New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. Short title; s. 8. 213 or privates of such regiment, battalion, or corps on the person claiming compensation. No shall, previously to the assembling of the same special contract to be binding unless signed. for training and exercise, have been sent to Saving of Carriers Act 11 Geo. 4 & 1 Wm. their head quarters or attached to any corps of 4, c. 68; s. 7. her Majesty's regular forces for purposes of instruction, the time during which they shall have remained at their own head quarters, or with the said corps, for instruction as aforesaid, shall not be reckoned as any part of the period of 56 days during which such then commissioned officers and privates may be kept assembled for training and exercise as hereinbefore provided. The following are the Title and Sections of the Act : An Act for the better regulation of the Traffic on Railways and Canals. [10th July, 1854.] Whereas it is expedient to make better provision for regulating the traffic on railways and canals: be it enacted as follows: ·- 1. In the construction of this Act "the Board of Trade" shall mean the Lords of the Committee of her Majesty's Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations: 4. Provided, that in the case of drawing out. and embodying the militia in England, or any part thereof, under the authority of this Act, the notices to the militia men to attend at the time and place mentioned in the order of her Majesty for drawing out and embodying the regiment, battalion, or corps to which they shall belong shall be sent by the colonel or The word "traffic" shall include not only commanding officer of such regiment, bat. passengers, and their luggage, and goods, anitalion, or corps, by the post, to the residences mals, and other things conveyed by any railof the several men as stated on their attesta-way company or canal company, or railway tions, or as subsequently certified by them, and such notices shall be sufficient in all respects; and any militia man not appearing at the time and place appointed in such notice shall be deemed to have disobeyed her Majesty's order for drawing out and embodying the regiment, battalion, or corps to. which he belongs, and shall be liable to be punished and dealt with accordingly; and the provisions of the 116th section of the Act of the 42 Geo. 3, c. 90, shall be applicable to such militia man, and to any person knowingly harbouring and concealing him. RAILWAY AND CANAL TRAFFIC. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 31. Construction of the words "Board of Trade:""Traffic:" 66 'Railway :" "Canal." "Company." Stations; s. 1. Duty of railway companies to make arrangements for receiving and forwarding traffic without unreasonable delay, and without partiality; s. 2. Parties complaining that reasonable facilities for forwarding traffie, &c., are with held, may apply by motion or summons to the superior Courts; s. 3. Judges may make such regulations as may be necessary for proceedings under this Act; s. 4. and canal company, but also carriages, waggons, trucks, boats, and vehicles of every description adapted for running or passing on the railway or canal of any such company: The word "railway" shall include every station of or belonging to such railway used for the purposes of public traffic: and The word "canal" shall include any navigation whereon tolls are levied by authority of Parliament, and also the wharves and landingplaces of and belonging to such canal or na vigation, and used for the purposes of public traffic: The expression "railway company," "" canalcompany," or "railway and canal company," shall include any person being the owner or lessee of or any contractor working any railway or canal or navigation constructed or carried on under the powers of any Act of Par liament: A station, terminus, or wharf shall be deemed to be near another station, terminus, or wharf when the distance between such stations, termini, or wharves shall not exceed one mile, such stations not being situate within five miles from St. Paul's Church, in London. 2. Every railway company, canal company, and railway and canal company shall, according to their respective powers, afford all rea-sonable facilities for the receiving and forwarding and delivering of traffic upon and from the several railways and canals belonging to or worked by such companies respectively, and for the return of carriages, trucks, boats, and other vehicles, and no such company shall, make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favour of any particular person or company, or any parti cular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, nor shall any such company sub-ject any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever; and every railway 214 New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. company and canal company and railway and may also, if they or he shall think fit, make an canal company having or working railways or order directing the payment by any one or canals which form part of a continuous line of more of such companies of such sum of money railway or canal or railway and canal commu- as such Court or Judge shall determine, not nication, or which have the terminus, station, exceeding for each company the sum of 2001. wharf of the one near the