Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

468 SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1S86.
years before special pleas iu bar had been abolished, but general
demurrers, pleas iu abatement, writs of error, and other intricate and
time-consuming contrivances under the old system were retained.
As the commissioners in the report accompanying their draught of
a practice act say, he who " surveys what remains, sees every plain-
tiff left to inhabit the old building, while all others are turned out-of-
doors. We seem to be walking for a short distance in the ancient
but strongl3'-built streets of an open town, and all at once to step
into the open fields, having here and there a piece of sunken fence
or a half-filled-up ditch and some ruins of broken walls, which afford
excellent lurking-places for concealment and surprise, but no open
highway for the honest traveller." The task of Mr. Chapman and his
associates was to build a highway through this ancient legal land-
scape. How well they succeeded, the unanimous vote of the Legisla-
ture adopting their practice act fully attests. It is understood by
lawyers that tlie hand of Mr. Chapman is seen in the blanks or prac-
tical forms that constitute a part of the act. The importance of
this move of Massachusetts was that it was the initiative in New
England towards a reform in procedure, and went upon ground which
even New York had not tlien occupied.
In February, 1842, George Bliss resigned the ofTice of agent of
the Western Railroad, and was soon afterwards chosen its president.
The completion of the independent road of the Albau}' & West
Stockbridge Company, between Chatham Four Corners and the State
line, enabled tlie Western Company to dispense with the Hudson
& Berkshire road. The Western bridge over the Connecticut was
considered quite an engineering feat. It had seven spans, one hun-
dred and eighty feet each. It was a covered bridge. The heavy
Winans engines had too high chimneys for some of the bridges on
the road, and the}'^ Avere lowered, but as this reduced the draught, the
lower bridges were raised.
In 1844 the Hartford & Springfield Railroad was opened, joining
Springfield with New York, — i-ail to New Haven and thence by