308 State of Church Reform.-New Bills in Parliament.- Admission of Attorneys. extent not inflicted upon any other class of the community, we have, without a murmur, aided in making amendments. If the professors and practitioners of the law have watched projected changes, it has been with a view to make them most beneficial fby making thein capable of working well. And who so fit to do this as those who are in the constant habit of witnessing the workings of all legal measures? Not to speak of new measures only, who can so well judge of the errors, the loss of time, the invalidity of legal instruments, and the other numerous evils, arising from, for instance, the Stamp Acts? If some misguided men have made attacks upon the active promoters of law reform, for inadvertences, if such there be, which are likely enough to attend all great changes involving a multitude of new cases and of interests, let it not be supposed that the profession in general approve of these attacks. No; it is confidently asserted that the legal practitioners of the present time have always been ready to afford their assistance, and have afforded it, to point out where remedies were required, and to provide remedies-and they are not impossibility-men." and by the important act of the last Session of Parliament, 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 37, the most extensive alterations were made. Commissioners were appointed to make a valuation of the livings and church preferments; the revenues of bishopricks are to be reduced and consolidated; benefices are to be augmented; glebes to be divided; in short, Church Property was dealt with by the State, as completely under its subjection. The previous measures, therefore, although they relate only to Ireland, are of the utmost importance to Church Reform in England, considering that the property of both Establishments is held by the same tenure. Such is the present state of the subject; and when the Government project is broached, we shall probably venture to pass an opinion on it. J. F NEW BILLS IN PARLIAMENT. STATE OF CHURCH REFORM. TURNPIKE ROADS. A BILL has been brought in "for continuing for a limited time the several acts for regulating the Turnpike Roads in Great Britain, which will expire during the present or before the end of the next Session of Parliament," by which it is proposed to be enacted as fol lows: That all and every act and acts of parliament for making, amending, and repairing any Turnpike Roads in Great Britain, which shall expire during the present session, or before the end of the next session of parliament, shall be and the same is and are hereby continued until the end of the next session of parliament. SINCE the commencement of this Work, we have devoted, from time to time, some of our pages to the tracing the progress of Church Reform; a a subject which we have ever considered of the greatest importance, and which bears directly on the profession to which we belong. In the last Session of Parliament, however, no act was passed of any importance relative to reform of the English Church; the subject having been, at an early period, postponed by Lord Althorp, in consequence of the press of other matters. It must not be supposed, however, that the cause of Church Reform ADMISSION OF ATTORNEYS ON THE made no progress, as an important precedent was established, although it related exclusively to the Irish Church. A series of acts have been passed with respect to that country, which put an end to some of the formerly received notions with respect to Church Property. By the 2 and 3 W. 4 c. 119, a permanent composition for tithes was established in Ireland; ROLL. THERE is a subject which appears to me to require, more urgently than any other, attention from the profession-I mean the late decisions, that though an attorney or solicitor, regularly admitted in one Court, can lawfully practise in any other Court, in the name of his agent or other qualified person, he cannot, by action or otherwise, receive any costs. It is well known that almost all the old attorneys in the country, and many in town, have been admitted in only one Court; and relying on what was supposed b The only act bearing on the subject is to be the law, large amounts are now at stake. 3 & 4 W. 4 c. 30, for relieving all churches No one, except the Judges' clerks and other and places of religious worship from the pay-officers, have any interest, nor is it of the ment of poor rates, stated 6 L. O. 450; and smallest use, that attorneys should be admitted that part of the Limitation of Actions Act, in more than one Court, except for the pur3 & 4 W. 4. c. 27, which relates to Church pose of each Court's obtaining jurisdiction Property. See 6 L. O. 261. over practitioners for malpractice. a See 2 L. O. 161, 241; 3 L. O. 317; 5 L. 0 53. Selections from Correspondence. 309 Allow me to suggest the immediate attention | Boucher. It appeared the matter in dispute of the profession to this exceedingly important was the sum of 27. 