the name of the highest court of justice in England and Ireland. Of its origin an account has been given under the head **Chancellor**. In chancery there are two distinct tribunals; the one ordinary, being a court of common law; and the other extraordinary, being a court of equity.

1. The **ordinary** legal court has been accustomed to hold pleas of recognizances acknowledged in the chancery, writs of *scire facias* for repeal of letters patent, of partition of lands in coparcenary, &c., and (until the 12th and 13th Vict., cap. 109, sec. 42) of all personal actions by or against any officer of the court. Sometimes a *supersedeas*, or writ of privilege, has been granted by this court, to discharge a person out of prison: one may also obtain here a *habemus corpus* prohibition, &c. in the vacation; and a *subpoena* may be had to force witnesses to appear in other courts when they have no power to call them. If the parties to a cause are at issue in a matter of fact, this court cannot try it by jury. A transcript of the record is sent to one of the superior courts of common law (see 12th and 13th Vict., cap. 109, sec. 32), to be tried there; and after trial it is remanded into the chancery, where judgment is given. If there be a demurrer in law, it must be argued in this court. Under the 15th and 16th Vict., cap. 86, sec. 61, however, the court of chancery can no longer direct a case to be stated for the opinion of any court of common law, but it may determine any questions of law in its judgment necessary to be decided previously to the decision of the equitable question at issue. Under sec. 62, it is now no longer necessary to establish at law the legal title or right of the party seeking relief before equitable relief is granted; while in cases of difficulty, the attendance of a common law judge is procured to hear the case with the equity judge.

In this court is also kept the *officina justitiae*, out of which all original writs that pass under the great seal, all commissions of charitable uses, sewers, idiotcy, lunacy, and the like, issue; and for which it is always open to the subject, who may there at any time demand and have, *ex debito justitiae*, any writ which his occasions may call for. Those writs relating to the business of the subject, and the returns Chandernagore, to them, were, according to the simplicity of ancient times, originally kept in a hamper, in *hanaperio*; and the other (relating to such matters wherein the crown was mediately or immediately concerned) were preserved in a little sack or bag, in *parca baga*; and hence has arisen the distinction of the *hanaper* office and the *petty-bag* office, which both belong to the common law court in chancery.

2. The **extraordinary** court, or court of equity, had its origin in those arrangements avowedly designed for affording relief against the rigour of the common law, which have been noticed under the head **Chancellor**. It gives relief for and against infants notwithstanding their minority, and for or against married women notwithstanding their coverture. All frauds and deceits for which there is no redress at common law; all breaches of trust and confidence; and unavoidable casualties by which obligors, mortgagees, and others, may be held to incur penalties and forfeitures, are here remedied. This court also gives relief against the extremity of unreasonable engagements entered into without consideration; obliges creditors who are unreasonable to compound with an unfortunate debtor; and makes executors, &c. give security and pay interest for money which is to lie long in their hands. This court may confirm the title to lands, though one has lost his writings; and render conveyances which are defective through mistake or otherwise, good and perfect. In chancery, copy-holders may be relieved against the ill usage of their lords; inclosures of land which is common may be decreed; and this court may decree money or lands given to charitable uses, oblige men to account with each other, &c. But in all cases where the plaintiff can have his remedy at law, he ought not to be relieved in chancery.

The court of chancery, proverbial for the intricacy and tediousness of its procedure, has lately been the object of repeated legislative reforms, far too technical in their character to be indicated in a sketch like the present. From an early period the equity jurisdiction was shared by the master of the rolls, who was the chief of a body of officers called masters in chancery. These officers, who have been in use of late to exercise important ministerial functions, were in the sixteenth century doctors of the civil law. After many alterations in their functions, they were in 1852 (15th and 16th Vict., cap. 80) prospectively abolished with reservation of the rights, duties, and privileges of the accountant-general as master in chancery. In 1813, there was appointed an additional judge in chancery by the title of vice-chancellor of England; and on the transference to this court of the equity business of the Exchequer in 1841, two additional vice-chancellors were appointed. By an act of 1851 "to improve the administration of justice in the court of chancery, and in the judicial committee of the privy-council," an addition was made of two judges to be called "judges of the court of appeal in chancery." This is a court of appeal from the master of the rolls and the vice-chancellors. Its jurisdiction may be exercised by the two judges of appeal, either with or without the lord chancellor, by the lord chancellor and one of the judges, or by the lord chancellor alone, as of old. The act thus enables the highest judicial functions of the lord chancellor to be distributed among other functionaries, with this peculiarity, that he can exercise them alone, but the two new judges must act together. The court is vested with all the powers exercised by the lord chancellor "in the court of chancery," "and all powers, authorities, and duties, as well ministerial as judicial, incident to such jurisdiction;" but there is a special exception of the ministerial and other duties not exercised in the court of chancery.