... that for a contract to be enforced, the parties must have agreed to contract. In defining agreement the common law has often referred to "consensus ad idem," a meeting of minds. In other words the law has traditionally said it must be shown the contracting parties intended to be bound to the same thing. However long held this doctrine in England, there is an equally long held understanding of the problem in establishing consensus ad idem. It is clearly expressed by Chief Justice Brian, when he said in 1478, "the intent of a man cannot be tried, for the devil himself knows not the intent of a man" 1. Judges therefore take an objective view of agreement, classically summed up in the case of Smith v Hughes2 by Blackburn J, who said: "If whatever a man's real intention be, he so conducts himself that a reasonable man would believe he was assenting ...

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