Col. 4.-THE population of Great Britain in the year 1811, as here ascribed to the several counties, is less by 243,000 than in a Summary of an Enumeration of 1801, because above a third of the army, navy, &c. are supposed not to be natives of Great Britain: Ireland furnishing a large proportion of the army and of the navy; and foreign countries a considerable number to the army, besides a majority of those seamen who navigate registered vessels. On these considerations, only a thirtieth part is added to the resident population of each county, for its share of the army, navy, &c. and the same proportion is continued backward in the preceding columns, 1, 2, and 3. Col. 5.-The Area of the several Counties in English Statute Miles is here given for the convenience of those who may have occasion to calculate the comparative degree of population; and, to convert the English square mile into a measure known by all civilized nations, it is only necessary to reckon it as three to four of the area of the square geographical mile; or that four English square miles are equal to three geographical. This proportion may be deemed exact; for supposing a degree of latitude (between 520 and 53°) to measure 60,864 fathoms (on the authority of General Mudge) the area of an English square mile to the geographical square mile is as 300 to 398.6. The English square mile contains 640 statute acres. Scotland Scotland (with its Islands) is about equal to Ireland in area, and is half as large as England and Wales; but in computing the area of Scotland in English square miles, it is right to mention that the Scottish mile is 5,952 English feet, or (compared with the English mile) as 9 to 8. But it is rapidly falling into disuse. Col. 7.-The Justices of Peace acting under the commission for the Isle of Ely are included in Cambridgeshire; and the justices acting for the Ainstey of the City of York, are included in the East Riding. One hundred and eighty-three cities and towns have magistrates who lay claim to an exclusive jurisdiction; but most of them exercise only a concurrent jurisdiction with the county magistrates, and some of them no jurisdiction at all. Col. 9.-The unentered baptisms, burials, and marriages, mentioned in the Parish-Register Abstract, at the end of the several counties, are included in these Computations. The number of marriages in Devonshire and Hampshire is considerably increased by sailors' marriages, which take place at Plymouth and Portsmouth: and the proportion of marriages in Middlesex is rendered very high by the practice of Clandes tine Marriage, which is easily accomplished in London. The very low proportion of marriages in Hertfordshire shews that this practice extends even to the lower classes in that county. THE II. Expediency of Reform in the Court of Session. III. Memorial and Report on the Bill by the Lords. IV. Substance of Speeches delivered by some Members of the Faculty. These four pamphlets include a masterly discussion of the Reforms projected in the Court of Session for Scotland. The present Court of Session was in stituted at Edinburgh in 1532, by King James V. of Scotland, and originally bore the name of the College of Justice. It was an avowed imitation of the parliament of Paris, and adopted from the beginning a similar practice of taking evidence in writing. In the Catholic times half the court consisted of spiritual persons; but, after the abolition of popery, the spiritual half of the court was laid aside. During the sixth parliament of James VI. an Act was passed in 1584 declara tory of the king's right to fill up vacancies in the Court of Session. This preroga tive was limited by a right in the court to reject the king's presentee; and, under the usurpation of Cromwell, the court had dwindled to seven, and seems to have filled up vacant seats its own way. Further regulations were therefore thought necessary in 1672, which restored to the king his patronage, and to the court its original constitution. By the articles of the Union in 1707, the jurisdiction of this court was especially confirmed, and its authority and privileges expressly reserved; subject nevertheless to such regulations for the better administration of justice, as shall be made by the Parliament of Great Britain. During the competition of a pretender of the house of Stuart, it became important to the kings of England to overcome any hostile ascendency among the lords judges of the Court of Session. A bill therefore was introduced, in the tenth year of George I. to take from the court the power of rejecting the king's presen tee. This was evidently an invasion of the Articles of Union between the two countries; the new law having no tendency to promote a purer adininistration of justice, but merely to destroy the independency of the Court of Session. A solemn and well-argued protest should have been entered against this regal eneroachment. A more liberal change is now offered to the consideration of parliament. The Court of Session at present consists of fifteen judges, fourteen of whom, including the president, sit together in the Inner Court-house, while one sits in the Outer Court-house, each of the lords in turn taking that duty for a week. From the lord ordinary, who presides in the Outer House, an appeal lies to the collective judges of the Inner House. These appeals are so frequent, and the mass of litigation naturally grow ing out of the increased prosperity of Scotland is so considerable, that the court