The principal defense in this case, duly made by the defendant, by formal plea, as well as by objection to the plaintiff's evidence, and sustained by the circuit court, was that the indenture of lease sued on was void in law, because beyond the powers of each of the corporations by and between whom it was made. There is a preliminary question of practice, arising out of the manner in which the case was disposed of below, which is deserving of notice, although not mentioned by counsel in argument. The circuit court, in ordering a nonsuit because in its opinion the evidence offered by the plaintiff was insufficient in law to maintain the action, acted in accordance with the statute of Pennsylvania, which provides that 'it shall be lawful for the judge presiding at the trial to order a judgment of nonsuit to be entered, if in his opinion the plaintiff shall have given no such evidence as in law is sufficient to maintain the action, with leave, nevertheless, to move the court in banc to set aside such judgment of nonsuit; and, in case the said court in banc shall refuse to set aside the nonsuit, the plaintiff may remove the record by writ of error into the supreme court for revision and review, in like manner and with like effect as he might remove a judgment rendered against him upon a demurrer to evidence.' St. Pa. March 11, 1836, § 7; Id. March 11, 1875, § 1; 2 Purd. Dig. (11th Ed.) pp. 1362, 1363. Under that statute, as expounded by Chief Justice GIBSON, the judge can order a nonsuit, only when all the evidence introduced, with every inference of fact that a jury might draw fromit in favor of the plaintiff, appears to be insufficient in matter of law to sustain a verdict; and the defendant's motion for a nonsuit is equivalent to a demurrer to evidence, differing only in the judgment thereon not being a final determination of the rights of the parties, for if it is in favor of the plaintiff the case must be submitted to the jury, and if in favor of the defendant it is no bar to a new action. Smyth v. Craig, 3 Watts & S. 14; Fleming v. Insurance Co., Brightly, N. P. 102; Bournonville v. Goodall, 10 Pa. St. 133. It is true that a plaintiff, who appears by the record to have voluntarily become nonsuit, cannot sue out a writ of error. U.S. v. Evans, 5 Cranch, 280; Evans v. Phillips, 4 Wheat. 73; Cossar v. Reed, 17 Q. B. 540. But in the case of a compulsory nonsuit it is otherwise; and a plaintiff, against whom a judgment of nonsuit has been rendered without his consent and against his objection, is entitled to relief by writ of error. Elmore v. Grymes, 1 Pet. 469; Strother v. Hutchinson, 4 Bing. N. C. 83, 5 Scott, 346, 6 Dow. 238; Voorhees v. Coombs, 33 N. J. Law, 482. There are many cases in the books in which this court has held that a court of the United States had no power to order a nonsuit without the plaintiff's acquiescence. Elmore v. Grymes, above cited; Crane v. Morris, 6 Pet. 598, 609; Silsby v. Foote, 14 How. 218; Castle v. Bullard, 23 How. 172, 183. Yet, instead of overruling, upon that ground alone, exceptions to a refusal to order a nonsuit, this court, more than once, has considered and determined questions of law upon the decision of which the nonsuit was refused in the court below. Crane v. Morris and Castle v. Bullard, above cited. The difference between a motion to order a nonsuit of the plaintiff and a motion to direct a verdict for the defendant is, as observed by Mr. Justice FIELD, delivering a recent opinion of this court, 'rather a matter of form than of substance, except [that] in the case of a nonsuit a new action may be brought, whereas in the case of a verdict the action is ended, unless a new trial be granted, either upon motion or upon appeal.' Oscanyan v. Arms Co., 103 U.S. 261, 264. Whether a defendant in an action at law may present in the one form or in the other, or by demurrer to the evidence, the defense that the plaintiff, upon his own case, shows no cause of action, is a question of 'practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding,' as to which the courts of the United States are now required by the act of congress of June 1, 1872, c. 255, § 5, (17 St. 197,) re-enacted in section 914 of the Revised Statutes, to conform, as near as may be, to those existing in the courts of the state within which the trial is had. Sawin v. Kenny, 93 U.S. 289; Ex parte Boyd, 105 U.S. 647; Chareaugay Ore, etc., Co., Petitioner, 128 U.S. 544, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 150; Glenn v. Sumner, 132 U.S. 152, 156, 10 sup. Ct. Rep. 41.