e case in due course was
tried at the Maidstone Assizes, and the plaintiff obtained a verdict for
400 pounds for herself and 125 pounds for each of the children. A rule
for a new trial was granted by the Divisional Court: the rule for the new
trial was discharged by the Court of Appeal. The Lords reversed the
decision of the Court of Appeal, and ordered a new trial. New trial took
place at Guildhall, City of London, before Mr. Baron Pollock; jury again
found for the plaintiff, with 700 pounds _agreed_ damages: Company
thereby saving 200 pounds. Once more rule for new trial granted by
Divisional Court: once more rule discharged by Court of Appeal: once more
House of Lords reverse decision of Court of Appeal, and order _second new
trial_. So that after more than four years of harassing litigation, this
poor widow and her children are left in the same position that they were
in immediately after the accident--except that they are so much the worse
as being liable for an amount of costs which need not be calculated. The
case was tried by competent judges and special juries; and yet, by the
subtleties of the doctrine of contributory negligence, questions of such
extreme nicety are raised that a third jury are required to give an
opinion _upon the same state of facts_ upon which two juries have already
decided in favour of the plaintiff and her children.

Such is the power placed by our complicated, bewildering, and inartistic
mode of procedure, in the hands of a rich Company.

No one can call in question the wisdom or the learning of the House of
Lords: it is above criticism, and beyond censure; but the House of Lords
itself works upon the basis of our system of Procedure, and as that is
neither beyond criticism nor censure, I unhesitatingly ask, _Can Old
Fogeyism and Pettifoggism further go_?

RICHARD HARRIS.

LAMB BUILDING, TEMPLE,
_October_, 1883.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

When Old Fogeyism is being lowered to his last resting place,
Pettifoggism, being his chief mourner, will be so overwhelmed with grief
that he will tumble into the same grave. How then to hasten the demise
of this venerable Humbug is the question. Some are for letting him die a
natural death, others for reducing him gradually by a system of slow
starvation: for myself, I confess, I am for knocking him on the head at
once. Until this event, so long wished for by al