power or of a judicial power, or of both of these powers combined); "to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God and government of His Church" (which is the exercise of a legislative power); and "to receive complaints in cases of maladministration and authoritatively to determine the same" (which may be the exercise of a judicial or administrative power).

Under the present provisions of our Book of Discipline, it is clear that every case originating in a charge of an offence against a church member or officer is to be regarded as a "judicial case.' It is not clear, however, that any case originating in a complaint can be properly regarded as a "judicial case," and it is therefore doubtful whether a judicial commission has at present any jurisdiction of a case originating in a complaint. A case originating in a charge of an offence is one in which the rights of some individual church member or officer are determined. Such a case, every one will concede, may properly be submitted to a judicial commission under the authority of Section 119. But cases that originate in complaints, being in their nature largely administrative, have to do with the acts of judicatories themselves, and ought not to be submitted to Judicial Commissions.

The Committee have therefore concluded to embrace in their proposed revision the authority to submit to judicial commissions, for hearing and determination, only cases originating in charges. All other cases--cases that deal with the discretionary and supervisory powers of Presbyteries, Synods and General Assemblies--are to be heard and decided, upon complaint, by those bodies themselves.

SECOND-The Committee also believe that a change should be made in the present law of the Church concerning proceedings for the review of final judgments.

Heretofore a final judgment has been subject to reversal or modification upon appeal or complaint. An appeal can be prosecuted only by one of the original parties to the case, but a complaint may be made by any person who is a member of the judicatory whose decision is complained of. Accordingly a final judgment may be appealed from by one of the original parties, in which case the two original parties become appellant and appellee; and also complained against by a member who is not an original party, in which case the complaining member becomes the complainant, and the judicatory rendering the judgment the respondent. It is the opinion of the Committee that this practice tends to confusion and uncertainty in the adminstration of justice. They believe that no complaint should be allowed against any decision rendered in a judicial case. Every such decision should be af firmed, reversed or modified only upon appeal. The evils of our present practice are clearly shown in Hodge's Church Polity, page 457: "It seems unreasonable and anomalous to make the lower court a party. In civil matters a lower tribunal does not appear at the bar

of a higher as a party to be tried. Its decision is reviewed, but the original litigants are the only parties, no matter how many steps there may be before the ultimate tribunal is reached. Would it not simplify matters if we adopted the same course? Our plan is first to try the Synod as a culprit, then the Presbytery, then the Session, and at last we get down to the original offender. No wonder we never fail to get into confusion. The simple and natural course, when a case is brought from a lower to a higher court, is to try the cause and not the court. The thing to be done is to administer justice; that is, for example, to decide whether a member has been rightfully suspended. . . . In the State, if a man brings a cause before a lower court, and it goes against him, he appeals to the Superior Court; if not satisfied he takes it up to the Supreme Court, and if still aggrieved he goes to the Court of Errors. In every step he takes simply his cause. He does not drag all the courts with him. The case is reheard at every step, and if injustice was done in the original decision or in any of the subsequent ones, the matter is set right. The cause goes up with all the records in the case, and is decided on its merits. We cannot see why we should not adopt the same course. If a man is suspended unjustly, in his judgment, by a Session, let him take the case to the Presbytery and have the case (not the Session) tried over again; if not satisfied with the decision let him go to the Synod and have the case (not the Presbytery and Session) reheard, and if still aggrieved let him take the case to the Assembly and have it (and not the Synod, Presbytery and Session) tried again. This, we are persuaded, would save a great deal of time and trouble, and deliver us from that labyrinth in which our higher courts never fail to get bewildered."

The evils of the practice so clearly portrayed by Dr. Hodge have their origin in the allowance of complaints against decisions rendered in judicial cases, and the Committee therefore propose that final judgments in judicial cases shall be carried to the higher judicatories by appeal only.

THIRD--What shall be the relation of Judicial Commissions to the present judicatories of the Church?

One of the plain purposes of the General Assembly in appointing the present Committee was that they should devise an improved method of relieving our Presbyteries and Synods, and especially the General Assembly, from the duty of hearing judicial cases. The cases proposed to be submitted to judicial commissions are only those relating to the rights of church members and church officers. They do not include any of that large class of non-judicial proceedings which call for the exercise of the discretionary and supervisory powers of Presbyteries, Synods and General Assemblies.

A judicial commission may be either strictly subordinate and responsible to the judicatory appointing it, or it may be independent of the appointing judicatory. It is the opinion of the Com

mittee that our inferior judicial commissions should be independ ent of the judicatories appointing them, to the extent that their decisions shall not in any respect be subject to reversal or modification by the appointing judicatories, but shall be reversed or modified only in appellate proceedings. Still the Committee believe that unity in our system of church government is essential, and the greatest care has accordingly been taken not to vest in judicial commissions an authority which will impair the usefulness of the General Assembly as "the bond of unity, peace, correspondence and mutual confidence among all the churches" It is provided in the proposed plan that the decision of an inferior judicial commission shall be reported to the judicatory appointing the commission and recorded as the final judgment of that judicatory. Any appeal will be an appeal from the judgment of that judicatory and not from the judgment of the commission. The members of the judicatory to whom the decision of the commission is thus reported, are given the same right of entering dissents and protests and answers to protests that are now secured to them by Sections 103 to 107 of the Book of Discipline. The minutes of the proceedings of the judicial commission are also required to be reported, with its decision, to the appointing judicatory, and are made a part of the records of such judicatory, and thus they become subject to general review under the provisions of Section 71 of the Book of Discipline.

