274 Postponed Law Bills in Parliament. -and the further regulation of Parish will of course take such course as they may Vestries. be advised for carrying their intentions into effect. The Laws of Mortmain will probably again come under review, but great caution will be necessary in framing_restrictions against charitable bequests. The clauses in that respect formed the principal objection to the recent Bill. It will be seen from this long catalogue, that of the numerous Bills brought before Parliament relating to the Law, so large a number as 47 have been either actually rejected, or abandoned as hopeless, at least for the present Session. Several of the measures, however, will, no doubt, be re- The Bill for the Registration of Disvived in the next Session, and the postpone- honoured Bills of Exchange has already ment of some of them will naturally be been revived by the Noble Lord who promuch regretted. The Public, as well as posed the recent enactments, but in the new the Profession, had long anticipated the Bill some modifications we understand have reform or abolition of the Ecclesiastical been suggested. Before another Session, Courts. To what tribunals the testa we may perhaps be favoured with the rementary and divorce jurisdictions should port of the Commissioners on Mercantile be transferred, will again be the subject of debate in the next Session. Whether they are to be distinct Probate and Divorce Courts, or the Court of Chancery is to absorb the former, and the Common Law Courts the latter, will be matter for future consideration. It cannot, however, be expected that the contemplated reform can be much longer delayed. After Parliamentary Committees, Royal Commissioners, and the public Press have so strongly con demned the present system, we may reasonably expect that, in some form or other, a large measure of reform will take place at an early period. Law, accompanied by the evidence they are collecting on this and the numerous other points of dissimilarity between the laws of England and Scotland. From the petitions which have been recently presented,1 it appears that a considerable part of the commercial classes are in favour of a speedier remedy than now exists for enforcing the payment of bills of exchange. If this really be the general wish of the public, in consequence of any existing grievance, the present period of 16 days under the Common Law Procedure Act may be shortened, and to prevent pleas for delay, the defendant may be reIn another Session we may also look quired to verify his defence by affidavit, to forward to important changes in the de- the same effect as would be required under partment of Conveyancing, and therewith the proposed Act to entitle him to go to it is probable an alteration will be effected trial. in the mode of remunerating solicitors, The other Bills comprised in the precedproportioned to the skill and labour they ing statement, do not prominently affect bestow, and the responsibility they incur, the interests of the Profession, and the rather than the length of legal documents. consideration of them may therefore be deIf that change should be effected with re-ferred to a more convenient opportunity, gard to the transfer of property, it will pro- either when they reappear on the table of bably be extended to suits in Equity and the House, or are again brought into public proceedings at Law. The projectors of the notice. late Joint-Stock Trustees and Executors' There are a few more Bills, the fate of Companies, may perhaps again make their which is not yet finally decided for the appearance, but not with the imposing title Session, to which we shall hereafter adof the South Sea Corporation, for its affairs, vert. In the Postscript will be found the we understand, will be wound up forth- latest information, at the time we go to with. press, of the state of the remaining Bills. We know not that the Profession need The Court of Chancery Bill, relating to the resist the proposed alteration of the law Assessment of Damages, has been postregarding the Succession to real Property poned; and in the other Bill, the Clauses where the owner dies intestate. Either by for appointing "Clerks of Receivers' Acwills, or settlements, large landed estates are counts," have been struck out. for the most part secured to the head of the family, and the proposed alterations. would be limited to cases where no will or settlement existed. Forewarned of the change in the law, the "landed interest" 66 1 Whether these petitions are really spontaneous, or got up" by the promoters of the ceded the introduction of the measure. measure, does not appear. None of them pre New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. NEW STATUTES EFFECTING ALTE- THE Acts of the present Session printed in 275 with food as aforesaid, in like manner as any Attendance of Witnesses, c. 34, p. 235. 254. cattle or animal, openly at any public market (after having given three days' public printed Commons' Inclosure (No. 2), c. 48, p. 254. notice thereof) for the most money that could CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 60. be got for the same, and to apply the produce in discharge of the value of such food and nourishment so supplied as aforesaid and the The Preamble recites the 5 & 6 Wm. 4, expenses of and attending such sale, renderc. 