288 REMEDIES AND RIGHTS. 



which have awakened severe criticisms, and must occa 

 sion both litigation and loss to many suitors in the State. 

 But a main evil complained of is, that in drawing up 

 this code in reference to u remedies,&quot; the commissioners 

 have in many cases materially altered the question of 

 u rights,&quot; have thus summarily, therefore, and without 

 warrant, changed the law itself, and have infringed upon 

 the duties of the other set of commissioners, to whom was 

 intrusted the preparation of a &quot; code of the laws of the 

 State.&quot; 



It would be out of place here to discuss these objec 

 tions and differences of opinion. Every one can under 

 stand how &quot; remedies and rights &quot; cannot fail on many 

 occasions to run into each other, and that a code of the 

 former, which should be consistent with modern know 

 ledge, and with the circumstances of a country like New 

 York in which the trammels of old forms and constitu 

 tions do not so tie the hands of improvers as they do 

 among us could not satisfactorily, and upon broad prin 

 ciples, be prepared without interfering with the latter. 

 But the point it is of importance for a foreigner to 

 appreciate is the greatness and manifest utility of the 

 undertaking itself. For, though difficulties may lie in 

 the way of the execution, the design is worthy of a clear 

 headed advancing people, and the final result must be 

 accompanied by much practical advantage to the State. 

 There is an air of resolute dignity in the determination 

 of a convocation of the people at once to codify and 

 make simple the whole law and legal practice of the 

 State ; and, in a country where such a wholesale resolu 

 tion could at once be come to, the obstacles to change 

 for the better must be very much fewer and less powerful 

 than in most European countries. 



The tendency to litigation is said to exist in the 

 United States more strongly than in other countries, 

 and perhaps the extreme democratic notion of equal 



