King's Bench was limited to cases that were either purely criminal, or had some connection with offences. When any one, however, happened to be in the prison of the King's Bench for an offence, there was no means of getting at him but through that court; and so the plan was devised, of stating that a man was in the King's Bench prison when he was not. And in process of time," says Blackstone, “it [the Court of King's Bench] began, by a fiction, to hold plea of all personal actions whatsoever, and has continued to do so for ages; it being surmised, that the defendant is arrested for a supposed trespass, which he never has, in reality, committed; and, being thus in custody of the marshal of the court, the plaintiff is at liberty to proceed against him for any other personal injury, which surmise of being in the marshal's custody the defendant is not at liberty to dispute." These fictions were not abolished until the year 1832, when, by act of parliament, a uniform process was established in the three common law courts. An appeal lies from the decision of any one of these courts to the judges of the other two, who, when met to decide on such appeals, constitute a court called the Exchequer Chamber. Fourteen of the fifteen judges who form these common law courts hold the assizes in the various county towns -in some of them twice, and in others thrice a year. Here they act both as civil and criminal judges. Of fences committed in London and its vicinity are tried by a tribunal lately created, called the Central Criminal Court.

we were to complete the list of English tribunals, i would be necessary to include the justices of peace, who, besides many special powers in revenue and other matters conferred by act of parliament, sit, at the general and quarter-sessions, as judges in minor offences. Then there are various courts, of greater or less jurisdiction, connected with cities and boroughs; and, in some places, establishments called courts of requests, for adjudicating in cases of petty debts.

After having detailed the legal system of England, it is unnecessary to describe that of Ireland, which is almost in all respects a model of it. The bankruptcy system of England was lately ingrafted on that part of the empire, and the principles of the improved Insolvent Debtors' Act were extended to it in August, 1840. The chief distinction in the nature of the courts of law, consists in this, that in Ireland a considerable amount of the judicial business is transacted at courts of general session, held quarterly by the justices of the peace, who act under the advice of professional lawyers, called assistant barristers.

LAW OF SCOTLAND.

From what has been already said, it will be gathered that the law of Scotland was chiefly composed of the feudal system and the Roman law. The former was in practice according to the form in which it had adapted itself to the particular customs of the country, the latter was taken from the doctrines of the civilians. The origin The origin of the authority of equity tribunals has and progress of feudalism in Scotland are very obscure. been already considered. The principal establishment The chroniclers attribute the foundation of the system of this description in England is that of the Chancery. to Malcolm II., in the eleventh century, but with little It has in it three distinct courts, and three judges-the probability. It is more likely that, with the resort of chancellor, the vice-chancellor, and the master of the foreigners, Saxon and Norman, to the court of the rolls. Formerly, all proceedings in bankruptcy centered Scottish king, subsequently to the conquest of England, with the lord chancellor, but the increasing importance the system was imperceptibly and gradually introduced. of this class of business rendered it necessary to appro- The monarchs, who were ambitious of presiding over a priate a separate court to the purpose. This was accom- distinguished court, gave particular encouragement to plished in 1832 by Lord Brougham's act. The term the Normans, to whom they granted large fiefs or lordBankruptcy is in England confined entirely to persons ships; and it was natural that they should return the engaged in commerce; and the jurisdiction of the court same homage to which they were accustomed in the is so limited. Previous to its formation, however, it had country of their origin. The whole of the Lowlands, been found expedient to create a court for the relief of indeed, and a great part of the Highlands, becaine nearly insolvent debtors who might not be engaged in trade, on as thickly adorned with Norman aristocratic nanes as their giving up their property to their creditors. By Sir the broad plains of England; and it was this alien a-isJohn Campbell's act for restricting imprisonment for debt, tocracy that submitted with so much indifference to the the practice of relieving insolvent debtors was improved, claims and encroachments of Edward I. There appear nearly on the model of the Scottish system of cessio, and to have been many points on which the earlier laws of a bankruptcy code was applied to debtors who might not the two divisions of the island were identical. In Engbe tradesmen. The utility and importance of the Insol- land, however, as we have already seen, the feudal sysvent Debtors' Court were thus materially enlarged. tem received many checks, while in Scotland it was alAnother court was lately brought into existence, called lowed to grow rank; and the deference paid to the civil the Judicial Committee of the Privy-Council. It consists law in the north served to widen the distinction. The almost entirely of the judges of the other courts. Its alliance and continued intercourse with France, moreprincipal jurisdiction is in appeals from the colonial over, naturally drew the legal practice in the direction of courts, and the Court of Admiralty. This Court of Ad- the example set by that country. miralty has jurisdiction in maritime contracts, and crimes committed on the high seas. Having to deal with matters in which the inhabitants of this and of other countries are jointly interested, it professes to follow, not the special law of England, but the general commercial law of modern Europe, founded on the Roman law. In time of war, the court receives a commission to adjudicate regarding prizes taken from enemies, or from neutrals committing breaches of neutrality. Besides all the tribunals already mentioned, there are ecclesiastical courts in the two archiepiscopal provinces of Canterbury and York. In the former, there are the Court of Arches, the Prerogative or Testamentary Court, and the Court of Peculiars; in the latter, the Prerogative Court and the Chancery Court. There are also many inferior ecclesiastical courts. The chief jurisdiction exercised by these tribunals, besides questions of ecclesiastical discipline, is in matters relating to succession to movable goods. If

