about the said C. D., by a certain writing of release bearing date the day of, did demise, release, and forever quit claim, unto your orator, his heirs, executors, administrators, the several matters and things complained of in and by the said bill of the said C. D., and in question in the said suit, and each and every of them, and of all sums of money then due and owing, or thereafter to become due or owing, together with all, and all manner of actions, causes of actions, suits, and demands whatsoever, both at law and in equity or otherwise howsoever, which he, the said C. D., then had, or which he should or might at any time or times hereafter have, claim, allege, or demand, against your orator, for or by reason or means of any matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, from the beginning of the world to the day of the date of the said deed or writing of release; as by the said release, reference being thereunto had, will appear. And your orator hoped that in consequence of the said release the said C. D. would not have proceeded in the said suit against your orator; but the said C. D., combining and confederating, notwithstanding the said release, threatens and intends to proceed in the said suit, and to bring the said cause on for hearing in due course; and he pretends that no such release was ever executed by him, or if so, that the same was obtained by fraud and surprise, and therefore void. Whereas, your orator charges that the same was in every respect fairly and properly obtained by your orator, and duly executed by the said C. D.

And your orator further charges that under the circumstances aforesaid he is unable to put the said release in issue, or to use the same as a plea in bar in the said suit. All which actings and pretenses are contrary to equity and good conscience, and tend to the injury and oppression of your orator.

In tender consideration whereof, and forasmuch as

your orator has no remedy without the assistance of a court of equity, etc.

To the end, therefore (interrogatories), and that the said release may be established, and declared by this honorable court a sufficient bar to any further proceedings by the said C. D., in the said suit; and that the bill of the said C. D. therein, may, under the circumstances, be forthwith dismissed with costs (and for general relief).

May it please (prayer for subpena).

In the English practice the answer of a defendant who resides in the country, i. e., beyond twenty miles from London, is taken by commissioners appointed for that purpose. The form of the commission is as follows:

A Dedimus Potestatem in Chancery to take a Defendant's Plea, Answer, or Demurrer.

George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth. To Andrew Simpson, Giles Mathew, William Fife, and Peter Sandes, greeting:

Whereas, James Willis has lately exhibited his bill of complaint before us, in our court of chancery, against Edward Willis and William Willis, defendants. And whereas, we have, by our writ, lately commanded the said defendant, Edward Willis, to appear before us in our said chancery, at a certain day now past, to answer the said bill.

Know ye, that we have given unto you, or any three or two of you, full power and authority, "in pursuance of the special order of our said court," to take the answer of the said defendant, Edward Willis, on his corporal oath, upon the holy evangelists; "or his plea upon his corporal oath," to be administered by you, or three or two of you; "or his plea or demurrer without oath," to be respectively made to the said bill; and, therefore, we command you, or any three or two of you,

that, at such day and place as you shall think fit, you go to the said defendant, if he can not conveniently come to you, and take his several answer, plea, or demurrer, respectively, as aforesaid, to the said bill, the same being plainly and distinctly written upon parchment; and when you shall have so done, you are to send the same closed up under the seals of you, or any three or two of you, unto us in our said court of chancery, without delay, wheresoever it shall be, together with this writ. Witness ourself at Westminster, the

in the thirty-sixth year of our reign.

Indorsed, "By the court."

day of

ARDEN,
WINTER.

If the plaintiff conceives that the admissions of the defendant's answer are alone sufficient to substantiate his case and entitle him to a decree of the court, he may proceed to set down the cause for hearing on bill and answer; but if the discovery is incomplete, or the allegations of the bill insufficiently replied to, the plaintiff may prefer exceptions to the defendant's answer and require it to be more full and particular.

CHAPTER IV.

EXCEPTIONS TO A DEFENDANT'S ANSWER.

If the answer of the defendant, when filed, appears to be defective or evasive, or scandalous and impertinent, the plaintiff may take advantage of such insufficiency by exceptions in writing thereto, in like manner as the defendant may avail himself of objections to the plaintiff's bill by plea or demurrer. The resemblance which generally prevails between the practice of our courts of equity and that of the ancient civil law does not extend to this proceeding. Exceptions to the defendant's answer are purely creatures of our own practice; the dilationes, or exceptions of the civil law, being confined to the libellus articulatus, or bill, and answering in a great measure to the plea and demurrer of our courts. In truth, the responsio of the civil law could hardly admit of exceptions, for there the defendant was examined upon the charges of the libel viva voce by the judge, who obliged him, on pain of contumacy, to give direct and unequivocal answers to each article. Such, too, was the early English practice; the masters in chancery, and the barons of the exchequer, being accustomed to take the defendant's answer to the several interrogatories of the bill, from his own mouth. But this duty, when subsequently intrusted to counsel and commissioners, was sometimes so negligently performed as to render the admission of exceptions necessary in justice to the parties. These exceptions must be in writing, and signed by counsel, and they must also state, with precision and accuracy, the points in which the defendant's answer is defective, or they will be rejected as vague and impertinent

And care must be taken to omit no point to which an exception would lie, as the rules of the court do not permit any others to be afterward added. No exception can be taken to the answer of an infant, because he is not bound by it, and may put in a new answer when he becomes of age. It may be stated generally that any answer will be considered insufficient, in which the defendant does not fully respond, according to the best of his knowledge, remembrance or belief, to every material allegation, charge or interrogatory in the bill. The following is the usual

Form of Exceptions to an Answer in Chancery.

Between

James Willis, by, etc.

Complainant,
and

Edward and Wm. Willis,

Defendants.

Exceptions taken by the said complainant to the joint answer of the said defendants to his bill of complaint in this cause.

First Exception.-For that the said defendants have not, according to the best of their information, knowledge and belief, set forth and discovered in their said answer, whether the said testator, Thomas Atkins, in the complainant's said bill named, duly made and executed such last will and testament in writing, of such date, and of such purport and effect as in said bill mentioned, etc. (pursuing the words of such interrogatories of the bill as are not sufficiently answered.)

Second Exception. For that the said defendants have not, according to the best of their knowledge, information and belief, set forth and answered whether the said complainant hath or hath not, by his father and next friend, applied to the said defendants, etc., or how other