New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1849-02-09
Law Reform mt Albany.


bly, narrow err, has found many imitators' but we
cannot rec0llect more striking example OF this
faulty than is exhibited in recent Report 10 the
Assembly of our State in condemnation OF the
doings of the Commissioners appointed to revise
and reform the Practice and Processes OF our
Courts Of Law The Commission appointed to
Codify the Laws Is the subject OF very general
eensure how Justly we will not here assume 10
decided for doing too little-as exhibiting no pro
duct at all proportionate to the time consumed or
the expense imposed on the State. The Legisla-
ture is well understood TO concur in this popular
Judgment. The Commissioners OF Practice are
certainly obnoxious to no such censure. They
NAV be said TO have done well or i'll, but they have
certainly done enough for their money and Tor the
time they have been in Office. They have cut
right and left and cut deeply-they have gone 70
the root OF the matter, and have laid the broad and
firm foundations Of a system OF Legal Practice
whose elements are simplicity unity, clearness'
brevitv and truth That such reform as they
contemplate should work temporary inconvenience
TO lawyers and judges familiar with the old rou-
tine was 10 have been expected-that IT snould DC
especially obnoxious during the period OF transit
ton from one system 10 another Tor rather from
chaos 10 systeml no sensible man could doubt
bat that any number Of embryo Backstones and
Cokes should undertake to denounce the ~ork oil
David Graham and David Dudley Field as crude
and ill.considered and attemptt TO arrest II IN pro
grsss Of execution, Is an exhibition oil cooihess
for which we were unprepared And when such
men. or the Legislature under their guidance, IN
dertake 10 arrest the work Of Legal Reform when
half accomplished, and throw us back upon that
Intangible. imme asurable medley Of incongruities
absurdities aud antiquities formerly known as
Legal Practice they undertake an enterprise COM
pared with which that of Mrs. Darlington was IA
Gle aud rational.
tits quite a mistake TO argue that, because a
majority Of the People do not thoroughly master
questions Of this nature and intricacy, therefore
the work of Reform may be resisted with impuni-
ty The mass indeed have not read sttentivey
the debates in Convention, nor the essays melting
TO the Convention, wherein this subject OF Legal
Reform was discussed and commended. They may
not have read the Commissioners Report, nor
made themselves familiar with the provisions OF
the Code so far as completed; and yet 1t will be
found very unsafe to rely on their ignorance and
indifference in the premises For IN the hrst
place the laymen who hare investigated the sub
ject and watched the course OF the matter are
quite numerous though not a majority they are
generally influential and they all lean one way
Their power may be latent; but so much the
worse for those who shall constrain them to its ex-
ertion. In the next place, the popular instincts
are quick and decided and nothing can be easier
than 20 make the great majority comprehend their
own interest in this controversy. Ii the gentle
men Of the Bar are disguised with the drudgery
Of legislation for paltry three dollars day, they
have only to stop the car OF Legal Reform ia its
progress, and they will be pretty generally re-
lieved from service after the close OF this Session
They will hardly be required to repea, the exper-
ment.
We have admitted that the subject is some
what complicated and its thorough mastery is not
the work Of day but any man OF ordinary intel
lgcnce can learn enough OF il to fix him on the
night side by listening to a single welconsidered
address, or reading one lucid essay in defence Of
the Reformed Code Take the single and rela-
lively unimportant substitution OF plain English
for Latin lawterms for example We can per
ceive in this no other than rihing and transtory
inconvenience to the Bar while its advantage to
the People will be great and lasting Ask the
next ten laborng men you meet what is the mean
ing of Habeas Corpus, perhaps the commonest OF
these terms,) and how many can answer you cor
rectly Probably not three Probably tive or six
will know that crt Of Habeas Corpus is one
which person imprisoned sues out in order TO OBJ
tain hearing before competent tribunal, and a
decision on his allega that he is unjustly and
illegally imprisoned The writ OF Habeas Corpus
10 therefore one Of the main pillars OF public
liberty, without which a single corrupt Judge
might change the result OF any election by impris
oning on false or frivolous pretexts sufciency Of
his political opponents, or might immune a citizen
In prison while his estates were plundered by
some rascaDy process or his family sde the prey
OF rufiian violence or some dark conspiracy. But
will this writ be less valued or less eficacious be.
cause it is termed WHIT of Delversnoe than
il still named Habeas Corpus and will not its
character snd uses be far more widely and socu-
rately known under plain English than Latin
name OF course, the argument is still stronger
with regard 10 those lsw.terms of which the sig.
uificance is less obvious but we need not pursue
the illustration
Then the abolition OF the various and Underlined
species of aetions-Assumpsit, Trespass on the
Case, Replevin, &c. Sc and the substitution Of
one single, simple action for them all-can there
be any doubt OF the popular appreciation Of tAfs
A plain man has claim against another for money
honestly due HIM and sees no necessity for en-
pioying lawyer in the premises. But he is
stopped at the vestibule OF the temple OF Justice
by the appearance Of half dozen different gates
and the caution that his neishbor has just been
beaten and doomed to pay costs on an undoubted-
ly just demand because he entered the temple at
the wrong gate. So the claimant must fee law
yer TO show him the right gate; and even then he
often misses it. Cases have gone up to the high
est Court upon conflicting decisions Of the Courts
below-now this way then that-as to whether
the action should have been Assumpst or some
thing else; and whether they were finally settled
one way the other it isvery clear that the plain
tiff must have lost more than his debt and a; least
ono party must have been ruined. Messrs. Legis-
lators do you fancy you will ever get US back to
that system hyou do. you are surely mistaken.
- But, says a cavilsr. don't like this or thar