Roger North gives an instance of the lawyer’s absurd attachment
to mere forms. In his days the Court of Common Pleas used to
sit in Westminster Hall, close to the great door, in order
that suitors and their train might readily pass in and out.
When the wind was in the north, this situation was found very
cold, and it was proposed to move the court farther back, to a
warmer place. “But the Lord Chief Justice Bridgman,” says North,
“would not agree to it, as it was against Magna Charta, which
says that the Common Pleas shall be held _in certo loco_
(in a certain place), with which the distance of an inch from
that place is inconsistent, and all the pleas would be _coram
non judice_ (before one who is not the proper judge).”
(Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”
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=Sea Helping the Land=--See EVIDENCE, PROVIDENTIAL.
=Sea, The=--See SOLACE OF THE SEA.
=Sea, The, As a Land Grabber=--See MUTATION.
=Sea, Wealth of the=--See OPPORTUNITY LOST.
=Seaman, A Struggling=--See COOLNESS IN DANGER.