in which his court or courts are holden," &c. And this is espe cially presumable where the subject is that of salary, which certainly must have reference, in sect. 19, to the whole sphere of his duties, and not to a part only. Sect. 56 also provides that "the judge of each district shall attend and hold the County Court at each place, &c. within his district," &c. The powers of consolidating districts, found to be separately too small, given by sect. 2, seem to provide for cases where the judge, being confined to a single district, has too small a jurisdiction. The Queen in Council has created the districts, and has moreover created circuits; now there is an express authority in the act to create the one, but none to create the other. We do not think it fitting to pronounce any positive judgment on a point submitted to, and pending the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench. We have however pointed out the clauses which incline us to think Sir Frederick Thesiger's objection capable of being supported by formidable arguments. And the court itself appeared to think so, for it was of opinion that the matter was far too weighty for discussion on the last day of term. It would, perhaps, be no injury to the efficiency of the courts and the utility of the act were this objection held good and a separate judge appointed to each district. The circuits are very inconveniently large, and it is obvious that the business is often hurried over in a manner unfavourable to the interests of justice. It could however require that there should be a relaxation of the seven years qualification. The salaries would be of course diminished in the same proportion as the circuits, and it would be impossible to find really competent men capable of the work of above seven years standing. Three years would amply suffice and would give a fair supply of really competent men attending sessions and more or less in practice, who, having been more recently educated in Pleaders' Chambers, would very much excel in competency some who have already obtained the office. Men of business habits, possessed of that aptitude in the conduct of judicial inquiry which is unattainable without attendance at courts of justice and practice in their mode of procedure, are much needed as judges of these courts: nevertheless men have been appointed who had long ceased to attend courts or to practise at all! We have heard of a judge who invariably put the plaintiff to the proof of his case before he ascertained whether the demand was admitted or not, and occupied hour after hour in the proof of uncontested demands! It has been suggested to us that it is a great defect in the act that there are no powers to the judge to amend, as judges at nisi prius. We do not think this any defect. As regards plaints, all that the act requires is that "the substance of the action" shall be stated in the plaint and the summons; and it also provides that no misnomer or inaccurate description of person or place shall vitiate either plaint or summons, so long as they are described in such manner as to be commonly known. The substance of the action ought to be properly stated, and if a power of amendment in that existed it might tend greatly to embarrass defendants. No order, verdict, judgment, &c., is to be void for want of form (sect. 136). It would be unwise to give in addition any power of amendment. It would but facilitate and encourage a mischievous negligence. We regard the entire measure as a means of expeditious justice, very beneficial to commerce, and not necessarily injurious to efficient judicature. At the same time it is open to great objections on the score of the defects we have named, and requires revision rather in the mode in which it has been carried out than in the substantial provisions of the act itself. : As regards the public the measure has proved and is likely to prove very advantageous. Its effects will however greatly lessen the emoluments of the profession. The judges, so far from requiring cases even of doubt and difficulty to be argued before them, are much more prone to decide them on their own impressions and the frequent refusal of the costs of advocacy is tending not only to exclude the bar from these courts, but to throw the business in them upon a class of practitioners who are not always the best suited to enhance the dignity of the court or to assist the decisions. The efforts hitherto made to render these courts accessible generally to the bar have entirely failed. The smaller class of actions, the most fruitful to the juniors, are drained from the nisi prius courts, railway business has greatly declined, and there seems to be nothing to replace the ominous void. ART. II.-CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. Tables showing the Number of Criminal Offenders in the Year 1846. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. CRIM RIME is largely on the increase: and the committals of 1847, as far as we can yet judge, bid fair even to give an increase over that which the Official Annual Return exhibits for 1846, and which has been recently published. During the three years preceding 1846 a material decrease of no less than 67 per cent. took place. This decrease was evidently the result of improved facilities of livelihood to the people, diminishing temptations to commit offences against property, and the mischievous and demoralizing effects of idleness. This improved state of things has wholly ceased, and we regret to record an increase of crime during the last year amounting to no less than 3.9 per cent. in England, and of 3.3 per cent. in England and Wales together. This increase has chiefly extended, as will be observed by the table placed opposite, over the great Northern, Midland, and South-Western manufacturing counties, excepting Gloucestershire, Northumberland and Worcestershire. The counties where there has been a decrease of crime appear to be almost exclusively agricultural. It is obvious that no useful result can be obtained from these facts without comparing the increase of crimes with that of population; and inasmuch as the change in a single year is merely an index to the immediate, and it may be temporary state of things, we have in the annexed table compiled the corresponding increase or decrease for the quinquennial periods 1837-41, compared with that of 1842-46, so as to show the general tendency during the last ten years. This table has been confined to England.1 'Wales has exhibited no very marked features, except that the population there are infinitely less criminal than those of England, the people in Glamorganshire and Brecknockshire, bordering on the mining district, alone excepted. |