Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-29
The Lord Chief Justice.

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The visit of the Lord Chief Justice Of
England to the United States, accom-
panied, as is probable, by some of his
more distinguished professional breth-
rem, promises to be an event of unusual
interest in legal annals. This will not
be the first occasion on which a Judge
of his distinction has left England to
take part in the proceedings Of a con-
gress of lawyers Of a foreign State; but
Lord Coleridge will be the first Lord
Chief Justice who has ever braved the
terrors of the Atlantic passage.
Like many another great office and
hereditary distinctionin England, that of
Lord Chief Justice may be traced back to
William the Conqueror, by whom twas
imported from his native Normandy. A
Chief Justice (whence the present title)
superintendent the administration Of
justice over the whole Norman Earl
dom; and, according to the manners of
the age, both military and civic powers
of great magnitude were conferred upon
him. Williams plan, after he had as
sumed the sovereign power, was to have
a grand central tribunal in England for
the whole realm, but in which all causes
of Importance should originate and be
finally decided. This tribunal was after
ward called Curia Regis, and some
times Aula Regis, because it assembled
in the hall of the Kings palace. The
great officers of State-that is to say, the
Constable, the Mareschal, the Seneschal,
the Chamberlain, and the Treasurer
were the Judges, and over them pre-
sided the Chief Justician. When the
King was beyond seas he governed his
Kingdom like q ViceroT. In rank he
had precedence over all the nobility,
and his power was greater than that Of
all other magistrates. For two centuries
the Aula Regis was preserved. Edward
l., sometimes called the English Justi-
MAN, abolished 1t, and not only system
affixed and reformed the public princi-
Piles of English jurisprudence. but
finally framed the courts for the admin
istration of justice as they subsisted in
England for more than six centuries
till, in fact. the formation Of a modern
Supreme Court of Judicature within the
last five years. Edward constituted the
..Court Of our Lord the King before the
King himself" or ..Court of Kings
Bench" Here the King was supposed
personally to preside, assisted by the
First Common-Law Judge, who took
the title and dignity of Lord Chief-Jus-
tice. And so it happened that when
Queen Victoria opened in December,
1882, the present royal courts of justice
in London, she revived that ancient ira
dition in her own person. When all
had been done as appointed, the courts
opened, and the greater ceremony of
the day completed, the Attorney-Genor
al, advancing from the ranks of the
Queens counsel below the dais, came to
the steps of the Queens chair and said:
s'May it please your Majesty, on behalf
of the bar of England, l come to pray
that your Majesty will be pleased to d.
rect that the proceedings of this day
shall be entered on the records of the
Supreme Court" The Lord Chancellor,
on behalf of the Queen, to this request
made answer: "Her Majesty has been
pleased to direct that this shall be done
as prayed" And after this fashion
Queen Victoria revived the common
practice of her ancestors of the House
Of Plantagenet of the thirteenth cen
fury. She presided in her w court, in
the midst Of the Judges, with the chic!
representatives of the bar before her
though counsel learned in the law wer'
hardly in vogue, it need scarcely b.
said, in the earlier days of the "Cour
Of our Lord the King holden before
himself.-Lomdom Cor. Boston Herald.