198., the price of a pig, sold point. As the old officers of the Courts are by Smith to Boucher, and which the defendant now paid by salaries (on compensation for their alleged he had paid for. Witnesses were called former gains), there is no one personally inter- by the attorney on the part of the plaintiff, ested in preserving the expensive and trouble- who proved the delivery of the pig to Boucher some form of five or six admissions: and it at Cheltenham; and the attorney for the deshould be at once proposed to have only one fendant brought forward two witnesses, who Attorney's Roll, to which any Court should be swore that they saw the defendant pay the plaincompetent to admit, and from which each Court tiff for the pig at an inn at Cheltenhamn. The should have power to remove a party:-the ad- Undersheriff summed up very impartially, and mission being thenceforward to be an admis left the jury to form their own conclusions on sion to a professional character, like that of the case; but as there appeared to be great Barrister, entitling the person so admitted to difference of opinion, they were locked up for practise everywhere. seven hours, at the end of which time, there appearing no chance of their coinciding in their verdict, they were discharged, and the case remains in statu quo." This was the only case before this new tri- I would suggest that it would be more economical, and save much trouble, to consent (if required) to pay at once 57. more for the admission stamp, which would compensate the Exchequer for any loss on fees, and still savebunal. money to the young attorney. At any rate, the subject is one of immense importance; it was opened at one of our public meetings, excited then great interest, and should be instantly and actively attended to. A WELL-WISHER. SELECTIONS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. No. XLIII. REGISTRAR'S OFFICE. MR. D. W. HARVEY AND THE TEMPLE. To the Editor of the Legal Observer. I concede your claim to impartiality in your remarks upon this inquiry; but your anxiety not to appear a partisan has kept you within, rather than up to, the strict line of justice. Of the case Frost v. Harvey I shall only observe, that you might have found materials in the evidence before you to have justified a less guarded expression of satisfaction in the A correspondent begs the earnest and im-result of this portion of the enquiry; for to me nediate attention of the profession to the state of the business in the Registrar's Office,"where," he says, "the natural incitement to despatch being taken away by the payment of salaries to the Clerks as well as the Registrars, every thing seems to linger, notwithstanding the appointment of two new Registrars. He suggests that while this system lasts-(presuming that Parliament will abolish it)-the Court should be requested to issue a general order for fixing the period-say, two daysfor delivering out m'nu es; and the time (after the settlement of the minutes) when the decree or order should be ready,-say, four days. 0. [We have heard several persons complain of the delay referred to by the above correspondent.-ED.] LOCAL COURTS. To the Editor of the Legal Observer.` Sir, I beg to recommend to your attention a striking illustration, by anticipation, of the advantages of cheap law; or, in the phraseology of the day, of bringing justice home to the doors of his Majesty's subjects. "On Tuesday last the Undersheriff for the county of Gloucester summoned a jury at the Town-hall, Cirencester, for the purpose of trying a cause under the New Act, Smith v. it appears impossible for the most ingenious mind to suggest a series of facts more strongly confirmatory of Mr. Harvey's explanation: that he bought the estate of Frost, and that he sold it for a profit to the entire knowledge of Frost, who disclaimed the attempt of his attorney to detain the profit, and settled the action he had brought against Mr. Harvey expressly on the gronnd of its renunciation. But it is to your statement in the cause of Hurvey v. Andrew that I invite your attention, which you have given "to enable your readers to come to a true conclusion." If you had called the attention of your readers to the investigation itself, no just fault could be found tracts as sufficient to this end. with your criticism; but you profess to give ex I complain of your statement for the following reasons: 1stly, You adopt the common error, that the paper which Mr. Harvey was charged with abstracting was his undertaking; the fact being that there was no undertaking given. You will find on perusal it was merely a consent66 on behalf of the defendant I consent." b which it was indisputably established, that in 2dly, You omit to notice the evidence by a We gave the case as stated by one of Mr. Harvey's own counsel. ED. b This appears to us very much the same thing. ED. 310 Selections from Correspondence.- On the Municipal Corporations Commission. every particular the arrangement proposed by Mr. Harvey was advantageous to his client. 