A similar power often vested in judges at chambers is that of appointing a temporary receiver; that is, of some one to take temporary charge of property in behalf of and as agent of the court, when this seems necessary in order to preserve it. If the affairs of a commercial partnership get into such a condition that the partners cannot agree on the mode of conducting it, such an appointment can be made to tide matters along for the time being. So in case of an insolvent debtor his estate may, under certain circumstances, be placed in a receiver's hands by a summary order, issued out of court. It may be added that by the statutes both of the United States and of all the States many powers of a _quasi_-judicial character are conferred on judges to be exercised out of court, such as those of ordering the arrest of one suspected of criminal conduct, examining into the charges against him on his arrest, and admitting him to bail or sending him to jail for want of it. * * * * * CHAPTER XIX APPELLATE COURTS For each of the States and Territories as well as for the United States there is one supreme court of appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of the United States can entertain original actions of certain kinds.[Footnote: See Chap. IX.] A few also of the State supreme courts of appeal have a limited original jurisdiction. This is generally confined to equity causes, election contests and certain actions for extraordinary relief known as prerogative writs, such as informations in the nature of _quo warranto_ and writs of mandamus. The term "appeal" in its strictest signification is confined to a removal of a cause after trial to a higher court for a new trial on the merits. It is also and now more commonly used to denote such a removal for the purpose only of inquiring whether any legal errors were committed on the trial or are to be found in the judgment. In this sense it covers proceedings by a writ of error, and any other mode of reviewing questions of law.[Footnote: See the _Federalist_, No. LXXXI.] If it does not appear from the record of the lower court that any of the errors that may be claimed (or "assigned," as the phrase is) exist, the judgment is affirmed; otherwise the cause is sent back for a new trial or, if the objections are fundamental and fatal to its maintenance, is dismissed.