To juftify the Court's proceedings,

Its Forms, its Proceffes, and Pleadings,
And thus, by ways and means unknown
To all but Heroes of the Gown,
A Victory full oft is won

Ere Battle fairly is begun;

Tis true, the wisdom of our Laws

Has made the Effect precede the Cause, But let this Solecifm pafs

pofed to be actually fubfifting before the Capias is fued out, although it is notorious that after the Roll is made up, the Curfitor makes out the ORIGINAL to warrant the Capias, and delivers it to the Filazer to be filed with the Cuftos Brevium.

10 In fictione Juris confiftit æquitas-Legal fictions' are grounded on Principles of Equity

LECTURE V.

Procefs continued-Of the Writs LATITATCAPIAS QUO MINUS-Of filing Common Bail Of Special Bail, or Bail to the Ac

tion.

LIGHT lie the fculptur'd Marble o'er his

Breast,

Blaz'd be his Virtues, and his Sins suppress'd, And wherefoe'er his bones are laid

Thrice honour'd be that Lawyer's Shade, Who Truth with Nonsense first combin'd, And EQUITY with Fiction join'd,

And had the goodness to affign us

2

3

'LATITAT, CAPIAS, and 'QUO MINUS!

LATITAT-A Writ fo termed because it fuggefts, as the ground of the power therein given to the Sheriff, A FICTION in Law, viz. that the Defendant is not to be found in the County of Middlefex to be taken by Bill of

Melodious Sounds! at once they cheer
My Spirits, and regale mine ear,
What Bard howe'er in Fiction vers'd,
By rhyme Jubpana'd, and coerc'd,

Middlefex, as it is called, but lurks and lies hid, or, as it is expreffed, runs up and down fecreting himself, within the Bailiwick of the Sheriff, to whom the writ is directed. F. N. B. 78. It is in practice the first process in order to compel an appearance in the King's Bench, in the like manner as the Capias is in the Common Pleas: the Capias proceeds as was before fhewn upon a Fiction, that the Original had been previously fued out, and the Latitat iffues in the King's Bench upon the like Fiction, that the Bill, which is called the Bill of Middlefex in that Court, has actually iffued to the Sheriff of that County, and been returned as ineffectual.

3 Quo Minus-Is the firft Procefs in the Exchequer, as the Latitat is in the King's Bench; it iffues upon a furmife that the Plaintiff is the King's Debtor, which ferves to give the Court a Jurifdiction. It is called Quo Minus becaufe the Plaintiff, being for this reafon supposed to be the King's Debtor, it is fuggefted as of courfe, that he is the lefs able to pay the Debt by reafon of the Injury complained of in the Action.

Due homage to their worth fhall

pay

And all their various powers difplay?

If haply John-a-Stile provoke
The legal fight 'gainst John-a-Noke,
The LATITAT the foe befieges

And baffles him in Banco Regis.

4

Skill'd with Ac-Etiams to perplex

5

And foil with Bills of Middlefex,

4 Ac-Etiam-An Ac-Etiam is a Clause inserted in the Latitat, by virtue of the 13th Car. 2. c. 2. which enacts, that no writ of Trespass should hold Defendant to bail, &c. any further than an Appearance, unless the true Cause of Action was expreffed in the Writ. And therefore in a Latitat it runs thus, after the words to anfwer A. B. in a Plea, &c. AND ALSO to a Bill of the said A. against the said B. to be exhibited according to the Cuftom of our Court before us for £- upon promifes, or debt, as the Cafe

may be.

5 Bill of Middlefex-A Bill of Middlefex is a Precept directed or presumed to be directed to the Sheriff of that County in which the Court of King's Bench fits, for if it fat in any other County, it would be termed a Bill of that County; it is called a Bill, and figned Per Billam, to distinguish it from the Original. It formerly iffued to warrant the Teftatum, or as it is now called the Latitat, of

QUO MINUS guides the wordy war

6

And mates him at th' Exchequer Bar,
While CAPIAS is rejoic'd to seize

7

And plunder him at Common Pleas :
Nor will it boot th' indignant Noke
Or God or Goddefs to invoke,
Nor God nor Goddess fhall convey
His perfon from th' impending fray,
Doom'd in the Action to appear,

E'en though the ambient Cloud he wear,

Αὐτὰρ Αθήνη

Πολλὺν ἤερα χεῦε φίλα φρονέες” Ὀδυσῆι.

HOм.

At Venus obfcuro gradientes aere fepfit

Et multo nebulæ circum Dea fudit amiatu.

VIRG. Æn.

which above; but modern practice has confolidated the two writs in Effect, by reciting in the Latitat that the Bill of Middlefex has already iffued, which is generally falfe.

Mates him-The Exchequer took its name a Tabulá ad quam affidebant. Camden Brit. p. 113. The Table is covered with cloth resembling a Chefs board, whereon when certain of the King's accounts are made up, the fums are marked and fcored with Counters. Blac. Com. vol. P. 44.

3.

7 Common Pleas-Communia Placita, the Court of Common Pleas holds connufance of all Pleas which are not of