bribery at municipal elections, &c. ) the County Courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Otherwise they have jurisdiction concurrently with the superior courts, but when a case which a County Court might have tried is brought into a superior court, the costs will not in general be granted. The County Courts Act, 1867, dealing with this subject enacts ( 5) that costs shall not be recoverable by the plaintiff in any action in the supe rior courts, when the amount recovered does not exceed 20 in a case of contract, or 10 in a case of tort (civil injury) unless the judge certify that there was a good reason for bringing the action in a superior court. By 8 when any action of contract is brought in a superior court for a sum in dispute not exceeding 50, the judge may oil the application of the defendant order the case to be sent to the County Court. By 8 proceedings in equity may be trans ferred to the County Court which might have commenced therein ; and by 10 in actions for tort, the judge may, on an affidavit by defendant that the plaintiff has no visible means of paying costs if unsuccessful, send down the case to the County Court. These provisions, which it will be observed only indirectly compel suitors to resort to the County Courts in cases of minor importance, are embodied in the Judicature Act, 1873, by section 67 : "The pro visions contained in the fifth, seventh, eighth, and tenth sections of the County Court Act, 1867, shall apply to all actions commenced or pending in the said High Court of Justice on which any relief is Bought which can be given in a County Court.
A County Court judge may determine all matters of fact as well as law, but a jury may be summoned at the option of either plaintiff or defendant when the amount in dispute exceeds 5, and the judge may at his discretion summon a jury in any case. Counsel as well as attorneys may appear in the County Courts, but as the object of the legislature was to establish a cheap tribunal, costs are in the discretion of the judge, and the remuneration for professional services recoverable) as costs is paid on a reduced scale. By the Judicature Act, 1873, appeals from County Courts and other inferior courts are heard in divisional courts of the High Court of Justice, consisting of such judges as may be assigned for that purpose, and the decision of any such divisional court shall be final, unless it gives special leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Acts relat ing to County Courts are now numerous, and through frequent amendment and repeal are in a state of great confusion. A Con solidation Act is much to be desired.
(e. r.)
COURAYER, Pierre Francois le (1681-1776), a Roman Catholic theological writer, was born at Vernon, in Normandy, in 1681. While canon regular and librarian of the abbey of St Genevieve at Paris, he conducted a correspondence with Archbishop Wake on the subject of Episcopal succession in England, which supplied him with material for his work On the Validity of English Ordina tions, published in Holland in 1727, in which he tries to prove that there has been no break in the line of ordination from the apostles to the English clergy. His opinions, however, having exposed him to a prosecution in his native country, he took refuge in England, where he was presented by the university of Oxford with a doctor s degree. In 1736 he published a French translation of Father Paul Sarpi s History of the Council of Trent, and dedicated it to Queen Caroline, from whom he received a pension of 200 a year. Besides this he translated Sleidan s History of the Reformation, and wrote several theological works. Courayer died in 1776, after two days illness, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, In his will, dated two years before his death, he declared himself still a member of the Catholic Church, although dissenting from many of its opinions.
COURIER, Paul Louis (1773-1825), French Hellenist and political and miscellaneous writer, was born at Paris, January 4, 1773. His father, Jean Paul Courier, was owner of the estate of Mere" in Touraine, to which he retired when, in consequence of a serious quarrel with a duke, ho was compelled to leave Paris. The son, still in his child hood, imbibed a bitter aversion to the nobility, which seemed to strengthen with time. He would never take the name " de Me re ," to which he was entitled, lest he should be thought a nobleman. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Paris to complete his education ; and there he studied chiefly mathematics and Greek. For Greek literature ho had a passionate fondness, and attained in it so remarkable a proficiency that he was complimented by German scholars. Destined by his father for the army, he entered the school of artillery at Chalons, and received his appointment as sub lieutenant in September 1792. He served in various cam paigns of the Revolutionary wars, especially in those of Italy in 1798-1799 and 1806-1807, and in the German campaign of 1809. He attained the rank of chef d escadron in 1803. Meanwhile, whenever circumstances left him at leisure, he devoted himself to his favourite studies. He made his first appearance as an author in 1802, when he contributed to the Magasin Encycloptdique a critique on Schweighauser s edition of Athenscus. In the following year appeared his Eloge d Hclene, a free imitation rather than a translation from Isocrates, which he had sketched in 1798. Courier quitted the army after the battle of Wagram (1809), the savage independence of his nature rendering subordination and obedience irksome and intoler able to him ; while his superiors found it hard to bear the chastisement of his satirical humour, which he freely indulged without respect of persons. After leaving the army he went to Florence, and was fortunate enough to discover in the laurentian Library a complete manuscript of Longus s Daphnis and Chloe, an edition of which he pub lished in 1810. In consequence of a misadventure blot ting the mr iiscript he was involved in a quarrel with tl: a librarian, and was compelled by the Government to leave Tuscany. He retired to his estate at Veretz (Indre-et- Loire), but frequently visited Paris, and divided his atten tion between literature and his farm. After the second restoration of the Bourbons the career of Courier as political pamphleteer began. He had before this time waged war against local wrongs in his own district, and had been the adviser and helpful friend of his neighbours. He now carried the war into a larger field, and by his letters and pamphlets made himself one of the most dreaded opponents of the Government of the Restoration. In 181 7 he was a candidate for a vacant seat in the Institute ; ai:d failing, e took hie revenge by publishing a bitter Lettre a Messieurs de V Academic des Inscriptions et Bdles-Lettrcs (1819). This was followed (1819-1820) by a series of letters published in Le Censeur, which by the extraordinary power displayed in them gives him a place in literature only second to the author of the Lettres Provinciales. The proposal, in 1821, to purchase the estate of Chambord for the duke of Bordeaux called forth from Courier the Simple Discours, one of his most powerful and successful pieces. For this he was tried and condemned to suffer a short im prisonment and to pay a fine. Before he went to prison he published a Compte Rendu of his trial, which had a still larger circulation than the Discours itself. In 1823 appeared the Livret de Paid Louis, the Gazette de Village, and other pieces, which were followed in 1824 by his famous Pamphlet des Pamphlets, called by his biographer, Armand Carrel, his swan-rong. Courier projected a trans lation of Herodotus, and published a specimen, in which he attempted to imitate archaic French ; but he did not live to carry out his plan. In the spring of 1825, on a Sunday afternoon (April 10), Courier was found shot in a wood near hh house. The murderers remained undis covered for five years. The writings of Courier, dealing with the facts and events of his own time, are valuable sources of information as to the condition of France before, during, and after the Revolution. Their literary merits are thus set forth in the Edinburgh Review (vol. xlix.):—
"They abound in plain, strong, masculine sense, illustrated with classical allusions, naturally and happily introduced, and seasoned with wit more brilliant than is almost anywhere else to be foitad ; for it has the keen edge of Swift s satire, with a style of more pointed epigram, and the easy playfulness of Voltaire, without his pertness and flippancy. His statements and narratives are short, and so clear as to present a sudden and lively picture his arguments are models of conciseness and force.”
