People v. Whitwell

— I have heard the case of Robertson agt. Bennett (1 Abb. N. C., 476) very severely criticised by lawyers, and yet I think that the decision is right. It strikes every man, at first blush, that a substitute is a very different thing from an amendment. Every one familiar with legislative proceedings knows the settled distinction between an amendment to a bill and a substitute for a bill. An amendment is, in its original meaning, the removal of a spot or stain. In our use of the word an amendment is the correction of an error. In practice it makes very little difference whether an amendment may…