New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-03-30
Constitutional Reform :. No. I,


w. NJ. G.
Constitutional Reform. No. I.
CHANCERY, sc.
Il is now nearly quarter OF a century since
the adoption of the present State Constitution,
since which it has received some unlmportant
amendments by the acton..o of the Legislature; but
the popular attention has not till recently been
turned to the necessity Of a general revision.
In the mean time original defects have had
time to develop themselves; evils, then unanticl-
pated, have had time to become apparent; aud
restrictions of powers, then thought sufficient, have
been found to be Intellectual.
It has been found that the provision requiring
a vote Of twothirds of the Legislature to APP
propriate public moneys or property to local or
private purposes or for creating body polite or
corporate" is one that may be violated at the
pleasure of the Legislature and that there is no
tribunal to check the tendency of the Legislature
to pass the Constitutional boundaries of its power
but one composed almost entirely of the members
of one branch of the Legislature itself-not likely
as Judges to decide that their own acts as Legis
lators were nfractions Of the Constitution.
Besides, it has been found that the Judicial sys
tenn of the State is lily adopted to the wants of
the people, Lawyers complain of delays; It'll
giants ofthe injustice of decisions. and unfortunate
debtors and those having business of mere form
in our Courts, complain Of unnecessary and un-
reasonable prolixity and expense.
Our system is such, too, as TO perpetuate the
distinction between what IS Law and what is
Equity-a distinction that in this age ought no
longer to be tolerated, but which must exist while
VIC have one set of tribunals to administer Equity
and another to administer Law.
One set of these tribunals ought to be dispensed
with, and such powers dcvolved upon the others
as TO enable them to administer such law as Is
equitable and such equity as is legal.
Since the adoption of our present Constitution
our Courts of Chanccry have been practically In
creased from one to ten, and a vast amount of
business before then transacted by the Law
Courts diverted to these dilatory and expensive
tribunals, until partly by statute enactments, and
partly by its own encroachments upon the jurlsdlc-
ton of the laws Courts, it has been made to appear
that our Chancery business has increased eight
hundred or thousand per cent in about twenty
years, and equaling Gf the number Of Chancellors
employed affordany criterion) the whole Chancery
business of England.
Mere formal proceedings for the partition oflands,
the assignment Of dover, the foreclosure of mort
cages, for appointing trustees guardians over the
estates of lunatics, insane persons, and habitual
drunkards, and proceedings even to enforce the
collection Of the judgments of the law Courts, are
constantly employing tribunal originally estab-
lished for, and for long time engaged solely in,
afordng relief in cases that could not be relieved
by the Courts Of common law jurisdiction.
In these Courts the one Judge decides the law,
the equity and the facts; the trial by jury and
testimony by parole in face of the Judge who is
to decide, are dispensed with and questions In
volving personal liberty, and millions in amount,
decided upon testimony presented to the trying
tribunal in such manner as to give felon witness
the same credence as an honest man.
The delay and expense attending proceedings
in these Courts are incident to the formal and
ceremonlous practice by which our two hundred
printed rules deemed necessary by the Chan
cellor to inform suitors how equity is to be OBJ
tanned in these tribunals.
Numerous as are these so called equity trbu-
mails. an increase of two Chancellors with iuris-
dlc,ion concurrent with the present Chancellor is
recommended by the Governor, and various other
propositions are now before the Legislature for
such amendments of the Constitution as Will in
crease these Courts instead of abolishing those
that now exist. Is it not time for the people
themselves to begin to understand a subject so
important, and inquire whether the extraordinary
power devoved upon Chancellorsi is not repugnant
TO free institutions, and whether the immense ex
penses of the 50 called Equity Courts cannot be
saved to the community without denial of
Justice
In future numbers | may show the progress Of
Chancery power in this State the causes and the
consequences, and the necessity Of Convention
TO amend the Constitution in respect to this and
several other subjects. A. B.
~ Washington l.. Alice, NJ. D., of Lancaster.
has been elected Professor of Medical Chemistry =,