Joint-Stock Company Mania-“ Executor and Trustee Society." 23 and it is anticipated that the opposition will on the validity of testamentary papers, on the equally fail in the House of Lords. We construction of wills, on the proof of the claims are aware that the opposition of lawyers is of persons who seek to be treated as persons not much regarded, and we are not prepared interested in their administration, nor on the to explain how it was that the resistance these, and many other subjects of the same relative rights of creditors and legatees. All was so unsuccessful, except that by grafting kind, must remain as at present subject to upon a private Bill these important altera- contentious litigation in our various Courts." tions in the general law, the promoters of the measure dexterously prevented that discussion which a public Bill would have undergone. The mode of proceeding at the time of private business, that is from four to five o'clock, is well described in Dickens's "Household Words." It was certainly not imputed to the projectors of these wholesale Trust Societies, that they sought a monopoly of the whole law business on both sides of every question, representing alike plaintiffs and defendants, and pocketing the costs of all parties. The objections raised are directed against the "A good many members are collected, talk-measure,-1st. Because it alters the general ing and laughing in unreproved disorder: no attention whatever is paid to what is going on; not a syllable can be, or is meant to be, heard, except the following formula repeated over and over again. The Speaker standing up, calls 6 'Mr. Brotherton! Mr. Brotherton answers, In addition to these difficulties of discussing a private Bill, it happened that on reading the South Sea Trust Bill, the House was on the tip-toe of expectation for a message from the Crown, declaring war with Russia. It is supposed that the objections stated by the opposers of these Trust Bills, which were partly expressed by Mr. Malins, Mr. Spencer Follett, and Mr. Mullings, originated in the anticipated injury which would be inflicted on the Profession, by the transfer of legal business connected with trusts from the counsel and solicitors now engaged in it, to the counsel and solicitors of these companies. The learned writer in the Law Review consoles "the solicitors of England" by stating that "The Bill does not propose to vest in the company the power authoritatively to decide law by the side-wind of a private Bill, evading the proper discussion of its scope. 2nd. Because it limits the liability of the Trust Company. 3rd. Because it indemnifies trustees for a breach of trust, and exacts a profit not allowed by the terms of the will or settlement. It is unnecessary, however to repudiate the right which the solicitors in general possess, to protect their own just interests; and if they are convinced, as we believe they sincerely are, that these Bills, whilst they are injurious rather than beneficial to their clients, will be prejudicial to themselves, why should they not, like all other classes of the community, resist such novel expedients, designed for the advantage of a few to the injury of many? The Law Review admits that "If the company proposed to engross all the law business which must necessarily be performed, and to monopolise it for the benefit of certain solicitors appointed by itself, there would be some ground of complaint. But this is exactly what the company expressly declares it does not intend to do. Where the testator, or settlor, or the parties interested, shall desire any particular solicitors to perform the law business, they will be employed in preference to any one else." We can find no such provision in the Bill, but presume there is some attractive prospectus, in which these liberal provisions their own solicitors should be already enare contained. It is also intimated, that if cumbered with demands on their time, "such solicitors among the shareholders tions in the Profession for skill, ability, and will be selected as have the fairest reputaintegrity." This is ingeniously devised, and we leave our readers to estimate the boon at so much as it is worth. In order to participate in the overflow of business from the office of the company's solicitors, they must become shareholders! A BILL has just been brought in by Mr. Aglionby to "Alter the Time and Mode of taking the Pleas of Persons charged with Larceny, and for the Improvement of Criminal Procedure in cases of Larceny." It recites that the time and mode of taking the pleas of persons charged with larceny should be altered, whereby much expense to the public, and the time of grand jurors, prosecutors, and witnesses, would be saved, and in many cases unnecessarily long imprisonment be spared to persons so charged. The following are the proposed enactments: When any person shall be arrested on any charge of larceny or suspicion thereof, such charge shall be made in open Court, either before one stipendiary police magistrate, or in open sessions, or in special sessions, and such stipendiary police magistrate or