422

Original Letters, No. II.-Abstracts of Recent Statutes.

easily send for my own; but besides that it is really inconvenient for me to leave Oxford, You know I hate any thing but a Turnpike Road in ye Winter. Duty, you will say, calls me; but since I cannot in this point carry my Inclinations to my Duty, I shall contrive to bring my Duty to my Inclinations; and do not question but I shall easily obtain Leave to defer my formal Visit till ye next Lent Vacation. However, when I come to Oxford (where I must be ye 17th instant) you may depend on seeing me at Sparsholt in my usual Xtmas Shape of a brace of Almanacs, of wch you have already accepted. My Compliments, & more, my real good Wishes, attend You & my Cousin. I remain,

Dear Sir,

Your most obliged & obed
humble Seryt

W BLACKSTONE.

London, 7 Dec. 1751.

some places distant from the city of London :
it is therefore enacted as follows:
the said recited act as requires that persons to
1. From the passing of this act so much of
be admitted notaries public shall have served
a clerkship or apprenticeship for seven years,
shall, so far as the same affects persons being
attorneys, solicitors, or proctors, admitted as
herein-after mentioned, be limited and con-
fined to the city of London and liberties of
Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and
the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Ex-
change in London.

2. After the passing of this act, the Master of the Court of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, upon being satisfied of the fitness of the person and the expediency of the appointment, may appoint, admit, and cause to be sworn and inrolled in the said Court of Faculties any person residing at any place distant more than ten miles from the Royal Exchange in the said City of London who shall have been previously admitted, sworn, and inrolled an attorney or solicitor in any of the Courts at Westminster, or who shall be a proctor practising in any Ecclesiastical Will not a Line from You do as well as Court, to be a notary public or notaries a personal Conference in ye Affair of Ston-public to practise within any district in which it shall have been made to appear to the said house & Smith? I would not, methinks, Master of the Court of Faculties that there is give You a Trouble to avoid one myself. not (or shall not hereafter_be) a sufficient The Judges are bringing in a Bill with number of such notaries public admitted or to regard to ye Attestac'on of Devises, in ye be admitted under the provisions of the said room of that they rejected last Sessions. recited act for the due convenience and accomIt is a Thing loudly called for. The Alarm modation of such district. Bell is rung; & a hundred Suits are preparing on ye Doctrine they established for Law, in ye Case of Anstey & Dowser, which you heard argued.

ABSTRACTS OF RECENT STATUTES.

PUBLIC NOTARIES.

3 & 4 W. 4, c. 70.

This act is intituled "An Act to alter and amend an Act of the Forty-first Year of His Majesty King George the Third, for the better Regulation of Public Notaries in England;" and passed on the 28th of August, 1833. It recites the 41 G. 3, c. 79, "For the better Regulation of Public Notaries in England," enacting that after the 1st of August, 1801, no person should be sworn, admitted, and inrolled as a public notary unless he should have served as a clerk or apprentice for the term of not less than seven years to a public notary, or a person using the art and mystery of a scrivener (according to the privilege and custom of the city of London, such scrivener being also a public notary,) duly sworn, admitted, and inrolled, and should have continued in such service for the term of seven years.

And reciting that the provisions of the said act are found to be extremely inconvenient in

3. Nothing herein contained shall authorize any notary who shall be admitted by virtue of this act to practise as a notary, or to perform or certify any notarial act whatsoever, within the said city of London, the liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or within the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Exchange in London.

4. If any notary admitted by virtue of this act shall practise as a notary, or perform or certify any notarial act whatsoever, out of the district specified and limited in and by the faculty to be granted to him, or within the city of London, the liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Exchange in London, then the said Court of Faculties, on complaint made in a summary way, and duly verified on oath, may cause every such notary so offending to be struck off the roll of Faculties, and every person so struck off shall thenceforth for ever after be wholly disabled from practising as a notary or performing or certifying

any

notarial act whatsoever.

INCLOSURE AWARDS TITLES.
3 & 4 W. 4. c. 87.

This is intituled "An Act for remedying a Defect in Titles to Messuages, Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments allotted, sold, divided, or exchanged under Acts of Inclosure,

Abstracts of Recent Statutes.

in consequence of the Award not having been inrolled, or not having been inrolled within the Time limited by the several Acts; and for authorizing the Appointment of new Commissioners in certain cases where the same shall have been omitted." It passed on the 28th of August 1833, and recites that by divers acts of inclosure the awards directed to be made by the commissioners appointed by such acts are directed to be inrolled with the clerk of the peace of the county, riding, division, soke, or place in which the lands to which such Acts respectively relate are situated, or in one of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, or in some other Court, and, in certain of the said acts, within certain times mentioned in such acts next after the execution of such awards; and in certain of the said acts new commissioners are directed to be appointed within certain times.

