oyer and terminer, and general jail delivery, in the several counties. Any two of the judges may act as if all were present.

§ 4. The judges of the court of common pleas shall be not fewer than three, nor more than four, one of whom shall be chief justice. There shall be a judge residing in each county. The jurisdiction of this court shall extend over the state. Any two of the judges may act as if all were present.

§ 5. The chancellor, or any judge of the supreme court, or of the court of common pleas, shall issue the writ of habeas corpus, in vacation time, and out of term, when duly applied for, which shall be immediately obeyed.

$6 Any judge of the supreme court, or of the court of common pleas, may, unless the legislature shall otherwise provide by law, out of court, take the acknowledgment of deeds; and the same being thereon certified, under his hand, such deed shall be recorded, and have the same effect as if acknowledged in open court.

§ 7. In civil causes, when pending, the supreme court and court of common pleas shall have the power, before judgment, of directing, upon such terms as they shall deem reasonable, amendments in pleadings and legal proceedings, so that by error in any of them, the determination of causes, according to their real merits, shall not be hindered; and also of directing the examination of witnesses that are aged, very infirm, or going out of the state, upon interrogatories de bene esse, to be read in evidence in case of the death or departure of the witnesses before the trial, or inability by reason of age, sickness, bodily infirmity, or imprisonment, then to attend; and also the power of obtaining evidence from places not within the state.

8. Suits may orignate in the supreme conrt or court of common pleas.

§ 9. One judge of the supreme court or of the court of common pleas may, if the other judges come not, open and adjourn the court, and may also make the necessary rules preparatory, respectively to the trial or argument of causes.

$10. At any time pending an action for debt or damages, the defendant may bring into court a sum of money for discharging the same and the costs then accrued, and the plaintiff not accepting thereof, it shall be delivered for his use to the clerk or prothonotary of the court; and if, upon the final decision of the cause, the plaintiff shall not recover a greater

than that paid into court for him, he shall not recover

any costs accruing after such payment, except where the plaintiff is an executor or administrator.

§ 11. By the death of any party, no suit in chancery or at law, where the cause of action survives, shall abate; but, until the legislature shall otherwise provide, suggestion of such death being entered of record, the executor or administrator of a deceased petitioner, or plaintiff, may prosecute the said suit; and if a respondent or defendant dies, the executor or administrator, being duly served with a scire facias, thirty days before the return thereof, shall be considered as a party to the suit, in the same manner as if he had voluntarily made himself a party; and in any of those cases the court shall pass a decree, or render judgment for or against executors or administrators as to right appertains. But where an executor or administrator of a deceased respondent or de fendant becomes a party, the court, upon motion, shall grant such a continuance of the cause as to the judges shall appear proper.

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§ 12. Whenever a person, not being an executor or administrator, appeals from a decree of the chancellor, or applies for a writ of error, such appeal or writ shall be no stay of proceeding in the chancery, or the court to which the writ issues, unless the appellant or plaintiff in error shall give sufficient security, to be approved respectively by the chancellor, or by a judge of the court from which the writ issues, that the appellant or plaintiff in error shall prosecute respectively his appeal or writ to effect, and pay the condemnation money and all costs, or otherwise abide the decree in appeal or the judgment in error, if he fail to make his plea good.

§ 13. No writ of error shall be brought upon any judgment heretofore confessed, entered, or rendered, but within five years from this time; nor upon any judgment hereafter to be confessed, entered, or rendered, but within five years after the confessing, entering, or rendering thereof, unless the person entitled to such writ be an infant, femme covert, non compos mentis, or a prisoner, and then within five years exclusive of the time of such disability.

914. The equity jurisdiction heretofore exercised by the judges of the court of common pleas, shall be separated from the common law jurisdiction, and vested in a chancellor, who shall hold courts of chancery in the several counties of this state. In cases of equity jurisdiction, where the chancellor is interested, the cognizance thereof shall belong

to the court of common pleas, with an appeal to the nigh court of errors and appeals.

§15. The judges of the court of common pleas, or any two of them, shall compose the orphans' court of each county, and may exercise the equity jurisdiction heretofore exercised by the orphans' courts, except as to adjusting and settling executors, administrators, and guardians' accounts; in which cases they shall have an appellate jurisdiction from the sentence or decree of the register. This court

may issue process throughout the state to compel the attendance of witnesses. Appeals may be inade from the orphans' court, in cases where that court has original jurisdiction, to the supreme court, whose decision shall be final.

