Mr. Tucker: I took it for granted, under the rules of the Association, that as Mr. Kean's paper had been read before the Association it would be printed in the proceedings.

Mr. Christian And further, that the Secretary of this Association be instructed to have five hundred additional copies of it made and distributed throughout the State, and that especially a copy of it shall be sent to each member of the Legislature to be elected next fall.

James Lyons: I move the following amendment to that resolution regarding the address of the gentleman from New York: That a copy of that address be sent to each member of the Bar Association of Virginia and each member of the Bar and Legislature of the State of New York.

W. A. Glasgow: I move, as a further amendment, that a copy of the address of our President be furnished for publication, and that a like five hundred copies of it be distributed; and appreciating the delicacy due the President, I will put the vote.

Mr. Christian's resolution, as amended, was adopted.

Chas. M. Blackford: There are several matters which have to be attended to before we adjourn; and I move that the amendment to the constitution be now taken up.

Mr. Duke I would like to have that amendment reported.

The Secretary read the amendment, which may be seen with the report of the Executive Committee, at the end of the Minutes.

The amendment was adopted.

R. T. Barton: I am under the impression that the Judiciary Committee will not for some time be able to act upon the suggestions of Mr. Kean made last evening, and I propose the following resolution as accomplishing in a better form the same end

R. Taylor Scott: I will ask my friend to please postpone that for a while, as I have a report from the committee.

Mr. Barton: I underrated the great efficiency of the committee, sir. Mr. Scott: I am instructed on the part of the Judiciary Committee to present the following report in answer to the resolution of last night on the paper of Mr. Kean. Our report is in these words, sir:

To the Virginia State Bar Association:

Your Committee, to whom was referred the instructive and able paper read by R. G. H. Kean, of the Lynchburg Bar, respectfully report, that they concur in his criticisms upon our Judicial System and believe

its defects pointed out should be corrected. So limited is the time at the disposal of the Committee, and so difficult is it to secure meetings for conference and work, that it is impossible for them to formulate and present to this Association, even upon the single point of constitutional amendment, a satisfactory report.

Should the proposed amendment be concurred in by this Association and recommended to the General Assembly, your Committee is of opinion that, in order to preserve Mr. Kean's proposed classification, all elections to fill vacancies in the judicial office must be for unexpired terms, and not, as provided by section 26, for full terms. Again, to carry out Mr. Barton's suggestion, a new section is necessary, whereby shall be preserved to the incumbent judges their respective offices. Thus to remodel Mr. Kean's work demands more time, care and study than your Committee have to bestow.

A member of the Committee (Judge Graham of Tazewell) is of opinion that the Constitution should provide that in the formation of the Court of Appeals, the judges thereof and their successors shall be selected from geographical districts, to be formed from the four grand divisions of the Commonwealth-viz: Tidewater, the Southwest, the Valley, and Piedmont. Upon this matter he asks time and opportunity for comparison of views and discussion.

Your Committee, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following resolution, viz:

Resolved, That the paper read by Mr. R., G. H. Kean be referred to the Judiciary Committee, and that said Committee be directed to carefully consider the same, formulate an amendment to the Constitution, and draft such bills as may be proper to correct the defects pointed out by Mr. Kean in our judicial system; that said Committee do submit their work to the President of this Association and to the Chairman of the Committee upon Legislation and Law Reform, and if approved by them, then that said Committee take all necessary and proper steps to secure the action thereon of the General Assembly.

Respectfully submitted.

R. TAYLOR SCOTT, Chairman.

Mr. Barton: Mr. Chairman,—that covers the whole ground, except it does not state that the amendment proposed by Mr. Kean shall not take effect so as to limit the term of any incumbent existing at the time of its adoption.

Mr. Scott: That is in there.

Mr. Barton: I did not see it in the resolution; it is in the report. Suppose you read the resolution.

The Secretary read the resolution.

Mr. Scott: I will say to my friend from Winchester that the reason I did not repeat it in the resolution was that the resolution was a part and parcel of the report. Therefore I did not think it necessary to

repeat it. I would suggest that the vote be on the adoption of the report with the resolution.

The report and the resolution were adopted.

James Lyons: Mr. President, I was greatly impressed with the report of the Committee on Library and Legal Literature. There were several most valuable suggestions, but the one that struck me particularly was this: that at each of our annual meetings we should have a memorial address on some departed brother of our profession who had added lustre to the name of our bar. In order to carry out that suggestion I offer the resolution that the Hon. J. Randolph Tucker be requested to prepare a memorial address on Chancellor Wythe, to be delivered at our next annual meeting. There never sat a judge upon the bench who has added greater lustre to it than Judge Wythe, and I am sure no one can prepare a more suitable memorial than Mr. Tucker.

Wm. H. Sands: I move as a substitute that Mr. Tucker be requested to prepare an address to be delivered at our next annual meeting upon such topic as in his judgment may be proper, and not restrict him to any particular subject.