Reciting also that in a great number of instances such awards have not been inrolled, or have not been inrolled within the time directed by the several acts; and by reason of such omission the title to the messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments allotted, sold, divided, or exchanged under such acts may be considered defective; and in many instances new commissioners have not been appointed within the time directed.

423

person or persons requesting the same, for which no more shall be paid than threepence for every sheet of seventy-two words; and every award already made, whether inrolled or not, and every copy of such award when inrolled as aforesaid, or of any part thereof, signed as aforesaid, shall at all times be admitted and allowed in all courts whatsoever as legal evidence.

3. If any commissioner shall be dead or incapable of acknowledging his award before such award shall be inrolled, the same award may be inrolled without the acknowledgment of such commissioner, on due proof being given that such award is the deed or instrument of such commissioner.

4. Where any award already made under any act of inclosure shall be deposited in any parish church, it shall be considered as in the custody of the officiating minister and churchwardens for the time being of such parish church; and where any such award shall be in the possession of the lord of any manor to or for whom, or to or for any preceding lord of which manor, any allottment shall have been made under such award, or in the possession of the steward of such manor, it shall be considered as in the custody of the lord of such manor for the time being; and the steward shall, when required, deliver up the same accordingly; and the said minister and churchwardens, or lord, as the case may be, shall from time to time, upon the request of any person or persons interested in any allotment or allotments, or otherwise, under such award, cause the same to be produced for the inspection of such person or persons on being paid by him, her, or them a just and reasonable compensation for such production, and shall also cause the same to be produced for the purpose of being inrolled, or in any court of law or equity, or on any other occasion, for the purpose of being given in evidence, on being paid all just expences.

For remedying such defects it is enacted1. That every award already made and executed under or in pursuance of any act of inclosure, and which has not been inrolled, or which has not been inrolled within the time limited by the act under or in pursuance of which such award shall have been made, shall from the time of the execution of such award be as good and valid and of the same effect in all respects as if such award had been inrolled in the manner, and within the time, if any, appointed and limited for that purpose in the act, under or in pursuance of which the same has been made. 5. Where any such award as aforesaid, shall 2. Where any award already made and exe-not be deposited in the parish church of the cuted under or in pursuance of any act of inclosure has not been inrolled, it shall be lawful for any person having or deriving title to any messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments under such award, at his expence, to require and cause such award, with any maps or plans annexed or relating thereto, to be inrolled in any one of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, or by the clerk of the peace of the county, riding, division, soke, or place in which the lands to which such award shall relate are situated, to the end that recourse may be had thereto by any person or persons interested therein, for the inspection and perusal whereof no more than one shilling shall be paid; and a copy of such award when so inrolled, or of any part thereof, signed by the proper officer of the court wherein the same shall be inrolled, or by the clerk of the peace for such county, riding, division, soke, or place, or his deputy, purporting the same to be a true copy, shall from time to time be made and delivered by such officer or clerk of the peace for the time being, or his deputy, to any

parish in which the lands to which such award shall relate are situated, and shall not be in the possession of the lord or steward of any manor to or for the present or any preceding lord of which manor an allotment shall have been made under such award, but shall be in the possession of any other person, it shall be lawful for any person or persons interested in any allotment or allotments, or otherwise, under such award, to require the same to be deposited in the parish church of the parish in which the lands to which such award shall relate are situated, and the person in whose possession the same shall be, shall, on such request, deliver up the same to the minister and churchwardens for the time being of such parish church, for the purpose of being so deposited.

6. In all cases where in or by virtue of any act or acts of inclosure heretofore passed, provision hath been made for the election, nomination, or appointment, within a time therein limited or directed, of a new commissioner or commissioners in the event of the death, refusal, or neglect to act of the commissioner or

424

Abstracts of Recent Statutes.-Imprisonment for Debt.

columns as the champion of the scheme for abolishing imprisonment for debt, and challenged discussion as to the expediency of the measure, I expected to have found in him an advocate who, as fact and experience would not favor him, would have used skilfully the only weapons which presented themselves, viz. ingenuity and eloquence; but how great was my surprise to see in your Legal Observer of 31stAug. the inconclusive and unsatisfactory statements and remarks which, in the writer's humility, are to cause a total revolution of opinion in the minds of traders, to enlighten our senators, and direct his Majesty's Solicitor General, in the view of this great and important question.

