COMMON PLEAS, COURT OF. One of the great historic tribunals of the Common law in England. It was instituted, as a separate juris diction, in the reign of Henry III., under the name of the Court of Common Bench, but its real origin lies further back, in the provision of :Magna. Charta that common pleas (coin munia plaeita) should no longer follow the King's Court (Curia Regis) in its wanderings over the kingdom, hut should lie held in a fixed place (Magna Marta, 1217, s. 17). The rapid rise in power and influence of the court held by the king in person, or by his judges who at tended him, combined with the necessity of bringing all causes, whether of a public or pri vate nature, to the attention of a constantly moving court, constituted, for private suitors, a grave abuse. This was remedied by definitely establishing at Westminster, the provision of the charter above referred to, a sullieient num ber of justices and barons of the King's Court to Lear the private causes (common pleas) winch could not conveniently follow the royal prog resses. From this beginning down to the reform of the English judicature in 1875, the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, as it was com monly called, shared with the Court of King's Bench the greater part of the common-law juris diction of England.
As distinguished from the King's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas was, as its title IN-mild seem to suggest, the popular and common court of the kingdom, having exclusive jurisdiction in all real actions, or suits relating to land. and in actions between private persons to try private rights: while the King's Bench was, for a long time at least, limited to pleas of the Crown, Le. public causes. and appeals from county courts and other inferior jurisdictions. This division of business threw the Common Bench the great mass of litigation, so that Sir Edward Coke called it 'the lock and key of the common law,' and Sir Orlando Bridgman described it as `the common shop for justice.' The court was composed of a chief justice and as many com mon (or puisne) justices as the business of the court required. The number of these varied at different poriods from four to eight. It was abolished by the Judicature Acts, 1S73-75. See CURIA BEGIS ; COURT; EXCHEQUER; KING'S PENCIL. The origin and history of the English courts of justice are concisely and accurately de scribed by Inde•wick, The King's Peace: A Ills torical Sketch of English Law Courts (London and New York, 1895).