The Law of Attorneys, No. XIII. effects to the defendant, in trust for the benefit of his creditors, and by the plaintiff's advice the defendant replevied. The goods remained in the possession of the defendant three weeks; they were advertised for sale, and the plaintiff paid for the printing and posting of the hand bills. The plaintiff did not deliver any signed bill to the defendant before action brought. | After action brought, he delivered a bill of particulars, which contained, after various charges for preparing the assignment and attesting the execution of it, and one for printing and posting hand bills, the following items: : £. s. d. 265 and sworn as therein mentioned. That clause is confined to the Courts therein mentioned; but section 23 enacts, "that no attorney of any of the Courts aforesaid shall commence any action or suit for the recovery of any fees, charges, or disbursements at law or in equity, until the expiration of one month or more after the delivery of a bill, &c.” That section is not confined to business done in the Courts mentioned in the first section; but extends to all fees, charges, &c., either at law or in equity. It has been held to apply to proceedings at Quarter Sessions. a One question here is, whether fees for business done in the County Court are to be considered fees, charges, &c. at law," recoverable by an attorney of any of the Courts aforesaid," within the statute? My brother Patteson has referred to the 12 G. 2. c. 13. § 7, which subjects to a 0 6 8 penalty any person who shall commence or defend any action, &c., in the Court called the County Court, who is not legally admitted an attorney according to the 2 G. 2. c. 23. § 1. Then, coupling the two enactments together, an attorney who practises in the County Court must be an attorney of one of the Courts referred to in the 2 G. 2. c. 23. § 23; and an attorney seeking to recover for business done in that Court must deliver, his bill one month before he commences an action. 0 3 4 0 68 034 0 7 6 4 050 0 3 4 - 0 13 4 0 6 8 It was contended for the defendant, that the charge for attesting the bond conditioned to prosecute the suit in replevin, was a charge for business done at law, and therefore was a taxable item; that, one item being taxable, they all were so; and, consequently, that a bill ought to have been delivered; and, for want of such delivery, the plaintiff was not entitled to recover. The learned Judge was of opinion, that there was no taxable item in the bill, and directed the jury to find for the plaintiff, if they thought he gave credit to the defendant, and not to Barrow. The jury found for the plaintiff for the amount of the bill, 137. Ss. A rule nisi was obtained for entering a nonsuit; and on the motion absolute Littledale, J. said, the rule for entering a nonsuit must be made absolute. The 2 G. 2. c. 23. § 1, enacts, that no person shall be permitted to act as an attorney in the Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer, or Duchy of Lancaster, or in any of his Majesty's Courts of Great Sessions in Wales, or in any of the Courts of the county palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham, or in any other Court of Record in England wherein Then, was any business done in the County Court so as to make the bill taxable? The first charge is "The landlord having distrained illegally, attending you, when it was agreed upon to replevy, and attending for notice of distress." Then, 66 attending Mr. Heeles, and giving instructions," that probably was to enter a plaint. Then "attending and attesting bond." Then follows a charge, 66 attending at the delivery of the goods." Now, according to the statute of Marlbridge (52 H. 3. c. 213, before the goods are delivered a plaint must be entered. Here, then, the replevin suit must have been commenced, for otherwise the goods would not have been delivered; and this being so, I have no doubt these are charges for business done at law, requiring the delivery of a bill. Taunton and Patteson, JJ., concurred. This case seems to have gone further than any former one in deciding that where the bill is liable to taxation, it must be delivered signed one month before the commencement of an action. It has been already stated, p. 164, that on the authority of former cases, executors and administrators are not liable to deliver a signed bill, though it may be liable to taxation. 1 Barnard. 433; Andr. 276; a The case referred to (4 T. R. 496) related attorneys have been accustomably admitted to the question of Tuxation, not of delivering and sworn, unless he shall have been admitted a Signed Bill.