gh within
the mischief of the act, so that in any action wherein the plaintiff
might have costs if judgment were given for him, the defendant if
successful should have costs against the plaintiff. The policy of these
enactments is expressed to be the discouragement of frivolous and unjust
suits. This policy was carried out by other and later acts. The
Limitations Act 1623, S 6, ordered that if the plaintiff in an action of
slander recovered less than 40s. damages, the plaintiff should be
allowed no more as costs than he got as damages. By 43 Elizabeth c. 6 it
was enacted that in any personal action not being for any title or
interest in land, nor concerning the freehold or inheritance of lands
nor for battery, where the damages did not amount to 40s. no more costs
than damages could be allowed. By 3 & 4 Vict. c. 24 (Lord Denman's Act
1840), where the plaintiff in an action of tort recovered less than
40s., he was not allowed costs unless the judge certified that the
action was really brought to try a right besides the right to recover
damages, or that the injury was wilful or malicious.

All these enactments have been superseded by the Judicature Acts, but in
the case of slander on women the provisions of the act of 1623 were
re-enacted in the Slander of Women Act 1891.

_Supreme Court._--The general rule now in force in the Supreme Court of
Judicature is as follows:--"Subject to the provisions of the Judicature
Acts and the rules of the court made thereunder, and to the express
provision of any statute whether passed before or after the 14th of
August 1890, the costs of and incident to all proceedings in the Supreme
Court, including the administration of estates and trusts, shall be in
the discretion of the court or judge, and the court or judge shall have
full power to determine by whom and to what extent such costs are to be
paid. Provided (1) that nothing herein contained shall deprive an
executor, administrator, trustee or mortgagee who has not unreasonably
carried on or resisted any proceedings of any right to costs out of a
particular estate or fund to which he would be entitled under the rules
hitherto (i.e. before 1883) acted upon in the chancery division as
successor of the court of chancery; (2) that where an action, cause,
matter or issue is tried with a jury, the costs shall follow the event
unless the judge who tried the case or the court shall for good cause
otherwise order." (R.S.C., O. 65, r. 1.)

Th