1860.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.            81

Legislature which appointed, a distinct Commission to per-
form this work, if the codifiers had consulted, with that com-
mission, as to the proper mode of putting into a convenient
form the results of their respective labors. The simplifiers
prepared the simplified pleading and conveyancing in forms
suited to such a cooperation between the codifiers and them-
selves; and the simplified pleading and conveyancing can be
incorporated into a general code without the alteration of a
single word, except the enacting clause which was prefixed
to them to give them the temporary form of an Act of As-
sembly, until the whole work of both commissions should be
completed, and the two sets of Commissioners could confer to-
gether, and publish their respective works in such form, as
might seem best, as the work of both sets of Commissioners.
This is obviously the true, the just, and the proper course in-
dicated both by the Constitution, the Legislature, and that
ordinary respect which is due from each of the two sets of
Commissioners to the other.

If however, the codifiers had incorporated the simplified
pleading and conveyancing into their volume, without muti-
lating them, and more especially if they had improved them,
the undersigned would not have made any public objection
to the act. But as the undersigned, after a careful examina-
tion of the simplified pleading as presented by the codifiers,
has formed the opinion, that it is ruined as a practical scheme
of law procedure, he feels it incumbent on him as the com-
missioner, who prepared the simplified pleading, and is there-
fore especially responsible for it, to respectfully submit to your
honorable body, reasons why the chapter on pleading of the
codifiers should not be accepted, as a substitute for the simplifi-
ed pleading prepared under the sanction of the Constitution and
the law, and accepted by the Legislature as a proper fulfill-
ment of the command of the Constitution, and a satisfactory
performance of the duty assigned to the simplifiers.

The Constitution commanded a specific improvement in
pleading, viz: to abridge and simplify it. The Legislature,
in their resolution appointing the Commissioners, ordered
that specific command of the Constitution to be fulfilled; and
that specific command has been fulfilled to the satisfaction of
the Legislature. The chapter on pleading by the codifiers
amounts to an indirect repeal of the simplified system of
pleading, and is a virtual evasion of the command of the Con-
stitution. The chapter contains a provision authorizing the
old vexatious and expensive forms of the common law plead-
ings to be used at the pleasure of the pleader. And the
whole drift of the chapter, as can be easily shown by provi-