Questions of law.

Chancellor interested.

Judge ad litem.

Orphans' Court.

have power to prevent any inconvenience or delay from observing the rotation above prescribed, by making an order or regulation for either of the judges who sat in the cause below, to sit in such cause in the Court of Errors and Appeals. If a judge did not sit in the cause below he shall sit in the said cause in the Court of Errors and Appeals, unless there be a legal exception to him; but the court, if there be three judges present, may proceed in his absence.

Whenever the Superior Court consider that a question of law ought to be decided before all the judges, they shall have power, upon the application of either party, to direct it to be heard in the Court of Errors and Appeals; and in that case the chancellor and four judges shall compose the Court of Errors and Appeals, the chancellor presiding, and any four of them being a quorum; and in the absence of the Chancellor, the chief justice shall preside. The Superior Court in exercising this power, may direct a cause to be proceeded in to verdict and judgment in that court, or to be otherwise proceeded in, as shall be best for expediting justice.

Upon appeals from the Court of Chancery, the Court of Errors and Appeals shall consist of the chief justice and three associate judges; any three of them shall be a quorum.

SEC. 8. In matters of chancery jurisdiction in which the chancellor is interested, the chief justice sitting in the Superior Court without the associate judges, shall have jurisdiction, with an appeal to the Court of Errors and Appeals, which shall consist in this case of the three associate judges, the senior associate judge presiding.

SEC. 9. The governor shall have power to commission a judge ad litem, to decide any cause in which there is a legal exception to the chancellor or any judge, so that such appointment is neccessary to constitute a quorum in either court. The commission in such case shall confine the office to the cause, and it shall expire on the determination of the cause. The judge The judge so appointed shall receive a reasonable compensation to be fixed by the general assembly. A member of Congress, or any person holding or exercising an office under the United States, shall not be disqualified from being appointed a judge ad litem.

SEC. 10. The Orphans' Court, in each county, shall be held by the chancellor and the associate judge residing in the county; the chancellor being president. Either of them, in the absence of the other, may hold the court. When they concur in opinion there

shall be no appeal from their decision, except in the matter of real estate. When their opinions are opposed, or when a decision is made by one of them, and in all matters involving a right to real estate, or the appraised value or other value thereof, there shall be an appeal to the Superior Court for the county, which shall have final jurisdiction in every such case. This court shall have all the jurisdiction and powers vested by the laws of this State in the Orphans' Court.

SEC. 11. The jurisdiction of each of the aforesaid courts shall be co-extensive with the State. Process may be issued out of each court, in either county, into every county.

Jurisdiction.

alter.

SEC. 12. The general assembly, notwithstanding anything con- Generalastained in this article, shall have power to repeal or alter any act of smbly may the general assembly giving jurisdiction to the courts of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery, or to the Supreme Court, or the Court of Common Pleas, or the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery, or the Orphans' Court, or to the Court of Chancery, in any matter, or giving any power to either of said courts. Until the general assembly shall otherwise direct, there shall be an appeal to the Court of Errors and Appeals in all cases in which there is an appeal, according to any act of the General Assembly, to the High Court of Errors and Appeals.

SEC. 13. Until the general assembly shall otherwise provide, the chancellor shall exercise all the powers which any law of this State vests in the chancellor, besides the general powers of the Court of Chancery; and the chief justice and associate judges shall each singly exercise all the powers which any law of this State vests in the judges singly of the Supreme Court or Court of Common Pleas.

SEC. 14. The chancellor and judges shall respectively hold their Tenure of office. offices during good behavior, and receive for their services a compensation which shall be fixed by law and paid quarterly, and shall not be less than the following sums, that is to say :—the annual sal- Salaries, ary of the chief justice shall not be less than the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars; and the annual salary of the chancellor shall not be less than the sum of one thousand one hundred dollars; and the annual salaries of the associate judges respectively, shall not be less than the sum of one thousand dollars each. They shall hold no other office of profit, nor receive any fees or perquisites, in addition to their salaries, for business done by them. The governor may

Inferior Courts.

Amending pleadings.

Deposition.

for any reasonable cause, in his discretion, remove any of them on the address of two-thirds of all the members of each branch of the general assembly. In all cases where the legislature shall so address the governor, the cause of removal shall be entered on the journals of each house. The judge against whom the legislature may be about to proceed, shall receive notice thereof, accompanied with the cause alleged for his removal, at least five days before the day on which either house of the general assembly shall act thereupon. SEC. 15. The general assembly may by law give to any inferior courts by them to be established, or to one or more justices of the peace, jurisdiction of the criminal matters following, that is to say: assaults and batteries, keeping without license a public house of entertainment, tavern, inn, ale house, ordinary or victualling house, retailing or selling without license, wine, rum, brandy, gin, whiskey, or spirituous or mixed liquors contrary to law, disturbing camp meetings held for the purpose of religious worship, disturbing other meetings for the purpose of religious worship, nuisances, horse racing, cock fighting and shooting matches, larcenies committed by negroes or mulattoes, and the offence of knowingly buying, receiving, or concealing by negroes or mulattoes, of stolen goods and things the subject of larceny, and of any negro or mulatto being accessory to any larceny. The general assembly may by law regulate this jurisdiction, and provide that the proceedings shall be with or without indictment by grand jury, or trial by petit jury, and may grant or deny the privilege of appeal to the Court of General Sessions of the Peace: the matters within this section shall be and the same hereby are excepted and excluded from the provision of the Constitution, that—" No person shall for an indictable offence be proceeded against criminally by information "-and also from the provisions of the Constitution concerning trial by jury.

