The history of the courts of Upper Canada has been referred to in the foregoing pages sufficiently to illustrate the jurisdiction with regard to mortgages at law and in equity respectively. The subsequent changes in the constitution of the courts may be briefly mentioned.

By statutes of the province of Canada passed in 1849, the superior courts of law and equity in Upper Canada were reorganized. In place of the provision of the statute of 1837 under which the judicial powers of the Court of Chancery were exercised by a single vice-chancellor it was enacted that the court should be presided over by a chief judge to be called the Chancellor of Upper Canada, and that there should be two additional judges to be called vice-chancellors (p). A new court to be called the Court of Common Pleas was also established, consisting of a chief justice and two puisne justices (q). Upon this court was conferred a jurisdiction identical with that possessed by the existing court of Queen's Bench, and it was provided that in the first instance two puisne judges should be transferred to the new court from the Court of Queen's Bench, which was thus reduced to a chief justice and two puisne judges, as originally constituted.

(o) Cf. R.S.O. 1897, c. 51, s. 27. (p) 12 V. c. 64, ss. 1 and 2. (q) 12 V. c. 63.

The total number of judges having been increased by the statutes above mentioned from six to nine, advantage was taken of the opportunity to establish a new "Court of Error and Appeal" which it was considered would afford a more satisfactory appellate tribunal than the old court of the governor and council. All the judges of the three superior courts of law and equity were constituted members of the new appellate court, which was to be presided over by the Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, or in his absence by the judge who should be next entitled to precedence, and appeals were authorized to be brought from any of the three superior courts, with a right of further appeal in certain cases to the Queen in council (r).

On the 10th of June, 1857, an act (s) was passed " for further increasing the efficiency and simplifying the proceedings of the Court of Chancery." By the first section it was enacted that the court should thereafter "possess the like power, authority and jurisdiction as the Court of Chancery in England possesses, as a court of equity, to administer justice in all cases in which there may be no adequate remedy at law; provided always that nothing herein shall be held to impair or diminish the jurisdiction heretofore conferred by law on the said court." On the 18th of March, 1865, it was enacted (t) that: "the Court of Chancery in Upper Canada shall have the same equitable jurisdiction in matters of revenue as the Court of Exchequer in England possesses."

The Court of Chancery in Upper Canada had thus acquired a complete equitable jurisdiction, and all the superior courts of original jurisdiction had assumed the form under which they continued until the passing of the Ontario Judicature Act of 1881. Long before the last mentioned date, however, some equitable powers had been conferred on the courts of common law and some powers formerly peculiar to courts of common law had been conferred on the court of equity, and in 1873 by the Administration of Justice Act (u) a long step was taken towards rendering the jurisdiction of the courts of law and that of the court of equity concurrent. In 1874 provision was made for the constitution of an appellate court of four judges entirely distinct from the courts of original jurisdiction (v), and its name was changed from the Court of Error and Appeal to the Court of Appeal (w).

(r) 12 V. c. 63, ss. 37 to 40, 46. (s) 20 V. c. 56. (t) 28 V. c. 17.