There is little information to be derived concerning the practice of the law in Scotland, previous to the sixteenth century. Edward I. probably destroyed some vestiges, through which its history might have been traced; but he seems to have been charged by some antiquaries with the destruction of more than ever existed. He did more, probably, by fabrication than by destruction to poison the sources of Scottish jurisprudence. The earliest alleged collection of the laws, commonly called the Regiam Majestatem, bears so near a resemblance to the English work of Glanvil, noticed above, that it is naturally supposed to have been a digest, not of what the laws were, but of what the conqueror wished them to be. The earliest Scottish legal writer, whose works are quoted, is Balfour, who prepared, about the latter end of the sixteenth century, a compendium, chiefly derived from the Regiam Majestatem, the acts of parliament, and the decisions of the court. In the reign of James VI

or courts from among their own number, called Tribuneaux de Commerce. The jurisdiction of these courts, which are very numerous, extends to questions between merchants, and disputes arising out of commercial transactions. In criminal legislation, a different order was pursued from that adopted in the civil; the procedure code was prepared and adopted before the crimes to which it was to apply, and the punishments it was to enforce, were defined. The Code d'Instruction Criminelle was promulgated in 1808, and the Code Pénal in 1810.

far the greatest portion, however, in bulk, consisted of the | this code provision is made for merchants choosing boards peculiar feudal customs of the various provinces. In these the feudal system was sometimes retained in so high a state of purity, that the collections of provincial customs are esteemed excellent authorities on the subject. But it was not merely in each province that there was a local custom. The power of the crown, or any other paramount legislature, was so feeble, that wherever an assembly of men were held together by one common tie, as where they were co-vassals of one lord, or members of the same civic community, they had in some measure a code of laws of their own. The royal codes, which existed on a large scale, are estimated at about 300, but of the number of inferior local customs it would be impossible to make an estimate. Voltaire observes, that a man travelling through his country has to change laws as often as he has to change horses, and that the most learned barrister in one village will be a complete ignoramus a few miles off. The seignorial courts were divided into three grades, according to the extent of the penal authority exercised by them. The principal courts of law were the parliaments of the respective provinces. Seats in them were generally held by purchase, or were in the hereditary succession of great families, who thus constituted a species of professional nobility. The decrees of these bodies were often baffled or reversed by the royal authority, exercised in the well-known form of lettres de cachet. These alterations of the decisions of the courts, however, were performed not as a judicial revision, but by the simple authority of the king; and thus the parliaments being subject to no judicial control or responsibility, adhered but slightly to fixed rules of law, and often acted according to their own will and discretion. The jury, even so much of it as may have existed under the old feudal form, had entirely disappeared, and proceedings were conducted in secret. Criminal investigations, instead of terminating in a conclusive trial, as in England, were protracted through a lingering succession of written pleadings and secret investigations, from which the accused could never calculate on being free. The torture was extensively employed; but in the general case, only where there was as much circumstantial evidence as would justify a conviction in this country.

