of the coursing championship, and the Waterloo cup is the
" Blue Riband " of the leash.Rabbit coursing is much pursued in the suburbs of Lancashire manufacturing towns. It is conducted more artificially than hare coursing, the [rabbit being dropt by hand some twenty yards in front of the dogs, and the victor being the first that catches and holds the game.
The chief works on coursing are Arrian s Cynegclicus, trans lated by the Rev. W, Dansey, 1831 ; T. Thacker, Coursers Com panion and Breeders Guide, 1835 ; Thacker s Courser s Annual Remembrancer, 1849-1851 ; D. P. Elaine, Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports, third edition, 1870 ; J. H. Walsh, The Greyhound, third edition, 1875, and British Rural Sports, twelfth edition, 1875; and the Coursing Calendar, edited by J, H. Walsh.
(h. f. w.)
COURT. This name is now usually restricted to judicial tribunals, almost the only exception being the household of the king, which is still called the Court. All courts are not even now purely judicial in character ; the County Court, for instance, is still the assembly of the free holders of the county in which representatives and certain officers are elected. Such assemblies in early times exer cised political and legislative as well as judicial functions. But these have now been almost entirely separated every where, and only judicial bodies are now usually called courts. In every court, says Blackstone, there must be three parts, an actor or plaintiff, reus or defendant, and judex, or judge.
The language of legal fictions, which English lawyers in variably use in all constitutional subjects, makes the king the ultimate source of all judicial authority, and assumes his personal presence in all the courts.
"As by our excellent constitution," says Blackstone, " the solo executive power of the laws is vested in the person of the king, it will follow that all courts of justice, which are the medium by which he administers the laws, are derived from the power of the Crown. For whether created by Act of Parliament or letters patent, or subsisting by prescription (the only methods by which any court of judicature can exist), the king s consent in the two former is ex pressly, in the latter impliedly given. In all these courts the king 13 supposed in contemplation of law to be always present ; but as that is in fact impossible, he is then represented by his judges, whose power is only an emanation of the royal prerogative.”
These words, which are still printed in modern editions of the commentaries, might give a false impression of the historical and legal relations of the courts and the Crown, if it is not remembered that they are nothing more than the expression of a venerable fiction. The administration of justice was, indeed, one of the functions of the king in early times ; the king himself sat on circuit so late as-the reign of Edward IV., and even after regular tribunals were established, a reserve of judicial power still remained in the king and his council, in the exercise of which it was pos Kible for the king to participate personally. The last judicial act of an English king, if such it can bo called, was that by which James I. settled the dispute between the Court of Chancery and Courts of Common Law, Since the establishment of Parliamentary government the courts take their law directly from the legislature, and the king is only connected with them indirectly as a member of tho legislative ^ body. The king s name, however, is still used in this as in other departments of state action. The courts exercising jurisdiction in England are divided by certain features which may here be briefly indicated.
1. We may distinguish between courts exercising general and those exercising special jurisdiction. The latter are the Admiralty, Ecclesiastical, and University Courts, the limits of which are sufficiently indicated by their names. These administer principles of justice founded on the canon and civil law, but the extent of their jurisdiction is ascertained by the Common Law Courts. 2. Superior and inferior courts. The former are the Courts of Com mon Law at Westminster, and the Court of Chancery, now High Court of Justice. The latter are the local or district courts, County Courts, &c. 3, Courts of record and courts not of record. "A court cf record is one whereof the Acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled for a perpetual memory and testimony, which rolls aro called the records of the court, and are of such high and superemi- nent authority, that their truth is not to be called in question. For it is a settled rule and maxim that nothing shall be averred against a record, nor shall any plea or even proof be admitted to the con trary. And if the existence of the record shall be denied it shall be tried by nothing but itself ; that is, upon bare inspection whether there be any such record or no ; else there would be no end of disputes. All courts of record are the courts of the sovereign in right of the Crown and royal dignity, and therefore any court of record has authority to fine and imprison for contempt of its authority" (Stephen s Blackstone). 4. Courts may also be distin guished as civil or criminal. 5. A further distinction is to be made between courts of first instance and courts of appeal. In the former the first, hearing in any judicial proceeding takes place ; in the latter, the judgment of the first court is brought under review. Of the superior courts, the High Court of Justice in its various divisions is a court of first instance. Over it is the CYmrt of Appeal, and over that again the House of Lords. The High Court of Justice is (through divisional courts) a court of appeal for inferior courts. 6. There is a special class of local courts, which do not appear to fall within either the first or second of the classes above-mentioned. Some, while administering the ordinary muni cipal law, have or had jurisdiction exclusive of their superior courts ; such were the Common Pleas of Durham and Lancaster (now trans ferred to the High Court of Justice), and such still is the Chancery Court of the duchy of Lancaster. Others have concurrent jurisdic tion with the superior courts ; such are the Lord Mayor s Court of London, the Passage Court of Liverpool, &c.
The distribution of judicial business among the various courts may be exhibited as follows.
Criminal Courts.—1. The lowest is that of the justice of the peace, sitting singly, but more usually in petty sessions of two or more, to de termine in a summary way certain specified minor offences. In popu lous districts, such as London, Manchester, &c., stipendiary magis trates are appointed, generally with enlarged powers. Besides punishing by summary conviction, justices may commit prisoners for trial at the assizes. 2. The justices in Quarter Sessions are commissioned to determine felonies and other offences. The 5 and 6 Viet c. 38 contains a list of offences not triable at Quarter Sessions treason, murder, forgery, bigamy, &c., (see Quarter Sessions). The corresponding court in boroughs is presided over by the recorder. 3. The more serious offences are reserved for the judges of the superior courts sitting under a commission of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery for each county. The Assize Courts, as they are called, sit in general in each county twice a year, following the division of circuits ; but winter assizes are now held under 3S) and 40 Viet. c. 57, which permits several counties to be united together for that purpose. London, which occupies an exceptional position in all matters of judicature, has a high criminal court of its own, established by 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 36, under the name of the Central Criminal Court. Its judges usually present are a rota selected from the superior judges of common law, the recorder, common sergeant, and the judge of the City of London Court, The Court of Queen s Bench (now Queen s Bench Division) has a general superintendence over all other courts of criminal juris diction, and criminal cases may be moved into the Queen s Bench by the writ of ccrtiorari. By 11 and 12 Viet. c. 78, the Court for Crown Cases Reserved was established, to which any question of law arising on the trial of a prisoner may after con viction be remitted by the judge in his discretion.
Civil Courts.—In certain special cases, civil claims of small importance may be brought before justices or stipendiaries. Other wise, and excepting the special and peculiar jurisdictions above mentioned, the civil business of the country may be said to be divided between the County Courts (taking small cases) and the High Court of Justice (taking all others). Before the constitution of the High Court of Justice the judges of the common law courts sat separately with a jury to try cases at Nisi Prius, the sittings being at Westminster for Middlesex, at Guildhall for the City of London, and according to circuits for the rest of the country ; and this arrangement is still followed by the divisions corresponding to the common law courts.
The effect of the recent Judicature Acts on the constitution of the superior courts may be briefly stated. There is now pno Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of two permanent divi sions called the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The former takes the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, the three Common Law Courts, the Courts of Admiralty, Probate, and Divorce, the Courts of Pleas at Lancaster and Durham, and the courts created by commissions of assize, oyer and teiminer, and gaol delivery. The latter takes the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal in Chancery (including Chancery of Lancaster), the Court of the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and of the Exche quer Chamber, and the appellate jurisdiction in admiralty and heresy matters of the judicial committee ; and power is given to the
