174 WINDER v. DIFFENDERFFER.—2 BLAND.

Rom. 127. And according to the ancient orders, and the long-
established practice, they must be so drawn as to call forth only
those facts which may be used as evidence in the cause. To pre-
vent the introduction of impertinence and scandal, it is directed,
that they shall be drawn or sanctioned by counsel; that they shall
be penned with care, so that they be pertinent, and only to the
points necessary; and that the witnesses be sorted and examined
on those interrogatories only to which their testimony extends,
without the needless interrogatories of matters unnecessary or im-
material; as well to avoid the expense of superfluous examinations,
as that apt interrogatories, which are the very life of the case, may
be exhibited. Beam's* Orders, 184; 1 Harr. Prac. Chan. 456, 485.
The party, who applies for and obtains a commission, has the
carriage of itj and it is his duty to give notice to the commissioners
and to the opposite party, of the time and place, when and where
it is to be executed. 1 Harr. Prac. Chan. 441. At which time and
place, the witnesses also are summoned to convene; and if they
neglect or refuse to do so, on the fact being represented to the
Court, they may be compelled to attend.

When the commissioners have met, and they and their clerk,
have taken the prescribed oath, which requires them to keep the
testimony taken by them secret, until it shall be legally published,
and they are prepared to proceed, they then exclude every one else
from the apartment in which they sit, and call in only one witness
at a time, to whom they propound the interrogatories in succession.
And, after examining the witness on each interrogatory, they care-
fully take down in writing what he declares in relation thereto,
3 Blac. Com, 449; I Harr. Prac. Chan. 462. (h) *In doing
186 this, it is their duty to coutine themselves and the witness
to the substance of the interrogatories; for, if they take down any-
thing impertinent, it may be suppressed, and the commissioners
themselves made to pay the costs. Each witness having been
fully examined, and the depositions revised, corrected, and pro-
perly certified, the whole must be sealed up, so that no part of the
contents ean be read, and thus returned to the Court. 1 Harr.
Prac. Chnn. 476. When the commissions have been all returned,
an order may be obtained for their publication, or in other words,

(h) In the year 1707, among many other complaints made against the pro-
ceedings in Chancery, it was alleged, "that commissioners to examine wit-
nesses, and their clerks, were not upon oath, which lets them at liberty to
discover evidence, and introduces perjury, new commissions," &c. Parks'
His. Co. Chan. 284. But by an order or rule of Court, passed in the year
1721, the commissioners and their clerks were required to take an oath, im-
partially to examine the witnesses; and not to disclose their depositions until
after publication, Beam's Orders, 327; Forum Rom. 143. Nor should the wit-
nesses, according to these English principles, disclose their evidence to the
parties; Forum Rom. 141; Cooth v. Jackson, 6 Ves. 32.