name or names of his agent or agents for election expenses, who shall be appointed in writing, and that he has not appointed and will not appoint any other agent without in like manner declaring the same to the election auditor, and no other than such agents shall have authority to expend any money or incur any expenses of or relating to the election in the name or on the behalf of the candidate; and such agents may pay any of the current expenses of the election necessary to be paid in ready money, provided that such agents shall make out, to the best of their ability, and render, from time to time, true and particular accounts to the election auditor of all such payments; and every such agent shall, as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment as aforesaid, make and sign the following de venient place; and such general accounts shall be open to the inspection of any person, and copies thereof or of any part thereof shall be furnished to any person at all reasonable and convenient times, upon request, such person paying a fee, at the rate of one shilling for every two hundred words, to a copying clerk, for the same; and when the election auditor shall have concluded the business of any election he shall deliver over all accounts in his hands to the clerk of the peace in counties, and to the town clerk or other officer performing any of the duties of town clerk in cities and boroughs, and to the sheriff clerk in counties in Scotland, who shall allow them to be inspected by any person, on the payment of one shilling, and shall furnish copies of the same or of any part thereof on the payment of a fee, at the rate of one shillingclaration : for every two hundred words, to the copying clerk," I [A. B.], being appointed an agent for election provided always, that for any copy so furnished the expenses by [X. Y.], a candidate at this election, do fee shall in no instance be less than one shilling, hereby solemnly and sincerely declare, That I have and shall deliver over to the candidates respectively not knowingly made, authorized, or sanctioned, and the balance of all monies, if any, and all vouchers that I will not knowingly make, authorize, or sancin his hands, except any vouchers appertaining per- tion, any payment on account of this election, othersonally to himself. wise than through the election auditor, save as excepted and allowed by The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854." (To be continued.) XXVIII. The election auditor shall also, as soon as he conveniently can, insert or cause to be inserted an abstract of such account, signed by him, in some newspaper published or circulating in the county or place where such election is held; and such abstract of account shall specify the amount of each PECTORAL AND COUGH MEDICINES. of such bills, charges, or claims admitted to be correct, or claimed and objected to, and the names of the parties to whom the same shall have been paid or are due, or by whom the same have been claimed respectively. XXIX. In case the person appointed to act as election auditor should, before his duties herein mentioned are completed, die, resign, or become incapable of acting as such election auditor, it shall be lawful for the returning officer for the time being to appoint some fit and proper person to act as such election auditor in the room of the person originally appointed as aforesaid for the remainder of the then current year of such appointment; and the returning officer shall give public notice of such appointment in the county, city, or borough. XXX. All monies, bills, papers, and documents of and relating to the election which were in the hands or under the control of the election auditor going out of office, dying, resigning, or becoming incapable of acting as aforesaid, except receipts or vouchers for payments actually made by such election auditor, shall be handed over and transferred to the new election auditor appointed as herein-before mentioned; and such new election auditor shall in all respects, or as near thereto as may be, have the same powers and act in the same way as if he had been originally appointed previous to the election: provided always, that it shall be lawful for such new election auditor, at all reasonable times, to have access to and take copies of or extracts from the receipts or vouchers above excepted. XXXI. Every candidate shall, before or at the nomination, or as soon after as conveniently may be, declare to the election auditor in writing the OLDHAM'S COMPOUND SYRUP OF SMILAX. perties of Smilax Aspera, the soothing virtues of the Garden Lettuce, and OLDHAM'S COUGH DROPS, Recommended for Coughs, Colds, Asthmatic Complaints, Hooping A teaspoonful taken occasionally allays cough, promotes expectoration, removes huskiness of the throat, and relieves soreness and oppression of the chest. Price 1s, OLDHAM'S ANODYNE COUGH LOZENGES. The acknowledged excellence of the medicinal ingredients, and the de. served reputation which they have acquired, induce the proprietor to re commend them as a most efficacious and agreeable preparation for the relief of recent Coughs, Colds, Asthmas, Hooping Cough, &c. Price is. per box. DUBLIN, JANUARY 6, 1855. COURT OF EXCHEQUER: FITZGERALD ". BROWNE. Landlord and tenantContract relating to lands-Compensation— Use and occupation-Special damage...... COURT OF ADMIRALTY: "THE VICTORIA." Collision-Negligence-Harbour regulations-Costs.... 