754 V. BENCH AND BAR rights of neutrals, blockade and contraband of war, enabled him to build up a high reputation as an authority on inter- national law. The ecclesiastical controversies of his time, arising out of the ritualistic movement in the English Church, were also determined by him with broad-minded liber ah ty.^ (d) Courts of Appeal The right of appeal is a modern conception. Down to very recent times it was rigidly withheld save in a strictly limited class of cases ; and even in those cases in which an appeal was allowed the appellate jurisdiction was administered on principles which were anomalous and irrational in the ex- treme. In common law cases only matters of error apparent on the record were reviewable, and no appeal lay on a motion for a new trial or to enter a verdict on a non-suit. No error lay upon a special case framed by consent without a trial, but only from a special verdict where the parties had arranged or the judge had directed at the trial a special statement of the facts ; in other words, the expense and delay of a useless trial were required as a condition of appeal. And even where appeal was possible the appellant was held to the strictest observance of all the difficult formalities involved in challenging the direction of a judge by means of a bill of exceptions. The Exchequer Chamber, the intermediate court of appeal in common law, practically dates from 1832. The Court of Appeal in Chancery was not established until 1851. The courts of final appeal, the House of Lords and the Privy Council, are of great antiquity ; but- prior to the nineteenth century their judicial functions were of secondary impor-
- Some of Lushington's conspicuous cases in Admiralty are: The
Milan, Lush. 388; Franciska, 2 Spink's Adm. and Ecc. 1; Banda and Kirwee Booty, L. R., 1 A. and E. 109; Batavia, 9 Moo. P. C. 286; Europe, Br. and Lush. 89; Pacific, ib. 245; Helen, L. R., 1 A. and E. 1. In matrimonial affairs see Dysart v. Dysart, 3 Notes of Cases, 324; Williams v. Brown, 1 Curt. 53; Braithwaite v. Hook, 8 Jur. (N. S.) 1186. His principal ecclesiastical cases are: Williams v. Bishop of Cape- town; Westerton v. Liddell; Ditcher v. Denison; Burder v. Heath; Bishop of Salisbury v. Williams; Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter; Long V. Bishop of Capetown; and the Colenso case.