The whole of this system was swept suddenly away before the tide of the Revolution, but amid the troubled times that succeeded, it was long ere rulers could find peace and leisure for the erection of a substitute. In 1800, Napoleon appointed a commission to draw up a project of a civil code. The project when prepared was circulated for comment and suggestion, and was afterwards, along with the observations made on it by the different courts of law, discussed in the council of state and the tribunate. Thus was formed the Code Civil, or civil code of France, more generally known by the term Code Napoleon, which was applied to it under the empire. Nearly at the same time, and in the same manner, was framed the Code de Procedure Civile, or code for regulating the form of process in civil actions, and specifying the jurisdictions of the various courts. Being a subject more connected with technical detail, and involving less of general principle than the civil code, its provisions were left almost entirely to the arrangement of the lawyers. Besides the technical directions in which lawyers are almost wholly interested, there are in this manual many which concern the ordinary proceedings of citizens at large, such as directions for the order to be taken regarding the effects of a deceased person, &c. This code is generally accompanied by a table of fees in law proceedings. In 1807, another code was promulgated called the Code de Commerce, consisting of 648 sections. This is the commercial code of France, regulating partnership, pills and notes, banking, shipping, bankruptcy, &c. By

Such were the laws issued under the government of Napoleon, commonly called Les Cinq Codes, or the Five Codes. There are other collections of regulations, which should be added to make up a complete body of French laws-a military code, issued by Napoleon; regulations concerning woods and forests, issued under Charles X.; various laws as to the press and theatrical exhibitions, and alterations of the penal code, issued under the government of Louis Philippe, &c. It is simply in the Five Codes, however, passed under Napoleon and confirmed at the restoration, that the modern laws of France are known to Europe at large. They are generally published in a small, thick, closely-printed volume; and for the conciseness, clearness, and elegance of their language, and their intrinsic merits, they are a favourite subject of study with many British lawyers, while there are few places in civilized Europe in which they are not generally known. Independently of the division into books and sections, the paragraphs in each code are numbered straight on from the commencement, an arrangement which gives peculiar facilities for reference. Thus there are in the civil code 2281 consecutively numbered paragraphs. In a country where the material of the law is so gigantic as it is in England, it is of the highest interest to mark the practical working of this grand effort at simplification. To an unlearned person in this country, it is a much easier thing to know the law of France on any particular point, than the law he is living under. If an English lawyer is asked a question, his answer involves reference to commentaries, decisions, and statutes innumerable; but in the general case, the answer of a French lawyer bears simple reference to such a paragraph of such a code.

The French codes adopt the phraseology of the Roman law and many of its principles. The most striking deviation from the previous law of France, and the present systems of other countries, is perhaps in the rules respecting succession. The children succeed to equal shares of the parents' property, whether it consist of land or movables; and if there be no legitimate children, illegimate children may succeed. The parent is limited in the disposal of his property by will. He can only bequeath the half if he have one legitimate child, and the third if he have two. Restrictions somewhat similar are to be found in other countries with respect to movable property, but not as to land. The effect which the extensive partition, naturally occasioned by this law, has effected, and may effect in France, is a subject of great interest to political economists. In the mercantile law there are several provisions unknown to this country, such as registers for hypothecs or securities held over movable goods or merchandize, and societies "en commandite," or partnerships in which certain managing members are responsible for the obligations of the company to the extent of their whole property, while the sleeping partners who advance money are not responsible beyond the amount of their shares. The chief improvement in the criminal law effected during the Revolution, and sanctioned by the code of instruction, was jury trial, to which Napoleon was much opposed; the system, as finally settled, bore more resemblance to the Scottish than to the English form, prosecutions being

conducted by public prosecutors, there being no grand | their pernicious effects on society at large, than by the jury, and the jury of final trial deciding by a majority. In other respects, the criminal law is more remarkable for its austerity than for its subserviency to the general good of the public. With Napoleon, though that object was not neglected, it was made secondary to the consolidation of his own power; and offences are measured less by

trouble or danger they might occasion to rulers. Hence was adopted in many cases the stern and simple method of putting arbitrary power over criminals into the hands of the administrators of the law, while punishments of the highest kind were reserved for offences against the authorities.

