer. -2. Set-off- -3. Remitter.

First, then, as to RETAINER :-If a person indebted to another makes a creditor his executor; or, if such creditor obtains letters of administration to his debtor, in these cases the law gives him a remedy for his debt, by allowing him to retain so much as will pay himself before any other creditors whose debts are of equal degree with his own. This is a remedy by mere act of law, and grounded upon this reason; that the executor cannot, without an apparent absurdity, commence an action against himself as representative of the deceased to recover that which is due to him in his own private capacity; but, having the whole personal estate in his hands, so much as is sufficient to answer his own demand is, by operation of law, applied to that particular purpose. The doctrine of retainer is therefore the necessary consequence of that other doctrine of the law, the priority of such creditor who first commences his action; but the executor shall not retain his own debt, in prejudice to those of a higher degree; for the law only puts him in the same situation as if he had sued himself as executor and recovered his debt, which he never could be supposed to have done while debts of a higher nature subsisted. Neither shall one executor be allowed to retain his own debt in prejudice to that of his co-executor in equal degree, but both shall be discharged in proportion.

2. SET-OFF is a defence created by stat. 2 Geo. II., c. 22, previously to which relief was only obtainable by resorting to a court of equity, and is a right which exists where there are crossdemands between two persons. It can only be pleaded where there are mutual debts between plaintiff and defendant due in the same right. A set-off cannot be maintained in respect of a debt barred by the Statute of Limitations, which limits the time to recover a simple debt to a period of six years.*

*See 21 Jac. I., c. 16.

3. REMITTER is where he who has the true property, or jus proprietatis in lands, but is out of possession thereof, and afterwards obtains possession by a defective title. In this case he is remitted, or sent back, by operation of law to his ancient and more certain title. The right of entry which he has gained by a bad title shall be annexed to his own inherent good one, and his defeasible estate shall be utterly defeated and annulled by the instantaneous act of law without his participation or consent. As, if A. disseises B.; that is, turns him out of possession, and dies leaving a son C.; hereby the estate descends to C., the son of A., and B. is barred from entering thereon till he proves his right in an action. If afterwards C., the heir of the disseisor, makes a lease for life to D., with remainder to B., and D. dies; hereby the remainder accrues to B., the disseissee, who, thus gaining a new freehold by virtue of the remainder, which is a bad title, is by act of law remitted in or of his former and surer estate; for he hath hereby gained a new right of possession, to which the law immediately annexes his ancient right of property. To every remitter there are regularly these incidents—an ancient right and a new defeasible estate of freehold uniting in one and the same person, which defeasible estate must be cast upon the tenant, not gained by his own act or negligence.

COURTS IN GENERAL*

The next and principal object of our inquiries is-Redress by Action or Suit in Court, wherein the act of the parties and the act of law co-operate; the act of the parties being necessary to set the law in motion, and the process of the law being in general the only instrument by which the parties are enabled to procure certain and adequate redress. Before treating of such remedy let us first consider the nature of Courts in general, and afterwards inquire as to the several species of Courts, the jurisdiction of each, and the method of obtaining the redress which they respectively afford.

Define a Court, and explain the difference between a Court of Record, and a Court "not" of Record.

A Court is defined to be a place wherein justice is judicially administered; either in civil cases, between individuals; or in criminal offences, between the Sovereign representing the State and the people.

A Court of Record is that where the acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled for a perpetual memorial and testimony. Courts of Record are the Queen's courts in right of her Crown and royal dignity. Courts not of Record are courts of inferior jurisdictions, such as the Court Baron, incident to a manor, where the proceedings are not formally recorded. Every Court of

* Lord Selborne's Judicature Bill, now before Parliament, proposes to merge in one law of England the divided and often antagonistic doctrines of Common Law and Equity. This will alter the present mode of procedure in the Courts. The object of the Bill is to enable a suitor to obtain his remedy in one court, instead of being left in doubt, as at present, whether to seek his relief in a Court of Common Law, the Court of Chancery, or in the Court of Admiralty.