"I have said little about the court of Chancery, not these forms are opened so as to admit of remedies as from insensibility to the magnitude of its abuses, but extensive as injuries, then the court of chancery will be because a radical reform must first be made in the practice come unnecessary. Till that this arrives, and / hope the of the other courts. Until that happens, the court of first legislature under the new constitution will bring it, chancery, bad as it is, is a necessary evil — its interposition my plan allows the continued separation of legal and is indispensable so long as the narrow and technical forms equitable remedies, to be administered either by the same of the common law are suffered to continue. But when or by different judges."
NOTABLE AND CURIOUS CASES IN THE COURT OF CLAIMS. VOLUMES could be written about the claims against the Government, which have been brought before the Court of Claims, the Court of Private Land Claims, or before Congress itself. Some of the pe titions are evidently the work of cranks, others of ingenious rascals, while yet others are legitimate. It sometimes seems as if the last class were the least likely to gain satisfaction. Some of the just claims, I am pleased to say, belong to estates where heirs have not spent all their strength and substance in the prosecution, but who have been able to earn a competence for themselves. An instance of this is the somewhat peculiar claim of the Childs family in Philadelphia. It was in 1777 that the Continental Con gress sent two spies to Montreal to report upon the preparations then being made by the British Government to subjugate her rebellious colonies. The men were ap pointed by General Washington, and a Mr. George W. Childs was one of them. The men did their work to the satisfaction of the General, who gave them certificates to the effect that their wages were well earned. Whether his comrade fared better I do not know, but the compensation promised Mr. Childs was not paid by the Continental Con gress, and his heirs petitioned the Fiftysecond Congress for two million dollars, which they affirm to be the principal and interest due them. Another interesting claim is that of Rich ard W. Meade, father of the hero of Gettys burg. It seems that at the time when the
United States purchased Florida, she agreed to assume all the claims which American citizens had against Spain. Among these claims was one for $373,879 which had been allowed by Spain to Mr. Meade, and which under the terms of the treaty should have been promptly settled. Mr. Meade, it seems, was unable to obtain from the Spanish Gov ernment the proofs upon which his accounts had been settled with Spain, and without these the United States courts refused to act. The case has been before Congress nearly a score of times, And has been re ported favorably nearly every time, but it was never acted upon by both Houses of the same Congress. The original claimant died years ago, and if ever the heirs are able to get their claim through, they will be the richer by several millions of dollars. One of the most curious claims ever put into a Congressional bill was originally pre sented by Mr. Weaver, who is now better known as a recent Presidential candidate on the people's party ticket. It was afterward reintroduced by Mr. Smith of Illinois. The bill proposed to pay to Federal soldiers the difference in value between the gold dollar and the depreciated currency in which they were paid during the war. This deprecia tion ranged from twenty-five to two and a half cents on a dollar, and it was estimated that it would take about $500,000,000 to satisfy the terms of the bill. At present there is no limit to the number of times a claim may be presented to Con gress. Every political change of adminis tration is sure to bring back thousands of