Mr. Lyons: I will state why I suggested Chancellor Wythe: It is that Chancellor Wythe, being the first Chancellor, is entitled, if any one is, to this memorial, and there are personal associations which might aid Mr. Tucker in making the memorial. Therefore I think it appropriate that Mr. Wythe should be selected.

Saml. A. Anderson, of Henry: I want to make a suggestion in connection with this resolution; that it is the province of one of the regular committees of this body to make a selection of the gentleman to prepare and deliver the annual address. I do not know, therefore, whether it is necessary, if advisable, for us to take from the hands of that committee a part of its duties.

James C. Lamb: I am opposed to both the resolution and the substitute. The preparation of such memorials was suggested in the excellent report of the Committee on Library aid Legal Literature as a part of the appropriate work of that committee. There is no reason,

so far as I know, why we should take it out of their hands in this way. Moreover, the substitute trenches upon the duties of the Executive Committee, who alone are empowered to select gentlemen to make addresses and read papers before the Association.

Mr. Sands: I withdraw my substitute.

W. R. McKenney: I move to lay the motion of Mr. Lyons on the table.

Carried.

The President: Yesterday there were passed by until after the morning hour of to-day a resolution offered by Mr. Duke and an amendment offered by Mr. Patteson, growing out of the report of the Committee on Law reform. The Secretary will please report them.

The Secretary: Mr. Duke's resolution is as follows:

"Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, whose duty it shall be to prepare and submit to the next Legislature a Code of Civil Procedure for this State, based upon the Code of Procedure of New York."

Mr. Patteson's substitute is as follows:

"Whereas it is the sense of this Association that the delay of legal proceedings in Virginia is greatly detrimental to the interests of justice, and that the English common law is growing daily more inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions and the progress of the age, and that a reform in our laws is indispensably necessary; therefore be it—

"Resolved, That a Committee of Ten, one from each Congressional District of Virginia, be appointed by this Association, to which committee Judge Wm. J. Robertson shall be added as chairman, whose duty it shall be to prepare a complete code of civil procedure and present the same to the next Legislature of Virginia for adoption."

Camm Patteson: Like my friend, Mr. Lyons, I drew my inspiration from the University of Virginia, not so much from the honorable and learned Mr. John B. Minor as from the late eminent Mr. James P. Holcombe, who used to sta e to his class that the time would soon come when not one stone upon another would remain of that temple in which Lord Coke loved so well to dwell.

The practice of Law in Virginia for a number of years has proved to me the miserable inefficiency of the common law. Have you ever reflected, gentlemen, that owing to the improvements in chemical and mechanical science, the growth of railroad and telegraphic transportation, more than eight times the business is done now than was done thirty years ago? We live in a rapidly moving age, and the cumbrous forms of the common law are wholly unsuited to our institutions. They retard our development as a people. I was much interested in the ornate and classical address of Mr. Carter, but his objection to codes of civil procedure did not strike me with much force. It is true, as he says, that there can never be any complete and perfect code of laws; but surely we can embody in them wisdom and experience of the past,

and shorten the route to justice. It is the well nigh interminable delay of the common law to which I strenuously object. In the last twenty years England has completely remodelled her legal and judicial proceedings. Shall we continue to use the cast-off clothing of the mother country? I respect the conservatism of the Virginia people, but I recognize the fact that to keep abreast of the age we must catch the spirit of reform and act upon it. What would make Ohio, Indiana and California go back to the common law procedure?

I think the committee ought to come from different sections of the State, and I feel confident that they will be upheld in their work by the unanimous sentiment of the business men of the State. We want as little judge-made law as possible. What I earnestly wish to abolish is the infamous frippery and toggery of the common law the object of which seems to have been, not to attain but to defeat justice, and I therefore earnestly impress upon this Association the necessity of action.

President Wm. J. Robertson (Vice President F. V. Winston in the chair): I feel very much indebted to my friend for the compliment which he has paid me in proposing that I should be chairman of that committee, and I rise at once to say it would be impossible for me to act as a member even of that committee, my engagements being such that I could not possibly do it. But I must say that I do not think that any good will result from a committee of this body to form a code of civil procedure. It will be a very laborious operation. In order to do it properly and successfully, I think that it ought to be a committee appointed by the Legislature and delegated to one individual or a commission of three. To do it properly the individual or the commission who may have the matter before them ought to examine carefully all of the codes of procedure, a list of which I gave yesterday, and perhaps there may be others. And not only to examine those codes in order to see which of them would be applicable to our conditions, which would best suit our existing system and effect the object of remedying the evils which exist, but they will have to examine the decisions that have been made under those codes in order to adopt such provisions as will not involve us in the litigation, to which Mr. Carter referred, in which the New York Code had involved the people of New York; not Mr. David Dudley Field's code, but a code subsequently adopted. Our code can be made by a competent man, and I think at least six months, if not a year's labor, will be required to prepare such a code as we ought to have. In the preparation of that code he ought to select the best from the