90 90 94 has been adopted upon the recommendation of the Common Law Commissioners, we feel assured that it is one of no frivolous character; and, having been We observe that Mr. Isaac Butt has, with his usual adopted in England, there is no reason why the assiduity, given notice of his intention, after the practice in Ireland should be different. We see Christmas recess, to introduce a bill for the purpose many reasons why such a change would be benefiof extending to Ireland the enactment contained in cial. The second speech of counsel for the defenthe 18th section of the late English Common Law dant seems to be but a measure of justice to that Procedure Act. It will be recollected that several party to secure him against the risk of having the sections of this Act, which related to the general effect of his evidence upon the jury entirely dissi course of procedure at Nisi Prius and the produc- pated by a brilliant and damaging reply on behalf tion of evidence were, during the progress of the of the plaintiff. It may be apprehended that such measure, at the instance, we believe, of Mr. Butt, a privilege would lead to waste of time; but, inasapplied to Ireland; but, by an oversight, the 18th much as the speech is to be a mere summing up, section, which was quite as appropriate to such an and no more, it would be the duty of the judge to extension as any of the others, and which, if likely check the introduction of irrelevant topics. Such to be useful in England, was equally so as regarded an address ought not, in general, to occupy more Ireland, had been left out of the extending clause time than a rebutting speech does at present, and The 18th section is the one which provides that at it ought to save the judge the necessity of a very Nisi Prius, when the defendant calls witnesses, his minute charge. Again, the granting to the plaiucounsel shall, at the close of the evidence, be per- tiff's counsel leave to reply, when no evidence is mitted to sum up that evidence to the jury, before called by the defendant, appears to be equally fair. the plaintiff's counsel proceeds to reply generally, It will protect the plaintiff from the injury to his and that last-mentioned right, which is now enjoyed cause which has at times resulted from an artful, by the plaintiff, only when his adversary produces insinuating speech on the part of the defendant, reevidence, is now conceded in every case, whether plete with sophistry and bold assertion, and only unanthe defendant calls witnesses or not. We entirely swerable because the mouth of the plaintiff is shut approve of the extension to Ireland of this alteration by a rule of practice; and, on the other hand, see. in the law. It is, we will admit, one which a priori ing that the absence of a reply was, under the forwould not have occurred to us to make; but, as it mer system, rather the exception than the rule at Nisi Prius, and was not, therefore, to be reckoned with the aid of the judges, who should be required on in estimating the probable duration of a trial, to aid in this undertaking) would be obliged in any this change will not in general tend to the consump-ought long ago to have been settled, and points, such digest to leave questions still undecided which tion of the public time. To the Editor of the Irish Jurist. which long were settled, but are now left undefined, the landmarks having been swept away by dicla, and doubts, and negligence; yet nevertheless the certainty and brevity which such a system would introduce, would more than counterbalance whatever amount of the wisdom of our ancestors may be unwittingly consigned to forgetfulness, in tedious and half-forgotten judgments which are now seldom referred to, except, as you well observe, by the unscrupulous advocate to snatch, through the impro. the enactment of statutes to bind this realm (the most responsible duty which can devolve upon a citizen, clothed with the character of a trustee, for his fellow-countrymen) is at present conducted by our Legislature. Need I refer to the Act of last session, which had so nearly rendered our high The very forcible strictures which I read with great pleasure in a recent number of your able and valuable journal, touching the crude and slovenly manner in which the legislation of these countries, and perhaps more especially of Ireland, is conducted, have induced me to offer a few observa-vidence of the court, a temporary triumph for the tions to the better judgment of my professional fallacy which he supports. There is much more brethren in particular, and through them to the with which I may hereafter trouble you on this public generally. It appears to me that while a subject, but at present I have trespassed so largely spirit remorselessly iconoclastic has gone abroad upon your space, that I must at once address myself amongst us, destroying much which our fathers to the point which is prominent in my mind; and deemed most venerable and sacred, there is yet a I shall therefore say nothing here of a digest of total want of any re-organizing or constructive our statutes (which I am happy to find is seriously power to build again the structure which has been occupying the attention of some of our eminent defaced; and, if we persist in the present work of jurisprudents.) I deprecate then most solemnly, our hands, nothing will shortly remain of our once upon behalf of the body to which I have the honor boasted system of