HELMS v. FRANCISCUS. §51

change to be made for that purpose, on its being shewn to be
necessary, and on the costs then incurred, being secured, (b)

Ordered, that Charles F. Mayer be, and he is hereby appointed
next friend of the plaintiff Anna G. M. Helms, instead of the said
Wandelohr, as prayed.

The commission to Bremen having been returned, and filed on
the 15th of September, 1827; and it appearing that the deposi-
tions of the witnesses had been taken in the German language,
with a translation; the defendants objected, that the case could
not be heard until those depositions were more correctly translated;
and the plaintiffs applied by petition, to have them translated
accordingly.

10th January, 1828.—BLAND, Chancellor.—This matter has an
origin and bearing worthy of more attention than seems to have
been usually bestowed upon it. I shall therefore here, once for
all, avail myself of this occasion to advert, as briefly as may be,
to the laws and principles upon which the parties have a right to
have depositions correctly put into English before the case is set
for hearing.

An English statute passed in the year 1362 sets forth, that great
mischiefs had happened because the laws were not commonly
known, for that they were pleaded, shown, and judged in French,
which was much unknown; so that the people who plead, or were
impleaded in the courts had no knowledge or understanding of
that which was sued for, or against them; that the laws would be
known and better understood in the tongue used in the realm;
so that every man might the better govern himself without offend-
ing, and the better keep, save, and defend his heritage and posses-
sions. And thereupon enacts, that all pleas which should be
pleaded in any court, should be shewn, defended, answered, de-
bated and adjudged in the English tongue; and be entered and
enrolled in Latin, (e) By an act passed by the illustrious Long
Parliament, in the year 1650, during the short lived Common-
wealth of England, it was declared, that all report books, and
other books of the law, and all proceedings in the courts of justice,
should be in the English tongue only, and not in Latin or French,
or any other language; and should be written in an ordinary,

(6) Witts v. Campbell, 12 Ves. 493; Helling v. Helling, 4 Mad. 261.—(e) 30
Ed. 3, e. 15; Parke's His. Co. Chan. 43.