3dly, That Mr. Harvey applied to the Court of King's Bench to compel the performance of the "consent," supporting the appeal by his own affidavit, to the effect that he believed that the paper in question was "in the custody, possession, or power of his opponent," who in bis reply never ventured to gainsay this allegation. 4thly, You entirely omit the concluding reason given by Mr. Harvey for not returning to Mr. Andrews's office. 5thly, You omit the letter of Mr. Lawrance, stating that Andrews himself expected heavy damages, and was desirous of settling the action brought against him by Mr. Harvey; and you further suppress all reference to the tendered evidence of Mr. Collins, which sets the matter at rest by the admission of the sole witness in the cause, "that Mr. Harvey never had the paper: a fact well known to his brother's clerks." As one of the witnesses examined, I (in common with the rest) was compelled to wait for hours in an adjoining room. I had therefore frequent opportunities to converse with parties who were prepared to give evidence touching the conduct of Andrews the defendant, and Andrews his brother and witness and though I decidedly think that Mr. Har vey's case stands in no need of their testimony, yet, looking at the question as one of character, it ought to have been received, as it would have illustrated the great injury sustained by Mr. Harvey in 1821, from the inability of the tribunal to which he appealed to compel the attendance of witnesses. I have the honour to be, Sir, 30, St. Swithin's Lane. 21st Jun. 1834. PAYMENT OF DEBTS OUT OF REAL ESTATE. To the Editor of the Legal Observer. The question raised by your correspondent, W. S., under the late act of parliament, for rendering freehold and copyhold estates assets for the payment of simple contract debts, had occurred to me, and I mentioned it to two conveyancers, who both replied, that the general rule that where estates are charged with the payment of debts, purchasers are exonerated from seeing to the application of purchase money, would apply. The same question might have been raised c We readily insert this letter, omitting only some general reflections, for the same reason which obliged us to curtail the statement of Mr. Harvey's evidence-want of room. We call attention to the additional circumstances mentioned by Mr. Wire, and shall be glad if they produce the effect he wishes. under Sir Samuel Romilly's Act, subjecting the real estates of traders to the payment of their simple contract debts; but I believe it will be found that it was not the practice of conveyancers to require proof of the payment of debts on purchases made from the heirs or devisees of persons engaged in trade. The same reason which rendered any inquiry unnecessary in consequence of that act-viz the rule I have above referred to would equally apply to estates made liable to the payment of debts under the recent statute. I beg to refer to the note in 6 Ves. 654, in support of the rule; and to observe, that in principle it can make no difference whether the charge is created by the owner of the property or by act of parliament. Lincoln's Inn. STUDY OF THE LAW. E. C. To the Editor of the Legal Observer. Sir, You will add one more benefit to the many you have already conferred on law students riodical, if you would insert in as early a in general, by the publication of your penumber as possible a list of the best books to be read by one who means to devote himself to special pleading, and also a similar list for one who means to pursue equity drafting. A TYRO. [The course of study for the special pleading student is rather difficult to be laid down, since the late alterations. We still, however, recommend the attentive perusal of the works of Mr. Serjeant Stephen and Mr. Chitty. Lord Redesdale's Treatise is the alpha and omega of the equity draftsman, the last edition of which, by Mr Jeremy, contains most of the recent cases. This cannot be read too often; but Mr. Cooper's and Mr. Basil Montagu's works may be perused with advantage; also the head " Pleading," in Chitty's Equity Digest. There is also an able analysis of Equity Pleading by Mr. Lubé, an Irish barrister. ED.] ON THE LEGALITY OF THE MUNICIPAL HAVING stated in our last number the opinions of Sir James Scarlett, Mr. Follett, and Mr. Rennall, on the general question of the legality of the Municipal Corporation Commission, we proceed to lay before our readers the only answer which appears to have been given to the authorities adduced in support of those opinions. The author of the pamphlet under the name of "Civis," to which we referred last week, has made several observations on the manner in On the Legality of the Municipal Corporations Commission. which the learned counsel have expressed themselves, which we do not consider it necessary to extract. Our object is merely to bring the legal question before our readers, and we therefore pass by all that has been said on the policy of refusing