defaced by the innumerable witnesses who have blundered into them, kicking their shoes against the woodwork.  The entire apparatus is movable, and can be taken to pieces in ten minutes, or part of it employed for meetings of any description.  There is nothing appropriate or convenient; it is a makeshift, and altogether unequal to the pretensions of a Court now perhaps the most useful and most resorted to of any that sit in the country.

Quarter sessions and assizes come only at long intervals, are held only in particular time-honoured places, and take cognisance only of very serious offences which happily are not numerous.  The County Court at the present day has had its jurisdiction so enlarged that it is really, in country districts, the leading tribunal, and the one best adapted to modern wants, because its procedure is to a great extent free from obsolete forms and technicalities.  The Plaintiff and the Defendant literally face their Judge, practically converse with him, and can tell their story in their own simple and natural way.  It is a fact that the importance and usefulness of the country County Court has in most places far outgrown the arrangements made for it.  The Judges may with reason complain that while their duties have been enormously added to, their convenience has not been equally studied, nor their salaries correspondingly increased.

In front, and below the Judge’s desk, just outside the red curtain, is a long and broad table, at which the High Bailiff sits facing the hall.  By his side the Registrar’s clerk from time to time makes notes in a ponderous volume which contains a minute and exact record of every claim.  Opposite, and at each end, the lawyers have their chairs and strew the table with their papers.

As a rule a higher class of lawyers appear in the County Court than before the Petty Sessional Bench.  A local solicitor of ability no sooner gets a ‘conveyancing’ practice than he finds his time too valuable to be spent arguing in cases of assault or petty larceny.  He ceases to attend the Petty Sessions, unless his private clients are interested or some exceptional circumstances induce him.  In the County Court cases often arise which concern property, houses and lands, and the fulfilment of contracts.  Some of the very best lawyers of the district may consequently be seen at that table, and frequently a barrister or two of standing specially retained is among them.

A low wooden partition, crossing the entire width of the hall, separates the ‘bar’ from the general public, Plaintiff and Defendant being admitted through a gangway.  As the hall is not carpeted, nor covered with any material, a new-comer must walk on tip-toe to avoid raising the echo of hollow boards, or run the risk of a reproof from the Judge, anxiously endeavouring to catch the accents of a mumbling witness.  Groups of people stand near the windows whispering, and occasionally forgetting, in the eagerness of the