What are the duties of the Lord Chancellor of England, and of the Lord Chief Justice? Tell something of the courts over which they preside.
Reader.
Answer.—The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain is the highest legal authority in the kingdom, the confidential adviser of the sovereign, and in rank precedes all except the members of the royal family and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is a political officer, and one of the Cabinet, the President of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and also a member of the Privy Council, a Court of Appeal composed of the Lord Chancellor, the Judges of the High Court of Justice, and four other judges. He is created without writ or patent, by the simple delivery of the great seal, of which he becomes the keeper, and during his term of office he acts as prolocutor for the sovereign in Parliament.
The High Court has five divisions: The Queen’s Bench—the Supreme Court of Common Law—presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of England, assisted by four “puisne justices;” the Chancery, presided over by the Master of Rolls and three vice chancellors; the Common Pleas, by the Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and four “puisne justices;” the Court of Exchequer, by the Lord Chief Baron and four “puisne barons;” the Court for Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty cases, by a president, judge, and admiralty advocate, Queen’s proctor, and admiralty proctor.
RIVERS, RAILROADS, AND MINES.
Berlin, Neb.
Please to give the coal area, product of gold and silver, and number of miles of river navigation and railroads in the United States and in other countries.
Peter Thomas.
Answer.—The coal area of the world is distributed as follows, according to a late estimate made by the geologist Le Conte: