ABSTRACT OF THE PUBLIC GENERAL STATUTES.

7 VICTORIA.

CAP. 1.-An Act to enlarge the Powers of an Act of the Fourth and Fifth Years of Her present Majesty, empowering the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods to raise Money for certain Improvements in the Metropolis, on the Security of the Land Revenues of the Crown within the County of Middlesex and City of London. [5th March, 1844.] CAP. 2.-An Act for the more speedy Trial of Offences committed on the High Seas. [5th March, 1844.]

S. 1 recites the 28 Hen. 8, c. 15, and gives the judges of assize or oyer and terminer and gaol delivery the powers given by that act to the commissioners for trial of offences within the admiralty jurisdiction, and the powers as to costs given by 7 Geo. 4, c. 64.

S. 2. Venue to be the same as if the offence had been committed in the county where the trial is had, and material facts to be averred to have taken place on "the high seas."

S. 3 provides for commitments for trial according to this act.

S. 4. Act not to affect the Central Criminal Court, or restrain the issue of special commissions under 28 Hen. 8, c. 15, if necessary.

S. 5. Act may be amended or repealed this session.

CAP. 3.-An Act to stay proceedings for Three Calendar months, and till the end of the present Session of Parliament, in certain actions under the Provisions of several Statutes for the Prevention of Excessive Gaming, and to prevent any Proceedings being taken under those Statutes during such limited time.

[5th March, 1844.] CAP. 4.-An Act for transferring Three Pounds Ten Shillings per centum per annum Annuities One thousand eight hundred and eighteen into Annuities of Three Pounds Five Shillings per centum per annum and New Three Pounds per centum per annum Annuities. [22nd March, 1844.]

CAP. 5.-An Act for transferring certain Annuities of Three Pounds Ten Shillings per centum per annum and Government Debentures into Annuities of Three Pounds Five Shillings per centum per annum and New Three Pounds per centum per annum Annuities. [22nd March, 1844.] CAP. 6.-An Act to apply the sum of Eight Millions out of the Consolidated Fund to the Service of the Year One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.

[22nd March, 1844.] CAP. 7.-An Act to indemnify Witnesses who may give Evidence during this Session before either House of Parliament touching Gaming Transactions.

[22nd March, 1844.] CAP. 8.-An Act to facilitate the Recovery by Summary Process of Sums due to the Teachers of Schools in Ireland. [22nd March, 1844.] CAP. 9.-An Act for punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters. [2nd April, 1844.] CAP. 10.-An Act to indemnify such Persons in the United Kingdom as have omitted to qualify themselves for Offices and Employments, and to extend the time limited for those respectively until the Twenty-fifth Day of March, One thousand eight hundred and forty-five. [2nd April, 1844.] CAP. 11.-An Act for the Regulation of Her Majesty's Royal Marine Forces while on Shore. [2nd April, 1844.]

EVENTS OF THE QUARTER.

In consequence of the death of Lord Abinger, Sir Frederick Pollock has been made Chief Baron; Sir William Follett, Attorney General; and Mr. Thesiger, Solicitor General. These promotions were so much a matter of course, that nothing but the lack of matter during the recess can account for their turning out so fertile a topic for the newspapers. We shall only add, that they are in all respects satisfactory to the public and the profession; and that, to the best of our belief, no other arrangement was contemplated or discussed. We say this to rebut the supposition that any objection was raised to any one on the ground of character.

We hope to collect materials for an authentic memoir of Lord Abinger in a future number. The best account of his peculiar style of advocacy that has yet appeared is Serjeant Talfourd's, quoted 13 L. M. 277.

We have also to record the deaths of two highly estimable members of the profession Mr. Serjeant Bompas, the leader of the Western Circuit, and Mr. Merivale, one of the Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy.

:

A great many bills affecting professional interests are now before parliament besides the County Courts Bill (ante, p. 365.) There is Lord Brougham's Bill for the appointment of a paid president and two paid vice-presidents of the Judicial Committee, which is not likely to get over the imputation under which it labours of being a job, and for his own special benefit; though, for aught we know to the contrary, the imputation may be unmerited, and it seems clear that the appellate business will never be done with fitting regularity until a permanent judge is appointed. After what has passed, Lord Brougham could hardly take the presidency, if it were offered him; but Mr. Pemberton Leigh might be induced to take it; or, perhaps considering the recent improvement in the Court of Exchequer, the eminent judicial qualities of Baron Parke might now be more advantageously employed than in the duties of a puisne judge. We presume the new President would be raised to the peerage, in order to confer due dignity on the Court. Indeed, one main object of the framer of the Bill seems to be to enable the new President to walk out of a room before a Duke.

The

There is also the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, which labours under the disadvantage of being materially different from the Government Bill of last year, and preserves the very Diocesan Courts which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with other high authorities, had unhesitatingly marked for execution. apology for this apparent vacillation of purpose is, that the present bill may pass, but that a bill carrying out the views of the Commissioners to their full extent would infallibly be defeated, so numerous are the vested interests, so powerful the army of martyrs that would be arrayed against it. Yet Dr. Nicholl did not shrink from the encounter when what was to be taken from proctors and doctors in the country was to be bestowed on proctors and doctors in town; and he knows as well as we do, that it was not the opposition, however strenuous, of the provincial practitioners that defeated his measure of last year. The present bill, as was strongly pressed during the debate on the second reading by Dr. Elphinstone, leaves untouched the most glaring anomaly. The petitioners against the bill of last year may repeat, and they ought to keep on repeating till the grievance is redressed,—

"That it has of late been an important object of the legislature to assimilate, in many particulars, the law respecting real and personal estate, and much has been

done in furtherance of this object; and that the leading intention of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was to carry out this object much further.

"That, out of the circumstances of remote times, the remarkable anomaly has arisen, that a will of personal estate requires probate to give it validity, whilst one of real estate requires no probate, and that the validity of a will of personalty is adjudicated on in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and that of realty in the Queen's Courts, the former having an ultimate appeal to the Privy Council, and the latter to the House of Lords; and thus it is possible that a will relating to real and personal estate, though in itself one undivided instrument, may be established by one class of Courts as to one portion of the property devised, and annulled by the other; and that such conflict is rendered more probable by the different rules respectively prevailing in such Courts as to proof of execution and testacy."

A society for promoting the amendment of the law has just been formed under high auspices, though not quite so high as the list of honorary members FS would lead the uninitiated to suppose; for we believe every gentleman who had a distinguished foreign jurist for a friend, or wished it to be supposed that he had, put him down without ceremony. However, Lords Brougham and Campbell are both members, so that the society will in on one respect resemble the happy family in Trafalgar Square. We own we expect little from it. The parliamentary members might make motions or speeches; the non-parliamentary members might communicate their notions through the press, and no good can be effected by reading over their lucubrations to a select circle in a room.

In our last Number we announced an addition to the already superabundant stock of legal periodicals. We have now to announce an addition to the no less superabundant stock of reported cases; namely, New Sessions Cases, relating to the Duties and Liabilities of Magistrates, by Messrs. Carrow, Hamerton and Allen. It is certainly hard on magistrates and others interested in Sessions' Law to be obliged to purchase the whole of the Queen's Bench Reports; and as these cases are judiciously selected, they will probably prove highly acceptable to the class for 6 bus loomi od sa aquibeзsori whom they are more particularly intended. bludes. Arcober adot 7/1 bǝtgobe

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.”

A Treatise on the Law relating to Composition with Creditors. With a an Ap pendix, containing Precedents of Pleadings and Deeds. By William Forsyth, of the Inner Temple, Esq. Barrister at Law, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Second Edition. In 8vo. Price 9s. boards.

Forms of Writs and other Proceedings on the Crown Side of the Court of Queen's Bench, with Practical Directions. By Mr. A, B. Corner, of the Crown Office. To which are added, The New Rules and Regulations, with Tables of Fees and Costs usually allowed to Attornies on Taxation of Costs. In 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. boards.

The Law and Practice in Bankruptcy, as founded on the recent Statutes. By J. F. Archbold, Esq. Barrister at Law. The Tenth Edition, including the Statutes and Cases to 7 Vict., the General Orders of the Court, New Forms and Tables of Costs. By John Flather, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. In 12mo. Price 11. 6s. boards,

C

The New Practice of Attornies in the Courts of Law at Westminster, with Forms, including the recent Statute as to Attornies, and the Cases decided thereon. Also an Appendix, comprising Questions of Practice, by which the Errors in Proceedings may be detected, and the proper mode of taking advantage adopted. By John Frederick Archbold, Esq. Barrister at Law. In Two Volumes 12mo. Price 11. 12s. boards.

them

New Sessions Cases, containing Reports of Cases relating to the Duties and Liabilities of Magistrates; determined in the Superior Courts at Westminster. In Hilary Term and Vacation, 1844. By J. M. Carron, J. Hamerton, and T. Allen, Esquires, Barristers at Law. Vol. I. Part 1. Price 5s.

Parish Settlements, and the Practice of Appeals; with the Law and Evidence of each class of Settlement, and the grounds of Objection incidental to them. With Forms. By Jelinger C. Symons, Esq. Barrister at Law. In 12mo. Price 6s. boards.

The New Chancery Practice; being a condensed Treatise of the Practice of the Court of Chancery, as altered by the recent Statutés and Orders, and by the Abolition of the Six Clerks Office; with Practical Directions, an Appendix of Forms, (including all the New Writs,) the Orders from 1828 to the Present Time, and the Modern Statutes. By Hubert Ayckbourn. In 12mo. Price 14s. boards.

The Law of Warrants of Attorney, Cognovits, and Consents to Judges' Orders for Judgment. With Forms. By Benjamin Coulson Robinson, Esq. of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law. In 12mo. Price 6s. boards.