to the Estates and Earldom of Breadalbane; but it needs the united wisdom of nine judges to add a chalder to a minister's stipend! If the business of the Teind Court were transferred to one of the Lords Ordinary, with an appeal in cases of difficulty, the church and clergy would not suffer, and the business of the Court of Session would not be interrupted for three hours, once a fortnight, as at present. It would be for the interest of the church and clergy, to have their cases carried through in a more speedy and satisfactory manner; for no case lingers like an opposed teind case. From the dark, mysterious, middle-aged, musty nature of the subject, it becomes hateful both to bench and bar, and to every one but the casehardened teind clerk. On behalf of the clergy and the public alike I plead therefore for a thorough reformation and reconstruction of the Teind Court and process.

Another hindrance to the despatch of business, is the undue length of advisings in the Inner House. It is difficult to restrain within bounds the natural loquacity of human nature; and "fame," we are told, is the last "infirmity of noble minds;" but life is short and art long, and our judges would do well to remember this when advising cases ad longum. Each judge gives a full and separate narrative of the case, and lays before the profession and the public the whole mutilated carcass of the suit, which he has dissected and reconstructed in his study; the disjecta membra litis out of which he has framed his judgment,-the arguments for and against,-the objections and counter objections; nay the very lights and shadows of truth and error that swayed to and fro in his mind, are set forth in detail, with a pomp and prodigality of language and illustration, absolutely appalling to read, or look at. Much study is "a weariness to the flesh," said Solomon; but he, with all his wisdom, had no idea of what it was, to read through course of legal reports, like Shaw, and Dunlop, and Macpherson; and that too, by modern and artificial gas-light. Burning the midnight oil and "out-watching the bear," is not a poetical fancy, but a sad prose reality of a lawyer's existence. He cannot help himself. But what he has to read is nothing compared with what a lawyer of the next generation will have to do, if the system of reporting and advising ad longum goes on as at present. Lord Campbell animadverted in the strongest terms on the prac tice of his Vice-Chancellor setting forth, in full detail, the whole arguments and reasons upon which he had formed his judgment. Human life, he said, was too short to review or even to read, the details of a judgment of five hundred pages. It would be well if the spirit of Lord Campbell's remark were more generally acted upon in judicial matters. What the profession wants, is the outcome and flower of the judgment; the finished, perfect pedestal, not the hidden and inner foundation of bricks, straw, and mortar, upon which that pedestal is reared. Our older race of judges knew this well. Morrison's Dictionary is full of the arguments of counsel, but the decisions of the court occupy but a small place in it, and are models of Spartan brevity. Shaw and Dunlop introduced the system of reporting the opinions of the judges in extenso, so that now human life is too short for reading the reports. Agents and counsel in active practice cannot do it. In consequence much bad law has been uttered and printed, and obscurity and uncertainty have crept into a science which ought to be simple and easily mastered. A court of justice is not a Porch or an Academe for philosophic and syllogistic debate and display, but a forum, for the

hearing of causes, and the despatch of business. Except in important and exceptional cases, it might be left to one judge to deliver the opinion of the Court. This is the practice in England.*

In the Outer-House some minor changes might be introduced; such for instance, as the abolition of the discretionary power of agents to consent to prorogate the time for lodging papers. No such prorogation should be allowed unless by the authority of the court, and even then, once only, and on special cause shewn. Decree should follow as a matter of course, if a party failed to lodge his paper within a specified time. I would even suggest, that the provision of the Sheriff Court Act that a cause not moved in for three months shall eo ipso stand dismissed, should be a rule of court. This penalty has had a most beneficial effect in the conduct of business in the Sheriff Court; and would probably have an equally salutary influence in the Court of Session. When a case is brought into court, the judge, and not the agents, should be dominus litis, and have power to compel parties either to join issue within a certain time, or abandon the suit. The number of days for reclaiming against a final judgment might also be shortened. Twenty-one days is too long; thirteen days would be amply sufficient. The "law's delay" frightens suitors much more than the costs of the suit. That "time is money" is an axiom currently believed, and constantly acted upon, in the present age, everywhere except in the Court of Session. A merchant cannot afford to let his money lie locked up in a law-suit. No court should, by dilatory procedure, put it in the power of a dishonest suitor, to take advantage of his neighbour, by using the "law's delay" as a means of escaping from the just and prompt payment of his debts. That this is now done is well known to the mercantile community. It is a common and clamant grievance on exchange, and can only be remedied by a firm determination on the part of the Lord President and the Court, to refuse every motion for delay, and make the forms of procedure simple, explicit, and expeditious. By doing so, a vitality would be given to business, which would react on both counsel and agents, and lead to the happiest results. The sleepless energy of soul of Lord Colonsay communicated itself to the whole court; and shed light and influence like a genial sun, warming and giving life to all. It is to be hoped his example will encourage, and animate his successor to follow in his footsteps, and thus secure the gratitude of his country and the profession.

