Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1899-01-07

i'll the question. therefore no change
should he urged unless 4 constitutional
convention should be called.
Gen. Mcfarland is not in favor ct the
revision of our revised statutes He
would not disturb thenl They are up
10 date and complete. They have not
! been seri 2usly effected by amendments.
nor have they been declared defective by
! the courts. The revised statutes are cop
| I'D from the California code They are
more sati factory than many of the codes
which have been revised by commission,
i'll late years. They are better than the
shoul be verified aud completed, BY a
careful revision of these and a thorough
system of annotation and indeXiug, we
would have ona Ct the best systems COY
ering our conditions, that am acquaint-
| cd with Tho courts of our state are bet
| ter for our uses than the superior court
idea of Washington. Our practices are
| little under the present systems and such
a change would create many disturbances
! The probate court should not be
abolished. The salary should be the
same ns that of the district judge and the
qualifications should be the same In
fact the scope of the court should be en-
larged not to include surrogate matters
but to have jurisdiction over extra
ordinary cases such as writ and manda-
mus proceedings The constitution
should not be changed, there is 10 call
be exercised in forcing amendments
either by resolution and vote or by con
ventions. The question of revision was
raised by men who had worked for years
under other forms of laws and if the
question were followed up it would be
seen that medley oftheir IDEAS would
make a very inconsistent code. Our laws
are good andup to date except the session
laws and the remedy is apparent i'll these
instances
County Attorney Danford saps Idaho has
lllC iSl tstSNS VI Sltltlpl AllctcS Al tllS
United States, Our books are full of con
traditions, incongruities and inconsis
encies. Nothing but a code commission
will meet the urgent demands The law
yers are not the chief parties in interest
iii this matter, but the people who have
their business interests i'll the country
whether they are in the courts or not.
Why, there Is not lawyer iii this state
that can take proper appeal under ex-
isting conditions to higher court. The
code commission is an uIgent necessity.
OF course there are many matters for leg
islative action. Our lawmakers should
study the statutes of other states. One
thing, the costs i'll criminal suits should
be taxed against the defendant and not
paid by the county till every resource to
collect from the indsvidual had been ex-
hausted, and the criminal business should
be under the supervision of the county
attorney. This county loses from $1,000
to $4,000 annually by the disregard Of
this matter Cases that have no merit
are brought, and cases that should be
tried under the civil code are brought iii
the criminal courts to save individual
costs, The cost Of good laws should not
be considered We should have the most
perfect Jaws from principle. We are
building a commonwealth here, and
we should build it on princi-
pie, Our highea courts are good
enough, but we should have better laws.
This change ought to be instituted; the
| bar should be empowered to appoint a
Judge protein. This practice is almost
universal The probate court should not
be abolished, but its scope should be en-
! larged TO give it jurisdiction over writs,
| injinctions and to dissolve attachments.
One of our defective laws is the one
giving no method of dissoleing attach
ments except at regular terms of the dis
trict court. This inconsistency might
involve vital property interests i'll
disaster The defects cannot be particu-
larized. They are disgraceful ard they
must be righted regardless of costs or
other considerations.