cannot change the punishment by altering the hanging into beheading, though, when beheading is part of the sentence, he may remit the rest. If, upon judgment to be hanged till dead, the criminal revives, the sheriff must hang him again, the former hanging being held no execution.

It only remains to notice the important change in the mode of inflicting capital punishment by the act of 1868. By the 31 V. c. 24, sentence of death ceased to be a public exhibition, and was required to be carried on for murder within the walls of the prison in which the offender is confined at the time of execution. The sheriff, gaoler, chaplain, surgeon, and other officers of the prison to be present, together with the relatives of convict, and others the sheriff deems proper to admit. The coroner of the jurisdiction to hold an inquest within twenty-four hours after execution, to identify the body, and attest the regularity of the execution. Burial of the offender to be within the walls of the prison. Power given to a secretary of state to make rules to regulate executions. By ss. 13,14, act to apply to Scotland and Ireland, with certain modifications.

CHAPTER IV.

Procedure and Reforms in Chancery.

SOME efforts were made to lessen expense and expedite proceedings in the court of Chancery in 1850 and 1851, by allowing suitors to state special cases for the opinion of the court, and for the establishment of a court of appeal. But the more general and effective measures of reform in this branch of judiciary were three acts of the session of 1852. The first of these acts, 15 & 16 V. c. 87, relates principally to the officers of the court, who, when the lord chancellor shall direct, are to be paid by salaries instead of by fees, and the fees are to be collected by stamps on documents. A more important statute is the 15 & 16 V. c. 86, under which the practice of engrossing bills on parchment is discontinued, and a printed bill filed instead. Writs of subpoena and summons are abolished, and defendants are to be served with a printed bill instead. The plaintiff is to deliver to defendant such a number of copies of the printed bill as he shall have occasion for, defendant paying for them at such rate as shall be prescribed by a general order; and this provision extends to amendment of bills. The lord chancellor may suspend the provisions as to the printing and filing of bills, when former practice will be revived. Bills of complaint are to contain concise narratives of material facts, divided into numbered paragraphs, but not to contain interrogatories, and interrogatories are to be filed in the Record Office within a prescribed time. Defendants may answer without leave within the time now prescribed, but after that time they must have leave. The de

fendant's answer may contain not only an answer to his case, but statements material thereto. The plaintiff may, on expiry of time for answering, but before replication, move for a decree or decretal erder, which the court may grant or refuse. The practice of exceptmg to bills and answers for impertinence is abolished. The court may order defendant to produce documents on oath, and plaintiff may also be required to produce documents after the answer has been put in. The defendant may in certain cases file interrogatories for the examination of the plaintiff, or he may exhibit a cross-bill instead. The practice of issuing commissions to take answers, pleas, disclaimers, and examinations, is abolished, and these documents may be filed without any more formality than is now required in the swearing and filing of an affidavit. In Scotland and Ireland, the Channel Islands, or British Colonies, they may be sworn and taken before any judge, or person lawfully authorized to administer oaths, and in foreign ports before her Majesty's consul or viceconsul.

In the examination of witnesses important changes were introduced. The previous mode of examination was abolished, leaving power, however, to the court to order particular witnesses to be examined by interrogatory, and the evidence to be taken orally if required by either party, power being reserved to the court, if the requirement be by a party who has not sufficient interest, to make such an order as may be just. The witnesses are to be examined by one of the examiners of the court in presence of the parties, and be subject to cross-examination or re-examination. The depositions are to be read over to the witness, who shall sign the same, and, if he refuse, the examiner may sign them, and state such special matter as he may think fit. The original depositions are to be filed in the Record Office. Notwithstanding, however, that the parties may have elected to examine orally, affidavits by particular witnesses, or as to particular facts, may by consent or leave of the ecurt be used on the hearing of any case; but the witnesses by affidavit are to be subject to oral cross-examination and re-examination. The court may reqiure the production of oral examination before itself of any witness, and determine as to the payment of

costs.

With regard to the hearing of causes, there are a number of provisions to prevent delay on technical grounds. One is, that a defendant is not to take an objection for want of parties in any case to which certain rules set forth in the act extend, the object of these rules being to prevent mere technical objections; and the practice of setting down a cause merely on objection for want of parties is abolished, and the court is empowered to proceed without the representative of a deceased party being made a party, or it may appoint such representative.

Suits are not to be dismissed for misjoinder of plaintiffs, but the court may modify its decree according to special circumstances; and

the court may decide a suit, although only some of the parties interested are parties to it; but if the court is of opinion that the application is fraudulent or otherwise, it may refuse to make the order prayed. In case of abatement of the suit, or its becoming defective by reason of some change or transmission of interest or liability, an order may be made which shall have the same effect as a bill of revivor. Supplemental bills, for the purpose only of stating or putting in issue new facts or circumstances, cease to be required; but such matters may be introduced by way of amendment into the original bill, or the plaintiff may state such facts or circumstances on the record.

Where an account is to be taken, the court may give special directions as to the mode of taking it.

In administration suits the proceeding was much simplified, provision being made that a creditor, or legatee, or one of the next of kin, may summon an executor to show cause why an order for the administration of the personal estate of a deceased person should not be granted, and the judge has power thereupon to order such administration. An order for the administration of the real estate may be obtained in a similar manner by a creditor or any one interested under the will of the deceased.

The court may direct a sale of mortgaged property instead of a foreclosure, on such terms as it may think fit. The court may order real estate to be sold, if required; and, where real or personal estate is the subject of proceedings, it may allow to parties a portion or the whole of the annual income.

The practice as to injunctions to stay proceedings at law is to be assimilated to the practice as to special injunctions.