terminus, station, or for every day, after a day to be named in the wharf of the other, shall afford all due and order, that such company or companies shall reasonable facilities for receiving and forward- fail to obey such injunction or interdict; and ing all the traffic arriving by one of such rail- such monies shall be payable as the Court or ways or canals by the other, without any un- Judge may direct, either to the party comreasonable delay, and without any such pre-plaining, or into Court to abide the ultimate ference or advantage, or prejudice or disadvantage, as aforesaid, and so that no obstruction may be offered to the public desirous of using such railways or canals or railways and canals as a continuous line of communication, and so that all reasonable accommodation may, by means of the railways and canals of the several companies, be at all times afforded to the public in that behalf. decision of the Court, or to her Majesty, and payment thereof may, without prejudice to any other mode of recovering the same, be enforced by attachment or order in the nature of a writ of execution, in like manner as if the same had been recovered by decree or judg ment in any superior Court at Westminster or Dublin, in England or Ireland, and in Scotland by such diligence as is competent on an extracted decree of the Court of Session; and in any such proceeding as aforesaid, such Court or Judge may order and determine that all or any costs thereof or thereon incurred shall and may be paid by or to the one party or the other, as such Court or Judge shall think fit; and it shall be lawful for any such engineer, barrister, or other person, if directed so to do by such Court or Judge, to receive evidence on oath relating to the matter of any such inquiry, and to administer such oath. 4. It shall be lawful for the said Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, or any three of the Judges thereof, of whom the Chief Justice shall be one, and it shall be lawful for the said Courts in Dublin, or any nine of the Judges thereof, of whom the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, the Lords Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, shall be five, from time to time to make all such General Rules and Orders as to the forms of proceedings and process, and all other matters and things touching the practice and otherwise in carrying this Act into execution before such Courts and Judges, as they may think fit, in England or Ireland, and in Scotland it shall be lawful for the Court of Session to make such Acts of Sederunt for the like purpose as they shall think fit. 3. It shall be lawful for any company or person complaining against any such companies or company of anything done, or of any omission made in violation or contravention of this Act, to apply in a summary way, by motion or summons, in England, to her Majesty's Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, or in Ireland to any of her Majesty's superior Courts in Dublin; or in Scotland to the Court of Session in Scotland, as the case may be, or to any Judge of any such Court; and, upon the certificate to her Majesty's Attorney-General, in England or Ireland, or her Majesty's Lord Advocate in Scotland, of the Board of Trade alleging any such violation or contravention of this Act by any such companies or company, it shall also be lawful for the said Attorney-General or Lord Advocate to apply in like manner to any such Court or Judge, and in either of such cases it shall be lawful for such Court Judge to hear and determine the matter of such complaint; and for that purpose, if such Court or Judge shall think fit, to direct and prosecute, iu such mode and by such engineers, harristers, or other persons as they shall think proper, all such inquiries as may be deemed necessary to enable such Court or Judge to form a just judgment on the matter of such complaint; and if it be made to appear to such Court or Judge on such hearing, or on the report of any such person, that anything has been done 5. Upon the application of any party agor emission made, in violation or contraven- grieved by the order made upon any such motion of this Act, by such company or compa- tion or summons as aforesaid, it shall be lawnies, it shall be lawful for such Court or Judge ful for the Court or Judge by whom such to issue a writ of injunction or interdict, re-order was made, to direct, if they think fit so straining such company or companies from to do, such motion or application on summons further continuing such violation or contraven- to be reheard before such Court or Judge, and tion of this Act, and enjoining obedience to the upon such re-hearing to rescind or vary such same; and in case of disobedience of any such order. writ of injunction or interdict it shall be lawful for such Court or Judge to order that a writ or writs of attachment, or any other process of such Court incident or applicable to writs of injunction or interdict, shall issue against any one or more of the directors of any company, or against any owner, lessee, contractor, or other person failing to obey such writ of injunction or interdict; and such Court or Judge 6. No proceeding shall be taken for any violation or contravention of the above enactments, except in the manner herein provided; but nothing herein contained shall take away or diminish any rights, remedies, or privileges of any person or company against any railway or canal or railway and canal company under the existing law. 7. Every such company as aforesaid shall New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. Licensed victuallers, &c., prohibited from opening houses for sale of beer, &c., during certain hours of Sunday, &c.; s. 1. Houses, &c., of public resort prohibited from being opened for sale of liquors, &c.