§ 16. An executor, administrator, or guardian, shall file every account with the register for the county, who shall, as soon as conventienly may be, carefully examine the particuJars, with the proots thereof, in the presence of such executor, administrator, or guardian, and shall adjust and settle the same, according to the very right of the matter, and the law of the land: which account, so settled, shall remain in his office for inspection; and the executor, administrator, or guardian shall, within three months after such settlement, give due notice, in writing, to all persons entitled to shares of the estate, or to their guardians respectively if residing within the state, that the account is lodged in the said office for inspection; and the judges of the orphan's court shall hear the exceptions of any persons concerned, if any be made, and thereupon allow no demand whatever against the estate of the deceased, unless, upon consideration of all circumstances, they shall be fully convinced that the same is therewith justly chargeable.

§ 17. The registers of the several counties shall respectively hold the register's court in each county. Upon the litigation of a cause, the depositions of the witnesses examined shall be taken at large in writing, and make part of the proceedings in the cause. This court may issue process throughout the state to compel the attendance of witnesses. Appeals may be made from the register's court to the supreme court, whose decision shall be final. In cases where a register is interested in questions concerning the probate of wills, the granting letters of administration, or executors, administrators, or guardians' accounts, the cognizance there of shall belong to the orphans' court, with an appeal to the preme court, whose decision shall be final.

18. The prothonotaries of the court of common pleas may issue processess as heretofore, take recognizances of bail, and sign confessions of judgment: and the clerks of the supreme court shall have the like powers. No judgment in the supreme court or court of common pleas, held for one county, shall bind lands or tenements in another, until a testatum fieri facias being issued, shall be entered of record in the office of the prothonotary of the county wherein the lands or tenements are situated.

§ 19. The judges of the court of common pleas shall by virtue of their offices, compose the courts of general quarter sessions of the peace, and jail delivery, within the several counties. Any two of the said judges shall be a quorum.

§ 20. The governor shall appoint a competent number of persons to the office of justice of the peace, not exceeding twelve in each county, until two-thirds of both houses of the legislature shall, by law, direct an addition to the number, who shall be commissioned for seven years, if so long they shall behave themselves well: but may be removed by the governor within that time, on conviction of misbehaviour in office, or on the address of both houses of the legislature.

§ 21. The style in all process and public acts shall be, the state of Delaware. Prosecutions shall be carried on in the name of the state, and shall conclude, against the peace and dignity of the state.

ARTICLE 7.

§ 1. There shall be a court, styled the high court of er rors and appeals, which shall consist of the chancellor and of the judges of the supreme court, and court of common pleas. Any four of the judges of this court may proceed on business; but any smaller number may open and adjourn the court. If any of them has rendered judgment or passed a decree in any cause before removal, he shall not sit judicially upon the hearing of the same in this court, but may assign the reasons upon which such judgment was rendered, or such decree passed. The chancellor shall preside, except when he cannot sit judicially; and in such cases, or in his absence, the chief justice of the supreme court; but if he is so disqualified or absent, then the chief justice of the court of common pleas shall preside; and if he is so disqualified or absent, then the next eldest judge, according to priority in date of commissions, if present, and not disqualified as aforesaid, shall preside. This court shall have power to issue writs of error to the supreme court, and to the court of com

mon pleas, and to receive and determine appeals from interlocutory or final orders or decress of the chancellor. Errors shall be assigned, and causes of appeal exhibited in writing, speedily, and citations duly served on adverse parties.

§ 2. Upon the reversal of a judgment of the supreme court, or of the court of common pleas, or a decree of the chancellor, this court shall respectively render such judgment, or pass such decree, as the supreme court, or the court of common pleas, or the chancellor, ought to have rendered or passed, except where the reversal is in favour of the plaintiff or petioner in the original suit, and the damages to be assessed, or the matters to be decreed, are uncertain. In any of which cases, the causes shall be remanded, in order to a final decision.

§ 3. The judges of this court may issue all process proper for bringing records fully before them, and for carrying their determinations into execution..

ARTICLE 8.

§ 1. The members of the senate and house of representatives, the chancellor, the judges of the supreme court, and the court of common pleas, and the attorney general, shall, by virtue of their offices, be conservators of the peace throughout the state; and the treasurer, secretary, clerks of the supreme court, prothonotaries, registers, recorders, sheriffs, and coroners, shall, by virtue of their offices, be conservators thereof, within the counties respectively in which they reside.

§ 2. The representative, and when there shall be more than one, the representatives, of the people of this state in congress, shall be voted for at the same places where representatives in the state legislature are voted for, and in the

same manner.

§ 3. The state treasurer shall be appointed annually by the house of representatives, with the concurrence of the senate. No person who hath served in the office of state treasurer, shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the legislature, until he shall have made a final settlement of his accounts as treasurer, and discharged the balance, if any, thereon due.

§ 4. Two persons for the office of sheriff, and two for the office of coroner, shall be chosen by the citizens residing in sach county, and having right to vote for representatives, at