ever addressed to such an undertaking, or concerned in the practice
or administration of the law. Their alterations were bold and
extensive, and perhaps may be said to have been, to the same extent,
successful. The principal objects proposed to be effected by the late
changes were enumerated in an early part of this work, where also was
given a general account of all the late changes effected in the
department of Common Law pleading and practice. To this we now refer
the reader; and also to the Appendix (No. IV.), where will be found,
_in extenso_, the Rules of Court by which these great alterations
were effected. While the principal objects of the framers of them
have been accomplished, by effecting a great saving of expense in the
length of the pleadings, and their incidents; by securing an
economical and satisfactory trial at Nisi Prius, through the precise
and specific nature of the issues required to be presented to the
jury, and the effectual expedients resorted to, for the purpose of
saving an unnecessary expenditure in obtaining evidence: it cannot be
denied that the excessive stringency of the rules which restrict a
plaintiff to a single count in respect of a single cause of action,
and a defendant to a single plea in support of a single ground of
defence, too frequently operates most injuriously, so as to secure
the defeat of justice. _It is continually a matter of serious
difficulty, to refer a particular combination of facts to their
appropriate legal category; and if the wrong one should be selected,
substantial justice is sacrificed before arbitrary legal
technicality._ It would be easy to illustrate the truth of these
remarks by reference to cases of daily occurrence. The rule in
question must either be relaxed, or its injurious effects neutralized
by greatly enlarged powers of amendment conferred upon the judge at
Nisi Prius. With all these defects, however, it cannot be denied that
the recent changes in the law of pleading, evidence, and practice,
with reference to the interests of suitors, have justified the most
sanguine anticipations of those who set in motion the machinery which
effected those changes; and with reference to students and
practitioners, have tended to exact a far greater amount of
diligence, learning, and acuteness,