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reside within the district for which they shall be respectively elected.

Chancery Powers of Common Pleas Courts.

Section 20. The several courts of common pleas, besides the powers herein conferred, shall have and exercise within their respective districts, subject to such changes as may be made by law, such chancery powers as are now vested by law in the several courts of common pleas of this Commonwealth, or as may hereafter be conferred upon them by law.

Supreme Court Extra Judicial Duties-Court of Nisi Prius Abolished.

Section 21. No duties shall be imposed by law upon the Supreme Court or any of the judges thereof except such as are judicial, nor shall any of the judges thereof exercise any power of appointment except as herein provided. The court of nisi prius is hereby abolished, and no court of original jurisdiction to be presided over by any one or more of the judges of the Supreme Court shall be established.

Orphans' Courts-Auditing of Accounts-Registers' Courts Abolished.

Section 22. In every county wherein the population shall exceed one hundred and fifty thousand the General Assembly shall, and in any other county may, establish a separate orphans' court to consist of one or more judges who shall be learned in the law, which court shall exercise all the jurisdiction and powers now vested in or which may hereafter be conferred upon the orphans' courts, and thereupon the jurisdiction of the judges of the court of common pleas within such county, in orphans' court proceedings, shall cease and determine. In any county in which a separate orphans' court shall be established, the register of wills shall be clerk of such court and subject to its directions in all matters pertaining to his office; he may appoint assistant clerks, but only with the consent and approval of said court. All accounts filed with him as register or as clerk of the said separate orphans' court shall be audited by the court without expense to parties, except where all parties in interest in a pending proceeding shall nominate an auditor whom the court may, in its discretion, appoint.

In every

county orphans' courts shall possess all the powers and jurisdiction of a registers' court, and separate registers' courts are hereby abolished.

Style of Process.

Section 23. The style of all process shall be "The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." All prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and conclude "against the peace and dignity of the same."

Right of Appeal in Criminal Cases.

Section 24. In all cases of felonious homicide, and in such other criminal cases as may be provided for by law, the accused after conviction and sentence may remove the indictment, record and all proceedings to the Supreme Court for review.

Vacancies in Court-How Filled.

Section 25. Any vacancy happening by death, resignation or otherwise, in any court of record, shall be filled by appointment by the Governor, to continue till the first Monday of January next succeeding the first general election which shall occur three or more months after the happening of such vacancy.

Laws Relating to Courts to be Uniform-Special Courts Forbidden.

Section 26. All laws relating to courts shall be general and of uniform operation, and the organization, jurisdiction and powers of all courts of the same class or grade, so far as regulated by law, and the force and effect of the process and judgments of such courts, shall be uniform; and the General Assembly is hereby prohibited from creating other courts to exercise the powers vested by this Constitution in the judges of the courts of common pleas and orphans' courts.

Submission of Issues of Fact.

Section 27. The parties, by agreement filed, may in any civil case dispense with trial by jury, and submit the decision of such case to the court having jurisdiction thereof, and such court shall hear and determine the same; and the judgment thereon shall be subject to writ of error as in other cases.

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chancery jurisdiction in,
181

federal court of, 128
provincial council as court
of, 68

state court of, 126

vice admiralty court es-
tablished, 69
Affirmations, 85, 86
Allen, Williamı, 108, 190
Amsterdam, colony of the city
of, 5

Andros, Governor, 23, 164, 216
Appeals:

from Dutch courts, 7
to high court of errors,
128, 134, 136

to privy council, 71, 82, 84
to provincial council, 65
under the Duke of York,
17, 29

Arbitration, 15, 48

Assheton, Robert, 113, 175,
231

Assizes, court of, 16, 29, 163
Attachment, 37
Attorney general, 113

Attorneys-at-law:

early bar, 110-115
examinations, 119
students, 117

subsequent to Revolution,
154

Bar (see Attorneys-at-law)
Binney, Horace, 155, 208
Blackstone's Commentaries,
119

Brackenridge, Judge H. H.,
142, 147

Bradford, Judge William, 131
Butler county, first court held
in, 151

Carr, Sir Robert, 9, 11
Censors, council of, 124, 129
Chancery, court of, 179, 193
Charles II, 40
Charter:

of privileges of 1701, 73,
184

to William Penn, 41
Chew, Benjamin, 108, 121, 134
Clark, William, 218

Circuit courts, 135, 138

Codes, colonial tendency
toward, 10, 14

Commission to revise the civil
code:

appointment, 155

report on equity juris-
diction, 196

on orphans' court, 235
Commissions of judges, 102
Common law, as a subsidiary
system in the colonies, 13,

103

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Decedents' debts, sale of land
for payment of, 226
Decedents' estates (see Or-
phans' court and Registers'
court)

Dickinson, John, 117, 120, 129,
130

Disorder, complaints against,
88

District court of Philadelphia,
137
Divorce:

acts of 1700 and 1705, 100
in the Dutch period, 6
private acts, 101

under Duke of York's
laws, 99

Doan, Aaron, outlawry of, 130
Ducking stool, 89

Duke of York (James II):

proprietorship of, 9
conveys territory to Penn,

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citation of cases forbidden,

150

conquest of New Nether-
lands, 9

statutes in force, 13, 14,
103

Equity jurisprudence:

colonial difficulties, 159
common-law forms, 190,

201

confined to Supreme
Court, 176

constitution of 1776, 192
constitution of 1790, 194
county courts, 167
court of assizes, 163
Keith's court, 177, 179,

181

petitions against, 184
private acts, 191

provincial council, 1661
recommendations of com-

missioners in 1835, 196
resolutions of general as-
sembly, 185

rules of Supreme Court,
200

Welsh courts as a pre-
cedent, 172, 174

Erie and Bradford counties:
road system, 267

Evans, Governor, 80
Examinations for the bar, 119
Execution, in civil cases, 55
Executions, public, 131
Executive clemency, 131

Finne, Long, 31

Fletcher, Benjamin, 50, 222
Frame of government, 42
Francis, Tench, 115

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