tors contrived to bring their claims within its jurisdiction, by
dividing the amount into bills of L50. This evasion of the law, although
it defeated the intention of a superior court and lessened its business,
was useful to both parties; it decreased the difficulty and expenses of
suits. It was more equitable in its operation than the supreme court:
the owner of a vessel could carry up his own witnesses to Sydney, and at
the termination of a trial convey them home without delay; but the less
opulent debtor or creditor found himself practically excluded from
redress.

Mr. Judge Abbot was, however, not eager to assume his office, and it was
not until 1816 that he commenced operations. The accumulation of debts
must have been great, for at his first session fourteen hundred plaints
were entered: nor did he exhaust the suitors by delay, for eleven
hundred were disposed of during that year. Two inhabitants, chosen by
the governor sat as assessors; and being known, and knowing all parties,
they often discussed in private beforehand the causes awaiting their
verdict![107]

The deputy judge advocate held in contempt the net-work of the law, by
which equitable rights are sometimes entangled: his was a court of
request without appeal, and he took pleasure in asserting its finality.
For the convenience of suitors he allowed agents to practice in his
court: these gentlemen had somewhat more legal knowledge than the judge,
and often exasperated his antipathies by its ostentation. They would
dwell on the dignity of his court: his decision was irrevocable; even
the lord chancellor of England, they would say, was subject to the
revision of a still higher court than his own, but the deputy judge
advocate decided the cause for ever. Trusted with such resistless
jurisdiction--such onerous responsibility, how great must be his care to
avoid an error beyond correction--an injustice that could not be undone
but by an act of parliament! Such were their addresses: occasionally
heard with complacency--and, it is said, not always unsuccessful. The
most famous of these practitioners were Messrs. R. L. Murray and Evan
Henry Thomas. The last gentleman was an emigrant, and issued a
rhetorical advertisement for employment as a preceptor; but renouncing
that calling, he provided himself with a blue bag, the sole
qualification essential, and paraded the vicinity of the court: here
some suitor found him. What he wanted in experience he made up by
ind