A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

The Chief Justice shall make niles to regulate the
practice of the Court, and the fees of the
Prothonotary, Attorneys, Sheriff, and other officers
thereof, and shall prescribe the forms of proceeding
to be used therein; but until such rules are made, the
practiœ and proceedings shall be regulated by the
niles in force in England at the time of the transfer of
this Province to Canada, in so far as such rules can
be applied to the circumstances of the ~rovince?
The Supreme Court, as established by the act of 1871, never
wnvened. The a d had stipulated, however, that General Quarterly Court
should continue, with full powers, until a chief justice was appointed. But
the federal govemment delayed appointing a judge for more than a year.
Francis G. Johnson, former Recorder of Rupert's Land, who had been
persuaded to return to Manitoba in October 1870, carried out the
functions of the General Quarterly Court until May 1872." Arnong other
things, Johnson drafted the regulations for the province's first eledion.
The Legislature amended the Supreme Court Act in 1872 to
rename the court as 'Court of Queen's Bench." The province's first Chief
Justice, Alexander Morris, was appointed July 2, 1872. He served in that
capacity only untif December when he took the position of Lieutenant-
Govemor? Puisne Justices J.C. McKeagney and Louis Bétoumay were
appointed on October 7 and 31 respectively, and swom during
De~ernber.'~ The first sitting of Court of Queen's Bench, Manitoba, took
place October 8, 1872, with Chief Justice Morris presiding, since
McKeagney and Bétoumay had not yet arrived to take up their positions.