59, and 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92. All persons who have impounded animals, and provided food, &c., since passing of 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92, or shall hereafter impound, &c., may recover expenses. Power to sell animals, &c., after being impounded seven days; s. 1. Provision of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, as to the using of dogs for purposes of draught within the metropolitan district extended to all parts of the United Kingdom; s. 2. Interpretation of terms; s. 3. The following are the Title and Sections of the Act: An Act to amend an Act of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Years of her present Majesty for the more effectual Prevention of Cruelty to [31st July, 1854.] Animals. Whereas by an Act passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 59, intituled "An Act to consolidate and amend the several Laws relating to the cruel and improper Treatment of Animals, and the Mischiefs arising from the driving of Cattle, and to make other Provisions in regard thereto," every person impounding any horse, ass, or other cattle or animal was required to supply such cattle or animal daily with good and sufficient food and nourishment whilst impounded; and by the said Act every such person who should so find, provide, and supply any such horse, ass, or other cattle or animal with such daily food and nourishment as aforesaid should and might and they were thereby authorised to recover of and from the owner or owners of such cattle or animal not exceeding double the full value of the food and nourishment so supplied to such cattle or animal, by proceeding before any one justice of the peace within whose jurisdiction such cattle or animal should have been so impounded and supplied ing the overplus (if any) to the owner of such aforesaid neglecting or refusing to supply such cattle or animal; and any such persons as cattle or animal with such food as aforesaid were made liable to certain penalties: and whereas by an Act passed in the session of Parliament holden in the 12 & 13 Vict., intituled "An Act for the more effectual Preven tion of Cruelty to Animals," the said first recited Act and a certain other Act extending the provisions of the same to Ireland were repealed; and by the said Act of the 12 & 13 Vict., it was enacted, that every person who should impound or confine, or cause to be impounded or confined, in any pound or receptable of the like nature, any animal, should provide and supply during such confinement a sufficient quantity of fit and wholesome food and water to such animal, and every such perand supply such animal with such food and son who should refuse or neglect to provide water offence, forfeit and pay a penalty of 20s.; and as aforesaid should, for every such certain time to supply such food and water for power is thereby given in case of neglect for a any person to supply the same, and the reasonable cost of such food and water is to be paid by the owner of such animal before such animal is removed to the person who shall supply the same, and the said costs may be recovered in like manner as therein provided for the recovery of penalties under the said Act: and whereas it is doubtful whether the last recited Act gives any remedy to the person impounding for the recovery of a compensation for the food and water provided for any animal, and no power is given to sell the animal, although full provisions for those purposes were contained in the said first recited Act: be it therefore enacted as follows: the said Act of the 12 & 13 Vict. has im1. Every person who since the passing of pounded or confined, or hereafter shall impound or confine as in the said Act mentioned, any animal, and has provided and supplied or 276 New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. HIGHWAY RATES. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 52. shall hereafter provide and supply such animal August, 1854, and to the end of the then next with food and water as therein mentioned, shall Session of Parliament: And whereas it is exand may and he is hereby authorised to re-pedient that the said provisions should be cover of and from the owner or owners of such further continued: Be it therefore enacted, animal not exceeding double the value of the that the said provisions of the said Act shall food and water so already or hereafter to be continue until the 1st day of August, 1855, supplied to such animal, in like manner as is and to the end of the then next Session of by the said last-mentioned Act provided for Parliament. the recovery of penalties under the same Act; and every person who has supplied or shall hereafter supply such food and water shall be at liberty, if he shall so think fit, instead of proceeding for the recovery of the value thereof as last aforesaid, after the expiration of seven clear days from the time of impounding the same to sell any such animal openly at any public market (after having given three days public printed notice thereof) for the most money that can be got for the same, and to apply the produce in discharge of the value of such food and water so supplied as aforesaid and the expenses of and attending such sale, rendering the overplus (if any) to the owner of such animal. 