by the incoming President and to be announced presently, will have charge of all such subjects.

Camm Patteson: It is a new thing to me; Colonel Duke knew all about the committee; his proposition is that a special committee be appointed upon this particular branch.

Alexander Hamilton: This same thing has already been referred to the Committee on Law Reform.

Camm Patteson: What has it amounted to?

Mr. Hamilton: All this has been gone over. It was attempted twelve months ago to change the entire system of judicial procedure in Virginia in half an hour. I do not believe any reason has been shown to us to make it any more desirable now, and I don't know why any special committee should be appointed about this matter.

Camm Patteson: I think it perfectly proper. There are thirty or forty members of this Association who think differently from Mr. Hamilton. Last year I said you had just as well refer it to a graveyard as to the Committee on Law Reform. Now he says that committee has done nothing. One year has elapsed, and that is a long part of human life. The time of this committee might be extended to the age of Methuselah, and we will never get a report from it. I hope the minority of this body will have at least the right of expressing their opinion through the committee as proposed by Colonel Duke. Therefore I say it ought to be done in fairness and justice. The President said in his address that corporations took away the rights of the minorities; truly it could never be done more effectively than the majority have done to the minority through the medium of the graveyard committee. Let it go to the committee and have a recorded vote at the next meeting.

The President: It is one of the by-laws of the Association that no member can be permitted to speak more than twice on one subject and no speech to take more than five minutes.

Camm Patteson: I notice it has never been enforced except when the question of law reform is brought up.

The President: I want to announce it as one of the rules.

L. D. Yarrell, of Greenesville: I think that in justice to the mover of the resolution, the gentlemen who are in favor of it ought to be allowed to examine the subject and present a report. I think it is, as

they say, evident that the general committee will not make such a report as they wish, and I do hope that this Association will allow a committee to be appointed, with the mover as chairman of the committee, and the other two gentlemen-Mr. Duke and his brother-members of the committee, to fully investigate this subject and report to this Association.

I would like to make one or two remarks in regard to the resolution. I was struck with the idea expressed by the gentleman from Buckingham, that Lord Chief Justice Coleridge wished to see the day when a case could mature in fifteen or twenty days. We have that day now in Virginia. We have plenty of law, all the law we want, but we haven't got the lawyers to work the law out. Mr. Chairman, I would like to add here that we do not need laws, but need men of energy, nerve and industry enough to prepare their cases and have them ready. My experience and observation as a judge on the bench and as a practitioner at the bar is that ninety per cent. of the continuances are due to the witnesses not being present or lawyers not being ready. The fault is with the execution. We have a plenty of law.

Camm Patteson: Don't you think a little blame rests with the judges in the administration of the law? I call your attention to the fact that in California it is the law that if a judge does not decide a case in two terms his salary is to be proportionately cut down. I find that this provision has been a great stimulus to the industry of the California judiciary, which I would suggest to you as an example which might be well followed by at least some of the members of the Virginia judiciary.

Mr. Yarrell: I take pleasure in replying, as I am an ex-judge now. I resigned my position, as few do. I made it a rule, speaking personally as judge, to clear my docket every court, and didn't wait two terms to reduce my salary. But if there had been any reduction in the salary it would not have hurt me, because the whole of it would hardly buy a half dozen breakfasts a month.

The President: Mr. Patteson's resolution is that it is the sense of the Association that law and equity procedure should be consolidated, so that legal and equitable rights be administered in consolidation. It is moved that this be referred to the Committee on Law Reform; and, as a substitute, it was also moved that a special committee be appointed. The question will be upon the substitute-namely, the appointment of a special committee.

The substitute was adopted by a rising vote of ayes, 28; nays, 23.

Charles M. Blackford: I wish to give notice that after the adjournment of this body the next meeting will be at half-past eight o'clock, when we will have, not as intellectual, but an equally agreeable meeting in this room. We will form down stairs in the office.

The President: There remains yet an important and, to individual members, an interesting matter of business; that is the announcement by the President-elect of the standing committees for the next year. hope the members will keep their seats, and not withdraw. I appoint the following committee under the resolution of Mr. Patteson: S. S. P. Patteson, of Richmond; R. T. W. Duke, of Charlottesville; T. S. Martin, of Scottsville; George M. Cochran, of Staunton; and R. M. Hughes, of Norfolk.

The next business is the announcement by the President-elect of the standing committees for the ensuing year.

E. C. Burks, President-elect, then announced the standing committees for the ensuing year.

(See the List at the end of the Annual Reports.)

