1857.] CAMPBELL'S LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS.

205

illustration it affords of the necessity of a matter to which we adverted in our first number-the revision of our statute law. As directly or indirectly bearing on the subject, Sir George Nicholls has occasion to refer to nearly fifty Acts of Parliament, all of which, save the two passed in the present reign, are perfectly valueless, so far as the administration of the Poor-Law is concerned. Surely it is time that the statute-book was weeded of all this surplusage. Every Act of Parliament has been literally tossed at random into this mare magnum, and allowed to find its own way, and assert its own importance by sheer dead weight; and now, after the lapse of centuries, with many Acts in desuetude-some repealed wholly, and many more but partially-the practitioners' shelves have still to groan under the useless mass, and the dreary barren waste has ever to be traversed to find that law which, under a proper system of classification and consolidation, might be discovered in a title of the time, and with a hundredth part of the anxiety. The work, however, is too important to be undertaken without official sanction, as many defects would have to be supplied by the authority of ParliaBut the matter is one of pressing importance, to which we think the Lord Advocate should take the first opportunity of directing his attention.

Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, Vols. I., II., and III., London: John Murray.

THAT these lives of the Chancellors of England, which their noble author, upwards of ten years ago, said "were on every table, and almost on every toilet," might be still more extensively known, they have been published in a cheaper and more convenient form. Following the example of his distinguished friend Mr Hallam, the Chief Justice tells us that he has adopted the present plan with a view of making the work more accessible to all who may have a taste for such reading. Surely this must be a very large class; for though there is a tendency in the present day to be content with the generalizations of the historian, in preference to the minuteness of the industrious biographer, still, when biography and history are so intimately associated, when the lives of great men are but commentaries on the most important events of their particular eras, and when, especially, we become acquainted with the history of English jurisprudence, we are sure that even the lovers of the frivolities of fiction itself will repair with pleasure to so deeply interesting and so highly instructive a work. Lord Campbell seems to regret that the book appears in a less ostentatious form than in the three former editions; but the increased number of readers will be more than a compensation for the more stately volume and the more agreeable page.

Address by Mr Sheriff Steele to the Glasgow Juridical Society on 5th
November 1856.

Address delivered by Andrew Bannatyne, Esq., to the Glasgow Legal and Speculative Society, at the Opening Meeting of their Fifth Winter Session, on 26th November 1856.

IT augurs well for the future of the legal profession in the western metropolis, that their neophytes can boast of two such gymnasia as are named above-the one now numbering nine winters, and its younger sister blooming in her fifth.

It is encouraging also thus to find the Nestors of the profession giving paternal counsel to those who are at the "Schools of the Prophets;" for, as Mr Bannatyne observes, "It is a duty which those who have reached nearly the end of their career, owe to those who are only at its commencement, to communicate the lessons which their experience has taught them;" and, we may add, which their careers so eloquently exemplify.

Sheriff Steele takes a wider range than his talented compeer. He gives an interesting outline of a "Law Club" in which his own highly legal powers were forged and fabricated, and with the sad recital of many bright names, now only existing in fond memory, he explains their mode of procedure: how they discussed from Session papers cases which were on the Rolls of the Supreme Court, delighted, of course, when the Senators of Justice coincided with their anticipatory decision, and still more so when, their Lordships having come to a contrary conclusion, the House of Lords "set matters right by agreeing with the Society instead of the Session."

The learned Sheriff traces the progress of mind from the heavy tome of learned disquisitions, such as by the poet described—

"The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head."

Next, learning took a more discursive form, and percolated through
the British Essayists. On the fall of these princes of literature
arose the age of Societies. These had their day, and on its wane
arose the period of the Lecture Room and the Newspaper. But,
considering the present state of the latter, he anticipates the recur-
rence once more of Societies. Carlyle appears somewhat of the
same opinion when, in his graphic language, he writes-" Soul
must catch fire through a mystic contact with living soul. Mind
grows not like a vegetable, by having its roots littered with etymo-
logical compost, but, like a spirit, by mysterious contact with spirit,
thought kindles itself at the fire of living thought."

Mr Bannatyne keeps closer to his text than the Sheriff, and his address is full of admirable admonition for the guidance of those who then sat at the feet of Gamaliel. We cordially subscribe to

his opinion, when speaking of the province of legal faculties, "that one of the most legitimate objects to which such a body can apply itself is, the superintendence of the education of those who, under its auspices, are preparing themselves for professional life; and the encouragement of a training society, calculated to elevate the standard of character and acquirement in the future members of the body." Also, this his caution is valuable to hundreds of all classes: "I counsel you to exact from every member who proposes to take a part in your proceedings a careful preparation of himself, first, by reference to books, and, second, by what is of equal importance, a painstaking excogitation of the subject in his own mind; insist not only that the food shall be of the best quality and well cooked, but that it shall be well masticated, so that it may be easy of assimilation and digestion, and prove nourishing to the body."

The young lawyers of Glasgow are under a deep debt of gratitude to the learned authors for their addresses, which we trust will have a circulation not limited to the sound of the Bell of St Kentigern.

SERIALS.

