The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1909-08-19

Ter years, Tie uuluDeI VI Wits u error
and appeals heard by that court was
forty-one, an average of about thirteen
a year.
1t is plain, and so is the tradition,
that the convention of 1874 deemed it
inexpedient to impose upon the then
comparatively poor state the expense
Of an Independent court Of last resort.
And in what it did it followed, in
part, the example of the then already
discredited and well nigh moribund
court of last resort of the state of New
York, which consisted of the chancel-
Tor. the judges of the supreme court
and a senator from each county. This
court was swept away in 1S4S.
1t is well known that for many years
and for some time after the under
signed was licensed our court of last
resort was able to hear at each term
and determine all the cases brought
before it within the two weeks set
apart for each term. The practice was
| for the printed book containing all the
written pleadings and evidence to be
read aloud in open court and fully
| lowed for that purpose during which
all the authorities were brought into
] court and read precisely as they do
now in England Then the court
went into immediate conference ON
each case and disposed of 1t at once.
This left time to the judges of the
supreme court to give their attention
to the business of that court and also
to the business of each county, SO
that the people had the benefit of
county court, composed of a judge of
| the supreme court, to sit-as they actu-
ally did-in all causes, criminal and
civil as well as those of the orphans
court
| Coming down to the present time, the
population of the state in 1905 was
2,144,O00, and the number of causes
/ brought before the present court of
last resort is nearly $50 in twelve
months, of which the court has been
able to dispose of over 200 in each
calendar year.
Judges overwori<ed.
Nowadays the court is unable for
the want of time to have the pleadings
and evidence and the authorities read
/ in open court. They are obliged to
! limit counsel in time, and they re-
quire printed arguments, and upon
these materials the study of cases is
| done in their libraries. Between the
immense work involved in this duty
and the time required for conducting
the business of the supreme court the
time of the judges of the supreme
court is so thoroughly occupied that
they are unable to pay any, or, if any,
the very slightest, attention to the cir
cult court business; hence the neces-
sity of learned county judges and
learned circuit judges.
Moreover, the business of the court
/ of chancery has so increased that
seven vice chancellors, besides the
chancellor, are constantly occupied
with the business of that court.
1 commenced the study of law over
sixty years ago. | practiced it indus
triously for thirty-eight years and held
4 office as judge of the court of chan
Gerry for eighteen years During all
that time / was diligent student and
/ observer not only of the law itself,
| but of necessity, of all those phases of
! society and business out of which
legal disputes arise, including the diff
! ferent judicial systems of the English
! speaking nations and states, and l
1 feel well assured that the proposed
4 constitutional amendments, if adopted,
will work out precisely as predicted by
the governor and those learned judges
above named, and viii inure to the
benefit of the people in both cheapen-
ing the process of the law and render
ing its results more certain, and enable
lawyers TO advise their clients as to
probable results better than they are
able now to do.
4 For the Public Welfare.
These changes will not work partic-
ularly for the benefit of the lawyers
as a class. Many of them = uncon-
sciously rhaps-delight, so to speak,
in the glorious uncertainty of the
law" whether that uncertainty arises
from the vagaries of a jury or of the
court. But / am happy to believe and
feel kat the older and more expert
encedEof the lawyers and judges who
have the welfare of the country at
heart desire only the good and well
being of society without regard to the
immediate prospects of the younger
men.
The amendments have been prepared
by our ablest men and have received
their most careful consideration, and
their adoption viii, in my Judgment,
produce no sudden jar or jolt in iu-
diciaI business and will not be the
occasion of any costly litigation to
determine their meaning. They re-
quire no statutory eodification of the
practice, and legal proceedings will be
instituted and proceed much as they
do now, emitting. however. those OBJ
stacIes and difficulties which are the
necessary results of our present sys-
] tenn.
A great deal has been done in tins
state within the last half century in
the way OF improving the practice OF
/ the law. In fact. all has been done