demurrer; or the truth of the facts alleged and denied, upon issue joined, and its several trials; to the judgment of the law, with respect to the nature and amount of the redress to be specifically given till, after considering the suspension of that judgment by proceedings in the nature of appeals, we have arrived at its final execution; which puts the party in specific possession of his right by the intervention of ministerial officers, or else gives him 'a satisfaction in the shape of damages.'

This care and circumspection in the law,-in providing that no man's right shall be affected by any legal proceeding without giving him previous notice, and yet that the debtor shall not by receiving such notice take occasion to escape from justice; in requiring that every complaint be accurately and precisely ascertained in writing, and be as pointedly and exactly answered; in clearly stating the question either of law or of fact; in deliberately resolving the former after full argumentative discussion, and indisputably fixing the latter by a diligent and impartial trial: in correcting such errors as may have arisen in either of those modes of decision, from accident, mistake, or surprise; and in finally enforcing the judgment, when nothing can be alleged to impeach it;-this anxiety to maintain and restore to every individual the enjoyment of his civil rights, without intrenching upon those of any other individual in the nation, this parental solicitude which pervades our whole legal constitution, is the genuine offspring of that spirit of equal liberty which is the singular felicity of Englishmen. At the same time it must be owned to have given a handle, in some degree, to those complaints of delay in the practice of the law, which are not wholly without foundation, but are greatly exaggerated beyond the truth. There may be, it is true, in this, as in all other departments of knowledge, a few unworthy professors; who study the science of chicane and sophistry rather than of truth and justice; and who, to gratify the spleen, the dishonesty, and wilfulness of their clients, may endeavour to screen the guilty, by an unwarrantable use of those means which were intended to protect the innocent. But the frequent disappointments and the constant discountenance, that they meet with in the courts of justice, have confined these men, to the honour of this age be it spoken, both in number and reputation to indeed a very despicable compass.

Yet some delays there certainly are, and must unavoidably be,

in the conduct of a suit, however desirous the parties and their agents may be to come to a speedy determination. These arise from the same original causes as were mentioned in examining a former complaint; from liberty, property, civility, commerce, and an extent of populous territory; which whenever we are willing to exchange for tyranny, poverty, barbarism, idleness, and a barren desert, we may then enjoy the same despatch of causes that is so highly extolled in some foreign countries. But common sense and a little experience will convince us, that more time and circumspection are requisite in causes, where the suitors have valuable and permanent rights to lose, than where their property is trivial and precarious, and what the law gives them to-day may be seized by their prince to-morrow. In Turkey, says Montesquieu, where little regard is shown to the lives or fortunes of the subject, all causes are quickly decided: the Pasha, on a summary hearing, orders which party he pleases to be bastinadoed, and then sends them about their business. But in free states the trouble, expense, and delays of judicial proceedings are the price that every subject pays for his liberty; and in all governments, he adds, the formalities of law increase, in proportion to the yalue which is set on the honour, the fortune, the liberty, and life of the subject.

From these principles it might reasonably follow, that the English courts should be more subject to delays than those of other nations, as they set a greater value on life, on liberty, and on property. But it is our peculiar felicity to enjoy the advantage, and yet to be exempted from a proportionable share of the burden. For, not to enlarge upon the improvements which have been made in the celerity of justice by the legislation of the last half century,' the time and attendance afforded by the judges in our courts are greater than those of many other countries. In the Roman calendar there were in the whole year but twenty-eight judicial or triverbial days allowed to the prætor for deciding causes: whereas, with us, 'during a very large portion of the year, every division of the High Court' constantly sits for the despatch of matters of law; besides the numerous courts of assize and nisi prius that sit in vacation principally' for the trial of matters of fact. Indeed there is no other country in the known y Otherwise called dies fasti in quibus licebat prætori fari tria verba, do, dico addico. Calv. Lex. 285. 2 F

VOL. III.

world, that has an institution so commodious and so adapted to the despatch of causes, as our trial by jury in those courts for the decision of facts; in no other nation under heaven does justice make her progress twice in each year into almost every part of the kingdom, to decide upon the spot by the voice of the people themselves the disputes of the remotest provinces.

INDEX.

Ambassadors, privilege of, from arrest, 293

pleas in, for nonjoinder or misjoinder | Amendments, history of the doctrine of,

Ancient lights, 5

writings, prove themselves, 364

Answer in Court of Chancery, 310, 312, n.
Apology, when admitted in mitigation of
damages, 14

Accident, remedy in equity in case of, 248 Appeal, Court of, in Chancery, 58

Adultery, alimony not allowed in case of Assets, administration of, 241

Advowson, who may be disturbers of right Assize of darrien presentment, 214

Attachment or pone, ancient process by, Bond, relief against penalty of, in equity,

Attachment of person, process in Chancery, Borough courts, 74

Bill of exchange, how sued on summarily, Church rate, recovery of, 90, n.