Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1853-12-15
LAW REFORM.

some of those who know the true remedy, and |
more especially by those who do not. The aroi-
trary division of rights into legal and equitable ana
the establishment of separate organic structures to
maintain and perpetuate those idle and injurious
distinctions; the investigation of one division of
rights by oral testimony in court and the other
in another court by deposition; the inability OF
either court to DO complete justice in many cases
without the aid of the organization and process Oh
the other; the constant mistakes as to the proper
court in which relief is to be asked arising from Ine
unsettled and changing boundaries OF the Jurlsoic-
tons: and the impossibity OF determining the pro-
per jurisdiction in many cases until the parties are
heard in proof the double set of costs accruing and
double delay incurred; the frequent taxation Of
costs on the party entitled to a recovery and ulti-
mately recovering; all tend to keep alive per-
petual discomfort, which those who have been in
the habit of free association with the people at
large know to be ranking in their minds. This
dissatisfaction manifests itself 10 perpetual sarcasns
against lawyers, judges, and courts, and "the ter
lors of the law" 1t shows itself in constant eff
fort to reduce the fees of officers below what is
proper compensation for the services rendered; by
dction to avoid the costs and delays of courts of
record and by the heavy minority always found
in the General Assembly favorable to mere aoo-.
litio Of chancery courts under the belief that that
measure alone would remove the grievances
Plain men 60 into the courts and there hear almost
endless discussions upon questions which they re-
gard as utterly frivolous. They see their own and
the public time consumed in settling questions
about amendments, pleadings, jurisdiction, &c. and
the cases taken up and reversed against the justice
of the case, upon some point Of which they can
not see the force when settled. They understand
not much but the result and they see the result
disastrous to speedy and cheap administration ct
justice.
This state of popular feeling has existed in differ
ent ages and wherever these systems of common law
and equity proceedings have been in existence. IL
results necessarily and inevitably in great delay
and cost as any system which the wit OF man can
easily devise If it were made on purpose to spin
out every judicial controversy to the greatest posi-
BILE length, it is not easy to see how it could be
made more fully to accomplish that object Every
LAWYER knows that the two separate systems had
their origin in accidental and fortuitous circum-
stances many centuries ago; that itsprang out OF
an attrnpt to correct the crudities and absurdties
of common law courts The prolonged contro-
versv between priests and common law lawyers
bnjlt I'M two structures, which have now grown to
be stupendous fabrics of complicated folly and alb
surdity. Nlultitudes of people have become 50 &C
customed to the distractions to justice existing in
this deplorable system, that they have come to re-
,ft1, liohI
evils which Providence has inflicted mankind for
their sins and crimes The great English poet
living under the operations of this system which
our foreathers adopted by sweeping provisions,
makes Hamlet repeat as amongst the thousand
natural shocks that flesh sheir to-
''Tle oppressor's wrong the proud mans contumey,
The pangs of despsed love, the Ia,c's delay
The insaIence of Office and the spurns
That patient merit of tn unworthy takes"
The noble Dane thought " the laws delay" one of
the whips and scorns of time" which he could on
" escape by passing 'that bourne from whence no
traveller returns" Whilst Hamlet talked thus on
the English stage, that dry, hard old LAWYER CoKE,
delivered himself in these words when 1 con-
sller the course of our books and terms l observe
that more iangling and questions grow up upon the
matter of pleading and exceptions than upon the
matter ITSELF and that infinite causes are lost or de-
layed thereby" Yet we are told that any attempt
to overthrow this stupendous pile of absurd.ties
which our forefathers adopted under the pressure
of circumstances will result in confusion, as if it
were possible to produce greater confusion, cost,
and delay than exist now This is the stereotyped
cry that one hundred lawyers, headed by Chancel-
lor BRoUGHAM, had to fight against in England
This is the cry that the New York reformers bad
to hear from the Representatives Of that State
"To rest as we are" said CURTIS now one of the
Supreme Court of the United States ito rest as we
are is to continue to impose on the people of this
State burden of delays, expense, and vexation
which in our judgment necessarily grows out of
the present state of things" The Legislature of
Massachusetts, in 1851 abolished all the dis
tinctions of actions retaining only that between
contracts and wrongs, and in 1853 passed bill of
five sections, applying equitable remedies in suits
at law The last of the mutiated system was
swept by this statute to the receptacle of things
lost upon earth
How can confusion be produced by the repeal of
two thousand pages of CHITTY's forms, and half
dozen other volumes containing regulations about
as profound and sensible as those which occupied
the minds of the monks of the dark ages, and the !
substitution of petition and answer sworn to and
stating the facts just they wouldbe stated the
street in plain concise language without repetton2
We pray to be informed on this subject. We beg !
for a ray Of light to benighted understanding.
We cannot for the life of US see why it should take
sheet Of closely written matter to charge that de-
PENDANT had written said that plaintiff had stolen |
his horse or to demand horse or lot Of ground or
negro or to charge the defendant with beating /
plaintiff, or to demand title for lot of ground |
Our poor understanding has never been able to pen
citrate the philosophy of all this Nor have we ever
been able to divine why volume upon volume of |
forms one two three, and four centuries old should
be laid down as the absolute lar language in which
the parties to speak, pain Of costs and delay
If not expulsion from the court.
We venture the assertion that so gross and shock
ing an outrage on the common sense of mankind
involving great obstruction to their true inter
ests Is not to be found in the history of any other
enlightened country We are told, with gravity