Another provision, tending essentially to diminish the cost and delay of suits in many cases, was one which directs that cases are not to be stated for the opinion of a court of common law, but the court of Chancery is to have full power to determine any questions

of law.

The expense and delay of suits were much lessened by another act, the 15 & 16 V. c. 80, by which the office of masters in chancery is abolished, and provision made for the transfer of the business heretofore disposed of by them to be transacted by and under the immediate direction and control of the court. The master of the rolls and the vice-chancellors are to sit at chambers for the despatch of such business as can, without detriment to the public advantage arising from the discussion of questions in open court, be heard in chambers, and they are to have the same power and jurisdiction in chambers as in open court.

The judges may adjourn from open court to chambers, or the contrary, the consideration of any matter; the mode of proceeding at chambers to be by summons, as at common law, and the judges may direct what shall be investigated by their chief clerks, and what by themselves. The result of the proceeding before the chief

clerk is to be embodied in the form of a certificate, to which there is to be no exception; but the parties may take the opinion of the judge on any particular point arising in the course of the proceedings, or upon the result. Julges may take the opinion of conveyancing counsel when sitting at chambers, and the lord chancellor may nominate six conveyancing counsel, whose opinions are to be thas taken. The judges may also obtain the assistance of accountants, merchants, engineers, actuaries, or other scientific persons, and act upon their certificate. By s. 60, a retiring lord chancellor may deliver written judgments within six weeks after his resig

nation.

The general and practical results of these reforms and their effects on a suit in chancery produced by the above acts, and the raies and orders which were founded upon them, may be summarily recapitulated.

Previously to the alterations, a suitor in equity commenced his proceedings by filing a bill of complaint written on parchment, and summoning the parties against whom he proceeded by means of writs of subpoena to appear and defend themselves. Beyond the fact that a bill had been filed, which he was required to answer, a defendant in chancery could know nothing of the nature of the proceeding against him until he had taken, at considerable cost, an office-copy of the bill; and, practically, each defendant had to take an office-copy. Then, after an interval of time, the defendant had to put in his answer to the bill, though perhaps he admitted or denied all the allegations of the bill, or had no knowledge, one way or the other, about any of them. But whether informed or not on the questions asked, the defendant had to answer; for the practice, under a general order, of serving a copy of the bill, had only a limited application. Then of every answer, pertinent or not, the plaintiff had to take an office-copy; and the accumulation of paper in suits involving many details, or much documentary matter, er to which there were many defendants, often became perfectly overwhelming. Then the power a plaintiff had to compel a defendant to set forth in his answer, in so many words, lengthy accounts and documents, was mostly made an engine of much oppression, especially in mercantile accounts, the stationer's charge, in some instances, for making a single copy amounting to £120. All this vexation has been changed, or greatly mitigated.

According to the amended practice, the plaintiff prepares his bill conformably to a concise form given in the new orders; which he must have printed on writing royal paper, folio, in pica type leaded," with blank paper of the same kind interleaved; and this is to be filed with the clerk of the records. Instead of serving a subpoena, a writ of summons suffices, and the plaintiff must then serve each defendant with a printed copy of the bill, on which is an indorsement informing him when he must appear, and the consequences of his non-appearance; such copy having been authenti

cated by the stamp of the record clerk. The bill is to contain no interrogatories; but if the plaintiff require an answer from any defendant, separate interrogatories may be filed for the examination of the defendant within eight days after the time limited for the defendant's appearance. Each defendant is entitled to demand ten printed copies of the bill from the plaintiff, at a fixed price, one halfpenny per folio of ninety words. Thus the bill having been once printed, all the various parties to the suit have the benefit of this convenient form in every stage of the proceedings; and though in some cases the first cost to the plaintiff of printing the bill may rather exceed that of a single written bill, yet in the end-the unsuccessful, as a rule, having to pay ultimately all the costs-the saving at the termination of the suit will most likely be very considerable. If amendments or additions are required to be made to the bill, they are to be printed and served in the same way as the original. The orders give a concise form for answers. But if no answer is required by the plaintiff, or thought necessary by the defendant, he merely files a replication, and leaves the plaintiff to prove his case in the best way he can. At the end of three months, if the plaintiff has not proceeded with his suit effectually, so as to bring it to a hearing, the defendant may move to dismis the bill for want of prosecution; when the court may make such order as may be just and reasonable. Thus, a defendant can never have a suit hanging over him more than three months, unless there be substantial and active proceedings in the cause.

In lieu of former fees payable to solicitors, the following were ordered For instructions for a bill, £1 14s. ; making a copy of ditto, per folio, 4d.; correcting the proof sheet, per folio, 2d. ; amending each copy of a bill or claim to serve, where there is no reprint, 138. 4d.; instructions for brief to be allowed on a replication being filed, or on a motion for a decree on a bill, or in an injunction cause on moving for the injunction, one guinea (but to be charged once only in the progress of a cause); amending each brief of a bill or claim, when there is no reprint, 13s. 4d.; perusing and considering the bill on behalf of defendant, or set of defendants appearing by same solicitor, one guinea.

In many cases the object is to get a speedy hearing; probably there is little or no dispute as to facts, and all that is wanted is the decision of the court on legal questions. In other cases, again, prompt decision is of the essence of justice. This was provided for when the defendant's time for answering has expired, the plaintiff may move for a decree, giving a month's notice, and previously filing all the affidavits he means to use, and giving at the foot of his notice a list of such affidavits. In fourteen days the defendant must file his affidavits in answer, giving his opponent a list of them, who has seven days more to file affidavits, which must "be confined to matters strictly in reply."

When no such motion for a decree is made, but issue is joined,