In endeavouring to answer what is brought forward by your correspondent, I will go seriatim through the statements he has made, and the arguments which are intended to support them.

Your correspondent, previously to discussing the question, admits the propriety of confining the discussion "to simple contract debts, to the payment of which there is no reasonable dispute or objection." This is of course understood, as no one would be sufficiently hardy to argue against the necessity of attachments to enforce the authority of the Courts.

commissioners appointed by or by virtue of such act or acts, or of his or their becoming, by reason of absence beyond the seas, or other wise, incapable of acting in the execution of the powers, authorities, and trusts in such commissioner or commissioners vested and reposed, before the same and every of them shall have been fully executed and performed, and where any such election, nomination or appointment as aforesaid, or any of them, shall have been neglected or omitted to have been made, pursuant to such act or acts, within the time or times thereby limited or directed, then and in every such case it shall be lawful for the person or persons by any such acts of inclosure authorised and empowered for that purpose, and on such notice or notices, and at such meeting or meetings (if any) as required or directed by any such acts of inclosure, to proceed at any time after the passing of this act to elect, nominate, and appoint in such manner as by such acts of inclosure are directed, one or more fit and proper person or persons (as the case may require), not interested in the division, allotment, or inclosure by such acts of inclosure directed to be made, and not otherwise disqualified by such acts, as a commissioner or commissioners in the room, place, or stead of the commissioner or commissioners so dying, refusing, or neglecting, or becoming incapable Ambulator next makes a quotation from of acting, and to do all other acts, which shall Burke, to the effect that "it is a fault in our be requisite for effecting the purposes aforesaid, law that every man is, contrary to truth, prenotwithstanding the time for doing the same sumed to be solvent, and the debtor is ordered, shall then have elapsed, and the several writ-on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be deings appointing such new commissioner or prived of his liberty." At the time this was commissioners, and all other documents (if written it was nearer truth than now; but I any) relative thereto, shall be deposited or dis- submit, with the greatest deference to this posed of as by such acts of inclosure are direct-authority, that the law did not, certainly does ed; and every commissioner to be elected, no- not now, make such a presumption; the law minated, or appointed by virtue of this act, to considers that every man purchasing goods execute the powers of any acts of inclosure as contracts to pay the price of them, and knowaforesaid, having first taken the oaths, and ingly renders his body collaterally, as well as complied with the other terms or conditions (if his estate, liable for the breach. Your corany) prescribed in and by such acts of inclosure, respondent afterwards quotes the passage in shall have the same powers and authorities, Magna Charta, "that no man shall be arrestand no others, for putting or carrying into exe-ed, attached, imprisoned, &c. unless by the cution such acts, as if he had been duly elected, | legal judgment of his peers." This is the lannominated, and appointed for those purposes, within the time limited or directed by such act or acts of inclosure.

guage of liberty, and contains the spirit of our famous laws; but it requires the comprehension of an Ambulator, to make it suit his side 7. Nothing herein contained shall affect of the question in dispute. I would ask him, any public right, or otherwise give any greater if every man is not now legally judged by his force or validity to any award already made and peers before he can be imprisoned for debt, if executed under or in pursuance of any act of he chooses to bring his cause to trial? As to inclosure, than such award would have had if the following extract, it relates to the question this act had not been made, except so far as at issue as much as an extract from the Ten respects the several defects herein-before re- | Commandments would; and though last, is spectively specified and provided for.

DEFENCE OF IMPRISONMENT
FOR DEBT.

To the Editor of the Legal Observer.
Sir,

I must own, when your correspondent "Ambulator" introduced himself to your

equally applicable with the preceding.

The next part of our article consists of a few unmeaning observations on the cruelty of the present law; but as these remarks have no fact to steady, or argument to uphold them, I apologize for occupying in your columns even this space in adverting to them.

