THOMPSON.
We of being used as instruments of oppression? And it was, on
finding that the authorities required *the most broad and solid
foundation, no less clear and strong than that of a final decree
itself, that the court was perfectly convinced of their great utility in *
all cases where there was a proper foundation for making them,
and that they were no more capable of being abused, or applied to
improper purposes, than final decrees themselves.
But the foundation, or basis of an order, dpes not determine its
effect upon the controversy or the parties. An admitted, or incon-
trovertible state of facts, is required as the foundation of an order
to bring money into court. As the foundation of an order to
account, it must appear that a computation is necessary relative to
the matter on which the court may be called on to decree; and to
lay a proper foundation for an order to pay money out of court, the
party claiming it must show a clear title in himself. But no infer-
ence can be deduced from the nature of the basis of an order as to
its true character, that is, whether it be interlocutory or final, a
decretal order, or otherwise. Such questions can only be deter-
mined by the order itself, considered in all its relations and bear-
ings upon the parties and upon the case.
Whether an appeal can be allowed, as moved for, must depend
altogether upon, whether the order of the 12th of February last is
or is not a "decretal order," within the true intent and meaning of
the act of 1818, ch. 193, s. 1. The English authorities explain,
with tolerable accuracy, the difference between interlocutory and
final decrees in Chancery, but the phrase, "decretal order," seems
to be variously -applied, and to have no settled or distinct meaning
or application. The term " order" is almost always used in speak-
ing of those general or special directions by which all suits in
Chancery are governed, controlled, or facilitated throughout, or in
the course of their progress from beginning to end; and, the term
"decree" is most generally applied to the decisions of the court
upon some or all of the rights of the litigating parties. Hence it
would seem, that a "decretal order" can only be such an order as
finally determines some right between the parties.
But we have a satisfactory and conclusive authority of our own
State upon this question. The Court of Appeals, in the case of
Snowden v.. Dorsey,(s) say, "that an appeal will not lie from a mere
-interlocutory older by which nothing is finally settled
(s)6H.& J. 114
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