—ED. Cas. Pr. C. P., 58; Barnes, 119, 122. And so, an agency bill, though taxable, need not be delivered signed. Sandys v. Hornby, 2 M. & M. 33; 4 Car. & P. 520; 1 L. O. 236. In the above case of Wardle v. Nicholson, Mr. Justice Littledale appears, by citing the case in 4 T. R. 469, to have founded his judgment on the liability of taxation, carrying with it the necessity of a signed bill before action;-a doctrine not only not previously acknowledged, but at variance with the cases just referred to, and which seems here to have been only incidently laid down. In the leading recent case, quoted fully at p. 164, Lord Tenterden gave the judgment, and Mr. Justice James Parke concurred. The point, therefore, which is an important one, will probably undergo further discussion. LEGAL OBITUARY FOR 1833. JANUARY. Sir William Oldnall Russell, Knt., Chief Justice of Bengal. He was called to the bar in Trinity Term, 1809, became Serjeant at Law in Trinity Term, 1827, and was appointed Chief Justice of Bengal in January, 1832. Sir W. O. Russell was advantageously known to the profession as the author of a Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors. Samuel William Nicoll, Esq., formerly Recorder of York, and of Doncaster. FEBRUARY. was returned for the now disfranchised borough of Aldborough, in Yorkshire. Charles Venner, Esq., a conveyancing barrister. MAY. William Hood, Esq., aged 90, senior bencher of the Inner Temple. Mr. Henry Wood Roby, of Tamworth, solicitor. Sir George Francis Hampson, Bart., aged 43, barrister. He was one of the Metropoliton Commissioners of Lunacy, and Receiver General of the Droits of the Admiralty. Sir G. Hampson was the author of a Treatise on the Duties and Responsibilities of Trustees. John James Park, Esq., Professor of Law and Jurisprudence at King's College, London, and LL.D. of the University of Gottingen. Mr. Park was the author of a Topographical History of Hampstead; a Treatise on the Law of Dower; A Contre-Projet to the Humphreysian Code, and several other works. He was Richard Price, Esq., barrister. known in the literary world as the editor of Warton's Poetical History. JUNE. Mr. Henry Pearson, of Carlisle, solicitor. JULY. George William Salmon, Esq., barrister. Mr. John Foot, solicitor, Town Clerk of Poole, in Dorsetshire. Mr. John Roberts, of Ely Place, solicitor. N. G. Clarke, Esq., K. C., aged 70. He was the late Chief Justice of the Brecon Circuit. Mr. Frederick Campbell, of Beverley, in Yorkshire, solicitor. AUGUST. John Nicoll, Esq., aged 64, a bencher of the the Middle Temple. He was for some years Middle Temple. John Springett Harvey, Esq., a bencher of Accountant General to the Court of Chancery, from which office he retired in June, 1831. Mr. Henry Bateman, of Lincoln's Inn, solicitor, aged 67. George Daniell, Esq., a bencher of the Middle Temple. Mr. Richard Furden, of Great James Street, solicitor. SEPTEMBER. Mr. Frederick William Carter, solicitor, Vestry Clerk of St. Saviour's Southwark, aged 45. Mr. Richard E. N. Lee, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, solicitor. John Balguy, Esq., aged 81, a bencher of the Middle Temple. In 1808, he was apCam-pointed Puisne Judge on the Carmarthen cir Sir Christopher Robinson, Knt., aged 67, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. William Walton, Esq., K. C., aged 76, Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster. C. J. F. Clinton, Esq., aged 40, Recorder of Newark. In the three last Parliaments he cuit, in which office he continued upwards of twenty years. He was for some time Recorder of the town of Derby. Charles James Swann, Esq., barrister. On the first appointment of the Real Property Commissioners, Mr. Swann was elected their His talents and industry were of essential service to the Commissioners in collecting evidence, and afterwards framing their secretary. Legal Chronology for 1833. reports. He continued to discharge the important duties of the office till within a twelveinonth of his death, when ill health compelled him to resign. James Losh, Esq., aged 70, Recorder of Newcastle. 