- · on Sundays, &c.; s. 2. Power to constables to enter houses, &c.;. s. 3. Penalty for offences against this Act; s. 4. The following are the Title and Sections of the Act :An Act for further regulating the Sale of Beer and other Liquors on the Lord's Day.. [7th August, 1854.] Whereas the provisions in force against the sale of fermented and distilled liquors on the Lord's day have been found to be attended with great benefits, and it is important to extend such provisions: Be it enacted, as fol lows: be liable for the loss of or for any injury done to any horses, cattle, or other animals, or to any articles, goods, or things, in the receiving, forwarding, or delivering thereof, occasioned by the neglect or default of such company or its servants, notwithstanding any notice, condition, or declaration made and given by such company contrary thereto, or in anywise limiting such liability; every such notice, condition, or declaration being hereby declared to be null and void: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the said companies from making such conditions with respect to the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of any of the said animals, articles, goods, or things, as shall be adjudged by the Court or Judge before whom any question relating thereto shall be tried to be just and reasonable: provided always, that no greater damages shall be recovered for the loss of or any injury done to any such animals, beyond the sums hereinafter-mentioned; (that is to say) for any horse 50l.; for any neat cattle, per head, 15l.; for any sheep or pigs, 1. That it shall not be lawful for any h per head, 21.; unless the person sending or delivering the same to such company shall, at censed victualler or person licensed to sell the time of such delivery, have declared them beer by retail to be drunk on the premises of to be respectively of higher value than as not to be drunk on the premises, or any above-mentioned; in which case it shall be person licensed or authorised to sell any ferlawful for such company to demand and re-mented or distilled liquors, or any person ceive by way of compensation for the increased by reason of the freedom of the mystery or risk and care thereby occasioned, a reasonable craft of vintners of the City of London, or of per centage upon the excess of the value so any right or privilege, shall claim to be en declared above the respective sums so limited titled to sell wine by retail to be drunk or as aforesaid, and which shall be paid in ad- consumed on the premises, in any part of Eng: dition to the ordinary rate of charge; and such land or Wales, to open or keep open his per centage or increased rate of charge shall house for the sale of or to sell beer, wine, be notified in the manner prescribed in the spirits, or any other fermented or distilled Statute 11 Geo. 4, and 1 Wm. 4, c. 68, and liquor between half-hast two o'clock and six shall be binding upon such company in the o'clock or after ten o'clock in the afternoon, manner therein-mentioned: provided also, that on Sunday, or on Christmas Day, or Good the proof of the value of such animals, articles, Friday, or any day appointed for a public fast goods, and things, and the amount of the in- or thanksgiving, or before four o'clock in the jury done thereto, shall in all cases lie upon morning of the day following such Sunday, the person claiming compensation for such Christmas Day, or Good Friday, or such days loss or injury: provided also, that no special of public fast and thanksgiving, except as recontract between such company and any other freshments to a bona fide traveller or a lodger parties respecting the receiving, forwarding, or therein. delivering of any animals, articles, goods, or things as aforesaid shall be binding upon or affect any such party unless the same be signed by him or by the person delivering such animals, articles, goods, or things respectively for carriage: provided also, that nothing herein-contained shall alter or affect the rights, privileges, or liabilities of any such company under the said Act of the 11 Geo. 4 and i Wm. 4, c. 68, with respect to articles of the description mentioned in the said Act. 8. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854." SALE OF CAREERS 17 & 18 VICT. c. 79. who' 2. That no person shall open any house or place of public resort for the sale of fermented liquors, or sell therein such liquors, in any part of England or Wales between half-past two o'clock and six o'clock or after ten o'clock in the afternoon, on Sunday, or on Christmas Day or Good Friday, or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, or before four o'clock in the morning of the day following such Sundays, Christmas Day, or Good Friday, or such days of public fast and thanksgiving, except as refreshment for travellers. 