POPULATION-POOR LAWS-LIFE-ASSURANCE.

POPULATION.

THE rate at which human beings naturally increase, the proportion which this increase bears to the means which exist for their subsistence, and the laws which operate to bring the increase and the means of subsistence into conformity, were subjects scarcely reflected on by our ancestors, but have been matter of keen controversy during the first thirty years of the present century. As far as population was at all thought of in former times, the prevalent doctrine was, that the greater the numbers of a nation, the stronger was the state, and the more likely was that country to be a scene of both agricultural and commercial industry. So useful were numbers considered for increasing the means of subsistence, and also of national defence, that in many countries it was thought proper to make laws for encouraging matrimony, and to put bounties on all families exceeding a certain number. So lately as the time of Louis XIV., pensions were given in France to individuals who had ten or more children.

demand for labourers is moderate the command of the labourer over the means of subsistence is consequently much diminished; and the population is observed to proceed at a moderate pace, varying in each country, as nearly as may be, according to the variations in the funds for its support. Where these funds are stationary, as we are taught to believe is the case in China, and as has certainly been the case in Spain, Italy, and probably most of the countries of Europe during certain periods of their history, there the demand for labour being stationary, the command of the labourer over the means of subsistence is comparatively very scanty, and population is observed to make no perceptible progress, and sometimes to be even diminished.

"In the second place, it is a fact equally notorious, that the actual increase of the funds for the maintenance of labour does not depend simply upon the physical capacity of any particular country to produce food and other necessaries, but upon the degree of industry, intelligence, and activity, with which these powers are at any particular time called forth. We observe countries

Dr. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, was perhaps the first to suggest any thing like a law as regulat-possessing every requisite for producing the necessaries ing the increase of population. He remarked, that "the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men; quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast. It is this demand," says he, "which regulates and determines the state of population in all the different countries of the world-in North America, in Europe, and in China; which renders it rapidly progressive in the first, slow and gradual in the second, and altogether stationary in the last."

VIEWS OF MR. MALTHUS.

This hint, for it is little else, is said to have been what suggested the celebrated essay of Mr. Malthus, which first appeared in 1798, but was almost reconstructed in a second edition of 1803. There was something so startling in the views of this writer, and at the same time so much plausibility in his arguments, distressing as they were to natural feelings, that his work attracted great attention, and many of the ablest thinkers and writers of the day became converts to its main doctrines.

An abridgment of Mr. Malthus's views, given in the Edinburgh Review for August 1810, sets out by showing that "the rate of population is by no means the same in all parts of the world." The variations in the rate are universally preceded and accompanied by variations in the means of maintaining labourers. "Where these funds are rapidly increasing, as in North America, the demand for an increasing number of labourers makes it easy to provide an ample subsistence for each; and the population of the country is observed to make rapid advances. When these funds increase only at a moderate rate, as in most of the countries of Europe, then the VOL. IL-37

and conveniences of life in abundance, sunk in a state of ignorance and indolence, from the vices of their governments, or the unfortunate constitution of their society, and slumbering on for ages with scarcely any increase in the means of subsistence, till some fortunate event introduces a better order of things; and then the industry of the nation being roused and allowed to exert itself with more freedom, more ample funds for the maintenance of labour are immediately provided, and population is observed to make a sudden start forwards, at a rate quite different from that at which it had before proceeded.

"This seems to have been the case with many of the countries of Europe during some periods of their history; but is more particularly remarkable in Russia, the popu lation of which, though very early inhabited, was so extremely low before the beginning of the last century, and has proceeded with such rapid steps since, particularly since the reign of Catharine II.

"It is also a fact, that has often attracted observation in a review of the history of different nations, that the waste of people occasioned by the great plagues, famines, and other devastations to which the human race has been occasionally subject, has been repaired in a much shorter time than it would have been, if the population after these devastations had only proceeded at the same rate as before. From which it is apparent, that after the void thus occasioned, it must have increased much faster than usual; and the greater abundance of the funds for the maintenance of labour, which would be left to the sur vivors under such circumstances, indicates again the usual conjunction of a rapid increase of population with a rapid increase of the funds for its maintenance. Just 2 B