267 Mr. James Byrne, of Cook's Court, Carey Street, solicitor. Mr. Richard Edwards, of Castle Street, Holborn, solicitor. Mr. Robert Lys, of Took's Court, solicitor. Mr. Stratford Robinson, of Jermyn Street, solicitor. LEGAL CHRONOLOGY FOR THE YEAR 1833. HILARY TERM. Mr. Joseph Haslewood, of Conduit Street, solicitor. Mr. Haslewood's fondness for bibliography led him to the formation of a considerable library of black letter lore and poetry of the Elizabethan age. He made also a very extensive collection of books on Angling, Hawking, and Field Sports. He was one of the founders of the Roxburghe Club, and has left behind him a curious MS. volume, which exhibits the rise and progress of that association, and particularly records its annual festivities. This MS. is entitled "The Roxburghe Revels," and at the late sale of Mr. Hasle- An Inquiry directed to be made by the Comwood's books, was purchased by the proprie-mon Law Commissioners into the course of tors of the Athenæum, who are now amusing proceedings before the benchers and visitors of the literary world by its publication in de- the Inns of Court, on applications by persons tached portions. to become students, or to be called to the Bar. Mr. Thomas Farer, solicitor. This gentleman was at the head of the highly respectable firm of Farrers, Atkinson, and Parkinson, of Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was formerly principal Secretary to Lord Chancellor Eldon, and also a Commissioner of Bankrupts. Mr. James Farquhar, of Doctors' Commons, proctor. OCTOBER. Arthur Onslow, Esq., a King's Serjeant. J. H. Roe, Esq., Recorder of Macclesfield, to which office he was elected in 1804, after a contest with Mr Abercromby, one of the present members for Edinburgh, and late Chief Baron of Scotland. Mr. Francis Henry Hunter, of New Inn, solicitor. NOVEMBER. Mr. William Gray, of Exeter, solicitor and proctor. He was for many years Deputy Registrar of the Consistory Court in that city. Mr. William Robinson, of Austin Friars, solicitor. DECEMBER. Warcop Consett, Esq., senior bencher of Gray's Inn. William Welch, Esq., a bencher of the Inner Temple. Mr. Thomas Blackstock, of Serjeant's Inn, solicitor. January-Reduction of Remanet Fees in the Court of King's Bench, from term to term, instead of sitting to sitting. The Sheriffs' Court, London, thrown open to the attorneys of the Superior Courts at Westminster, who may apply to be admitted. New Rule of the Common Law Courts under the Uniformity of Process Act, as to ruling the Sheriff to bring in the Body of the Defendant. Mr. Talfourd called to the degree of Serjeant at Law. A man was convicted at the Manchester Sessions for stealing his own property. See 5 L. (. 274. February.-Parliament assembled. The Solicitor-General gave notice of the Real Property Bills. Mr. Wason gave notice of a Bill to remove the Suffolk Summer Assizes to Ipswich, and Mr Ewart of the Lancaster Assizes to Liverpool and Manchester. Mr. Ewart gave notice of the Prisoners' Counsel Bill. Mr. Godson gave notice of the Patents for Inventions Bill. Sir F. Vincent gave notice of a Bill to amend the Law of Libel. The Lunatic Commissions Bill introduced. Mr. Wilks renewed his notice for a Select Committee on Parish Registries. 26.-A Petition was presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Tooke, from the Incor Mr. Christopher Beverley, of Verulam Build-porated Law Society, regarding the inconveings, Gray's Inn, solicitor." We have not been able to ascertain the months in which the under-mentioned gentlemen died: Thomas Caldecott, Esq., aged 90, a bencher of the Middle Temple. Thomas Pemberton, Esq., aged 70, barrister. P. C. Ainslie, Esq., a bencher of the Middle Temple. W. A. Wheatley, Esq., barrister. nient state of the Judges' Chambers. March.-A Return ordered of the Suitors' Fund in Chancery. The Highways Bill was brought in. Announcement of establishing Lectures at the Incorporated Law Society. Lord Wynford introduced his Bill to prevent the expense and delay of suits in the Common Law Courts. 7. The Lord Chancellor introduced the Law Amendment Bill. Mr. Vivian gave notice of a Bill to remove Cardiff to Swansea. Robert Martin Leake, Esq., aged 83, Master the Summer Assizes of Glamorganshire from of the Report Office. 268 Legal Chronology.-Parochial Registration. A Return ordered of the Fees and Emolu- | next sessions: Chancery Court of Appeal, Municipal Corporations, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Parochial Registration, Law of Libel, Prisoners' Counsel, Imprisonment for Debt, Tithes Commutation. ments of Clerks of the Peace and Clerks of Assize. 12.-Notice by Mr. Lennard to alter the Game Laws. The Dramatic Literary Property and Performances Bills were brought in Notice by Mr. Tooke for a Select Committee on the Real Property Bills. Mr. John Romilly gave notice of a Bill to render real estates liable for all debts. Notice of motion by Mr. William Brougham to bring in the General Registry Bill. Mr. Ewart gave notice of a Bill to amend the Law as to Burglary, and diminishing punishments. Mr. F. Palmer gave notice of the Sheriffs' Regulation Bill. The Sewers Bill was read a first time. 28. The Local Courts Bill introduced by the Lord Chancellor. His Lordship also introduced the Privy Council Appeal Bill. EASTER TERM. April.