jurisprudence but a confused and to belong, (and on behalf of the public whose inheterogeneous mass of ruins, rubbish, and dis-terests are identical) against the manner in which jointed material. I do not mean that the work of law reform should be checked amongst us, or even that we have accomplished a tithe of what we ought in that direction; I do not say that there are not in our body politic many deeply-seated and dangerous sores; all I protest against is that unskilful and mangling butchery should first be per-judicial functionaries, the Masters of the Court of mitted to aggravate the disease, and then lauded as a scientific cure. The evils arising from the immense mass of undigested reports which now daily teem upon us from the press, have been fully and clearly exposed in your journal, and the proper remedy, I think, pointed out by your suggestion, that there should be certain reporters, appointed by the court and under their especial control, whose business should be to publish the cases in the shape of specific decisions upon the questions really at issue and decided, without any queries or sembles, or any of those dicta which are the pitfalls of legal learning, and that such should alone be considered as reports; and that those cases which do not really illustrate some truth or principle of law, should never be permitted to swell up a volume in the way of book making. These reports should be digested (with the authority of the court) under the respective heads of law which they elucidate; and thus the profession would be enabled to discover (with comparatively little trouble, and, what is much more important, with clearness) the state of the law with respect to any particular point, and, where it is unsettled, the questions which still remain for judicial determination. A digest of the past cases of real decisions should also be prepared out of the ponderous tomes which burthen our shelves and confound our judgments, and the residue consigned to the moles and bats; and even although to sweep out these stables is a work which Hercules himself would fail in perfectly accomplishing, and the most skilled reporters (even Chancery, mere annual pensioners upon the bounty of the Crown; or to the Act which, in defiance of all constitutional principle, of common justice, of common sense, and of express judicial reprehension, (here let me, for fear of being considered guilty of contempt, expresss my deep veneration for the wisdom, the foresight, and the industry of that august body by which our laws are enacted) placed the Commissioners of Public Works in the position of autocrats, absolute over the rights of the subject, and independent of the control of the tribunals of the country. The remedy for all this is very simple; it is to have competent barristers appointed; by whom is not now the question, (for I am not presuming to legislate) neither is it à question for present consideration whether they should be ex officio members of the Legislature or not, but their duty should be to examine and report on every bill submitted to Parliament, their report in each case operating, of course, only quantum valeat, to inform the House of the tendency and nature of each particular proposed change in the law, and to suggest such improvements as to their legal judgments the exigencies of that portion of the community to which the proposed change has reference may require. There should, of course, be such officials appointed for Ireland as well as England; and thus would be prevented that patchwork style of legislation which arises from the lawgiver not being a perfect master of his subject, and not caring to intermeddle with what he does not altogether understand. It would also, I trust, prevent the experimental system of which Ireland has been too often the victim; much in the way that surgeons were wont formerly to carry out their theories and investigations upon the body of the unhappy criminal. It would certainly tend to make legislation upon any particular subject, when once undertaken, complete; for men responsible for enlightened progress in legislation, and for the effect of each particular enactment upon the pre-existing laws, would never permit such crudities to pass through their hands as are now annually thrust upon us, and sometimes even praised as perfect models of legislation, skill, and industry. Let me take an example which lies before me (for I shall pass over the law of judgments, that inextricable labyrinth of confusion worse confounded). In May, 1850, an Act was passed altering, in almost every respect, the practice and proceeding of the Superior Courts of Common Law, and empowering the judges to make new rules in accordance with its provisions. The ink was scarcely dry when it became necessary to amend that Act, which was done by an Act of June, 1850. The judges promulgated their rules accordingly on the 23rd December, 1850, amounting to no less than 284, and further orders were published by them, dated the 15th January, 1851. Practice does not spring up in a day. It would have taken years to settle and harmonize the questions which must inevitably have arisen out of that Act and the accompanying rules; but in August, 1853, another Act was passed creating a second revolution in the practice of the courts, (just as the practitioner was beginning to work more safely and easily under the former,) and rendering a new set of General Orders, amounting to 