126 PAST AND PRl.SK.Vf OF By the Statute of this year (33 George III , C. 1), "Benefit of Clergy" was still al¬ lowed in certain minor felonies, but, not¬ withstanding the plea, the person convicted was liable, in the discretion of the court, to be branded in the hand with a hot iron by the gaoler in open court, to be whipped in public or to be imprisoned for a period of not more than one year; so that as a protection "Benefit of Qergy' had limitations tending towards unpopularity. The records of this same year (1792), preserve a very important minute made in the case of Robert Clark vs. John Cam ¬ bridge, setting forth that this case had first been tried in the supreme court of judica¬ ture of this Island, that it had there been ap¬ pealed to the governor in council, and from this court of appeal had been further ap¬ pealed to His Majesty in council. This case is of especial interest, in view of the decision of the supreme court of Canada in Kelly vs. Sullivan, the first case reported in the first volume of the supreme court of Canada reports. This last was- an appeal from the supreme court of this province and the objection was taken that, before ap¬ pealing to the supreme court of Can¬ ada, an appeal should have been taken to the lieutenant governor in council of this province, since by the supreme court act of Canada it is provided that an appeal to the Canadian court can be taken only from the court of last resort in any province. This objection was overruled by the supreme court of Canada , where great stress was laid upon the supposed fact that there was no existing document of any kind showing the establishing of such a court. The minute above referred to is an existing document proving conclusively the fact that a court of appeal consisting of the lieutenant gov¬ ernor in council was established and went into operation in this Island prior to 1792. This question may yet prove of interest. From one in 1774, the practicing barris¬ ters in 1791 had increased to three, who now divided among them the burdens and profits of all the legal business of the colony. Though from a present day standpoint the laborers seem to have been few and the work great, yet for some time a conviction had been growing that "three was a crowd." The attorney-gereral, Aplin, accordingly took proceedings against Mr. Grandin which obliged him to retire from the field, his name being stricken off the roll for express¬ ing his mind too freely about some of the officers of the court. He had been in prac¬ tice for eighteen years. His name appears frequently through all that period as an ad¬ vocate of the cause of others and some¬ times defending himself against charges of a serious character. But from this time for¬ ward, his name no more appears in the rec¬ ords of the court, except as having aban¬ doned an appeal in a cause of his own. For one year thereafter Messirs. Aplin & Mc- Gowan reigned over the whole field, then Mr. Thomas Price was admitted under a license from the lieutenant governor. Thirteen days after his admission he ap¬ peared in his first case and for several years his name occurs in various matters before the court. About this time Attorney General Ap ¬ lin scored another triumph. A creditor had presumed to bring an action against him as if he were an ordinary citizen. The creditor lost his suit, but gained this information from the court that an "attorney could not be mum except by bill of privilege." In 1798 Attorney General Alpin , by rea¬ son of a decision against him on a charge