AMENDMENTS OF BILLS.

28.

The plaintiff shall be at liberty, as a matter of course, and without payment of costs, to amend his bill in any matters whatsoever, before any copy has been taken out of the clerk's office, and in any small matters afterwards, such as filing blanks, correcting errors of dates, misnomer of parties, misdescription of premises, clerical errors, and generally in matters of form. But if he amend in a material point (as he may do of course), after a copy has been so taken, before any answer or plea, or demurrer to the bill, he shall pay to the defendant the costs occasioned thereby, and shall, without delay, furnish him a fair copy thereof, free of expense, with suitable references to the places where the same are to be inserted. And if the amendments are numerous, he shall furnish, in like manner, to the defendant, a copy of the whole bill, as amended; and if there be more than one defendant, a copy shall be furnished to each defendant affected thereby.

29.

After an answer, or plea, or demurrer is put in, and before replication, the plaintiff may, upon motion or petition, without notice, obtain an order from any judge of the Court, to amend his bill on or before the next succeeding rule day, upon payment of costs, or without payment of costs, as the Court, or a judge thereof, may, in his discretion, direct. But after replication filed, the plaintiff shall not be permitted to withdraw it and to amend his bill, except upon a special order of a judge of the Court, upon motion or petition, after due notice to the other party, and upon proof by affidavit that the same is not made for the purpose of vexation or delay, or that the matter of the proposed amendment is material, and could not, with reasonable diligence, have been

sooner introduced into the bill, and upon the plaintiff's submitting to such other terms as may be imposed by the the judge for speeding the cause.

30.

If the plaintiff so obtaining any order to amend his bill, after answer, or plea, or demurrer, or after replication, shall not file his amendments or amended bill, as the case may require, in the clerk's office, on or before the next succeeding rule day, he shall be considered to have abandoned the same, and the cause shall proceed as if no application for any amendment had been made.

DEMURRERS AND PLEAS.

31.

No demurrer or plea shall be allowed to be filed to any bill, unless upon a certificate of counsel that, in his opinion, it is well-founded in point of law, and supported by the affidavit of the defendant that it is not interposed for delay; and, if a plea, that it is true in point of fact.

32.

The defendant may, at any time before the bill is taken for confessed, or afterwards, with the leave of the Court, demur or plead to the whole bill, or to part of it, and he may demur to part, plead to part, and answer to the residue; but in every case, in which the bill specially charges fraud or combination, a plea to such part must be accompanied with an answer fortifying the plea, and explicitly denying the fraud and combination and the facts on which the charge is founded.

33.

The plaintiff may set down the demurrer or plea to be argued, or he may take issue on the plea. If, upon an issue,