201, a matter of necessity. I am far from condemning the last mentioned Act; indeed, Sir, I regret to find that in this respect I appear to differ from the opinions expressed in some of the late numbers of your able periodical. I consider the Common Law Procedure Act a wise and comprehensive measure, not indeed without its faults, but on the whole a bold and decisive advance in the direction of reform. At all events this dilemma presents itself. If it be, as I think it, then the former Act must necessarily have been a hasty, an inadequate, and an absurd piece of legislation; if the last Act be not what it ought to be, or something in the right direction, then our present position is the more to be deplored, attempting, as we are at this moment, to reduce it into a well defined and permanent system of practice, understood by the Profession, and certain for the suitor, who too often ascribes the miscarriage of his just claims, arising from the fluctuation of enactments, to what he is pleased to consider the crotchets of the court, or the incompetency of the advocate. Be that as it may, it became evident immediately after the passing of the Act that matters could not rest permanently even upon their then basis; and I believe a much wider and fuller ineasure was in the contemplation of the learned framer of the late Act, which would probably now be the law, if the public attention had not been distracted and engrossed by the all absorbing topic of the war. As it is, the subject of juries, which the late Act partially embraced, is at present under the consideration of the House of Commons; and another piece of mutilated Mosaic work has been bestowed upon us by the extension, in the eleventh hour, of certain provisions of the English Common Law Procedure Act to this country. The learned member who procured that extension is undoubtedly entitled to the public thanks; but he would have made himself still better entitled thereto had he more carefully perused the Act, and claimed participation for the Irish public in the many other most valuable provisions which it contains applicable to this country, but which are now the exclusive property of the English people. I do not mean in the least to detract from the great merits and eminent services of the learned gentleman alluded to; all I wish to say is, that as parliament is at present constitued, there is not time for any man, amid the jostlings of party amd political strife, to master the entire bearings of any difficult legal subject presented to his consideration; and the result of all this is perplexing and disastrous in the extreme. The last suggestion with which I shall at present trouble you is this, that until such time as the changes above proposed shall be effected, it becomes the bounden duty of the Bar of Ireland to scrutinize the alterations from time to time proposed in the law, and to endeavour to render them as far as possible accurate, complete, and effective. This, Sir, you yourself have not failed to do as far as lay in your power; but I submit that the most certain means of accomplishing that object will be by the formation of a Law Reform Society for this country, such as has long existed in England. I attribute solely to the existence of that body the fact which is undeniable, that the laws enacted for England are certainly not as variable or unstable as our own; and I doubt not that they would consider it an indellible disgrace to them to have permitted without remonstrance an enactment such as the 13 and 14 Vict., c. 72, purposing to provide for the complete registration of Deeds in Ireland, to become law, if incapable of being carried intó effect; or if, on the other hand, its provisions can be carried out, to remain to this hour a dead letter upon the statute book. There are serious difficulties, no doubt, to be encountered in the formation of such a body, arising principally from the want of professional union and esprit de corps amongst the members of the Irish Bar, in other respects as high-minded and learned a body as any in the universe. The truth, however, although an unwelcome one, is palpable that, while the English barrister regards his profession as a science, and enters upon its study with reverence and enthusiasm, the Irishman too often considers it as the mere stepping stone to preferment, or, at least, seldom looks at it in any other light than as the means of an honourable subsistence. I must not pursue this theme further. I am slow to believe that there are wanting men who, at your call, (for I put it to you to exert your influence in the establishment of such a society,) will devote themselves voluntarily, and without pecuniary remuneration, o the amelioration of our existing laws, by watchng the changes proposed in Parliament, and by suggesting such well-matured alterations in our In stitutes as the progress of an enlightened age and the requirements of advancing civilization may from time to time demand. Sure I am that unless some such step be taken, and that speedily, the confidence of the public in the law and its administrators, already shaken, will become rapidly and irretrievably undermined—a conjunction most fatal to the wellbeing of society at large, and to be dreaded and deplored by every man who values the liberties and the institutions of his country. I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant, STATUTES PASSED IN THE SESSION XXXII. In case any person