M.

We think our correspondent has made too much of the waste of time on advis ings, which really occupy a comparatively short time. He has probably been led to do so by observing the great space occupied by trivial repetitions in the reports. It may be proper and expedient for judges to say much on the bench by way of illustrating and enforcing a principle or its application. which it is the duty of the reporter (even against the wish of the judge who does him the honour of revising his opinion) to sift and abridge for the benefit of his subscribers and the public. We are inclined to think that much greater obstruction to the progress of business is caused by "judicial interruptions" in the course of the debate, a practice for which the judges are perhaps not so much to be blamed as counsel. If the court found that counsel always stated their cases logically and artistically, and therefore shortly, and that in order to do so they were always well prepared and never forgot a point, it would seldom or never interrupt. It is notorious that this lesson is sometimes actually learned by judges in regard to a counsel from whom they can depend on getting the best possible argument by sitting quiet and hearing him out.—(ED. J. J.)

The Month.

The Management of Scotch Business in Parliament. Some weeks ago, but too late for even a passing notice in our last number, Mr Baxter and some other gentlemen informed an incredulous House of Commons that the Lord Advocate was "the political dictator of Scotland," and that Scotland was dissatisfied that so much "power, patronage, and legislative responsibility," should be placed in the hands of a mere practising lawyer, who had other public and private duties sufficient to occupy all his time. Mr Baxter reminded the House that he had proposed some years ago that an Under Secretary should be appointed for the management of Scotch business, but that the proposition had not then met with the acceptance of the House; and he renewed it now because of a change of circumstances, and of representations which had been made, which, he hoped, would lead Her Majesty's Government to return a favourable answer to the question. We presume that the change of circumstances referred to is the change from a Whig to a Tory Government, and the fact that two successive Lord Advocates of the latter have been unable to find seats in Parliament. We know of no other change of circumstances likely to lead to such a result. The representations which he afterwards tells us are those "of Scotch members who represent the feelings of the Scotch people," must be those of gentlemen who, as we have long known, are discontented with the influence exercised by the Lord Advocate on Scotch affairs, and who perhaps are visited in sleep by visions of an under secretaryship, in which they may themselves enjoy the "power, patronage, and responsibility." It is certainly not true that any considerable degree of discontent prevails in Scotland with the present arrangements for the conduct of Scotch business in Parliament. Certain members of Parliament, representatives chiefly of sectional interests and extreme or crotchety views, did chafe and grumble at the legitimate influence exercised in Parliament by Mr Moncreiff, an influence which it would be a mistake to attribute entirely to the office which he held, for it was quite as much due to the fact that he was immeasurably the ablest and the most accomplished of Scotch representatives. There is also a small number of persons who are actuated by an unfortunate, but perhaps in "this pence-counting, parcel-tying generation," not an unnatural, jealousy of the noblesse de la robe, which is one of the most important remnants which Scotland possesses of her old national institutions. Beyond these narrow circles, the people in Parliament who are moved by personal anibition, or personal pique at the defeat of favourite schemes, and those out of Parliament and in it who dislike, because they cannot appreciate the value of a learned profession, entire satisfaction exists everywhere with regard to the ordinary management of Scotch poli

