recorder, aud also when those offices are vacant, any three of them may hold the court." The mayor and recorder, or any alderman of the degree of counsellor in the supreme court, are authorised to make any order in vacation, touching any suit or proceeding in their respective courts, in like manner, and with the like effect, as is or shall be practised by the justices of the supreme court at chambers, in any suit or proceeding in that court. Where the total amount of costs in a suit, exclusive of disbursements, is limited by law, any judge of the court may tax them, and sign the judgment record; but where they are not so limited, those acts can be performed only by the recorder, or, in case of his absence, by the clerk of the court." Mayors of cities are appointed annually, by the common council;10 recorders are appointed in the same manner, and hold their offices for the same term, and by the same tenure, as judges of county courts; and aldermen are elected by the people, according to the corporate rights and privileges of the respective cities. process, Practice.] Mayors courts are courts of record;12 and are Practice, subject to the same general statutory provisions in relation to suits and proceedings, as other courts of that description. 15 They have their own rules of practice, which vary, in some instances, from those of the supreme court; but in other respects, their practice does not differ materially from that of the latter. Like other courts of record, their writs of subpoena to witnesses, run into any county of the state.1 14 No process in any mayor's court, can be tested and made returnable during the same term, and if issued during term and not made returnable at the next term, the officer is for &c. 72 R. St. 219. s. 17. * 2 R. St. 282. s. 38. 112 R. St. 105. s. 4. 12 2 R. St. 276. s. 1. Officers. Terms. " bidden to serve it.15 All writs and process returnable before mayors' courts, or directed to them, are required to be made returnable before, or directed to, "the judges of the mayor's court, in and for the city of Albany," or Hudson, or Troy, as the case may be ;16 and in records and proceedings, "judges of the said court" is to be inserted, instead of mayor, recorder and aldermen, of the cities; and it is declared, that it shall be unnecessary to insert any of their names in any of the records or proceedings of the courts." Judgment records are required to be made up in the same form as in the courts of common pleas of the counties.18 Officers.] The clerk of the city of Hudson, and the clerk of the county of Rensselaer, are the clerks of the mayors' courts of the cities of Hudson and Troy.19 The marshal, constables, jailers, and subordinate officers of each city, are officers of the court, and bound to attend upon it, and obey its orders;20 and it is the duty of the marshal and other ministerial officers of the court to execute and return its writs and process.21 The sheriff and clerk of the city of Albany are, by the original charter of the city, the officers of the mayor's court. Terms.] The terms of the mayor's court of the city of Albany commence on the first Tuesday of each month, and may be continued until and including the following Thursday;23 those of Hudson commence on the last Tuesday of each month, and may be continued for two days;24 and those of Troy commence on the first Tuesday of each month, may be continued two days:25 and the terms are called after and the months.26 In case any of the courts should not be formed and held at the time required, or at the time to which it may have been adjourned, a judge, or the clerk, is authorised to adjourn it from day to day, until a court is formed, or until the next term.27 CHAPTER V. OF THE COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES. General re- States. OUR view of the tribunals which have original cognizance of those actions, the practice in which is the subject of this treatise, would be quite incomplete, were we to omit the courts of the United States: And even as respects actions commenced in our state courts, we can have, in many cases, but an imperfect knowledge of their progress and termination, without an acquaintance with the courts of the United States; as under certain circumstances, provided for by the constitution and laws of the United States, the parties to such actions have the right secured to them, of removing them into the circuit courts of the United States for trial and determination, or of appealing to the supreme court of the United States for a revisal and correction of the decision of the state tribunals. The jurisdiction of the courts of the United States is wholly derived from the constitution of the United States, which declares that "the judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state, claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects." Art. 3. s. 2. GENERAL REMARKS. altered in one particu This provision has been qualified, in one of its particulars, by an amendatory article of the constitution, which declares, that "the judicial power of the United States shall not be con- lar. strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.' court only, by the con Although all the courts of the United States thus owe their Supreme jurisdiction to the constitution, yet none of them, except the established supreme court, were directly established by that instrument. stitution. The supreme court was established, and power given to congress to establish inferior tribunals by the following provision of the constitution," the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish." 193 It was thus left to congress not only to decide It was left to what inferior tribunals should be established, but to allot to establish the each, such portions of the judicial power as it might deem courts. expedient. congress to inferior secures the original ju risdiction of the supreme court, congress to And even to the supreme court, the constitution does not Constitution secure jurisdiction, in all those cases, to which it declares that the judicial power extends; but leaves it to congress as to most of those cases, to limit its jurisdiction by making exceptions to them. In conferring jurisdiction upon the supreme court the constitution declares that "In all cases affecting but allows ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the congress shall make." In order therefore to learn the appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court, and the organization, jurisdiction and powers 2 Art. in addition, 11. 3 Art. 3. s. 1. VOL. I. 4 See 3 Dall. Rep. 327. 6 Cranch. Rep. 313. 31 5 Art. 3. s. 2. regulate its appellate ju risdiction. |