shall be proposed and seconded at any election in his absence, and without his previous authority, it shall be lawful to the persons proposing and seconding such person to pay and agree to pay the lawful expenses of the election of such person; and such proposer and seconder having agreed to pay such lawful expenses shall become liable to pay the fees hereby made payable to the election auditor, and pay any of the lawful expenses of such election, in like manner and upon the same terms and conditions as herein provided concerning agents for election expenses appointed in writing by the candidates. XXXIII. If any candidate at any election, or any member hereafter returned to serve in Parliament, shall before the passing of this Act have paid any money for or in respect of any election here after to be held, or any expenses thereof, such person shall, to the best of his ability, deliver a full, true, and particular account of such payment or payments to the election auditor. provided always, that any such evidence shall not thereafter be used in any indictment or criminal proceeding under this Act against the party giving it. XXXVI. If any candidate at an election for any county, city, or borough, shall be declared by any election committee guilty, by himself or his agents, of bribery, treating, or undue influence at such election, such candidate shall be incapable of being elected or sitting in Parliament for such county, city, or borough, during the Parliament then in existence. XXXVII. In citing this Act in any instrument, document, or preceeding, or for any purpose whatsoever, it shall be sufficient to use the expression “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854.” XXXVIII. Throughout this Act, in the construction thereof, except there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction, the word "county" shall extend to and mean any county, riding, parts, or division of a county, stewartry, or combined counties respectively, returning a member or members to serve in Parliament; and the words "city or borough" shall mean any university, city, borough, town corporate, county of a city, county of a town, cinque port, district of burghs, or other place or combination of places, (not being a county as herein-before defined) returning a member or members to serve in Parliament; and the word "election" shall mean the election of any member or members to serve in Parliament; and the words "returning officer" shall apply to any person or per. sons to whom, by virtue of his or their office, under any law, custom, or statute, the execution of any writ or precept doth or shall belong for the election of a member or members to serve in Parliament, by whatever name or title such person or persons may be called; and the words "revising barrister” shall extend to and include an assistant barrister and chairman presiding in any court held for the revision XXXIV. Every such election auditor shall be of the list of voters, or his deputy in Ireland, and paid and be payable to receive, by way of remua sheriff or sheriff's court of appeal in Scotland, and neration to him for his services in and about the every other person whose duty it may be to hold a election, the sum of ten pounds from each candi- court for the revision and correction of the lists or date at the election, as and by way of first fee; registers of voters in any part of the United Kingand a further commission, at the rate of two dom; and the word "voter" shall mean any person pounds per centum, from each candidate upon who has or claims to have a right to vote in the every payment made by him for or in respect of election of a member or members to serve in Parany bill, charge, or claim sent in to such election liament; and the words "candidate at an election" auditor as herein-before provided; and the reason-shall include all persons elected as members to serve able expenses incurred by the election auditor in the business of the election and the performance of his duties pursuant to this Act shall form part of the election expenses, and shall be paid rateably and proportionably by the candidates respectively. XXXV. On the trial of any action for recovery of any pecuniary penalty under this Act, the parties to such action, and the husbands and wives to such parties respectively, shall be competent and compellable to give evidence in the same manner as parties, and their husbands and wives, are competent and compellable to give evidence in actions and suits under the Act of the fourteenth and fifteenth Victoria, chapter ninety-nine, and "The Evidence Amendment Act, 1853," but subject to and with the exceptions contained in such several Acts: in Parliament at such election, and all persons nominated as candidates, or who shall have declared themselves candidates at or before such election; and the words "personal expenses," as used herein with respect to the expenditure of any candidate in relation to any election, shall include the reasonable travelling expenses of such candidate, and the reasonable expenses of his living at hotels or elsewhere for the purposes of and in relation to such election. XXXIX. This Act shall continue in force for one year next after the passing thereof, and thenceforth to the end of the then next session of Parliament. The SCHEDULE A. above referred to. [The words printed in Italics show the extent of repeal.] 7 W. 3, c. 4, A. D. 1695, An Act for preventing |