justice or justices shall cause the charge to be taken in writing, and entered in a book to be kept for that purpose by the clerk to such stipendiary police magistrate or justices in petty sessions, in the form set out in the Bill; s. 1. shall be taken and proceedings had as heretofore before one stipendiary police magistrate or one or more justices of the peace; s. 3. Pleas of "Guilty" to be returned to assize or quarter sessions; s. 4. Clerks of assize and clerks of the peace to file pleas, &c.; s. 5. As to trifling cases. In all cases of pleas of stances of aggravation; that is to say, where it Guilty" to charges unattended with circumshall not be proved that the person so pleading " Guilty" had been previously convicted of felony, or he shall not admit himself to have been so convicted, or in cases of larceny of money or chattels where the amount or value of the money or chattels stolen shall not be proved to be of the value of 51. or upwards, or where the larceny shall not be proved to have been from the person, or attended with the breaking of any lock or fastening, or from a dwelling-house or curtilage, or by a servant, it shall be lawful for such stipendiary police magistrate, or such justices in petty sessions as aforesaid, before whom any such plea of guilty shall be taken, and they are hereby authorised and required, in open Court, to pass sentence upon the person so pleading "Guilty" as aforesaid: Provided always, that such sentence shall in no case exceed the term of two calenTaking plea. After any person so charged dar months' imprisonment, and may be with as aforesaid shall have heard the charge read or without hard labour as to the said stito him, and also the depositions of the wit-pendiary police magistrate or justices shall nesses to the facts and circumstances of the seem meet; s. 6. case, and the stipendiary police magistrate or justice or justices shall think the evidence given before him or them to be such as to raise a strong presumption of guilt, such stipendiary police magistrate, in open Court, or two justices at the least in open petty sessions, shall call upon the person charged to plead to such charge, and shall at the same time caution him as to the nature and effect of his plea, which caution shall be in these words, or words to the like effect: Returns to be made to Secretary of State; s. 7. Costs. With regard to the payment of the costs and expenses of prosecutions for larceny, in those cases where the party charged shall plead Guilty," and such stipendiary police magistrate or justices shall return the pleas to the assize or quarter session, or shall pass sentence as herein before is directed, such stipendiary police magistrate or justices are hereby authorised and empowered, at the request "You have heard the charge against you, shall appear on summons to prosecute or give of the prosecutor, or of any other person who and the depositions of the witnesses; you are evidence against any person so charged with now called upon to plead to such charge; you larceny, to order payment unto the prosecutor are not bound to say anything beyond your and witnesses of such sums of money as to the plea, unless you desire to do so, but what you Court shall seem reasonable and sufficient to do say will be taken down in writing, and may reimburse such prosecutor and witnesses for be produced on your trial: If you plead the expenses they shall have severally incurred Guilty, you must not do so under any expec-in apprehending the person charged, in attendtation of favour for so doing, but your plea ing before the examining magistrate or justices, will be taken, and a conviction filed against and in otherwise carrying on such prosecution, you, which will have the same effect as if you were convicted by a jury." And thereupon the said stipendiary police magistrate or justices shall and they are hereby authorised to receive and take the plea of the person so charged as aforesaid, which they shall enter or cause to be entered at the foot of the charge so to be entered in the book of charges hereby required to be kept as aforesaid; s. 2. In all cases where the person charged as aforesaid shall plead "Not Guilty," or shall refuse to plead, the depositions of the witnesses and also to compensate them for their trouble and loss of time therein, and also a sum not exceeding 10s. to be paid to the clerk of assize or clerk of the peace on filing each plea of "Guilty" as shall be returned to him for that purpose, and for recording a conviction thereon, in lieu of all former fees which would have been received by the clerk of assize or clerk of the peace in such cases; and all such costs and expenses shall be paid by the treasurer of the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place, upon the order in writing of such stipendiary police magistrate or justices as afore s. 8. Witnesses' Bill.-The Site of the New Courts of Law. said, out of the funds from which the costs of criminal prosecutions are now defrayed; Clerks to justices.