-The Chancery Regulation Bill was brought in. The Solicitor-General gave notice of his Bill STATE OF THE LAW IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES, "touching" Imprisonment for Debt, and the Law of Debtor and Creditor. Lord Wynford's Bill was negatived. TRINITY TERM. May 24.-New Rules of the Common Law Courts as to declaring against prisoners, and pleas by them. Notice of Inquiry into the Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Courts. Mr. Pollock gave notice of the Inclosure Act Titles Bill. June 10.-Dramatic Literary Property Act passed. 17.-Debate on the Local Courts Bill. 18.-Metropolitan Police Act passed. The General Register Bill negatived. 28. The Sewers Act passed. July 10.—The Local Courts Bill negatived. 11. Intended Lectures in the Inner Temple announced. A Commission issued for an Inquiry into the Municipal Corporations of England. 24. The Limitation of Real Actions and the Lunatic Commissions Acts passed. August.-Stay of Tithes Suits Bill brought AND THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE. In a recent number, p. 195, we quoted the Re port of the Committee of the House of Commons on the state of the law in this country, on the subject of parochial registration of baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The Committee also collected facts and opinions as to the excellence and defects of the laws, their practical operation, their merits when compared with foreign countries, the necessity and advantages of an improved and general registration, and the means of attaining that end. To procure and supply such information, they have examined witnesses in different situations, and they refer to the valuable testimony received from clergymen of the established church-from gentlemen of the legal profession-from authors devoted to antiquarian researches-from persons of different religious denominations, including Catholics, Dissenters, Jews, Quakers, Methodists, and parish clerks from gentlemen eminently scientific, and attached to statistical inquiries-from medical authorities, who have long desired ampler and more accurate information on the extent and causes of mortality-and from an eminent foreigner, distinguished for extensive and accu28.-The following acts were passed: Bank-rate statistical intelligence; and others whose ruptcy Court Judges, Uniformity of Process Amendment, Public Notaries, Holding Assizes, Abolition of Fines and Recoveries, Chancery Offices, Inclosure Award Titles. in. The Curtesy Bill withdrawn. 14.-The following acts were passed: Privy Council Appeals, Law Amendment. The following Bills were postponed till the wide-spreading inquiries in foreign countries, and peculiar facilities of information, entitled them to respect. From these witnesses they have obtained the forms of the registration of baptisms and burials used by English Catho Parochial Registration. lics of birth, marriage, and interment by the Jews, and the Society of Quakers- of birth used by Protestant Dissenters at Dr Williams's General Register of Births-and of birth and baptism which the Wesleyan Methodists adopt; on the present forms, Mr. Black, Mr. Burn, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Edgar Taylor, have suggested, and which are annexed to the Report. 269 who are simply tolerated," on the declaration of the parties or their ministers, and to include these declarations in his annual returns. In baptismal registers the day and hour of birth is introduced; in registers of marriages, the names of the fathers of the bridegroom and the bride; and in registers of deaths, its day and hour, the age of the deceased, the disease and cause of death, and the names of the heirs, if known, also appear. The entry is required to be immediate after a ceremony is performed or notified: it is to be neatly and legibly written; the dates are to be expressed in letters; a duplicate is to be made, and at the end of each year is to be deposited, when examined and verified, in the local civil court, being "the tribunal of the place." By the prompt and obliging assistance of the Foreign Office, they have, too, obtained accounts (also annexed) of the formulæ or laws as to registration existing in Austria, in Belgium, at Berne, in France, at Geneva, in Prussia, and in Spain. In Spain the forms are superior to our own; as the native places of persons married, and the names of their parents, are inserted in registries of marriages; Many of the regulations in all these counand in registers of baptisms