Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-07
REORGANIZATION OF THE COURTS.

monwealth opens for public consideration sub
jects of such importance to the welfare of the
people of Massachusetts as to require full
discussion of its principles and minute exam
nation of its details
The people of the State have as yet had
only very imperfect opportunity to become
familiar with the merits of the question, and
no portion of the present legislature was
chosen with reference to the agitation of this
or any similar measure.
In the contracted limits of daily newspa-
per it is hardly possible 20 review thoroughly
the report of the committee or the provisions
of the act which thev have submitted. But
there are some leading and obvious considera-
lions which render it clear to our mind that
the present bill will not meet the wishes OF
the people or promote the interests of justice.
few of these we design very briefly to
state.
1t is proposed entirely to alter the constitu.
ton of the Supreme Judicial Court; to abol-
ish all terms for jury trials, and to convert it
into Court of Appeals for the decision of
questions of law alone, sitting through the
year in the city of Boston,
We do not believe that it is ever wise to
take away from the members of the highest
judicial tribunal that practical experience in
the application of legal principles which judg
es can obtain only by presiding at the trials of
causes before jures. The science of the law
is peculiarly practical and few men ever be-
come wise counsellors or eminent judges, with
Al
administration of justice.
In the law of evidence, and the rules of
practice, in the exercise of sound judicial dis
ccrtion upon questions affecting the rights of
htigants and in many other departments of
judicial duty which might be instanced-men
of great learning but little experience almost
always prove as judges inferior, to others of
moderate learning but much practical expe-
rience.
To have all questions of law placed on one
general docket and argued at Boston, may be
very convenient and agreeable to lawyers re-
sident in that city, or its immediate vicinity
and, undoubtedly tends to increase the bust
ness and emoluments of the Suffolk Bar. But
how will it be with the people and the profess
sion elsewhere in the Commonwealth? The
expense Of sending lawyers from Worcester
to Boston, there to remain for days, or it may
be for weeks, until their causes are reached,
must greatly increase the cost of litigation.
The tendency will be to raise the standard of
compensation to that which prevails in Boston,
and more and more to concentrate the business
into the offices of metropolitan practitioners
The country bars will soon become less desir-
able fields for counsellors and advocates of
learning and ability. One by one the men
who give promise of distinction in the higher
branches of the legal profession, will fix their
residence in the metropolis, and the members
OF the bar in other counties, will ultimately
degenerate into a race of provincial attornies
from which the best specimens have been select
ed and transplanted into the city. The pro-
cess of Capitalization is rapid enough, and at
tended with sufficient evils, without being ac-
CELEBRATED by any such legislation Nor will
the Supreme Court itself escape without Sc
rious injury. The people want to have their
causes heard and determined near their own
homes, at terms which are known to them and
established by law-when and where they
may easily be present to hear the arguments of
their counsel, and the decision of the bench.
No tribunal which sits at distance will long
retain their undiminished confidence And
this feeling does not spring from an irrational
Jealousy which can be reasoned or sneered out
of existence.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance"
and no Judiciary is above the necessity of
being constantly and sedulously guarded
against even the appearance of evil or the pos
sibility of suspicion.
Moreover, questions of law are not now and
never will be decided as speedily in Boston as
In the country. The members of the Court
do not work as many hours there as upon the
circuit, nor accomplish as much business.
The present accumulation of cases on the law
docket exists chiefly in those counties which
choose to have their causes heard in Suffolk
County. AT the end of the last law term in
the county of Worcester not more than four
or five cases remained undecided, while only
one was postponed for argument, and that not
Tor want of time, but for other reasons
If Boston is to be the place where all law ar
guments are had, it must also be the place
where all the Judges Of the Supreme Court
reside. And this will never be acceptable to
the people. The air of the country may not
be any more wholesome, but there is differ
ence between the moral and political atmos-
phere which prevails in and out of the city.
1t has not escaped observation, that when
by divided bench the act which restores to
juries what we regard as their common law
right 10 judge of the law in criminal cases
was 15rQnounced unconstitutional, the only two
Judges whlp dissented from the majority of
the Court, weNe the only two who resided in
the country.
The passage Of the proposed bill will at once
give to the Executive eleven new and impor-
tant judicial appointments.
Massachusetts has bad for many years no
Governor to whom the people would more
readily entrust such extensive patronage than
Governor Banks but it is a power which he
will hardly covet, and the exercise of,which
must necessarily make more enemies than
friends
So far as the presentJudges may be retain
ed, we do not perceive that they are likely to
accomplish more labor or to do il better than
at present, merely because they receive great
or salaries and are members of a court called bv
a different name. SO far as they may be SUI
perseded by new men, experience only can de-