SEC. 16. In civil causes, when pending, the Superior Court shall have the power, before judgment, of directing, upon such terms as they shall deem reasonable, amendments, impleadings and legal proceedings, so that by error in any of them, the determination of causes, according to their real merits, shall not be hindered; and also of directing the examination of witnesses that are aged, very infirm, or going out of the State, upon interrogatories de bene esse, to be read in evidence, in case of the death or departure of the witnesses before the trial, or inability by reason of age, sickness, bodily

infirmity, or imprisonment, then to attend; and also the power of obtaining evidence from places not within the State.

Court.

SEC. 17. At any time pending an action for debt or damages, the Money into defendant may bring into court a sum of money for discharging the same, and the cost then accrued, and the plaintiff not accepting thereof, it shall be delivered for his use to the clerk or prothonotary of the court; and if, upon the final decision of the cause, the plaintiff shall not recover a greater sum than that so paid into court for him, he shall not recover any costs accruing after such payment, except where the plaintiff is an executor or administrator.

SEC. 18. By the death of any party, no suit in chancery or at law, Suits survive. where the cause of action survives, shall abate, but until the legislature shall otherwise provide, suggestion of such death being entered of record, the executor or administrator of a deceased petitioner or plaintiff may prosecute the said suit; and if a respondent or defendant dies, the executor or administrator being duly served with a scire facias, thirty days before the return thereof, shall be considered as a party to the suit, in the same manner as if he had voluntarily made himself a party; and in any of those cases, the court shall pass a decree, or render judgment for or against executors or administrators, as to right appertains. But where an executor or administrator of a deceased respondent or defendant becomes a party, the court upon motion, shall grant such a continuance of the cause as to the judges shall appear proper.

appeal and error.

SEC. 19. Whenever a person, not being an executor or adminis- Security on trator, appeals from a decree of the Chancellor, or applies for a writ of error, such appeal or writ shall be no stay of proceeding in the chancery, or the court to which the writ issues, unless the appellant or plaintiff in error, shall give sufficient security, to be approved respectively by the Chancellor, or by a judge of the court from which the writ issues, that the appellant or plaintiff in error shall prosecute respectively his appeal or writ to effect, and pay the condemnation money and all costs, or otherwise abide the decree in appeal or the judgment in error, if he fail to make his plea good.

writs of error.

SEC. 20. No writ of error shall be brought upon any judgment Limitation of beretofore confessed, entered or rendered, but within five years' from this time; nor upon any judgment hercafter to be confessed, entered or rendered, but within five years after the confessing, entering or rendering thereof; unless the person entitled to such

Executor's administrator's and guardian ac

counts.

Exceptions.

Register's court.

Prothonotaries.

Lien of judg

ments.

Justices of the
Peace.

writ be an infant, feme covert, non compos mentis, or a prisoner, and then within five years exclusive of the time of such disability.

SEC. 21. An executor, administrator or guardian, shall file every account with the Register for the county, who shall as soon as conveniently may be, carefully examine the particulars with the proofs thereof, in the presence of such executor, administrator or guardian, and shall adjust and settle the same, according to the very right of the matter, and the law of the land; which account so settled, shall remain in his office for inspection; and the executor, administrator or guardian, shall within three months after such settlement, give notice in writing to all persons entitled to shares of the estate, or to their guardians respectively, if residing within the State, that the account is lodged in the said office for inspection.

Exceptions may be made by persons concerned, to both sides of every such account, either denying the justice of the allowances made to the accountant, or alleging further charges against him; and the exceptions shall be heard in the Orphans' Court for the county; and thereupon the account shall be adjusted and settled according to the right of the matter and law of the land.

SEC. 22. The registers of the several counties shall respectively hold the register's court in each county. Upon the litigation of a cause, the depositions of the witnesses examined, shall be taken at large in writing, and make part of the proceedings in the cause. This court may issue process throughout the State, to compel the attendance of witnesses. Appeals may be made from a register's court to the Superior Court, whose decisions shall be final. In cases where a register is interested in questions concerning the probate of wills, the granting letters of administration, or executors', administrators' or guardians' accounts, the cognizance thereof shall belong to the Orphans' Court, with an appeal to the Superior Court, whose decision shall be final.

SEC. 23. The prothonotary of the Superior Court may issue process, take recognizances of bail and enter judgments, according to law and the practice of the court. No judgment in one county shall bind lands or tenements in another, until a testatum fieri facias being issued, shall be entered of record in the office of the prothonotary of the county wherein the lands or tenements are situated.

SEC. 24. The governor shall appoint a competent number of persons to the office of justice of the peace, not exceeding twelve