ls within the judicial system were once numerous and extremely
complex. As reconstituted, however, by the great Judicature Act of
1873, which, together with an Amending Act, took effect near the close
of 1875, they have acquired a considerable degree of orderliness and
even of simplicity. The measure of 1873 abolished the appellate
jurisdiction of the House of Lords, but the Amending Act three years
later rescinded this modification, and, as has been explained
elsewhere, the House of Lords is still a court of very great
importance.[251] Aside from the Lords, however, the higher courts of
the realm--the Chancery, the three great Common Law courts, the
Admiralty, Probate, and Divorce courts, and the intermediate courts of
appeal from these tribunals of first instance--were consolidated by
the legislation of 1873-1875 to form one grand organization, the
Supreme Court of Judicature, which was thereupon cut into two
branches, the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The High
Court of Justice was assigned a general jurisdiction, civil and
criminal, as a court of first instance and also as a court of (p. 174)
appeal from inferior courts. Its jurisdiction represents essentially
the aggregate of jurisdictions of the tribunals which it superseded,
and the various divisions into which it falls perpetuate in a measure
the names and functions of those tribunals. There were originally five
of these divisions. To-day there are three: Chancery, King's Bench
(with which the Common Pleas and Exchequer divisions were united by
order in council of December 16, 1880), and Probate, Divorce, and
Admiralty. Any High Court judge may sit in a tribunal belonging to any
one of these divisions. The Lord Chancellor presides over the Chancery
division, the Chief Justice over the King's Bench. The number of
judges is variable. The Chancery division contains at present six, the
King's Bench fifteen, and the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty division
but two. All save the Chancellor (who is a cabinet official, owing his
position to selection by the premier) are appointed by the crown upon
advice of the Chancellor, and all hold office during good behavior but
may be dismissed on addresses of the two houses of Parliament. The
judges of the High Court sit both singly and in groups. The ordinary
trial of cases is conducted, under a variety of stipulated conditions,
by a single judge, either at Westminster or on circuit. The judges who
go on circ