tical business. All, of course, cannot be perfect; but we need only appeal to the numerous comparisons between the manner in which the Scotch and the English legislation has been carried through,— comparisons generally made by Englishmen,-in order to show that, relatively at least, we have nothing to complain of, but very much reason to be pleased. No doubt the present, as well as the late Tory Governments, have been annoyed, and some inconvenience has been caused by the absence of their Lord Advocates from Parliament. But we do not imagine that Tories at least will willingly admit that to be a chronic evil; and if it were, a Tory Under-Secretary is not more likely to be popular with a Scotch constituency than a Tory Lord Advocate. We trust that the gentlemen of both parties who promote this innovation are as averse as we are to commit Scotch business to some Right Honourable quill-driver in the Home Office, who has got a seat for an English county, and knows nothing about Scotland except that it is the land of grouse and red deer. We deny, therefore, that Lord Advocates have, as a rule, been unable to attend properly to the business of the country, and we most emphatically deny that they are at a disadvantage in that respect as compared with any probable Under-Secretary. Mr Walpole, however disposed, suo more, to yield to any pressure however gentle, satisfactorily showed that they have not the supposed excess of power. Most people who know anything about Scotch matters know that the ecclesiastical patronage of the Crown is really exercised either by the principal heritor in any vacant parish professing the politics of the ministry for the time being, or by the congregation, the recommendation of the one or the other being almost invariably followed. As for responsibility, any probable arrangement will divide the responsibility giving us an under Secretary with the name of power, and leaving all the real work, and probably the power, where the requisite knowledge and ability will still be,-with the Lord Advocate, and leaving with him too the legal patronage,-that is really all the patronage of any value which he now possesses.

We have one remark to make from a purely professional point of view, and, addressing a professional audience, we speak frankly. The legal profession in Scotland is deeply interested that the Lord Advocate should continue to perform the political functions now committed to him. The office of Lord Advocate is a link between us and the great political world, preventing us from being altogether corrupted by that provincialism to which, by our situation and circumstances, we are peculiarly exposed: and as at present constituted it is one of the chief prizes which make the law an attractive profession for men of talents and ambition. The law of Scotland. occupies locally but a narrow field, and while it remains distinct in its principles and administration from that of the southern part of the island, no intelligent lawyer can conceal from himself that it stands in need of some artificial support; so to speak, it must be subsidized. The fees paid for the litigation of Scotland will never

by themselves attract a sufficient quantity of the best talent to the legal profession. It may be said that this is a reason for assimilation and amalgamation with England; and that may come sooner or later. But in the meantime the character of the Scotch lawyer ought to be maintained at its present high standard. For this reason, among others, the double sheriffship is retained; and for this reason also we deprecate any lowering of the status of the Lord Advocate, any change which may make it unnecessary for him to be in Parliament, and which must eventually make Scotch law a less dignified and less honourable pursuit. No Lord Advocate who consents to such an arrangement as Mr Walpole seemed to think possible, will ever be able afterwards to hold up his head in the Parliament House, or to take his seat on the judicial bench without a blush. We are glad to believe, however, that the interests of the profession are safe in the hands of the present as well as of the expectant law officers of the crown, and that Lord Advocate Gordon will keep Mr Walpole from being further misled by the evil counsellors who beset him on the 23d of March.

Since the foregoing paragraphs were in type our faith in the Lord Advocate's power to protect the profession to which he belongs and the office which he might have adorned, has received a rude shock, and our exuberant confidence in his willingness to do so makes us more deeply sympathize with him in the humiliation to which we learn he is to be subjected. It is said that an Under Secretaryship for Scotland is actually created or to be created under the Home Office, and that Sir James Ferguson, M.P. for Ayrshire, is to be the first holder of the office. We have nothing to add to what we have said, except to express our disappointment and regret. We do not envy the Law Officers of the Crown for Scotland, in whose time this innovation has taken place, their silks, their salaries, or their degradation.

The Home Secretary as a Criminal Court of Appeal. The incompetency of the Home Secretary has furnished another occasion for urging the necessity of a Criminal Court of Appeal. Mr Walpole has commuted to penal servitude for life the sentence of death passed on Edward Wager for a murder which he himself describes as "one of aggravated enormity and barbarity." Wager, a Derbyshire farmer, was accustomed to treat his wife with great brutality, so much so that one Saturday in December last she spent the night in an outhouse on the farm in order to avoid his violence. On Monday (having spent the Sunday with friends) she ventured to return to her house accompanied with a female friend named Hancock. He thrust her out of doors, abusing her for her absence; but she shortly returned and made tea. Before tea was over he again became violent, and also took liberties with the other woman. Both women then left the house. Wager followed Hancock, and insisted that she should not leave the house that night. He overtook her, when his