officers of this description. But ordinarily judges are
appointed to hold some regular court, with stated sessions, which
is always in existence. To such a judge considerable powers of a
judicial nature are usually given for exercise when his court is
not in session.

The writ of _habeas corpus_, for instance, may be issued
either by a court of record or by a judge of such a court, if
applied for when the court is not in actual session. In the
latter case, the return of the writ is made to him, the trial had
before him, and judgment rendered out of court, or, as it is
styled, "at chambers." While sitting for such a purpose, he may
be regarded as exercising functions which really belong to the
court and acting as a part of it.

Statutes often, in case of a court having but a single judge,
give him power to hold special courts whenever he may think
proper. In such a case no very definite line is drawn between
what judicial business the judge does and what the court does.
While the proper and normal constitution of a court of record
requires the attendance not only of a judge, but of a clerk and a
crier or sheriff's officer, the only one whose presence is
indispensable is the judge. A District Judge of the United
States has this power of holding special courts, and is a court
wherever and whenever he pleases to transact judicial business,
whether he describes himself in such papers or process as he may
issue, as court or judge.[Footnote: The U. S. _v._ The
Schooner "Little Charles," 1 Brockenbrough's Reports, 382.]

The judges of courts having equitable jurisdiction act often out