Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/39

11 A CHAPTER OF LEGAL HISTORY. II infamy, — these ^ were for the first time attacked and dealt with together in 185 1, in the first Massachusetts Practice Act, a statute bringing about extensive reforms in civil procedure at common law. A commission, appointed in 1849 by the Governor, in pursu- ance of a joint legislative resolve of the same year, moved by B. R. Curtis, then a member of the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives, and consisting of himself, R. A. Chapman, afterwards Chief Justice of the State, and N. A. Lord, another distinguished lawyer, in a report of permanent value, addressed to the legislature of 185 1, recommended, among many other things, the abolition of the disqualification of witnesses for crime or interest.^ The com- missioners were unwilling to admit parties to testify, but they pro- posed allowing the examination of parties, before the trial, upon written interrogatories. In making their propositions as to crime and interest, they said, referring to the English legislation of 1843, " We have been a good deal influenced by the course of legislation in England." At that time a measure for allowing parties to the litigation to testify had been pending; in Parliament for two years, but was not yet adopted. It passed, however, in England, almost immediately afterwards, in the very year, 1851,^ which saw the enactment of the commissioners' recommendations in Massachu- setts. This Practice Act of 1851 (c, 233) was repealed the next year, in order to change some matters of detail, but was mainly re- enacted as Stat. 1852, c. 312; and in all respects material to the present discussion the two statutes were the same.* 3. The case of parties to the suit in civil proceedings was not disposed of until 1856. The Stat. 1856, c. 188, made them com- petent and compellable in all cases, with qualifications which were abolished from time to time. The case of the husband and wife of the party to a civil suit was dealt with in the Stat, of 1857, c. 305, and in later ones ; ^ but the present simple rule which makes the husband or wife of a party competent and compellable in all civil proceedings, and competent but not compellable in all criminal proceedings, was not adopted till the Stat. 1870, c. 393. 1 Abolished in England by Lord Denman's Act in 1843, ^^^^- 6 and 7 Vict. c. 85. 2 Hall's Mass. Practice Act of 1851, 150-156. 8 Stat. 14 and 15 Vict. c. 99. And see Stat. 32 and 33 Vict. c. 68 (1869). of equitable discovery into common-law practice had long been known in some other States of this country. In England it was not introduced until 1854 by the Stat. 17 and 18 Vict. c. 125, s. 50 et seq. s In England, in 1853, by Stat. 16 and 17 Vict. c. 83.
 * As regards interrogatories to parties before the trial, this convenient introduction