The Names of the Gentlemen who favour THE IRISH JURIST with Reports in the several Courts of Law and Equity in Ireland, are as follows:

JAMES R. O'FLANAGAN, Esq.,
and JOHN BLACKHAM, Esq.,
Barristers-at-Law.

S

Queen's Bench, includ- FLORENCE M'CARTHY, Esq., and ing Civil Bill and Re- SAMUEL V. PEET, Esq., Barristers-at-Law.

gistry Appeals......

{WILLIAM JOHN DUNDAS, Esq., Exchequer of Pleas, in- (G. R. CRAMPTON, Esq., and

DUBLIN, NOVEMBER 23, 1850.

cluding Manor Court

Common Pleas ..........

Hon. JOHN P. VEREKER,
Barristers-at-Law.

ROBERT GRIFFIN, Esq. and W. G. CHAMNEY Esq. Barristers-at-law. ROBERT GRIFFIN, Esq. and W. G. Admiralty Court......HAMNEY, Esq. Barristers-at-law.

increasing the jurisdiction of the Assistant Barrister's Courts, not from disrespect to that body, but because they have not the machinery nor the power of adjusting satisfactorily rights of litigants where these involved questions of character or amount of property, and because we felt that the vesting of questions of law and fact in a single judge was a departure from the old constitutional right of trial by jury. The reform that was requisite appeared rather to be to diminish the expense of actions in the Superior Courts than to increase the jurisdiction

of the inferior.

As the judges have not yet promulgated their Rules under the Act for the Amendment of Process and Practice in the Superior Courts, it is well deserving of their attention that judicious General Orders could sweep away certain classes of charges-at present necessarily incident to every action at law-and with benefit to the suitor, the chief sufferer being the Consolidated Fund. For its loss we have no sympathy, holding, as we do, that the nation is as much bound to bear the expense of a staff for the due adThe Legislature of last sestion has to some extent ministration of justice as it is to pay for a standing army, and every other public institution, the expenses carried out this object by lessening the stamp duties of which are thrown upon the general fund as being payable on judgments and transcripts of records. We allude to the 13th and 14th of the Queen, cap. for the general good of the community. And we are inimical to rendering the administration of the 114, which contains one very just provision-that law in the Superior Courts so expensive to the suitor the transcripts of records may be cancelled when by office fees and useless charges that he is either the duty has been again paid; instances were fredisposed to forego his claim altogether, or endea- quent of its being necessary to pay twice the stamp vour to obtain the indifferent ministration of justice in an inferior court. Those who take any interest in the regular, formal, and solemn adjudication of the rights of the subject must consider that mode the most perfect by which justice is dispensed by an enlightened Bench with the aid of an accomplished Bar, with the check of public opinion, and on such terms as to be accessible in point of expense to the bulk of the community.

We have been opposed to the rumoured plan of

duty on records, which were not tried within the Term for which they were entered, and this was a serious grievance, as the duty amounted to several pounds when the pleadings were voluminous.

ral instances in which a very great saving might be To return from our digression. There are sevemade by a General Rule: for example, by the preentered, at the expiration of eight days a plaintiff' sent practice, after the rules for pleading have been is entitled to enter a four-day rule for judgment,

and for which rule a sum of 4s. duty is paid to the Legislature: this occurs in every action in which an appearance has been entered and a declaration filed. Now, if there were a General Order, limiting the time within which all pleadings should be filed, this four-day-rule would become wholly unnecessarythe stamp duty and the fee to the attorney saved. At the expiration of the time allowed the defendant to plead, on the production of an affidavit of the ser vice of the particular pleading on the opposite party, the attorney should be entitled to mark judgment, and so on through the whole series of pleadings in

an action.

has become in some degree settled and uniform, that a publication upon the subject becomes really useful. A new tribunal established under a special Act, and promulgating a series of General Orders, affords little useful scope for a commentator, who by way of doing something original, is either compelled to intersperse the sections of the statute with glosses of his own, just as obscure as the involved sentences he endeavours ineffectually to explain, or else to raise speculative questions of construction, or criticise the language of the Legislature,-very fair subjects of comment in a review, but of no value in a hand-book; when, however, as here, the court has been in active operation, and its machinery fairly set going, then it is a boon to the profession to have its practice accurately explained.