to afford the information required; the point is, are the Corporations in question bound by law to disclose the matters inquired into? The writer of the Pamphlet has not been able, after all his researches, to do more than adduce one Commissson which issued in the reign of Edward the 4th, but which, he contends, was more extensive in its powers than the Municipal Corporation Commission. He describes it as follows: "In the year 1392, a Commission under the Great Seal was directed to Edward, Duke of York, and Thomas, Duke of Gloster the king's uncles, and others, for inquiring into all and singular the errors, defects, and misprisions, committed in the city of London, through the bad conduct of the magistrates; wherefore, William Venour, the late Mayor, John Lovenage and John Walcote, Sheriffs, and William Baret and Nicholas Exton, &c., late Aldermen, were indicted before the said Commissioners for mal-administration in the government of the city; and being convicted thereof, they were, for the first fault, adjudged to pay the King 1000 marks; for the second, 2,000; and | for the third, the liberties of the city to be seized to the King's use. Maitland, from whose History of London this is extracted, zealous as he everywhere is in the maintenance of the rights of the City, urges no objection to the commission, but only objects to the third penalty, His words are, The last of which is directly contrary to justice and the immunities of the citizens; for, by the charter of Edw. III, he granted that the liberties of the city should not be seized upon by him nor his heirs, nor a custos set over the same for the offences of its magistrates; but that every person so offending, be punished according to the nature of his crime.d" "Rapin refers to this, but makes no objection to the legality of the Commission; he merely deprecates the occasion of issuing the Commission (which he denominates "that of punishing a tumult of little consequence, raised by a baker's apprentice"), and condemns the stripping the city of all her privileges." e A similar account is to be found in Entinck's Hist.,f who refers to Rym. Food.-Chadd. Hen. Knighton's and Walsingham's Histories. Neither Brady, nor Hume, nor Henry, nor 311 Lingard, mentions the occurrence, which could not fail to be historically known to them; it must be presumed, therefore, not to have excited their condemnation. Reeves's History, and the other histories of English Law, contain mixon does not include it in his various cenno impeachment of this Commission. Oldsures, nor does it find reprobation even in Oldcastle's Remarks on the History of England, for whose anti-regal spirit displayed in his remarks on the conduct and character of the very monarch who issued this Commission, Mr. Franklin, the printer, was apprehended soon after its publication." g The second part of the Inquiry, was, Whether or not, (assuming the preceding question to be answered in the affifirmative) the Merchant Tailors' Company is a Municipal Corporation, or a corporation of that character, nature, and description as to be legally within the scope and power of such commission? On this point the following is Sir James Scarlett's Opinion. ་་ " "I own I find considerable difficulty in bringing the Merchant Tailors' Company within any proper definition of the words " Municipal Corporation." The word municipal" in Latín signifies one who is capable, "munus capere," of taking office, and was used to distinguish one who had the rights of a Roman citizen from one who had no such rights. Thence probably the word " municipium," to denote a town of which the inhabitants had the privilege or franchise of being governed by their own magistrates and laws, and of bearing the title of Roman citizens; not, however, with the privilege of voting as citizens of Rome, as the distinction was very familiar between the "Municipium cum suffragio" and the " Municipium sine suffragio." "Municipium" then signified a town or city enfranchised by a decree of the senate from the obligation of receiving the Roman law, or submitting to a Roman Perfect. Hence in our language the adjective word "municipal' seems to have taken its meaning, and when applied to "laws," signifies the laws of a city, province, or even nation, as contradistinguished from a more universal law and when applied to an officer, signifies an officer of some town, or city, or place, having a peculiar law, or lea g See Oldcastle's Rem. p. 67. a These municipia were in effect what are now corporate towns or cities, governed by from the services to which other towns were their own magistrates, and freed, more or less, liable. They had become very numerous and powerful during the existence of a free government in Rome, insomuch that Sylla, the Dictator, passed a law, entitled "De Municipiis,' to disfranchise those who had given support to Marius and Cinna in their resistance to him He considered these corporations as the last strong hold of the party which he made it the object of his