at annapolis before revolution 35

commissions, oaths of lawyers and other papers
which came into the office of the Governor and
Council in the eighteenth century. The procedure
exhibited followed the forms established in Eng-
land; rulings made during the course of trial at
common law were brought up by bills of excep-
tions,¹⁷ and deficiencies in records were supplied by
writs of diminution.¹⁸ And beyond that point, as
has already been observed, the old procedure upon
writ of error in the House of Lords was continued
except for the relaxation of the requirement that
the original record be transmitted, and except for
the retention here of the auxiliary writ of scire
facias ad audiendum errores, or to hear errors. It
was so continued until the nineteenth century.
The practice is unfamiliar in Maryland now, and
a fuller description of it, with copies of the forms
from some of the eighteenth century cases, may be
desirable. During the royal government, 1692 to
1715, all writs were issued in the name of the
reigning sovereign; and after the restoration of
the proprietary government, and until 1776, all
were issued in the name of the Proprietary.

For the original writ of error application was
made to a register in the Chancery Office, from
which original writs issued under the seal; and it
was issued, of course, in a translated form of the
old Latin writ. The following, from a case in
1705,¹⁹ is an illustration:

17. See, for instance the following cases reported in 1 Harris &
McHenry: Robins v. Bush, 50, 57; Robinson v. Lloyd, 78, 80;
Cheseldine's Lessee v. Brewer, 152.

18. H. D. No. 1, folios 57, 58 and 722.

19. Ibid, fol. 180.