The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-05-26
The Code.

pecialy those of the legal profession, to
the article taken from the New York Iri-
5une, entitled the s.New York Code in Eng
land.n 1t was forwarded to US by one O
the leading practitioners of the State, who
says, SIT is most complete vindication OF
the Republican party in adopting the Code
| of Procedure" s
This article, with a very few alterations,
| is fine calculation of the change which
has been made by the Code in the practice
of our own Courts, and the effect it has had
upon the bar. In reading this article it
should be remembered that the Supreme
Court of New York, under the old practice,
was almost precisely identical, in jdrisdic-
ton and procedure to our former Superior
Court of Law" In order, therefore, to APP
prehend fully the force of this article and
its application to our State, at the present,
we should keep this fact in mind.
1t is the pride of our bar that the practice
of this State has so long, faithfully and
implicitly followed the common Law prac-
tice of England. Although there have never
existed in this country any of those condi-
tions which led to the growth of this system
in the mother country, and although the
tendency of English law ever since the days
of Mansfield has resulted in the report which
is referred to in this article, the bar of this
State has most strenuously resisted every at
tempt to liberalize and simplify our practice
Even Lord Dewman's law allowing parties
to testify in courts of law, which was adopted
in 1866, (through the influence mainly OF one
of our bar, who has been frequently assailed
by his brethren for his action in the prem
ises,) has not yet received favor with u ma
jority of the older members of the profess
sion and is still sneered at as contrary to
the spirit of the Common Lao" The crude
ideas of English law of five hundred years
ago are looked upon with veneration. The
wisdom which has resulted from centuries
of the evils and difficulties of the old prac-
tice will probably now he sneered at as "op-
posed to the spirit of the Common law We
shall see.
There was never a brighter triumph of
American genius and learning than this re-
port of the "Judicature Commission bears
witness of. New York was the first Anglo
Saxon people, who applied the immutable
principles Of exact science, to legal proce-
dure. The movement at once attracted at
tention in England, and Mr. Field, the father
of the system in America, was repeatedly
invited TO address the English bar in ex-
emplification of the principles it contains.
, The result Is this report. There is this diff
ference between the progress of the Code
system in England and in this State. There
the movement in its favor comes from the
bar, headed by the noblest, most enlight-
ened, learned and revered of her Judges
Here, on the contrary, the movement comes
from the people, from that instructive logic
by which an unprejudiced mind grasps the
advantages of the system, while both the
bar and a portion of the bench, stand in
sullen, stubborn opposition to all change
Legal reform is just taking its proper place
in the public mind, aud England, the mother
of the Common Law, has not jewel in her
bright coronal which will outshine that
which the adoption of the code system of
procedure in her counts will place there.
1t is triumph of certainty over vagueness,
of simplicity over compexity, of science
over prejudice, of sense over stupidity. The
same is pre- emincntly true of North Caro-
lima.