policy to destroy. U 4 J.S. 312 On the Legality of the Municipal Corporations Commission. sequently applied for Charters of Incorporation, or, more properly speaking, of monopoly, for the purpose of excluding non-freemen from exercising particular trades within the city. "The origin of these Guilds is not exactly traceable. The first authentic mention of a guild, or fraternity of tradesmen, occurs in a record in the Exchequer, during the reign of Hen. 1., in which a sum of sixteen marks is recorded to have been paid into the Exchequer, by Robert, son of Leweston, as the rent, or ferme, for the Guild of the Weavers of London.b "Several fictitious, or self-constituted com the royal licence, they were fined. These were called "adulterine guilds," and in the year 1180, sixteen of them were fined by Henry II. in, various sums, from one mark to forty-five marks each, for this legal illegitimacy.c loci, by virtue of which the office exists. The combination "Municipal Corporation" is, as far as I know, quite new in a legal instrument. The distinctions between corporations aggregate and sole, ecclesiastical and lay, civil and eleemosynary, are well known, being familiarly used in law books. But I am not aware of any legal authority for the meaning of the words Municipal Corporations." Judging from analogy, I should have thought the words not ill chosen to express those corporations only which embraced cities or towns, as contradis tinguished from such as merely related to persons, professions, trades, mysteries, or companies, having established themselves, without mercial adventures, having no concern with the administration of justice, or the maintenance and regulation of the police, or the preservation of the peace. If this be not the sense of the words, then I am at a loss to know why they should not comprehend the Colleges in the two Universities, the Universities theinselves, which do by their charters invest the Vice Chancellor with the office of Conservator of the Peace, the Lea and Chapter in every cathedral town, the Bank of England, the East India Company, the College of Physicians, and many others of the like kind, as well as the trading companies or fraternities of particular mysteries. I am unwilling, however, to offer any confident opinion upon the sense which these words were intended to convey, observ. ing that the commissioners have put a different construction from mine upon them, and being aware that words, as well as laws, sometimes take their effect and borrow a meaning from popular feeling." "If the point were conceded, that the commission to inquire into Municipal Corporations is a valid instrument, I should be of opinion that this commission does not authorize an inquiry into the existing state of the Trading Companies. They are not named; nor do the terms "local jurisdictions existing within the limits of corporate towns" include them." The Pamphlet furnishes some details with regard to the nature of the Companies in the City of London, which it may be useful to extract, more especially as it will be observed the writer has referred to the several authorities from which he has derived his information. "It has been alleged, and the probability is, that originally the city of London had but one collective company or fraternity referable to trade, and which was denominated Guilda Mercatoria; but that when the population increased, and trades became numerous, the citizens began to associate in distinct companies, accordingto their respective occupations,and sub "It is stated by Maitland, that the Guilds or Companies of London anciently held their liberties or privileges in fee farm rent of the crown. d "That this was so, seems to be confirmed by the fact, that the Guild of Weavers-the most ancient of any of whom there is any authentic mention (as before noticed) paid to King Henry II. yearly the sum of two marks (sixteen ounces) of gold, or twelve pounds of silver; the value of the latter being to the former as nine is to one e. This is further confirmed by the circumstance, that disputes between contending Guilds were anciently referred to the decision of the King. Thus, in the year 1404, the contest between the goldsmiths and cutlers, about the right of the Goldsmiths' Company to inspect the Company's silver and gold work, was decided by an order from the King to the Mayor of London, who being authe goldsmiths' complaint, reported that the thorized, and having carefully examined into cutlers had a right to work in gold and silver, and that all things made by them were to be assayed by the goldsmiths according to ancient immunities f. Subsequently, however, charters were from time to time granted to various companies, incorporating them into particular corporations. Of these, twelve are denominated in popular civic phraseology, the Principal Companies; sometimes they are styled in the words of old Stowe," the twelve honourable Companies. The twelve are, the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers h. |