The right to enter dissents and protests, the right of general review, and the right of appeal given to original parties, secured in the manner above proposed in every case tried by an inferior judicial commission, will, in the opinion of the Committee, afford to the Church and to its officers and members, all needful means of correcting erroneous decisions.

A proposition to establish a permanent judicial commission of last resort was submitted to and adopted by the Old School General Assembly of 1865, but it failed of approval by a majority of the Presbyteries. The General Assembly is now twice as large as was the Old School Assembly of 1865, and the membership of our Church is now nearly three times as large as in 1865 was the combined membership of the Old and New School Churches. The arguments then so strongly urged for the establishment of a permanent judicial commission, to be elected by the General Assembly, are all the more forceful now. The following were some of the points made by the Committee in their report to the General Assembly of 1865: That the removal of all judicial cases from our superior bodies would enable them to give more careful attention to other important matters relating to the general interests of the Church; that the members of our superior judicatories are not, and should not be, appointed with special reference to judicial qualifications; that our superior judicatories cannot devote that time to judicial cases which is essential to fair judg ment; that permanence of constituent element is essential to con

sistent and wise judicial action; and that our present superior judicatories are too large for judicial work.

Your Committee believe it to be the mind of the Church that our General Assembly should be largely relieved from the duty of hearing and deciding judicial cases. They have therefore provided in their proposed plan that all appeals and references to the General Assembly in judicial cases, if found to be in order, may go to a commission to be styled "The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly." This Commission is to be composed of fifteen ministers and ruling elders, elected by the General Assembly for terms of three years, in classes of five members each, so that the terms of the members of one class will expire in each year. The final judgments of this permanent commission are to be reported annually to the General Assembly, and the members of the General Assembly are to have the right of entering their dissents and protests, and answers to protests, but the General Assembly is to have no power to reverse or modify those judgments.

Presbyteries, Synods and the General Assembly, it will be noted, are to have the discretionary power of trying judicial cases themselves, or of submitting them to specially elected commissions.

FOURTH.-The Committee believe, further, that while the employment in judicial cases of paid counsel should be prohibited, the rule on the subject of securing help in such cases, contained in Section 26 of the Book of Discipline, is too narrow. It is common experience in the judicial tribunals of the civil law, that the cases that are most thoroughly argued by counsel are the cases that are most correctly decided by judges. It is, therefore, proposed to give to the parties in a judicial case a freer choice in the selection of counsel.

LASTLY.-The plan adopted by the Committee has made it necessary to annex to the proposed revision of the Chapter on Judicial Commissions a few amendments to Sections in other chapters. In all the proposed changes, however, the Committee have kept constantly in mind the fact that, whatever may be the form of our church judicatories, and whatever may be the nature of the powers exercised by them, they act "ministerially" for the purpose of giving effect to the law of Christ for the government of His Church.

Briefly stated, the Committee have endeavored, in the plan devised by them for the trial of judicial cases, to define clearly the classes of cases that shall be submitted to judicial commissions; to simplify our procedure; to bring our judicial commissions into intimate and harmonious relations with the other judicatories of the Church; and by providing for a permanent court of last resort, to be composed of ministers and ruling elders of judicial ability elected by the General Assembly, to secure for us, and for those who shall come after us, a body of law which shall be readily and

loyally accepted as containing sound expositions of the constitutional rights of the members and officers of our Church.

The Committee, therefore, recommend that the following Overtures be sent down to the Presbyteries for action, in accordance with the provision of the Form of Government, Chapter xxiii, Sections 1 and 6, viz.:

Overture No. 1 (a.). Shall Chapter xiii of the Book of Discipline be changed so as to read:

CHAPTER XIII. OF JUDICIAL COMMISSIONS.

118.-Judicial Commissions as herein established shall have jurisdiction only of judicial cases affecting church members or officers.

119.-Any Presbytery or Synod may at any time elect a Judicial Commission of not less than five ministers and ruling elders for a Presbytery, and not less than nine ministers and ruling elders for a Synod, and may transmit to such Commission any particular judicial case for hearing and determination.

120.-Every Judicial Commission of a Presbytery or Synod shall elect its own Moderator and Clerk; shall sit at such times and places as it may deem proper; shall keep full and correct minutes of its proceedings in a book to be provided for that purpose; shall have all the powers prescribed by, and conduct all its proceedings according to, the rules applicable to the trial of a judicial case before the judicatory appointing the Commission; and shall report its decision to the said appointing judicatory as soon as possible after it shall have been agreed upon. The decision, from the date of its report to the appointing judicatory, shall be held to be the final judgment of that judicatory.

121. A quorum of every such Judicial Commission shall be for a Presbytery three, of whom at least two shall be ministers, and for a Synod seven, of whom at least four shall be ministers.

122. The minutes of every such Judicial Commission, together with all evidence taken in the case transmitted to it, if any there be, shall be duly authenticated by the clerk of the Commission, and be forthwith filed with the Stated Clerk of the appointing judicatory, and such Stated Clerk shall preserve the same as a part of the records of the proceedings of the appointing judicatory, and shall send up the same annually to the next superior judicatory for review.

123. The court of last resort for the hearing and determination of judicial cases which the General Assembly shall not determine to try itself shall be styled "The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly," and shall be composed of eight ministers and seven ruling elders, who shall be elected by the General Assembly. At the first election fifteen persons shall be elected, five to serve for one year, five for two years, and five for three years, and thereafter five persons shall be elected annually to serve for three years. Any vacancy may be filled by the General