Judge Burks: I suggest that these committees meet this afternoon if convenient, or at least some time before they disperse. It is for the purpose of organization and for the facilitation of business; there may be some business to arrange for future action. They are all present, I believe, and it would be very desirable for the organization to take place. I am quite well satisfied that, in regard to some of these standing committees, the members are so far apart and there is so little intercourse or communication among them that no business is done; and as a matter of convenience as well as of sound policy the committees should have their meetings now.

Geo. L. Christian: In obedience to the suggestion just made by the President-elect I desire to ask the Committee on Admissions to meet me this evening at five o'clock in the pavilion at the middle wharf for organization and to transact some business I want to bring before the committee this evening, and I desire any member here who sees another member, to give him notice of that fact.

R. M. Hughes: I wish to make the following motion, that the special committee on the subject of Law Reform be authorized to expend a sum not exceeding $150 in the purchase of the necessary books to prepare themselves on the subject. Of course no one of us feels called upon to buy all the literature that is necessary on that subject, and it is not

accessible to all of us, though it may be to some, and it may be necessary to make reference to some of the State codes.

The President: It is moved and seconded that the special committee on Law Reform, to which the resolution offered this morning was referred, and which was announced just now, be authorized to expend not exceeding $150 in the collection of such books as they may find necessary to consult in preparing their report.

A Member: I would like to ask who the books will belong to?
The President: To the Association-it is a corporation.

Jas. P. Harrison: I would like to ask if the committee cannot get all the books they want from the library? And why we must go to the expense of $150 in buying numerous treatises on this subject? It seems to me everything can be found in the law library of the State or in the collections of the libraries of the various law associations.

Mr. Hughes: I will change my resolution by making the sum $100 instead of $150. Of course we do not expect necessarily to spend all of this, but we want to have sufficient latitude. It may be that we will find some of the codes in the State library; I don't know what is there and what is not. It may be that we will find a good many of the books there and that will of course reduce the expense that much. But treatises like the one that one gentleman referred to—that of Lord Coleridge-I am sure we will not find in the State library. There are a great many articles on that subject which are not text-books or codes, that will give valuable information to the committee, which we will not find in the State library; and, while I presume the committee will be as economical as they can and will not expend anything like $100, I think we ought to be allowed some little latitude. It is an important subject referred to the committee and the committee cannot pretend to much originality in it. The best way they can get up their work is to read books on the subject. The only good library I know of is in Richmond. There is a very small one in Norfolk, which is said to be the second city in the state. I think the books are necessary to the committee.

W. B. Pettit: I understand this committee to be composed of gentlemen in favor of this resolution; that is my understanding, that the gentlemen upon this committee are taken from those who are in favor of this resolution.

The President: The committee is intended to be divided. Two of the gentlemen are outspoken reformers as to code procedure; as to one,

I am not aware of his sentiments; two are known to be opposed to the adoption of a code of procedure. The committee is as nearly divided as a committee of five can be.

Mr. Pettit: It was merely an inquiry. I say this committee in being authorized to purchase literature on this subject should be authorized to purchase also literature on the other side. If it is to be extended to literature and arguments on both sides, I have no objection.

The President: The chair would suppose that to be a question of detail; the committee will have to settle for themselves what literature they will buy. It is moved and seconded that this committee be authorized to expend a sum not exceeding $100 in the purchase of such treatises or codes as they may desire for the purpose of accomplishing the task committed to them.

Carried.

S. H. Letcher: Mr. President, I move that the Executive Committee be instructed, if possible, to get some eminent law reformer to address this body next year in the interest of law reform. I believe it is a good thing, and we ought to get all the light possible, and that is the best way to get it.

W. H. Sands: A point of order was sustained last year as to a proposition of that kind, and I make that point now-that the Executive Committee have that matter in their charge, and they can designate any one they choose.

John F. Rixey, of Culpeper: This question of the report of this special committee will be looked to with a great deal of interest by the Association, and, in order that the members of this Association may act upon this question intelligently at the next meeting, I move that the special committee be directed to have their report printed and a copy mailed by the Secretary of this Association to each member thirty days. before the next meeting.

The Secretary: I rise to a point of order. The By-Laws provide for that express point; any report of any committee containing any recommendation for action on the part of the Association may be so printed and distributed beforehand, and must be if the committee desires it.

S. H. Letcher: If the chair ruled my motion out of order because of its form, I now move that the body request the Executive Committee to secure the services of some eminent law reformer.