REPORT.

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK.

THE COMMISSIONERS ON PRACTICE AND PLEADINGS have the honor to submit herewith, their complete Report of a CODE OF CIVIL PRO

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CEDURE.

This Code is intended to embody the whole law of the state, concerning judicial remedies in civil cases, and to supersede the third, part of the Revised Statutes, a portion of the first and second, a large number of subsequent statutes, and all of the common law, on the subject of civil remedies.

Having entered upon the duties of their commission, with an earnest conviction that the time had arrived, when great changes in judicial procedure ought to be made; charged by the constitution and the statute, under which they were appointed, with an entire revision of the existing system; and specially enjoined to make changes which struck at its foundation, it can excite no surprise, that the reforms they have proposed are comprehensive and fundamental. In bringing their labors to a conclusion, it is their highest hope, that the favorable opinions which have encouraged them so far, may not be forfeited upon maturer experience.

It was a question with the commissioners of some embarrassment, how far it was wise to go into details. There were two opposite difficulties to be avoided; on one hand was the danger, by provisions too