The Supreme Court of New jfersey.
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old system of delay by pleading specially, ling. In case any members of the court but they do it at their peril. By statute were also members of the Council, they pleas intended merely for delay, or which might be present at the hearing of the ap are false or frivolous, may be stricken out by peal, but could not vote. Appeals from the the court. The old fictions of John Doe and judgments of the Governor and Council lay Richard Roe, and lease, entry, and ouster to the Queen and her Privy Council in cases in actions of ejectment have been abol where the judgment was for an amount ex ished; and now the real parties in the cause ceeding two hundred pounds sterling. In meet face to face, without the intervention all appeals from the Supreme Court, or from of two men of straw, and without the ne the Council, security was required. cessity of confessing lease, entry, and ouster, The first term of this Supreme Court and the case is tried on the merits. Special thus organized was held on Nov. 7, 1704, demurrers are also abolished, and general at Burlington. It was presided over by demurrers with specifications of causes are Roger Mompesson, its first Chief-Justice, and only allowed. The old-fashioned styles of William Pinhorne, its first associate justice, action are done away with, and instead con or, as he was then called, Second Judge. tract and tort are substituted. There have Mompesson was Chief-Justice of New York been some other modifications and changes, as well as of New Jersey. On the first day but they are not radical, nor are they very of the session the commissions of the jus important. With these exceptions the prac tices were read, and they were sworn in and tice in the Supreme Court is about the same took their seats, clothed with full power to now as it was two hundred years ago, when hold court, hear, try, and determine all causes it was first established. Writs of error from which might be submitted to them. But judgments in the Circuit Court and in the there were no cases ready, no indictments Common Pleas, and writs of Certiorari, Quo were found, and after admitting a few attor Warranto, and Mandamus are brought to neys and calling and swearing a Grand Jury this court; and cases may be certified to the and awaiting its return, the court adjourned Supreme Court for rehearing by the judge to meet on the first Tuesday in May then of the Circuit Court of the county. Indict next. The adjournment on the first day was ments may be removed from the Oyer and to eight o'clock in the morning of the next 1 Terminer and Quarter Sessions to this court. day. What the lawyers of the present time It has virtually appellate jurisdiction from would say to such a conscienceless action can all inferior courts. It is now composed of better be imagined than described. a Chief-Justice and eight associate justices, Roger Mompesson was the son or grand who hold four terms a year; and no limit is son of an English clergyman, rector of a put to the length of its sessions. Circuits church at Eyam, in Derbyshire. Miss Sew are held four times yearly in each county in ard, in her letters from England, written the State, over which the Chief-Justice or one in 1784, speaks of this pious man with very of the associate justices presides, in which great respect. He was physician as well as the issues of fact begun in the Supreme Court priest during the visit in 1666 to his parish are tried. of the Plague, which almost depopulated No provision for appeals from the Supreme London. The family was an ancient one, Court to any other tribunal was made in the and of very great respectability. Mompes ordinance published by Lord Cornbury; but son himself had attained to some eminence in the Queen's instructions to him this was in his profession; he had been Recorder for arranged. An appeal lay from this court Southampton, and had served twice in Par to the Governor and his Council, when the liament. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1703. judgment exceeded one hundred pounds ster A letter from William Penn to a friend in