3. That it shall be lawful for any constable at any time to enter into any house or place of public resort for the sale of beer, wine, spirits, or other fermented or distilled liquor or li quors; and every person who shall refuse to THE preamble recites the 11 & 12 Vict. admit or shall not admit such constable into 49. such house or place shall be deemed guilty of 216 Change of Solicitors & Delivery of Paper-Review: Humphreys' Manual of Civil Law. 4. That every person who shall offend right to the possession of them. The rule against this Act shal be liable, upon a sum- must be discharged. Exparte E. Horsfall, mary conviction for the same before any jus- 7 Barn. & Cress. 528. tice of the peace for the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place where the offence shall be committed, to a penalty not exceeding 51. for every such offence, and every separate sale shall be deemed a separate offence. CHANGE OF SOLICITORS AND DE- DRAFTS OF DEEDS. On the change or retirement of a solicitor, it is the usual practice to retain the drafts of deeds and letters addressed to him. The papers delivered over generally consist of original deeds and documents, the cases and opinions of counsel, and the papers and proceedings in actions and suits. The general opinion appears to be, that solicitors may retain the letters addressed to them and the drafts of their letters; but they cannot withhold the drafts of deeds, although containing their own minutes or memoranda, or the remarks of counsel, and which may be required for their own justification on the matters in question, or which they may be called upon to produce by either party, in case the original deeds should be lost. In the following case it was held, that an attorney, upon receiving the amount of his bill, is bound to deliver up to his client, not only original deeds belonging to him, but also the drafts and copies of such deeds. "In any civilised state of society, where the community are governed by laws, a knowledge laws are founded must be important to every of the principles of justice upon which those educated citizen, who considers himself entitled to their protection, and amenable to their restrictions in the ordinary routine of social life. This interest presents itself to us in several different points of view: the Civil Law is the foundation of the jurisprudence of all modern European nations; it constitutes, together with the old feudal law, the basis of the Common Law of England: of the law of Scotland it forms a still larger ingredient; and of the practice of our Courts of Chancery, which adjudicate questions of a nature that could not have arisen under the feudal law, it may be regarded principally, if not exclusively, as the A rule nisi had been obtained for setting foundation and precedent. It is also a monuaside an order made by the Judge at Cham- ment of the wisdom and justice of the most bers, and which had afterwards been made worthy of attention, nor less pervading in its powerful nation of antiquity, neither less a rule of Court, whereby the attorney was influences, than the reliques of their fine arts; ordered to deliver up the drafts, copies, &c., and it is of peculiar importance to the classical of certain deeds then in his custody. It scholar, as being necessary to illustrate the appeared that he had been employed for meaning of many passages, more particularly several years by the client; and after the in the Latin authors, where the allusions to client's death, his daughter applied to have all deeds, papers, &c., in the attorney's possession delivered up, and offered to pay whatever was due to him. The attorney delivered up all the deeds and original documents, but claimed a right to retain the drafts and copies which his client had paid for. Lord Tenterden, C.J., said, it may be convenient, in come cases, to leave drafts, and copies of deeds, or other documents in the hands of an attorney, but the client is the proper person to judge of that. He who pays for the drafts, &c., by law has a legal questions and usages, and the instances than may he generally supposed by students of legal phraseology are far more numerous unacquainted with the Roman Laws. We must perceive that this is necessarily the case, from the circumstance that among the Romans, during the most flourishing periods of the Republic and the Empire, the knowledge of the law was not confined, as it is among us and other modern nations, to the members of any particular profession: it was an indispensable part of the acquirements and accomplishments of every citizen of rank, fortune, and education,-resulting originally from the peculiar relation between patron and client, that he should attain to such a knowledge of Review: Humphreys' Manual of Civil La 217 the laws as might enable him to act as an ad- Lords, the comitia 1:3nbled our House of vocate; and this laborious duty was performed Commons; the names Juriata, Centuriata, and for several ages without any other compensa- Tributa, indicating the saccessive changes in tion than the celebrity and influence attendant its constitution: the first, implying that the upon success. Even the Roman poets-not-members were qualified by birth only; the sewithstanding the natural antipathy that may be cond by property; and the third-as the desupposed to exist between poctry