Ambulator next tells us of the results of his inspection of Whitecross Prison, and states that he found between 500 and 600 persons inmates of this place; and in order to excite our passions, he exclaims, in his own peculiarly

Imprisonment for Debt.

emphatic language, "Yes, Sir, I saw venerable tradesmen immured within the walls of that prison, who had seen better days." As to these facts, I can only say, that if they have not been guilty of gross and glaring fraud (and if they have, their punishment is not a jot too hard,) let them apply to that system which your correspondent had just before cavilled at, I mean the Insolvent Laws, and they may find relief. I think it proper, however, to observe, before I go farther, that no system can be free from abuses, and that every scheme invented by human nature, if viewed by the narrow minded and the prejudiced, would receive nothing but censure; as the one could not comprehend the different ends to be provided for, and the sympathetic relations of the materials, and the other would not see any beneficial result obtained, but would be satisfied in magnifying the little deformities in its operation; to which, or whether if to both, of these classes, your correspond belongs, I leave your readers to judge. But I beg pardon for my digression, and will proceed with my further examination.

425

but which every candid reader must be aware he has not done in a single iota, viz. that the present system is a failure as it respects the recovery of debts, and that it is also a failure as respects the punishment of the debtor. These positions I deny to be correct. The law does not give to the creditor the power of imprisoning the person of the debtor as the direct means of procuring payment of his debt, but that collaterally, by means of this power, he may be enabled to satisfy his claims out of the estate of the debtor. Its operations are beneficially felt in two ways; first, at the time of making the contract, it obliges the person about to incur a debt, to look around him and calculate if he has any means of discharging it when it becomes due, and warns him not to engage in idle and ruinous speculations, as he may, if unfortunate, be deprived of his dearest privilege-his liberty: and its benefit is again to be seen when the time of payment has arrived; for if the debtor be dishonest, it tends to check those fraudulent transfers of property (which must always be open to be made, in spite of enactments), as the person is liable to be imprisoned, and the Insolvent Act refuses relief if this can be shewn. As for the honest man, if he has been unfortunate and rendered unable to discharge his debts through unavoid

Our friend Ambulator now gives us instances of cases of imprisonment for very small debts. Many answers suggest themselves. It may be said that the laws must be fixed, and that the machinery which would be used to recover 100,0007. must be alike available for the re-able losses, if he honestly makes a surrender covery of smaller sums; and though it looks to his creditors of all his effects, it will, I may at first sight hard, yet it is surely not sufficient say, be nearly always accepted, and imprisonto require the abolishment of imprisonment for ment, which, thanks to the railed-at Insolvent debt in all cases. As well might we argue, Laws, could not in such a case be longer than that the fire-arms which are perhaps cruelly for a few days, will be spared him. As to the used for the purposes of sporting, should be system being a failure in punishing the debtor, destroyed, without considering their utility the Insolvent Laws will at present punish him against an enemy; and I also think that it if fraud can be instanced; and if there be no might be observed, with truth, that the ob-fraud, I am sure that Ambulator, in his great stinacy of the persons instanced as examples, humanity, would not wish the debtor to be the one a debtor of 5d., and the other a punished. debtor of 18d., rendered them deserving of A principal objection to the proposed plan punishment, as it cannot be conceived that is, that it will destroy the public credit; and on either of them could be so wretchedly poor as this point Ambulator only for a moment opennot to be able to raise those sums; and thated the book of wisdom, and hastily closed it, they were justly and honestly due, cannot be disputed, or the law would not have compelled them to pay the amount.

After having brought forward all this load of proof, which we have just examined, and overset all opinions unfavorable to his plan, Ambulator coolly sits down congratulating himself on having fully proved these two principles as to the inefficacy of the law; 1st, as it respects the recovery of debts; and 2dly, as it respects the punishment of the debtor; and then deliberates whether he will be pleased to remove the Solicitor General from his difficulties and embarrassments, or bring forward his own plan, and oust him entirely from the field. Ambulator lastly just dips into the question of public credit; and after recommending every tradesman to enquire into the circumstances of the person who desires to be trusted, he at once settles the question by the announcement that "my bill embraces a provision for this point."

Now for the consideration of the principles which Ambulator flatters himself he has proved,

by referring to his own plan. That the alteration of the present system would so check the wheels of commerce, that ruin must inevitably follow, is obvious, as the tradesman before he vended his goods would not only have to make enquiries to satisfy himself as to the then stability of his proposed customer, but he must also be confident that his credit and integrity will endure till his debt is discharged.

As the present system is approved of by the parties most concerned in its operation, and as the sense of the nation is in favor of its continuance, I will not at present go more deeply into the question; for under these circumstances the onus of proving that an alteration is required, lies on the advocates of the alteration; and until some shadow of a case is brought forward, I should be uselessly occupying your pages in more widely discussing it.

I am aware A. B. has undertaken to discuss the question with Ambulator; but as the challenge was given generally, I beg, as the latter would say, "to contribute my mite." C. D.

List of Public General Statutes.