he common law,
which department embraces about nine tenths of the subjects of legal
contestation. In that of the chancery, from twelve to twenty years were
requisite. This did not proceed from any vice in the laws, but from the
indolence of the judges appointed by the King: and these judges holding
their offices during his will only, he could have reformed the evil at
any time. This reformation was among the first works of the legislature,
after our independence. A judgment can now be obtained in the supreme
court, in one year, at the common law, and in about three years, in the
chancery. But more particularly to protect the commerce of France, which
at that moment was considerable with us, a law was passed, giving
all suits wherein a foreigner was a party, a privilege to be tried
immediately, on the return of his process, without waiting till those
of natives, which stand before them, shall have been decided on. Out of
this act, however, the British stand excluded by a subsequent one. This,
with its causes, must be explained. The British army, after ravaging
the State of Virginia, had sent off a very great number of slaves to New
York. By the seventh article of the treaty of peace, they stipulated
not to carry away any of these. Notwithstanding this, it was known, when
they were evacuating New York, that they were carrying away the slaves.
General Washington made an official demand of Sir Guy Carleton, that he
should cease to send them away. He answered, that these people had come
to them under promise of the King's protection, and that that promise
should be fulfilled, in preference to the stipulation in the treaty. The
State of Virginia, to which nearly the whole of these slaves belonged,
passed a law to forbid the recovery of debts due to British subjects.
They declared, at the same time, they would repeal the law, if Congress
were of opinion they ought to do it. But, desirous that their citizens
should be discharging their debts, they afterwards permitted British
creditors to prosecute their suits, and to receive their debts in seven
equal and annual payments; relying that the demand for the slaves would
either be admitted or denied, in time to lay their hands on some of
the latter payments for reimbursement. The immensity of this debt was
another reason for forbidding such a mass of property to be offered for
sale under execution at once, as, from the small quantity of circulating
money, it must have sold for little