is no longer able to overtake the business of the country, but incurs every year an increasing arrear of causes. As a remedy for this delay of justice, it is proposed to separate the Court of Session into three chambers, and that five judges should sit in each chamber; by which means three causes could be heard cotemporarily, and three times the business dispatched in the same space of time. From the Court of Session an appeal lies at present to the British House of Lords; and these appeals again are so frequent, and the points of Scotch law, on which they turn, so discordant from English parliamentary and judicial precedent, that there is great difficulty in contriving decisions consistent with analogy and with each other. It is proposed, therefore, to institute a Scotch High Court of Appeal, or Court of Review, to consist of the three chambers of the Court of Session, collectively assembled and presided by a Lord Chancellor of Scotland. The Court of Appeal, it is conceived, might intercept from the House of Lords much troublesome detail, and would be more likely to decide with a thorough knowledge of Scottish law. Beside a division into three chambers, occasionally to be concatenated as a Court of Review; it is also proposed to introduce jury-trial in various civil cases, where it has not hitherto prevailed; jurytrial being in Scotland confined to crimi nal cases. This change will tend much to assimilate the judicial usages of both countries, and to prepare that entire amalgamation of their respective laws, which would open to Scotch barristers the whole mass of English preferment. These projected alterations appear to us highly beneficial: A numerous body of judges is better calculated for debate than decision. The dignity of the cha racter is lessened in proportion to the number; and the sense of responsibility is commensurately enfeebled. Where there there are many judges, it is held needless that each should excel: the minister listens to the voice of party, or connexion, in his nominations; and, as each appoint ment is made with negligence, a general mediocrity overspreads the bench. Where there are a few judges, eminent professional knowledge and skill is known to be requisite in each; and the competition for nominations is naturally restricted to its proper circle. For celerity of decision, weight of character, and professional acquirement, a corporation of five judges is likely to excel a corporation of fifteen. It is important that a Court of Review should include at least the presidents of the separate courts, whose proceedings are there to be revised. Without such inclusion there will not be enough of analogy and parallelism in the decisions of the subordinate courts. These would tend to independency, to rivalrous com. petition, to the introduction of opponent precedents, were there no form of incorporation tending to inspire the whole with one body-spirit. The institution of a Court of Review forms this desirable band of union. The introduction or revival of jurytrials in civil cases, will expedite judg. ment, will approximate decisions to the common sense of mankind, will favour the popularity of courts of justice, and will diffuse a taste for veracity among the multitude, by exhibiting the disgrace of prevaricatory witnesses. A fourth amendment is intended, that of limiting litigation in small causes, by making the first decision final: a measure more defensible on grounds of convenience than of equity. Various other projects of change have suggested themselves to different individuals. Some persons are for dividing the Court of Session into two chambers, rather than three; others are for resisting innovation wholly. These several proposals are especially examined in the speeches delivered by some members of the faculty of advocates. Many objections of detail are urged in the technical language of the Scotch bar. On the whole we think the enterprize of reformation praise-worthy, and the main principles of the intended change satisfactory. With gentle deviations from usage, much practical benefit is likely to result. By the improved constitution of the juridical order, a higher rank of talent and acquirement will be called upon the bench. By the exten. MONTHLY MAG. No. 234. sion of jury-trial a spirit of inquiry, of veracity, of equity, will be diffused among the people. A greater assimilation will be accomplished between provincial and metropolitan usage, and a communication prepared of the better institutions of each country to the other. And thus a sort of completion will be given to the union, preparatory perhaps to an ultis mate entire consolidation. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE HE subject is nearly exhausted by Mr. Ritson's industry, but we may yet glean a few additional proofs of the degraded state of minstrelsy, and its professors, which have escaped his researches. The minstrels are unquesti onably alluded to in the statute of the 13th Edward I. entitled, Stat. Civitatis Lond." After venting the evils which had been occasioned by the worst of evil-doers, (Melfesours) in the metropulis, it orders the wine and ale taverns to be shut, at the ringing of the curfew bell, after which hour, no one is to be harboured there, "beavant ne reccitant.” The expression of the statute is pecu liar, but appropriate and distinct. Recitation was the chief business of the minstrels; the musical accompaniment held a secondary place. Some few of the minstrel tales which have