Year: 1876

L U1t AAaC cIAAA1 VI ANA0t - ]
IS manifest from the various sugges-
lions made through the press, as well
from the repeated enquiries-"what
shall we do TO be saved" from the bur-
den Of taxes? A writer, in the Goa
mercial Reporter, who was once a
iudg,. suggests curtailment of the
judicial districts whereby saving may
be made of thirty thousand dollars.
But the question here, suggests itself
if sixteen judges can not clear the law
dockets Of the State. is there likeli-
hood that zen can do it? In our hum
BILE opinion the burden, Of which the
people SO Justly complain. is due not so
much to the number of judges as to |
defective judicial system, and TO more |
defective system of practice which |
multipiies costs and clogs the progress
of justice. Instead, therefore, of re-
ducing the Circuit judges to ten, per
haps, the wiser policy is to so remodel
the entire judiciary system, as to make
it consist of but three classes Of judges
the Appellate, the combined law and
equity and the Criminal.


1t is humiliating confession that,
in this era of enlightened progress, law
and equity are so discordant in theory
aud practice as to require distinct tri-
buuals for their administration. IF
law is not equity make it so, and Uice
versa then dispense with law courts
and let all civil suits be tried before
Chancellor, thus getting rid of hung
juries, and juries that ought to be hung,
let testimony be presented in the form
of depositions, instead of OBTAINING
witnesses from their business as long
and as often as may suit the convent
ence of the bar. But, it may be OBJ
jected, just here, that the proverbial
delays of the Chancery courts would
work great injustice to litigants, who
could scarcely calculate upon living
long enough to obtain a verdict. To
this objection, we would reply that,
whether the Judiciary is remodeled or
not, it is the duty of the Legislature to
enact laws to expedite the business of
the law and equity and criminal courts.
Such a law should fix definitely, the
number of continuances, in any one
case, to which the counsel shall be en-
titled, such continuances to be for suf-
ficient causes, after which the judge
shall have no other option than TO
force a trial, or strike the case from
the docket.


By such an arrangement, the courts
could keep well up with the dockets,
and the lawyers forced to prepare for
trial within reasonable time and ia ke
the responsibility of whatever wrong
their clients may suffer from want of
prompt preparation, and cost be saved
to litigants and the public. We are
not prepared to say that no exceptions
should be made to the general rule,
but if any, they should be defined in
the law, and not left to the judgment
of court or bar. And whilst we are
guessing at what would be conducive
TO the public welfare, We would sug-
gest the propriety of the appoint
ment of all judges by the Governor
and Senate, either for long terms, or
during good behavior, thus avoiding
the cost and decentralization Of cleo
tons, and securing to the judiciary
that independence so essential to the
wise and impartial administration of
Justice. Ignorance and vice are dang
erous agencies for fashioning a wise
and efficient Judiciary system, but their
baneful influence must be felt so long
as the choice of its members is made
through the ballot-box, with our pres
ent voting population. Had the con-
servative intelligence the power to
decide, we believe that the foregoing
suggestions, or something akin to
them, would be adopted, but with sell
fish dcmagogues tosOrpose them, and
vice and ignOrance-as their tools, we
are hopeless of reform and economy
in that direction, and offer these views
as food for reflection with those who
are seeking the causes of existing evils
and their remedy.