2. And whereas by an Act passed in 2 & 3 Vict. it was enacted, under a penalty, that dogs should not be used for the purposes of draught within the metropolitan police district, and it is desirable that such enactment should be extended to all parts of the United Kingdom: be it enacted, that any person who shall, from and after the 1st of January, 1855, on any public highway in any part of the United Kingdom, use any dog for the purpose of drawing or helping to draw any cart, carriage, truck, or barrow, shall forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding 40s. for the first offence, and not exceeding 51. for the second and every subsequent offence, such penalties to be recovered in like manner as is provided for the recovery of penalties under the Act of 12 & 13 Vict. 3. The words and expressions to which a meaning is affixed by the said Act of 12 & 13 Vict., and which are introduced into this Act, shall have the same meaning in this Act, and the word animal shall in the said Act and in this Act mean any domestic animal, whether of the kind or species particularly enumerated in clause 29 of the said Act, or of any other kind or species whatever, and whether a quadruped or not. ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 65. An Act for further continuing certain tempoporary Provisions concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England. [31st July, 1854.] Whereas an Act was passed in the Session holden in the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 98, intituled "An Act to amend the Law as to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England," by which it was enacted that certain of the provisions therein contained should continue until the 1st day of August, 1848, and, if Parliament were then sitting, until the end of the then Session of Parliament; and such provisions have been continued by sundry Acts until the 1st day of An Act to continue an Act for authorising the Whereas an Act was passed in the 4 & 5 Vict. c. 59, intituled "An Act to authorise for one year, and until the end of the then next Session of Parliament, an Application of a Portion of the Highway Rates to Turnpike Roads in certain Cases," which Act has been continued by sundry Acts until the 1st day of October, in the year 1854, and to the end of the then next Session of Parliament; and it is expedient that the same be further continued: Be it enacted, that the said Act shall be continued until the 1st day of October, 1860, and to the end of the then next Session of Parlia ment. TURNPIKE TRUSTS' ARRANGEMENTS. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 51. An Act to confirm certain Provisional Orders Whereas, in pursuance of the Act of the 14 & 15 Vict. c. 38, "To facilitate Arrangements for the Relief of Turnpike Trusts, and to make certain Provisions respecting Exemptions from Tolls," certain provisional orders have been made by the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, for reducing the rate of interest, and for extinguishing the arrears of interest on the mortgage debts charged or secured on the tolls or revenues of certain turnpike roads, and such orders have been published in the London Gazette, and in newspapers circulating in the neighbourhood of such roads, and the dates of such provisional orders, and the Acts under which the tolls or revenues on which such debts are charged or secured are levied or raised, together with the amount to which the rate of interest on such debts is to be reduced, and the day up to which the interest and arrears of interest on such debts are to be extinguished by such orders are mentioned in the schedule to this Act: and whereas it is expedient that the said provisional orders should be confirmed, and made absolute: be it therefore enacted, that the said provisional orders are hereby confirmed, and made absolute, and shall be as binding and of the like force and effect as if the provisions thereof had been expressly enacted by Parliament. £ s. d. 1853. Oct. 14. 1854. Jan. 7 Jan. 7 3 & 4 Vict. c. 84, "An Act for repairing parish of Smarden in the same county". 10,570 0 0 41. per cent. 5 W. 4, c. 19, "An Act for repairing the Road from Little Bowden in the county of Northampton to Rockingham in the same county 7 Geo. 4, c. 19, " An Act for making and maintaining a Turnpike Road, commencing at or near a certain house called the Shrewsbury Arms, situate at Hinderton in the township of Little Neston, by way of Upton, and terminating in the township of Hoose, and from Upton aforesaid to the township of Birkenhead, and also certain Branches of Road to communicate therewith, all in the County Palatine of Chester" Feb. 7.7 Geo. 4, c. 13, "An Act for making and maintaining a Road from Godalming, through Hascombe, to Paius Hill, in the county of Surrey." Feb. 7 April 3. April 29 May 24. 5 Geo. 4, c. 54, "An Act for repairing and 11 Geo. 4, c. 18, " An Act for more effectu- Dec. 31, 1850 1,620 0 0 1d. per cent. Dec. 31, 1853 the Ditcheling and Clayton Branch Road. 1,900 0 012. 