-No clerk to the justices in petty sessions shall, either by himself, or by his partner, clerk, or agent be engaged in the prosecution or defence of any criminal case at any assize or quarter sessions where such case shall have been sent from the petty sessional division for which such clerk shall act; s. 9. WITNESSES' BILL. GREAT inconvenience arises in the administration of justice from the want of a power in the Superior Courts of Law to compel the attendance of witnesses resident in one part of the United Kingdom at a trial in another part, and the examination of such witnesses by Commissioners is not in all cases a sufficient remedy for such inconvenience: It is therefore proposed to enact as follows: 25 at Edinburgh, or in case such service was had in Ireland to any of her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Dublin; and the Court to which such certificate is so sent shall and may thereupon proceed against and punish the person so having made default in like manner as they might have done if such person had neglected or refused to appear in obedience to a writ of subpoena or other process issued out of such last-mentioned Court. 4. Nothing herein contained shall alter or affect the power of any of such Courts to issue a commission for the examination of witnesses out of their jurisdiction, in any case in which, notwithstanding this Act, they shall think fit to issue such commission. 5. Nothing herein contained shall alter or affect the admissibility of any evidence at any trial where such evidence is now by law receiv able, on the ground of any witness being bemissibility of all such evidence shall be deteryond the jurisdiction of the Court, but the admined as if this Act had not passed. THE SITE OF THE NEW COURTS OF LAW. AN able Letter from Dr. Walter Lewis, the Medical Superintendent of the Medical Board of Health, addressed to the General Board of Health, appeared in the Morning Chronicle of the 4th instant, accompanied 1. If, in any action or suit now or at any time hereafter depending in any of her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster or Dublin, or the Court of Session or Exchequer in Scotland, it shall appear to the Court in which such action is pending, or, if such Court is not sitting, to any Judge of any of the said Courts respectively, that it is proper to compel the personal attendance at any time of any witness who may not be with- by a Letter from Professor Owen, relating in the jurisdiction of the Court in which such to the proposed Building of the New Courts action is pending, it shall be lawful for such on the interior of Lincoln's Inn Fields. Court or Judge, if in his or their discretion it shall so seem fit, to order that a writ called a writ of subpoena ad testificandum or of subpæna duces tecum or warrant of citation shall issue in special form, commanding such witness to attend such trial wherever he shall be within the United Kingdom, and the service of any such writ or process in any part of the United Kingdom shall be as valid and effectual to all intents and purposes as if the same had been served within the jurisdiction of the Court from which it issues. 2. Every such writ shall have at foot thereof a statement or notice that the same is issued by the special order of the Court or Judge, as the case may be; and no such writ shall issue without such special order. From these important documents, we shall submit some extracts to the consideration of our readers. Dr. Lewis thus commences his letter : "As a scheme has lately been under public notice for erecting new Law Courts in Lincoln's Inn Fields, I deem it my duty to lay before your honourable Board some account of the sanitary condition of the neighbourhood of that open space, in order that the proposal may not be adopted in ignorance of its probable effects upon the health of a considerable population in the heart of the metropolis. The general sanitary condition of the neighbourhood may be described very briefly. The square in question is situated in one of the most crowded 3. In case any person so served shall not ap-districts in London, consisting in a great meapear according to the exigency of such writ or process, it shall be lawful for the Court out of which the same issued, upon proof made of the service thereof, and of such default to the satisfaction of the said Court, to transmit a certificate of such default under the seal of the same Court, or under the hand of one of the Judges or Justices of the same, to any of her Majesty's Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, in case such service was had in England, or in case such service was had in Scotland to the Court of Session or Exchequer sure of courts and alleys, which contain a population many times larger than the laws of health ever permit with impunity. These courts and alleys, also, are narrow, confined, and unventilated, and the houses, consisting generally of six rooms, are utterly destitute of every sanitary requirement. With this preliminary observation, I proceed to lay before you a description of a few of the localities which I recently inspected in company with Mr. Lovatt, the district medical officer, Mr. Cadogan and