The bent of each gentleman's mind is percep.

The precedent for such a General Rule exists in the Chancery Orders; there a particular time is limited to do each particular act, and it would appear a very unnecessary procedure, four days before the time for answering has expired, to serve a notice that it will expire in four days-to give the defend-tible in the structure of their respective works. ant that information of which he has before been Mr. LYONS, from his pursuits as a barrister, directs fully apprised. It would be carrying politeness in his attention more to the legal questions which Equity pleadings to an extent they have never yet have arisen before the Commissioners; Mr. MACreached. NEVIN, from the tendency of his pursuits, applies himself to the practical conduct of a petition, in the way that he believes, to be most useful to the members of his own profession.

In the ancient days of Irish dilatoriness it might be very well to jog the memory of litigants by a series of premonitory hints, but in the present times of railway speed such a system of legal mnemonics would seem altogether superfluous. We submit that as the defendant must be served with a copy of every pleading, and need have no delay in preparing his defence, that a General Rule, defining the time within which it must be made, or in default liberty to the plaintiff to mark judgment, would be sufficient; or if the courts think that a special notice should be given in each case, this might be done, and with equal advantage to the suitor by a notice out of

court.

It is not surprising that a court, the business of which has been so great as to make it already chokefull, should attract the attention of a member of each profession, and induce them to lay before the public the useful works which form the subject of our notice.* It is not until its practice

'The Act further to facilitate the Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland, second edition, by J. LYONS, Esq. Barrister-at-law. Dublin: Wm. B. Kelly.

The Practice of the Incumbered Estates Court in Ireland, by RICHARD CHARLES MACNEVIN, Solicitor. Dublin: Edward J. Milliken.

Published decisions of the Commissioners are, no doubt, not numerous, yet we have supplied the writers with several important decisions, which Mr. LYONS has carefully annotated, though neither his work, nor that of Mr. MACNEVIN, contains a table of cases, which every law work should possess, though the omission in this instance is probably of less importance than in any other. As comparisons are unpleasant, we shall refrain from them: the distinction between the works appears to be in the point we have mentioned; it would be unjust to Mr. MACNEVIN, (whose work has only now appeared, and who has not had the advantage of his fellow-author in a second edition and a review of the Jurist,) not to state that his pages attest that he has taken considerable pains in ascertaining the practice of the court, and that he has communicated his knowledge intelligibly.

Encumbered Estates Court.

PETITIONS PREsented from NOVEMBER 15, TO 20, INCLUSIVE.-1384.

CONDITIONAL AND Absolute ORDERS AND POSTINGS FOR SALES MADE during the WEEK, ENDING NOVEMBER 20, 1850.

the Court. Notes of all Important Decisions, with the Act, and approved COMMENTARIES on the Law of SURETYSHIP, and

the Rights and Obligations of the parties thereto. By WILLIAM BURGE, Esq. Q C. M.A. &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 188.

THE EQUITABLE JURISDICTION of the COURT

OF CHANCERY, Vol. II., comprising Equitable Estates and In. terests, their Nature, Qualities, and Incidents; in which is incorporated so far as relates to those subjects, the substance of "Maddock's Treatise on the Principles and Practice of the High Court of Chancery."

By GEORGE SPENCE, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Counsel.

THE DOCTRINE of EQUITY; being a Commentary on the Law as administered by the COURT OF CHANCERY. By JOHN ADAMS, Jun., Esq., Barrister-at-law. I vol. 8vo. price 218.

BEST'S PRINCIPLES OF EVIDENCE.

TREATISE on the Principles of EVIDENCE and PRACTICE as to Proofs in Courts of Common Law; with Elementary Rules for conducting the Examination and Cross-examination of Witnesses. By W M BEST, A. M. LL B, Barrister at Law. I vol. 8vo.

AN ACT for the AMENDMENT of PROCESS and cloth, 18s.

