In this
State, our judicial establishments resemble, more nearly than in any
other, those of Great Britain. We have courts of common law, courts of
probates (analogous in certain matters to the spiritual courts in
England), a court of admiralty and a court of chancery. In the courts of
common law only, the trial by jury prevails, and this with some
exceptions. In all the others a single judge presides, and proceeds in
general either according to the course of the canon or civil law,
without the aid of a jury.[1] In New Jersey, there is a court of
chancery which proceeds like ours, but neither courts of admiralty nor
of probates, in the sense in which these last are established with us.
In that State the courts of common law have the cognizance of those
causes which with us are determinable in the courts of admiralty and of
probates, and of course the jury trial is more extensive in New Jersey
than in New York. In Pennsylvania, this is perhaps still more the case,
for there is no court of chancery in that State, and its common-law
courts have equity jurisdiction. It has a court of admiralty, but none
of probates, at least on the plan of ours.
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