Mr. Heraud, the inspectors of 26 The Site of the New Courts of Law. pavements, premising only that the number of the health and lives of the surrounding inmates of the different houses is, I believe, in population." most cases understated, as many of the occupiers, particularly the Irish, take in lodgers without the knowledge of their landlords, and cannot be prevailed upon to state truly the extent to which they carry the system of subletting." Dr. Lewis then proceeds to describe the various courts, alleys, and passages in the Liberty of the Rolls, and St. Clement Danes, occupying the east and south sides of Lincoln's Inn, and particularly the site lying between Carey Street and the Strand, on which the New Courts and Offices are proposed by the Incorporated Law Society to be erected. Within this dense region are numerous places of which we never before heard such as Bowl and Pin Alley, Kingsbury Place, Bonds' Buildings, Swan Court, Lee's Buildings, Bailey's Court, Ship Yard, Yates' Court, Gilbert Street, Plough, Bennett's, and Nagshead Courts, with divers others, of which we have occasionally heard complaints of various kinds. The statement specifies the length and breadth of these blocks of houses and the number of the inhabitants crowded within them. For instance, ten houses with 106 occupants; six with 96 persons; twentythree with 342 tenants; and many single small houses filled with upwards of 30 persons. This testimony of Dr. Lewis is supported by the following opinion of Professor Owen, given in a letter addressed to Dr. Lewis : "When the proposition to offer the site of Lincoln's Inn Fields to the Government for the purpose of erecting 'Law Courts' in the garof the square, I opposed the motion, on the dens, was mooted at a meeting of the trustees grounds "1. That the preservation of so extensive an open space in the centre of London was of much importance to the health, comfort, and convenience of the densely populated neighbourhood of the square, the sanitary ground urged in the Act of Parliament incorporating the trustees for the purpose amongst others of preventing additional buildings in the said fields," being still more urgent now than it was upwards of a century ago. 66 "2. That chemical science has since shown that a place well planted with trees and shrubs, like the gardens in Lincoln's Inn Fields, is directly operative in the warmer months of the year, when the leaves are out, in absorbing deleterious gases and giving out vitalizing gas (oxygen), and that the wilful destruction of so many well-grown trees would be a barbarous and ignorant direct deterioration of the healthsustaining influences already too sparingly developed in London. "3. That the giving up of the open planted space in Lincoln's Inn Fields would also indirectly operate in deteriorating the healthy state of London, by rendering unnecessary the clearvicinity, on the score of obtaining space near ing away of old overcrowded dwellings in the the present Inns of Court for the proposed new Law Courts; and, 66 The Medical Superintendent states, that "Not one of these places has a sufficient circulation of air. Instead of having the minimum width sanctioned by the laws of health, of thirty or forty feet, they generally 4. That the only intelligible ground for vary in breadth from six to twelve feet. Fur- the proposition, candidly set forth by one of the ther, many of them are not merely narrow, trustees, a proprietor of property in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but not a resident-viz., the augbut they do not possess the advantage of mentation in the value of such property, and leading into principal streets. They are in the prevention of the deterioration of such many instances but the offshoots, as it value, as a consequence of the Law Courts ocwere, of other narrow courts, which again cupying the site of the present gardens in the are sometimes but intermediately con- square-was one which the increased and innected, by means of other courts, with creasing sense of public morality would scout; open thoroughfares. Under such circum- and I concluded by expressing my conviction stance, pure air does not easily reach the that let the majority in favour of the proposition be what it might, the trustees would only densely peopled houses, which so much require it; but, beyond question, the supply, opinion, as at present enlightened on the nastultify themselves in carrying it, for public defective as it is, is much greater than it ture and importance of preventive sanitary would be if the large open space in the measures, would never permit such a proposineighbourhood where the air now circulates tion as covering Lincoln's Inn Fields with without impediment were covered with smoke-emitting buildings, obstructive of free buildings. In a sanitary point of view, ventilation, to be carried into effect. The moLincoln's Inn Fields is a great reservoir, tion, nevertheless, was carried by a majority of from which the miserable localities I have trustees, holders of property, but not resident in Lincoln's Inn Fields; and the same result described derive their stunted supply of took place at the meeting of freeholders and atmospheric air, and in my opinion that leaseholders of Lincoln's Inn Fields, held afterreservoir cannot be filled up or encroached wards at the Freemasons' Tavern, the nonupon without disastrous consequences to resident freeholders being the majority."" Mortmain Bill.