hat not every county has a separate assize. For example,
on the South-Eastern circuit Huntingdon is grouped with Cambridge; on
the Midland, Rutland is grouped with Lincoln; on the Northern,
Westmorland is grouped with Cumberland; and the North Wales and South
Wales circuits are united, and no assizes are held at some of the
smaller towns. At these assizes criminal business only is taken, except
at Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea, Birmingham and Leeds. The Easter
assizes are held in April and May on two circuits only, viz. at
Manchester and Liverpool on the Northern and at Leeds on the
North-Eastern. Both civil and criminal business is taken at Manchester
and Liverpool, but criminal business only at Leeds.

Other changes were made, with a view to preventing the complete
interruption of the London sittings in the common law division by the
absence of the judges on circuit. The assizes were so arranged as to
commence on different dates in the various circuits. For example, the
summer assizes begin in the South-Eastern and Western circuits on the
29th of May; in the Northern circuit on the 28th of June; in the Midland
and Oxford circuits on the 16th of June; in the North-Eastern circuit on
the 6th of July; in the North Wales circuit on the 7th of July; and in
the South Wales circuit on the 11th of July. Again, there has been a
continuous development of what may be called the single-judge system. In
the early days of the new order the members of the court of appeal and
the judges of the chancery division shared the circuit work with the
judges in the common law division. This did not prove to be a
satisfactory arrangement. The assize work was not familiar and was
uncongenial to the chancery judges, who had but little training or
experience to fit them for it. Arrears increased in chancery, and the
appeal court was shorn of much of its strength for a considerable part
of the year. The practice was discontinued in or about the year 1884.
The appeal and chancery judges were relieved of the duty of going on
circuit, and an arrangement was made by the treasury for making an
allowance for expenses of circuit to the common law judges, on whom the
whole work of the assizes was thrown. In order to cope with the assize
work, and at the same time keep the common law sittings going in London,
an experiment, which had been previously tried by Lord Cairns and Lord
Cross (then home secretary) and discontinued, was revived. Instead of
two ju