172 Law Reforms. . [August, 



they are worth large sums of money when they have not property enough 

 under heaven to pay the toll upon Waterloo-bridge. This abuse has 

 led to another, that is, that all kinds of bail are subject to the same ordeal, 

 and the client in all cases put to the same expense ; as if vigilance and 

 care such as are necessary to defeat the practices of the Jews we have 

 alluded to, were equally necessary in all other cases. The new rules are 

 well devised for abating the inconvenience arising under this head. 



The first of the rules provides that bail may be justified at the same 

 time that they are put, substituting for the present system of giving notice 

 that they intend to justify in court, a notice four days before the day of 

 putting in bail, that they will justify at the same time they become bail. 

 In order to prevent the plaintiff from being imposed upon by irresponsi- 

 ble bail, he may, upon giving one day's notice of his desire to do so, 

 have three days' time to inquire into the circumstances of the proposed 

 bail, if they reside in town, and six days if they are in the country, 

 during which period the proceedings of the cause are to be staid. This 

 provision at once prevents imposition on the one hand and unfair haste 

 on the other. 



In order to make the notice of the bail effectual, it is provided that 

 the plaintiff shall have notice of the street and number at which the bail 

 reside, in addition to their formal descriptions, and of all the streets 

 and numbers in streets at which any of them shall have been resident 

 during the last six months, and whether they are housekeepers or free- 

 holders. 



Justification of bail is almost as often an oppression against the debtor 

 as it is an advantage to the creditor, and to guard against needless oppo- 

 sition it is provided, that if the exception to the bail shall fail after their 

 names and descriptions shall have been verified upon affidavit, that the 

 costs of opposing shall be paid by the plaintiff; but if, on the other 

 hand, it shall succeed, then that the defendant shall pay them. And 

 the bail may be justified out of court upon their own affidavit unless 

 they are excepted against, and that after notice of them has once been 

 given that they shall not be changed without leave of the court, or of 

 one of the judges of the court. 



Although nothing is more indisputable than that the plaintiff in every 

 action ought to furnish the defendant with a clear and succinct state- 

 ment of the nature of his demand, in order that the latter may " make 

 his peace with his adversai-y," if the case admits of compromise or satis- 

 faction, yet nothing is more difficult, — it often becomes very expensive 

 to obtain such a statement. To obviate this difliculty the new orders 

 provide, that in all the more common cases of actions for debt or upon 

 assumpsit, the plaintiff shall deliver the particulars of his demand, it 

 they can be comprised vithin the space of 216 words ; and if not that 

 he shall deliver such a statement of the nature of his claim, and the sum 

 he asserts to be due, as may be comprised within that number of words. 

 To secure compliance with this order, it is declared that if it shall 

 become necessary for the defendant to procure the particulars by sum- 

 mons in the ordinary way, the costs of such summons, and the attend- 

 ance upon them, and the delivery of the particulars under it, shall not 

 be allowed. And to make the matter still more clear to the judge as 

 well as to the party, the plaintiff is enjoined to annex a copy of his par- 

 ticulars to the record when it shall be delivered to the marshal in order 

 to be set down for trial. 



