るな ABG A N Historical Treatise O F An ACTION or SUIT at Law; AND OF THE Proceedings ufed in the King's Bench and Common Pleas, ALSO An Account of the Alterations that have been made from Time WITH Such Remarks and Obfervations, as tend to explain and illustrate AND Pointing out fuch Particulars as would contract the Proceedings, Nefcire quid antequam natus fiș acciderit, id eft femper esse puerum, By R. BO O T E. The SECOND EDITION, with ADDITIONS. CIC. Printed by his MAJESTY'S LAW-PRINTERS; THE PREFACE. T HE Obfcurity and Expence which neceffarily attend the conducting of a Suit at Law, especially where Special Pleadings are requifite to be made, have long been the Subject of Complaint, not only to Clients who fenfibly feel thefe Inconveniences, but likewife to every confcientious Practitioner of the Law. The Courts at Westminster have long been fenfible of this Grievance; and nothing perhaps could be more agreeable to the Sages of the Law, as well as to Clients themselves, than to point out fome Method by which the Proceedings in a Suit may be contracted or reduced into Forms more concife, and confequently lefs intricate and lefs expenfive than they are at prefent. To effect fo defireable an End, nothing will be more conducive than the difbar thening the Pleadings in a Suit of that great Number of dark and obfcure References to ancient Customs and Things, with which (though they are now become obfolete, and apparently unneceffary) the Proceedings at Law ftill continue to be enveloped, obfcured, and rendered unneceffarily expenfive. The following Historical Treatise of a Suit at Law, is intended, not only to illuftrate and explain such formal Parts of our Writs and Pleadings, but to point out fuch Parts of them as, having no other Foundation than in ancient Ufe and Cuftoms, it is apprehended may be very well fpared, and the remaining Part of the Pleadings thereby not only rendered more clear, fignificant and intelligible, but at the fame Time lefs grievous to the Client. How far the Detail I have engaged in, may be found fufficient to answer the End I had in View must be left to the Reader's Juagment to determine. But, if from the Reflections and Obfervations which are fuggefted in the Course of this Work, there is Matter fuiticient pointed out, to fhew the Reasonableness and Expediency of fuch a Reformation in the prefent Mode of Law Proceedings, it is hoped fome Gentleman who may be more equal to the Task, will improve upon the Hints I have given, and more effectually point out the Manner in which fuch a Reformation, or Amendment, may be brought about; and that those who alone have it in their Power, will one Day put a finishing Hand to a Work fo extremely neceffary and fo much wifhed for. Till fomething of this Sort be done, we muft ftill puzzle on in the obfcure and dark Tracts of Antiquity, in which the young Practitioners often lofe their Way, to the manifest Delay of Juflice, and to the no fmall Expence of the Client. King James the First was fo fenfible of the great Burthen and Inconveniences of the fuperfluous Branches in Law Proceedings in his Time, that in a Speech in the Star-Chamber in 1614 (as I have read in an old Tract of J. Cooke's) he promised to cut them all off, though in Reality we do not find any great Matter was done towards it in his Time. And in the troublesome Reign of his unhappy Son King Charles the First (the Martyr to the Laws and Religion of his Kingdom) there was no Time for Reflection on Matters of this Sort; but in the Reign of King Charles the fecond, the Grievances arifing from hence were thought fo great, that the Courts at Weftminster, to their Honour be it remembered, took the Matter into their Confideration; A 3 and |