1831.] The Nem Rules of Common Law Praclice. 173 



The absurd system of imparling from one term to another is abolished, 

 and the defendant is to be compelled to plead of the term in which 

 the declaration is filed. Before judgment of 7ion pros, can be signed, 

 the defendant must give four days' notice to the plaintiff. Two sum- 

 monses before a judge, instead of three, are in future to be sufficient. 

 Declarations, de bene esse, are not to be delivered till six days after the 

 service of process not bailable, nor till six days after the actual arrest, 

 upon process which is bailable. The time for proving declarations in 

 ejectment is to be extended to the first day in full term, instead of being 

 limited to the epoign, or fourth day, before the commencement of the 

 practicable term. Notice of taxing costs must, in all cases, be given one 

 day before the taxation takes place. Rules to plead several matters are 

 abolished, and permission is, in future, to be obtained upon summons ; 

 but no summons or order is to be necessary in cases where the plea of 

 non assumpsit, or nil debet, or no7i detinet, with or without a plea of 

 tender as to fact, a plea of the statute of limitations, set off, bankruptcy of 

 the defendant, discharge under the insolvent act, plene administravit,' 

 plene adininistravit prater, infancy, and coverture, or any two or more 

 of such pleas shall be pleaded together ; but a rule shall be at once 

 granted upon production of the draft or engrossment of the pleas. 



The second, and, perhaps, the more important branch of the altera- 

 tions, is another rule, which prescribes certain forms of declarations, in 

 the more common kinds of actions upon bills of exchange, and the or- 

 dinary demands for goods bargained, and sold, or delivered. They are 

 concise, but yet sufficient ; and as the sole object of prescribing forms 

 at all is, that the practice of the court may be in all cases similar, and 

 that business may thereby be the more readily despatched, there is no 

 apparent reason why such short statements of the matter in dispute, 

 should not answer the purpose as well as more lengthened formula. 



Now, we should be tmgrateful to deny, that these matters we have de- 

 tailed are benefits, as far as they extend ; but we should betray our 

 sense and judgment, if we did not protest against the miserable affecta- 

 tion on the part of the judges, who know so much better, and who have 

 the means of doing so much more, and who yet venture to offer these as 

 a cure for the detected evils of their courts. It will not have escaped 

 the observation of all who are acquainted practically with the subject, 

 that the most grievous of all the evils complained of remains untouched 

 in this pretended amendment. That which is at once the bane of the 

 honest practitioners in the courts of common law, and the ruin of suitors, 

 is the amount, the intolerable amount, of fees demanded by the officers 

 of the court. These officers in the higher departments are the sons and 

 cousins of judges ; in the lower grades, they are their dependants and re- 

 tainers, even to their superannuated servants. The public cry has forced 

 those, in whom lay the power to amend that which is complained of, to do 

 something towards improvement ; but they have carefully kept their 

 hands from curtailing the overgrown fees of their officers — those fees 

 which make the demand of a just right too costly for a poor man, and 

 often too odious for a more wealthy one to enforce. Here is the very 

 source of the evils which most require amendment. From this point 

 improvement must begin to be useful, and unless it be effected speedily 

 by those who have the power to do it, it must fall into the hands of 

 others, who will, set about the work, with less delicate hands, perhaps, 

 but with more resolute minds. 



