"appeal" covers (1) a
removal of a cause to a higher court for retrial on all the questions of
law or fact involved, or (2) taking up points of law only by proceedings
in error, for revision by a higher court. Decrees in admiralty,
bankruptcy and equity, in the federal courts, are the subjects of an
appeal; judgments in actions at law, of a writ of error. On an equity
appeal the evidence taken at the original hearing is reported at length
to the appellate court, and it has the right to review the conclusions
of fact reached by the court below and come to different ones. This,
however, is seldom done, the appeal being almost always decided on
points of law based upon the conclusions of fact reached in the original
hearing. In admiralty appeals the conclusions of fact reached by the
trial court are specially set forth, and are final.

"Appeal" in many of the states is the general term for reviewing any
judgment of an inferior court on assignments of error. It is also often
used to signify a mode of reviewing proceedings of municipal bodies,
affecting the interests of particular persons, e.g. in matters of
licences or assessments.

In criminal prosecutions an appeal, or writ of error on points of law,
is almost everywhere allowed by statute to the defendant, and often to
the state. (_United States_ v. _Sanges_, 144 United States Reports, 310;
_State_ v. _Lee_, 65 Connecticut Reports, 265.)

By the constitution of the United States the Supreme Court is vested
with "appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such
exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make."
This provision is held not to create but only to authorize the creation
of the jurisdiction. In the words of Chancellor Kent, "If congress had
not provided any rule to regulate the proceedings in appeal, the court
could not exercise an appellate jurisdiction: and, if a rule be
provided, the court could not depart from it." In pursuance of this
principle, the Supreme Court decided in _Clarke_ v. _Bazadone_ that a
writ of error did not lie to that court from a court of the United
States territory north-west of the Ohio, because the act had not
authorized an appeal or writ of error from such a court (_Commentaries_,
i. 324). The appellate jurisdiction of the court is now regulated by
title 13 chap. ii. of the Revised Statutes of the United States (1873),
SS 690-710; and by the acts enumerated at p. 901 of the Revised
Statutes, United St