to have been, but in practice never were, issued into the county where the venue was laid, before the real execution was resorted to; permitted writs to be issued directly to the sheriffs of the counties Palatine, and not, as previously, to the Chancellor, to be by him sent to the sheriffs; limited the duration of all writs to one year; and allowed the expenses of the execution to be levied under the writ itself. Under a writ of fieri facias, the goods and chattels, money and securities of the execution debtor may be taken; but only specific coin or bank notes, and debts secured by cheques, bills, promissory notes, bonds, specialties, and the like. Stock in the funds, or shares in companies cannot be reached by this writ; but by the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, s. 12, this kind of property can be charged by order of a judge; and the judgment creditor may, at the end of six months, by bill in equity! proceed to realise his debt. The Procedure Act of 1854 has extended the remedies of the creditor against the property of his debtor, by enabling the former, after judgment, to attach debts and monies of his debtor in the hands of a third person, and in this way to obtain satisfaction of his judgment. It also enables the judgment creditor to have the supposed debtor, who is called the garnishee, orally examined as to whether any, and what debts are owing to the judgment creditor, and to obtain the production of books and documents; affording the garnishee at the same time an opportunity of disputing his liability, and in such case throwing the onus of proof on the judgment creditor. In their Third Report (p. 7), the Commissioners suggested several amendments with reference to this process of execution. They proposed that a judge, when applied to for an order of attachment, "should have a discretion to refuse to "interfere in cases where the costs of the proceedings "would, in his opinion, bear so large a proportion to the "amount to be recovered as to make the remedy practically "worthless or vexatious"; and this suggestion has been adopted. 66 "It occasionally happens, again, that the garnishee appears, admits the debt, is willing to pay it, but has a bonâ "fide doubt whether the execution debtor is really entitled "to it, and whether some other person is not. Now it is "obvious that garnishees ought not to be compelled to pay "without being protected against that other person, and "that the latter ought not to have his rights decided on "without having an opportunity of being heard on them." To prevent these inconveniences the remedy suggested was to enable the garnishee, on being served with the order, to take out a summons, in the nature of an interpleader, calling on any person to whom he suggests the debt is really due, to appear; on which proceedings might then take place as in interpleader, and the creditor, or the person called on, be barred according to the result. This suggestion has been adopted, in spirit though not in terms, by enabling the judge to direct the appearance of third persons, and thereupon to make such orders as shall be just and reasonable. In the action of detinue, the plaintiff in form recovers the specific chattels sued for, or their value; but until the law was altered by the statute of 1854, the defendant had it in his power to keep the chattels upon paying the value as assessed by the jury. A special writ of execution has been framed to give effect to the right of the plaintiff to have the specific chattel restored to him. Of a somewhat similar nature is the writ of execution, which by the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856, may be awarded in actions for breach of an agreement to deliver specific goods to a purchaser,-the nearest approach perhaps which the Common Law Courts have yet been allowed to make towards enforcing that specific performance of contracts, which constitutes so large a branch of the jurisdiction of the Courts of Equity. The statute of 1854, it is true, enables the plaintiff to claim, in certain cases, a writ of mandamus, the professed object of which was to give him the means of obtaining a specific performance by the defendant. But the straitened terms in which the power has been conferred by the legislature, and the very diffident and modest interpretation put upon it by the courts have so limited its application, that the Court of Chancery practically retains its jealously guarded monopoly of jurisdiction. Finally, it may be observed that obedience to writs of Injunction and Mandamus* may in certain cases be enforced by the issue of writs of Sequestration, a process of execution the use of which has hitherto been confined to the Courts of Equity. INTERPLEADER. Arising as it ordinarily does out of disputed claims to goods seized in execution, would here seem to claim attention; but that its importance and intricacy require such detailed treatment, as can only be given to it in its appropriate place hereafter, where the statutes and cases are succinctly collected. This brief review of the enactments of the important statutes, by which the practice of the Superior Courts of Law is now chiefly regulated, has been attempted with the view of displaying to the reader the field over which the changes of the last eight years extend. To the details of the several statutes, and their practical application, the remainder of this book is devoted. The legislature has not seen fit to adopt the most important and most valuable of the suggestions contained in the second and third reports of the Common Law Commissioners, who have now brought their labours to a close. Most of the changes that have been effected at their instance were indeed recommended by their predecessors in the commission of 1831; but they have the merit of carrying them into effect. When the fusion of Law and Equity has been completed to the extent so powerfully recommended by the very learned Commissioners, there would seem but little defect left in our Common Law Procedure to serve as an opportunity for those • But see page 278, post. self-constituted amenders, who so noisily busy themselves about altering the Common Law, the principles of which many of them might, with certainly less risk to the community, if not with more profit to themselves, be employed in learning. This Introduction cannot be better brought to an end than by again quoting from the Common Law Commissioners (3rd) Report. "In closing their commission it cannot but be gratifying "to the commissioners to be able to report that the altera"tions that have been effected have rendered the procedure "in actions simple, economical and speedy, and have had the "effect of limiting the costs to the expenses of the necessary "and essential steps in a cause." 66 "The technicalities which brought so much discredit on our jurisprudence have now disappeared, and the courts, "owing to the improved system of pleading and procedure, "and the large additional power of amendment, are occupied "in adjudicating upon the substantial merits of the cases in litigation, while from the operation of the same causes, it very rarely occurs in trials at nisi prius that the real ques"tion in controversy is not decided by the jury." 66 66 THE COMMON LAW PROCEDURE ACT, 15 & 16 VICT. c. 76. An Act to amend the Process, Practice and Mode ment of act. 1. The provisions of this act shall come into opera- Commencetion on the twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. WRITS OF SUMMONS. And with respect to the writs for the commencement of personal actions in the said courts against defendants, whether in or out of the jurisdiction of the courts, be it enacted as follows: Writs for commencement of Actions. actions, when defendant resides within to be com jurisdiction, menced by writ of sum 2. All personal actions brought in her Majesty's Personal Superior Courts of Common Law, where the defendant is residing or supposed to reside within the jurisdiction of the said courts, shall be commenced by writ of summons in the form contained in the Schedule (A) to this act annexed, marked No. 1, and in every such writ and copy thereof the place and county of the residence or supposed residence of the party defendant, (A). or wherein the defendant shall be or shall be supposed to be, shall be mentioned; and such writ shall be issued by any one of the officers of the said courts к. B mons in form No. 1, of Schedule |