-Review: Hamel on the Laws of the Customs. Dr. Lewis thus concludes :— "If a site should be required for the erection of Law Courts in the neighbourhood in question, I would suggest that that portion of the parish of St. Clements Danes that is now covered with the close, overcrowded courts and alleys above-described should be selected in preference to the square which is now offered for that purpose. When cleared of its present unhealthy tenements, the site in question would, from its immediate contiguity to the Temple, as well as to Lincoln's Inn, be much more convenient to the two great branches of the Bar, and consequently to the Public; and the removal of the Law Courts, instead of injuring the neighbourhood in which they would be established, would be productive of vast benefit to the entire metropolis, by sweeping away one of the worst hotbeds of disease within its limits." MORTMAIN BILL. THE following provisions in the Mortmain Bill require the attention of solicitors in the preparation of wills, and especially those who may be concerned for Charitable Institutions:By the 13th section of this Bill, it is proposed to enact, that "it shall be lawful for person to bequeath any description of personal estate to any charitable purpose, subject to the following conditions; any "That the will shall be duly executed and attested three months before the death of the testator, and that within one month after the date or execution thereof, a notice signed by the testator of the amount so given, and the nature of the trust to which it is given, shall be delivered to the Charity Commissioners; "Provided always, that if the will is executed by any person not at the time within Great Britain or Ireland, it shall be sufficient if the notice above required be sent by the post to the said Charity Commissioners within the period of one month from the date of the execution of the will." 27 dation than was effected by the two enactments relating to the Customs, passed in the Session of 1853. Before the execution of this arduous and important task, the law upon the subject had to be looked for through a complicated wilderness of no less than twenty separate Statutes. This was a grievance of the greatest possible public inconvenience, but peculiarly oppressive on that commercial community who are interested in an acquaintance with the obligations of Revenue Law. It was so felt by the Solicitor of Customs; and with the cordial concurrence, as he assures us, of the Commissioners, he projected and achieved a thorough correction of the evil. If we do not forget, some jealous champion of Bar monopoly, some time ago, insisted that the office of Solicitor of Customs should be one of the exclusive prizes of barristers. The practice for a series of years gave some foundation to this unreasonable and arrogant pretension. It was, however, discovered after a rigid inquiry into the constitution and exigencies of the legal department of the Customs, that barristers made the most inefficient possible solicitors; and, on the recommendation of Sir Alexander Spearman and Mr. Hayter, the solicitorship became the prize of the Attorney Profession. gen Need we do more in vindication of what was recommended by the above-named tlemen, than point to what has been done by Mr. Hamel? What solicitor of customs, during the period that the office was exclusively held by barristers, ever accomplished so arduous a task? Be it understood, that the work undertaken was not merely to classify, condense, group, and arrange the law as it existed. The whole was to be pruned of its verbosity, and a simple and place the phraseology of the old legislative perspicuous style of expression was to redraughtsmen. This Mr. Hamel has done, and to his own credit and that of the Profession of which he is a member-done with a success almost unexampled. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. It seems scarcely credible, that within the compass of a single year the Customs The Laws of the Customs, consolidated by Laws should be codified, and a treatise of direction of the Lords of the Treasury the character now before us written by a (16 & 17 Vict. c. 106 and 107). With single hand. But, it will add to the reader's a Commentary-Forms-Notes of De- surprise to be informed, that the labour was cisions in Customs Cases-an Appendix undertaken and the design carried through of the Act, and a copious Index. By concurrently with Mr. Hamel's unremitFELIX JOHN HAMEL, Esq., Solicitor ting attention to his daily duties as solicitor. for her Majesty's Customs. Yet we fail to discover in the work before Ir would be difficult to instance a more us the evidences of an over-wearied or dissuccessful specimen of Statute Law consoli-tracted mind. Had the volume been com C 5 |