and law-mocratic element in the state prevailed-signake many allusions to law, and were fre- nifying that residence was the only qualification. quently, particularly in the case of Ovid, dis- The laws passed in the two first have not been tinguished for their legal learning in every recorded with any certainty, and were most Roman Author, in fact, many passages occur, probably borrowed from the neighbouring which would be unintelligible if we had not nations. the Roman laws to guide us to their meaning, and of which many persons, unacquainted with those laws, entertain very erroneous ideas." If the knowledge of this subject be useful to the general scholar, the learned Author observes, it must be still more important and valuable to all who are preparing themselves for the legal Profession. The sources from which the Civil Law is deduced are then stated, and from this part of the work we deem it useful to make the following extracts : "The Loges Regiae were those enactments which originated with the Roman kings, and were enacted or passed in the Comitia Curiata, the original public assembly, and, after the reform introduced by Servius Tullius, in the Comitia Centuriata. Between these two assemblies the difference was simply this; that none could act as members of the Curiata who were not also members of the patrician gentes, which were subdivisions of the Curie, and enjoyed a monopoly of all political power, reserving to themselves the exclusive privileges of making laws and holding magistracies, and keeping themselves isolated from the plebs by forbidding intermarriage: these privileges are known as the jus suffragii, jus honorum, and jus connubii. The plebs, on the contrary, enjoyed only those rights which were common to both orders, those of holding and purchasing all property, except the ager publicus (land annexed by conquest); and these common privileges, called the jura manús et commercii, constituted the jus Quiritium. It will appear from this, that the necessary qualifications for the Comitia Curiata was birth; for which Servius Tullius substituted a property qualification, entitling all who possessed it to seats in a newly constructed council, called, from the system of election or representation adopted by him, the Comitia Centuriata. "The Senatus consulta and Decreta, which at first consisted merely of orders issued to military commanders and other public officers, and ordinances intended to meet particular exigencies, and were rather of an adininistrative than a legislative character, began to be regarded as laws towards the close of the Republican era; and, during the earlier ages of the Empire, as long as the senate retained any influence, made large additions to the rapidly increasing body of Roman law. "Of the Twelve Tables, which exhibited the first attempt on the part of the Romans to construct a regular system of national and impartial laws, it is necessary to treat more fully. In the year of the city 292, C. Terentellus, a tribune of the plebs, propounded a law for defining the powers of the consuls, which was as strenuously opposed by the patricians as it was advocated by the democratic party. The contest on the subject of this lex Terentilla having continued for eight years with considerable excitement, it was also resolved, Hermodoro auctore, at the suggestion of Hermodorus an Ephesian refugee then residing in Rome, that measures should be adopted for preparing a code of written laws; and, accordingly, three commissioners were sent to Athens, to obtain information respecting the laws of Solon and other Greek legislators; and on their return the decemviri, appointed for the purpose, with the assistance of Hermodorus, prepared a digest of the laws and forensic usages theretofore existing among the Romans, modified and improved by the addition of everything worthy of adoption or suited to the circumstances, in the foreign laws which are believed to have been collected not only in the cities of Greece, but also among the Greek towns of Southern Italy. The services of Hermodorus were rewarded by a statue erected in the Comitium. To this account of the Twelve Tables objections have been made by some distinguished authors. Professor Vico of Naples first called in question the truth of the account given by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus; and his example has been followed by many others, including the historian Gibbon. The objections are, that the appointment of the commission is no where directly mentioned by Cicero; and that, from whatever sources the Twelve Tables may have been compiled, they could not have survived the destruction of Rome by the Gauls. To this it may be replied, that Cicero may not "It appears, then, that while the Senate was have had occasion to make any direct allusion exclusively aristocratic, like our House of to the commission; that it is everywhere al "The Plebiscita were the laws passed in the Comitia Tributa, an assembly established A.U.C. 283, and for which the sole qualification was residence in a certain district. From these Comitia the patricians were altogether excluded, and the laws emanating from them were considered binding upon the plebs only, until, by the enactment of the lex Hortensia, in A. U. C. 286, they were received as obligatory upon the whole community. |