tee_, either upon
_interrogatories_ agreed upon in the House, or such as the committee in
their discretion shall demand. Thus it was in ancient times, as shall
appear by the precedents, so many as they are, they being very sparing
to record those ceremonies, which I shall briefly recite: I then add
those of later times."

Accordingly, in times so late as those of the trial of Lord
Middlesex,[74] upon an impeachment of the Commons, the whole course of
the proceeding, especially in the mode of adducing the evidence, was in
a manner the same as in the Civil Law: depositions were taken, and
publication regularly passed: and on the trial of Lord Strafford, both
modes pointed out by Selden seem to have been indifferently used.

It follows, therefore, that this high court (bound by none of their
rules) has a liberty to adopt the methods of any of the legal courts of
the kingdom at its discretion; and in _sound_ discretion it ought to
adopt those which bear the nearest resemblance to its own constitution,
to its own procedure, and to its exigencies in the promotion of justice.
There are conveniencies and inconveniencies both in the shorter and the
longer mode of trial. But to bring the methods observed (if such are in
fact observed) in the former, only from necessity, into the latter, by
choice, is to load it with the inconveniency of both, without the
advantages of either. The chief benefit of any process which admits of
adjournments is, that it may afford means of fuller information and more
mature deliberation. If neither of the parties have a strict right to
it, yet the court or the jury, as the case may be, ought to demand it.

Your Committee is of opinion, that all rules relative to laches or
neglects in a party to the suit, which may cause nonsuit on the one hand
or judgment by default in the other, all things which cause the party
_cadere in jure_, ought not to be adhered to in the utmost rigor, even
in civil cases; but still less ought that spirit which takes advantage
of lapses and failures on either part to be suffered to govern in causes
criminal. "Judges ought to _lean_ against every attempt to nonsuit a
plaintiff on objections which have no relation to the real merits. It is
unconscionable in a defendant to take advantage of the _apices
litigandi_: against such objections _every possible presumption ought to
be made which ingenuity can suggest_. How disgraceful would it be to the
administration of justice to all