10s. per cent. Dec. 31, 1852 June 19 1,500 0 0 1d. per cent. Dec. 31, 1855 278 Review: Atkinson on the Sheriff Law. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. will and pleasure, although made irrevocable. But now, every person so appointed sheriff as aforesaid shall, within one calendar month next after the notification of his appointment in the London Gazette, by writing under his hand, nominate and appoint some fit and proper Sheriff-Law; or a Practical Treatise on the Office of Sheriff, Under-Sheriff, Bailiffs, &c.: their Duties at the Election of Members of Parliament and Coroners, person to be his under-sheriff; and shall transAssizes, and Sessions of the Peace. Writs of Trial; Writs of Inquiry; Compensation Notices; Interpleader; Writs; Warrants; Returns; Bills of Sale; Bonds of Indemnity, &c. By GEORGE ATKINSON, Serjeant-at-Law, Author of "The Shipping Laws of the British Empire," "International Law," &c. Third Edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1854. Pp. 310. MR. SERJEANT ATKINSON, in this Third Edition of his Treatise, arranges the subjectmatter in the following order : : 1st. Introductory observations on the antiquity and nature of the office of sheriff; his qualifications, mode of nomination, and appointment. 2nd. His judicial duties. 3rd. His ministerial duties. mit a duplicate thereof to the clerk of the peace for the county; to be by him filed, and the records of his office, and for which he shall which he is, by the Act, required to file among be entitled to demand and have from such under-sheriff the sum of 5s. and no more; and such appointment and duplicate shall not be liable to any stamp duty whatever.'' وو The Author, in one of his notes on this section, observes, that "the 1 Hen. 5, c. 4," [which provided that no under-sheriff should be an attorney in the King's Courts during the time he was in office] was repealed by 1 Vict. c. 55, s. 1;"1 but he says, "there still remains the rule of K. B., M. T., 1654, s. 1, as to an attorney serving the office of under-sheriff, and making him liable to be struck-off the Rolls for it." And, he adds, "the Reg. Gen., Hil. Term, 1853," [which repealed all then existing 4th & 5th. The execution of the various rules of practice and made new rules] "apkinds of writs. 6th. Actions against the sheriff. Passing over the historical part of the work relating to the high sheriff, and the great antiquity and honourable nature of his functions, we come to the under-sheriff, an office peculiarly belonging to the larger branch of the Profession. The learned Serjeant thus states the mode of appointment and authority of an under-sheriff :— "One, who has an office of trust, cannot, at common law, make a deputy, without express words in his patent or grant so to do. "The high sheriff is an officer of great trust and confidence, and therefore he cannot (except he be enabled to do so by express words in his warrant of appointment, or by Act of Parliament) make any deputy in such things as concern his judicial power. Nor may he let or assign over his office in any manner ; for this would, in effect, be a delegation of his judicial powers, which cannot be. In matters concernng his ministerial office, he may make, or appoint under him, an under-sheriff, bailiffs, &c., who may occupy their places in right of the high sheriff; and this he may do, although there be no express words in the warrant of appointment to that effect. Formerly, the high sheriff was not obliged to appoint an under-sheriff, but might have done all things himself. It appears, also, that the undersheriff might have been constituted by parol, or by writing; and at the will and pleasure of the high sheriff; and, therefore, removable at ply only to rules affecting civil actions." Now the Rule of 1654 (in the time of Oliver Cromwell) might properly subject an attorney to be struck off the Roll who committed the misdemeanor of practising, contrary to the Statute, whilst he held the office of under-sheriff; but the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73,2 having expressly repealed that prohibitory enactment, the rule of Court was, of course, in that respect abrogated. Under this head, the Author further proceeds to remark, that "Neither can the under-sheriff nor his deputy act as a solicitor, attorney, or agent, or sue out any process at any General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace within the county under a penalty of 501.,” and for this doctrine he cites 22 Geo. 2, c. 46, and refers to Faulkener v. Chevell, 5 Ad. & E. 213; and Briggs v. Sowton, 9 Dowl. P. C. 105. It is singular that the learned writer should also have forgotten that the 22 Geo. 2, c. 46, and no less than 31 other Acts, were repealed by the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, as set forth in the first part of the first Schedule to that Statute, as to "so much as relates to attorneys and solicitors.”3 Hen. 5, c. 4, as related to Fees. The learned Serjeant cites only the 1 Vict. c. 55, and seems to have overlooked the subsequent Act. and weirs, bread, cattle, quakers, &c. |