been handed down to us, are in prose, intermixed with rhyme; such is the beautiful fabliau of "Aucassin and Miolette." The stories of the professed reciters in Arabia and Turkey, are in prose, with a couplet here and there. It appears clear enough, from this enactment, that it was not in the decline of the art only, that the minstrels were classed by the legislature with rogues and vagabonds; even at this early period they associated with the lowest ranks of society. The last female minstrel upon record, "Mabille," of Rennes, in Brittany, who, as we are informed by Noel du Fail, was celebrated for singing the lay of "Tristan de Leon nois," was carried off by the diseases attendant upon drunkenness and prostitution; she seems to have lived in the reign of Fraucis I. The only class of minstrels who attained any degree of respectability,were the "Spruch-sprechers," of Nuremberg; this was occasioned by their being placed under the immediate superintendence of the magistracy. The Spruch-sprecher appeared to the greatest advantage, at the weddings of the burghers, As soon as the guests were SH seated seated at the dinner-table, he entered the room in his official attire, which consisted of a cloak, doublet, and trunk-hose, all of black velvet, duly puffed and slashed; several badges of silver embossed with the devices of the town, and of the different fellowships, were suspended round his neck, and he was provided with a staff, or truncheon, decorated with little plates of silver, engraved with the armorial bearings of his benefactors: the noise produced by shaking this instrument, was the signal he used to rouse the attention of his hearers. After saluting the guests, he addressed a string of extemporary complimental lines to the bride and bridegroom; and, when this was finished, he displayed his poetical talents, by composing extemporary verses on any subject proposed to him. The honest bard was not dismissed with empty praise, in return for the gra tification which he afforded the company; be levied a contribution upon them, by sending a little silver dish round the table, into which the parties put as much small money as they thought proper. From the nature of the language, these Teutonic "improvisatori" had greater difficulties to contend with their Italian brethren. Amongst semi-civilized nations, all poetry is extemporary; hence, it has been supposed to be the effects of inspiration, the gift of a deity. F. C. August 27, 1812. MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. HISTORICAL EULOGY on the late HoN. HENRY CAVENDISH, read at a PUBLIC MEETING of the IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, on the 6th of JANUARY, 1812, by the CHEVALIER CUVIER.* OF F the eminent men whose talents we are accustomed to celebrate in this assembly, there have been too many who have had reason to learn how to withstand the obstacles opposed to them by misfortune. But he of whom we are about to speak, had the still scarcer, and probably the much greater, merit, of not suffering himself to be overcome by vast wealth! Neither his birth, which laid open before him the road to honours, nor great riches, which offered him the attainment of every pleasure, could withdraw him from his fixed object. He was regardless even of glory, or worldly distinctions, and his only predilection was a disin terested love of truth. But, if he de. prived himself of what ordinary men most highly prize, he was rewarded by a magnificence proportioned to the purity of the sacritice. All that the sciences have revealed to him seems to contain something of the sublime and wonderful. He weighed the earth; he prepared the means of sailing in the air; he deprived water of its elementary quality, by decomposing it; and the truth of these doctrines, so new and so opposite to received opinions, he proved * Is it not a reproach on our country, and on the legatees of this scientific and wealthy man, that we get this first account of him from a foreign nation? by evidences still more astonishing than their discovery. The writings in which he explains them, are so many chef. d'œuvres of science and method: they are perfect either as a whole or in their details: for no other hand has been able to correct them, while time has continually increased their reputation. In short, there is nothing of rashness in the prediction that his memory will reflect as much lustre on his family as he himself received from it, and that those studies which, perhaps, excited the pity or contempt of some of his relatives, will transmit his name to a period at which his rank, or that of his forefathers, will be scarcely recollected. The history, indeed, of thirty centuries clearly teaches us, that great and useful truths are the only permanent inhe ritances which man can leave behind him. Certainly a genius of this class is not in need of eulogy: but it is necessary to hold up such men as examples to the world; and this will be our object in sketching the life, or, rather, in present ing an abridgment of the labours, of Henry Cavendish, esq. Member of the Royal Society of London, and Foreign Associate of the Imperial Institute of France. We say an abridgment of his works, because he has, in fact, been sufficiently wise or fortunate to render society regardless of any thing else that concerns him; and, therefore, his history contains no incidents except his discoveries, which are worthy of recording. Let no one then expect to hear, as a part of this great |