University of Virginia Library

1871. COURTS OF CHANCERY, Common Law and.—

One practice only is wanting
to render the Court of Chancery completely
valuable. That is that when a class
of cases has been formed, and has been the
subject of so many decisions in the Court of
Chancery as to have been seen there under
all circumstances, and in all its combinations,
and the rules for its decision are modified accordingly
and thoroughly digested, the Legislature
should reduce these rules to a text and
transplant them into the department of the
Common Law, which is competent then to
the application of them, and is a safer depository
for the general administration of justice.
This would be to make the Chancery
a nursery only for the forming new plants
for the department of the Common Law.
Much of the business of Chancery is now actually
in a state of perfect preparation for
removal into the Common Law.—
To Phillip Mazzei. Ford ed., iv, 113.
(P. 1785)