the native places of tries are excellent and imitable, but the law both parents, and the names and birth-places and practice in France may be justly preferred, of the paternal grandfather and mother, are also introduced in Les Cinq Codes of Napoleon. introduced. An alphabetical index to each The regulations as to marriages, births, and book is also prepared. At Berne, the time of deaths are included in Le Code Civil, liv. 1, and the birth of the child, the maiden name of the the details and operation appear in the appenmother, and the marriage-place of the parents dix to the report, as to Geneva and France, appear in the baptismal register, and the maiden and in the testimonies of Dr. Bowring, Mr. name of the female appears in the registers of Finlaison, and Mr. Adolphe Quetelet. These deaths. In Austria, though the Catholic clergy regulations record marriages as civil arrangeexercise the functions of registrars, they insert ments, and treat the registers of births and equally and indiscriminately the names of the deaths as a purely civil affair. They do not Protestant inhabitants with those of the Catho- prescribe nor interfere with any religious cerelics, and in the tables columns are arranged monies or observances of the Catholics or Profor the entry whether the parties are of the testants on the celebration of marriages, or on Catholic or Protestant faith. There the accu-baptisms or interments, and allow the most rate keeping of the registers is deemed very perfect religious choice to every member of important, and the regulations are strict and the State; but they require as to births, that minute. The registers are of births. Midwives within three days every child should be proand accoucheurs are to notify the event to theduced to the registrar or civil officer of the registrar under legal penalties, and a forfeiture parish or commune, and that an entry be of the right to exercise their profession. The made-as to marriage, that the place of celemaiden name of the mother is inserted; and bration, the names of the parties, and their in the register of mortality the date of death, respective parents, should be expressed; and the age of the deceased, and the malady and as to deaths, that no interments take place mode of death, are also set forth, and there is without previous notice to the registrar or civil either an inspection of the dead, or the physi- officer of the parish or commune, and a writcians in ordinary and local surgeons are bound ten authority from him, after he shall have reto inform the minister in writing, of the dis- corded (on testimony of two witnesses, being temper of each patient whom they have at- the nearest friends or relations of the deceased) tended. Bishops, on visitations, are obliged to his name, age, profession, and abode; the require the production of the registers, and day, hour, and place of his death; the names provincial authorities to ascertain that they are of his wife; and also, if possible, the names of duly kept; and at the conclusion of each year his parents, and the place of his birth. These the registrar is to extract an annual list from registers are compulsory and universal. They each register, divided in columns and in regu- are kept by a civil officer in every commune, lar forms, and to transmit the same to the of which there are 40,000 in France. Their Office of Conscriptions, and to the Office of the accuracy and regularity are most carefully Circle, and which last is similar to our Ses-assured. Duplicates are kept and closed at sional Court, and to the Office of the Depart- the end of each year with formalities that premental Prefect in France. In Prussia, except clude interpolation. Tabular alphabetical inthe Rhenish provinces, the custody of the re-dexes are annually formed. One copy of the gisters is confided officially to the clergyman of the parish, among Christians, and to the elders among the Jews; and there are correctional, and even criminal penalties imposed on these registrars for neglect, or for fraudulent subtraction or forgery. But though the parochial clergyman be appointed, it is his duty to enter the births, marriages, and deaths, of persons who are not of the established church, but duplicates and indexes remains in the records of the parish or commune, and the other is transmitted to the tribunal of the district, where it is examined, and placed under the superintendence of the Procureur du Roi, or the local officer of the Crown. From all these local documents another complete alphabetical index, and a quinquennial or decennial analysis are made; and statistical documents result to |