The Law Chronicle.-This is the name given to a series of reports of Sheriff Court cases, which are in course of publication at Dundee. We commend our little brother to the attention of our readers. The idea is excellent; its originator deserves credit for the service he has rendered to his local brethren; and we hope to see the example followed in other districts. De Minimis Curamus. Though the decisions of the highest esteemed of our local judges are, for the most part, of no earthly consequence to any one save the suitors, inasmuch as they do not bind the authors themselves, far less others of co-ordinate jurisdiction, still there are many questions of much interest now coming before the local courts which are never again heard of. For example: There are many cases relative to the important branches of poor law, bankruptcy, railways, and all cases under L.25, where the sentences of sheriffs are final and conclusive. There are also, in all cases which come before them, points of practice, and various readings of the same statutes of forms, which produced great diversity of practice and inconvenience to all who have to apply for redress to these judicatures. An accurate report of such cases is, therefore, of much public advantage. With the view of meeting this object, the enterprizing local bar of Dundee some time ago started this journal, edited by one of their number. It soon was extended, so as to embrace cases decided by the various sheriff's of the same circuit, namely, Perth, Fife, and Forfar. Meeting with considerable success, it now occasionally reports cases from the different local courts throughout Scotland. If the reports be well

selected, so as to confine the cases to matters of general interest, and to points of form and practice, it will be a fitting companion to the decisions of the Supreme Court; for, though, as we have said, the judgments are not authoritative, they are at least most admirable legal essays, which, coming from such men as Sheriffs Mure and Barclay of Perth, or Sheriff Logan of Forfar, have a value more than evanescent and an interest more than ephemeral. The reports are very well done, clear and concise, and, at the same time, not obscured with details of no bearing on the question at issue.

The Moniteur Des Cours Publics Literaire Scientifique et Philosophique, is the title of a new Parisian journal for the publication of an outline (critical and expository) of the prelections of those masters of science who have rendered so famous the various literary institutions of the French capital; e. g., the College de France, Sorbonne, Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Ecole des Langues Orientales, Museum, etc. Addressing itself to both the student and the general reader, it will form an admirable medium for extending the comparatively select audience, to which the refined taste and cultivated learning of the Parisian professors have necessarily been hitherto limited. The wide field at the editor's disposal, enables him to present in each number a selection varied enough to meet every taste. We have here, for instance, the substance of the first of a series of lectures by M. Berger on Latin eloquence at the Sorbonne, and another on the same subject by M. Regault at the College de France; varied with a discourse by M. Boudrillant on Political Economy. It will form, when complete, a volume of most attractive matter, deficient only in that which it is beyond the power of the press to supply, the animated manner and dramatic force, which add so greatly to the charms of French eloquence.

The Revue Historique de Droit Francais et Etranger (Jan. Fev.) is a number worthy of the high range it occupies in the field of Jurisprudence. The most learned, and to a Scotch lawyer most interesting, article, is one by M. Derome-Considerations Sur les Developpements Historiques de la preuve litterale dans l'ancien Droit Francais. The author throws much light on a remarkably curious subject of inquiry, and we commend it to the attention of all who have an inclination for the scientific study of this important branch of legal and public economy. It is followed by a continuation of an elaborate examination, Du Pouvoir Judiciare en Angleterre-an article to us less attractive than a contribution by M. Sclopis, on Les lois des Lombards; the effect of whose legislation has been more or less felt in most countries in Europe. A tasteful tribute to the memory of M. Desmante, and some smartly written notices of contemporary literature complete the Number.

Correspondence.

MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.

AMONGST the authorities cited in support of the illegality of such a contract, we do not recollect of having seen any allusion to the following, as to the law and practice of Scotland at a very early period. In the life of St Margaret, queen of Malcolm III., written by her confessor, Turgot, there is reference to a very distinct prohibition of such marriages. After giving an account of a provincial council, at which the king and queen were present, and in which the latter agreed with the ecclesiastics and carried her point, as to the proper period for holding Lent-as to enforcing the celebration, and pulling down abuses in the mode of celebrating mass, and enforcing the observation of Sunday, her biographer adds,—“ Illicita etiam novercarum conjugia similiter et uxorem fratris defuncti fratrem superstitem ducere quæ ibi antea fiebant, nimis, ostendit execranda et a fidelibus velut ipsam mortem devitanda. Multa quoque alia quæ contra fidei regulam et ecclesiasticarum observationum instituta inoleverant, ipsa in eodem Concilio damnare, et de Regni sui finibus curavit proturbare." There is here evidence incapable of contradiction, being the testimony of a contemporary who, in all probability, was present at the Council, that marriage with a deceased wife's sister was, from a very early period, prohibited and looked upon with execration, and that in a council composed of the highest authorities in the kingdom, both ecclesiastical and civil. The subsequent consuetudinary practice has for 800 years been in accordance with what may be considered the earliest Scottish Statute of which we have any record.

A. G. R.

SERVICE OF HEIRS.

IN the style of a Petition for Special Service given at page 285 of the new edition of Juridical Styles, I observe that the statutory words "in special" are omitted both in the part of the petition where the heirship of the petitioner is set forth, and in the prayer. As these words seem to me to be essential, I take the liberty of suggesting to the profession, through the medium of your Journal, the necessity of adding the omitted words to the style, so as to make it conform to schedule B. of the source of these Acts.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A SUBSCRIBER.

GREENOCK, March 28, 1857.

Digest of Decisions.

COURT OF SESSION.

FIRST DIVISION.

ROBERTSON v. WILSON.-March 3.

Advocation-Competency of advocating an action of Interdict on the
Question of Expenses.

Interim interdict in a Sheriff Court action was recalled in December 1840. The process then fell asleep till 1853, when it was wakened, for the purpose VOL. I.-NO. IV. APRIL 1857.

DD