criminal cases, another great improvement would be made in our jury system. We suggest, as a still further improvement of our jury system, that in all cases pending in the Superior Court not appealed from the Justice Court, or the County Court, when a new trial is allowed by the Judge of the Superior Court or by the Supreme Court, such new trial shall be had before a jury stricken from the grand jury. As to the proposition submitted to this committee, giving the State the right to make motions for new trial in criminal cases where the defendent had been acquitted, we report the same, if desirable, as not practicable. In relation to the proposition referred to this committee, looking to a disposal of cases at the first term, we would suggest that if parties contracting to pay money, should agree to their contract in writing, that suit upon such contract might be tried at the first term after such suit was begun, there seems to be strong reason to believe that such change might be made by the General Assembly. W. M. REESE. A. S. CLAY. APPENDIX. An Act to regulate the probate of wills made beyond the limits. of this State, in the United States, and also of wills made beyond the limits of the United States. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, That all wills of realty made by persons residing beyond the limits of this State, in the United States, or beyond the limits of the United States, disposing of realty in this State, must be executed as the laws of this State require as to the execution of wills of real estate, and that all wills made by the same persons, disposing of personalty in this State, must be executed according to the laws of the place where such persons reside. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all wills provided for in the first section of this Act, and not probated where the makers of the same reside, may be probated in this State, in common or in solemn form, in the county where such real or personal property may be located, by the testimony of the witnesses to the same, in open court, or by testimony taken by interrogatories from the witnesses to the same, in the same manner and at the same time, as in wills of persons resident in this State. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That when the wills specified in the first section of this Act, have been probated in solemn form in the proper courts of the State, within the United States, where such persons reside, the same may be proved in any county of this State where there may be realty or personalty disposed of by said wills, by the executors named in the same, or by persons interested in the probate of the same, when no such executor is appointed, when the testator resides in another State, or if any such executor refuses to prove and execute said will by means of an exemplification from the records of the court where so proved in solemn form, certified according to the Act of Congress, dated 26th May, 1790; and may be attacked on the same grounds, and no other, as other proceedings of courts, duly certified and exemplified. If the probate of the wills herein specified has not been proved in solemn form, but only in common form, they must be proved as in the second section of this Act provided. SEC. 4. All the provisions of the Act of 1874, as found in section 2434 of the Code, are hereby continued in force, not, however, so as to interfere in any degree with persons desiring to prove wills specified in the first section of this Act, by testimony in open court, or by interrogatories in any county of this State where real or personal property may be located, in the same manner and at the same time as wills of persons residing in this State. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted by the authorty aforesaid, That the proceedings to prove the wills provided for in this Act shall be the same as to form, giving notice to parties interested, and the conduct of these proceedings in court, as are required in relation to wills executed and proved in this State, except wills proved in solemn form in other States, and proved in other States by exemplification. SEC. 6. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any wills embraced in the provisions of this Act for the probate of the same, may be executed in this State by the executor therein named, he qualifying and receiving letters testamentary, as provided by the laws of this State; and if any citizen of this State is interested, and shall so require by filing a petition with the proper Court of Ordinary, said executor shall give ample security for the protection of the rights of such citizen. When such executor shall have so qualified and received letters testamentary and given security, if the same is required of him as above stated, he may then execute said will, as a domestic executor, with the same rights and liabilities. If no executor appears to execute any will proved under the provisions of this Act, then the same may be administered by some person appointed administrator with the will annexed, according to the laws of this State. APPENDIX No. 11. MEMORIAL OF HON. SAMUEL HALL. Samuel Hall was born near Land's Ford, on the Catawba river, in Chester district, S. C., on October 20th, 1820. In 1839, he came to Georgia and entered Franklin College at Athens, being then nineteen years old, where he graduated in 1841. He then went to Knoxville, Ga., his father, Dr. Hall, having moved from South Carolina to Crawford county; and there he studied law and was admitted to the bar at the March Term, 1842, of Crawford Superior Court. He began the practice of his profession at Knoxville. On March 16th, 1843, he married Miss Sarah Ashe, of Wilmington, N. C. In 1845 he was appointed Solicitor-General of the Flint Circuit, which then embraced all the territory now embraced by the Flint and Macon Circuits. In Knoxville he was associated in the practice with J. L. Wimberly (afterwards Judge of the Superior Courts of the Chattahoochee Circuit, and now residing in Lumpkin, Ga.) In 1848, he removed to Macon and formed a partnership with his brother, Robert P. Hall, a man of distinguished ability. He continued to practice in this relation till 1852, or 1853, when he moved to Oglethorpe, in Macon county, and formed a partnership with Stephen F. Miller, Esq. In 1856, he was an elector on the Buchanan ticket. He practiced in Oglethorpe till 1867, when he moved to Fort Valley. In 1870, he returned to Macon, and formed a copartnership with Hon. Washington Poe. This partnership lasted till Mr. Poe retired from the practice about 1875, after which he formed a partnership with C. L. Bartlett, Esq., and Col. W. A. Lofton. From 1876 to 1882, he practiced with his son, Joseph H. Hall, Esq., who is at present a member of the Macon Bar. In November, 1882, he was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 1886, he was re-elected to that position and held it till his death. He died on August 27th, 1887, at Mount Airy, Ga., where he had gone for rest and recuperation. His remains were buried at Albany, Georgia. Judge Hall was a man of distinguished ability. He had a memory that retained every impression made upon it with wonderful accuracy. He was a patient, painstaking and thorough scholar, and his decisions while on the Supreme Bench bear evidence of his wide and exact learning. His sound judgment and fine sense of justice and equity gave his judicial work a special interest and influence. Modest and unassuming, he gave to every cause a patient hearing, and his honors came to him as tributes to his high worth. The Committee on Memorials beg leave to submit the foregoing report. F. G. DUBIGNON, Chairman. J. R. LAMAR, H. A. MATHEWS, JAS. BISHOP, JR., CLEM P. STEED. Committee. MEMORIAL ADOPTED BY SUPREME COURT, AND ORDERED SPREAD ON THE MINUTES OF THE GEORGIA BAR ASSOCIATION. May it please the Court: If one should examine the last published volume of the reports of this court to ascertain who are its judges, he will find the names of James Jackson, Samuel Hall, and Mark Blandford; and yet two of the three (Judges Jackson and Hall) have died since the opinions contained in the volume were rendered. If the one thus examining should know the history of the court from its organization in January, 1846, to the present, he will at once realize that of the twenty-four Judges who have presided, but eight survive, including the present bench. This astonishing fact not only furnishes the common reminder of the uncertainty of life, but of the large per cent. of mortality among our Supreme Court judges. When we look back along the line to the first bench of judges, composed of Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Hiram Warner and Eugenius A. Nisbet, we find among them the ablest of jurists, and the purest of men, and save the eight, all are in "the spirit land." Before there was time to recover from the shock of Chief Justice Jackson's death, we had to mourn the death of Associate Justice Hall. The death of either was a great sorrow, but the death of |