Any one who has sat on a Bar Committee, or on a Committee of Censors, in America must have been struck by the frequent instances where practitioners have fallen into error from sheer ignorance, due to inexperience or to the fact that they had not been born and bred to the best traditions. This is especially true in these days when law schools are grinding out members of the Bar who have had no real professional preceptors. As disbarment or suspension is too severe a penalty, such lapses pass unreproved and the standards sink, a result much more deplorable than the failure of individual discipline. Many a young lawyer would be induced to mend his ways if privately and fraternally informed of professional disapproval and some would be glad to seek the judgment of such a body if it could be had without exposing names or particulars. In this way, too, a body of rulings on the professional proprieties applicable to American conditions would be steadily forced upon the attention of the whole profession, instead of being locked in the breasts of the more reputable members to govern merely their own conduct. CHAPTER VIII THE CIVIL COURTS THE GENERAL SYSTEM--DIFFERENT COURTS--RULES OF PRACTICE MADE BY LORD CHANCELLOR--JURIES, COMMON AND SPECIAL--JUDGES AND HOW APPOINTED--JUDGES' PAY--COSTS--COURT NOTES--SOME DIFFERENCE IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN METHODS. The general system of the English courts may be indicated without detailing the exact limitations of jurisdiction which would be too technical for present purposes. Prior to 1873 there were a large number of courts with various titles, which had grown up through centuries of custom and legislation. But they were nearly all abolished by an Act of Parliament, or rather their functions were merged into the present far simpler system. In this radical re-arrangement, however, two courts--the highest and the lowest--survived; the House of Lords and the County Courts remain as they were. Thus came into being the Supreme Court of Judicature, composed of two branches--the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The High Court is the one of immediate interest because here are begun all litigations of every description, excepting the minor matters which go to the County Courts, or, perhaps, to the Registrar's Court. The High Court is separated into three parts known as the King's Bench Division, devoted to jury trials which constitute the great bulk of business, the Chancery Division, where equity suits are considered, and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division which deals, as its name implies, with the estates of deceased persons, with divorce, and with marine matters.