PRACTICE in the SUPERIOR COURTS of COMMON LAW in IRELAND, with all the Reported Decisions upon the Analogous Statutes in England up to the latest period, with an Appendix, containing the Statutes, Orders, Forms of Affidavits, and a Copious Index.

By JOHN BLACKHAM, Esq., Barrister-at-Law Author of "A Treatise on the Law of Interpleader," "

ANGELL ON THE LAW OF CARRIERS.

TREATISE on the Law of CARRIERS of GOODS and PASSENGERS by Land and by Water. By S.K.. ANGELL, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. 1 vol. royal 8vo, bds, 25s.

THE LAW RELATING to TRANSACTIONS on the STOCK EXCHANGE. By HENRY KEYSER, Esq., o the Mid dle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. I vol. 12mo. cloth bds. 8s.

world-and he has not failed of effecting his object."-Saunders' News A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF MORTGAGE.

OBSERVATIONS on the ACT to regulate the Proceed-A Practical Arrangement of ECCLESIASTICAL LAW.

The Names of the Gentlemen who favour THE IRISH JURIST with Reports in the several Courts of Law and Equity in Ireland, are as follows :

DUBLIN, NOVEMBER 30, 1850.

:

ing thereon should be taken, without applying to the Court upon such affidavit as might be subse. quently filed, shewing why the Petition could not We have again to advert to the very unsatisfactory have been verified by the Petitioner, and directed and uncertain state in which the Practice of the the Petitioner to abide his own costs of the appliCourt of Chancery rests, with respect to proceedings cation. (See Montgomery, Pet. Eyre, Resp. post affected by the late Act, and in a great measure 28.) Now it seems hard that a Petitioner who, as arising from the want of a Code of Rules which are in this case, bappens to be an officer in Her Maindispensable to its well working, as well as from the jesty's service, serving abroad with his regiment, imperfect and inartificial manner in which the Act should be obliged to incur the costs of such an apitself has been framed. The Practice which has lication as necessary to confer on him the privilege been adopted of requiring Cause Petitions to be of a suitor, as to a matter in which he has a clear verified by affidavit in the first instance, having right. Until the passing of the late Act, the pracbeen found in many cases inconvenient, we trust it tice existed as originally established by the General will not be considered out of place if we make it Order, dated the 6th November, 1712-(Smith's the subject of the following observations. A dif- Orders in Chancery, el. 1839, 67)—which` directs ference of opinion as to the construction of the 5th "that for the future no affidavit be annexed to the section of the Act appears to subsist between the petition that the contents of the petition be true, Lord Chancellor and the Master of Rolls-the lat- but that the parties do make an affidavit of the ter holding that the word "may" is imperative, facts." Thus, after the lapse of more than a cenwhilst his Lordship has stated, in a case referred to tury, we have returned to the practice which it was in a former number, (Burnett, Pet. Cooper, Resp., then found necessary to correct by that Order. 8th November, 1850), that he considers the section That Practice required that before making an order permissive, and that its object was merely to enable on a Petition, the facts should be stated in detail by a petitioner to verify the petition in a short form, affidavit, but it did not require the affidavit to be where otherwise it should have been verified in de- made before the petition was presented. It is untail. But although entertaining this view of the questionably right that the Court should have eviAct, yet adopting the Practice as to ordinary Pe- dence of the facts stated in a Cause Petition, before titions, he would require every Cause Petition to adjudicating on it; but we do not see what misbe verified by affidavit or other sufficient evidence, chief could arise from permitting the Petition to be before making any order thereon. In a case which filed, and allowing the Petitioner afterwards, and occurred in the Rolls Court during the present before the Court is called upon to make an order, week, where it was impossible, owing to absence to supply such affidavit, or evidence of the facts, as from Ireland of the Petitioner, to have a Cause it might be in the power of those acting for him to Petition verified in the short form, his Honor, after produce. The inconvenience which arose from apconsideration, made an order directing the Deputy plications similar to the case we have cited, has been Keeper of the Rolls to receive the Petition without " mitigated" by directions of the Lord Chancellor, verification by the Petitioner, on filing an affi. communicated to the Deputy-Keeper of the Rolls, davit of the facts; but that no further proceed who is to receive all Cause Petitions at the suit of