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tmmmmmmmmm mq TM IS. aLCB A I) E B. [Sj^...
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CMtics are not the legislators, bat the ...
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^The tw o Quar rly Volumes bound in pape...
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M. Thikrs, we learn, has completed his H...
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LAW. KEPORTS. The Common Law and Equity ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Cmtics Are Not The Legislators, Bat The ...
CMtics are not the legislators , bat the judges and police of . literature . They do not make lawa- ^ they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Beview .
^The Tw O Quar Rly Volumes Bound In Pape...
^ The tw o Quar rly Volumes bound in paper , neutral-green-grey , or blue and yellow , which perpetuate the traditions of Tory and Whig principles , present this month a fair reflex of the state of public affairs and public opinion , not only in the contents of each , but in the relation that they have to each other . The Edinburgh Review is filled with glances at the collateral subjects of the day ; coming to no perfect conclusion , but enlightening the present by the past , by science , travels , or philosophy , and closing with one great practical confession . Yet somehow it commences with patting itself in the wrong where Whigs always will be wrong—in the United States . It has a paper on Slavery , endorsing Mrs . Habbibt Beecher Stowe ! Whigs never treat
* he Union with politeness , and the Edinburgh , after the statesmanlike fashion of its party , rakes up the sore point of the Republic , whose weight in »< the balance of power is so important just now ! The article , however , is interesting , because it brings out a fair account of the Fug itive Slave Law and its working . It is imperfect , because it totally omits the compensating measures that accompanied that ugly-looking statute . " Travels in Siberia " ¦ opens glimpse into that desolate part of Russia—too waste and wild , cold And dreary , to be the home even of a democracy for any purpose beyond its bounds . " English Surnames" are the subject of a very amusing paper , in
• which we ' find-some strange mistakes ; such as the adoption of a heavy joke , ¦ Which derives " Bigod" from a habit of swearing , instead of its French origin of Pigault or Pigot . " Holland" is allotted to the foreign country of that 1 name , instead of the Lincolnshire district called " the parts of Holland , " « o named from their topographical resemblance . " The Correction of Juvenile Offenders , " " Hue ' Travels in China , " " A Memoir of Pascal Paoli the Corsican Chief , " " The Chemistry of Common Life , " " The Autocracy of the Czars ^ " fr » m the Russian antiquities to Schnitzer , not forgetting the Secret Memoirs of Peter the Great , and " Lord Brougham on Criminal
"Procedure , " are subjects , which speak for themselves . The confession is a . grand review of the state of the army , which admits that , although reformers . are frequently wrong in their proposals , reforms must come , if the army is to work . But when are the reforms coming ? What number of the Edinburgh will record them as facts ? - ' -The Quarterly begins with " The Crystal Palace , " and ends with " Public Affairs ' , " touching , by the way , upon divers " Venetian Despatches , " - " Madame de Maintenon , " " Food , and its Adulteration , " " The Emperor Nicholas , " " Forests and Trees , " and « Sir Richard Steele . " The last-named
Is a charming paper , carrying the reader back into the time when the latter and Spectator were written , and their writers lived . " Nicholas" is a per-. sonal memoir of that potentate , and his bodily constitution ; a branch-of Jiistory too frequently neglected . Could we but get medical men to give us leadings-articles derived from , original information of Hits kind , how often might we trace political blunders to medical causesTHdw " often ~ woul"d 7 a ReformiBill be better applied in the shape of a prescription ! How often should we learn the- absolute necessity of stopping the reigri of a race hopeless of regeneration . Why not have a medieal commission of inquiry into the physiology of the Neapolitan Bourbons ?
- "< The Forester" is a hint to country-gentlemen how > to treat their timber , tenderly and wisely . " Madame de < Maintenon "—a chapter , written with < jqual intelligence and sympathy , in the perpetual inquiry into that female problem , the wife and widow of the rheumatic Soakhon , the governess and secret wife in the family of Lotus the Fourteenth . " The Crystal Palace ' is-an impartial review of that building , its gigantic defects , splendid opportunities , and creditable efforts . 'The two articles in these two reviews on Chemistry and Food , are , particularly together , a memorandum of more than passing interest . A single
point in the chemical paper , illustrating the universal addiction either to intoxicating or narcotic drugs , or to warm diluents , not only makes us ask whether the teetotallers are wiser than the spirit-totallers , but culls up a fear that the diet of this country may be amongst the causes slowly tending to undermine the physical constitution of the people . It would not be tho ¦ only cause tending that way . When we look to the other Quarterly wo are reminded that the poisons detected , even in deadly proportions , amongst our food , by the commissioner of tho Lancet , are still sold with our food by houses that were then exposed . Wo buy poison , and we know it , and we go on buying poison !
In > Venice they had a plan of making their Ambassadors give reports -upon'tho condition of tho countries they visited . Tho reports were not equal toottrcoHflulorreturns in statistics ; but they supplied tho place oi travelling and of books of ravels * and throw great light upon tho relations of the Roi public with its allies or * r . < m » iee . Some of these reports have survived , and they 'remain aa useful contemporary materials for history . The Quarterly brings a few before us ; and in , doing so tolls us certain thingswhioh wo have for-< 4 ? otten . Such , for instance , as tho fact—probable when told , though seldom rememberod—^ tbat there w * e >« , time when Henry T-ns Eighth
¦¦> MaMMMnaManMaanMiaM SiS ^ fi ^ Si ^ g ^ was youngs comely ,- and ' agreeable . A modern historian has assailed him-for having ; pretended to the German throne while-he was-a young man , because he was the confirmed-and bloated profligate of his older years ! The paper on *' Public Affairs , " however , is the gem of the Quarterly and why ? Simply because in this Tory organ we find one of the most concise , intelligent , and impartial surveys of the politics for these last three months that it has been our fortune to read . While ^ Whigs and newfangled Disraelites are competing with each other in intrigue and cant , simple truth appears really to have taken refuge in the Quarterly Review . This is one of the wonderful events of modern days .
M. Thikrs, We Learn, Has Completed His H...
M . Thikrs , we learn , has completed his History ofthe Consulate and of the Empire , which will close with the fifteenth volume . The twelfth volume will appear about the end of June . We shall be interested to know how the historian ' s enthusiasm has been affected by the French history of the last four years .
Law. Keports. The Common Law And Equity ...
LAW . KEPORTS . The Common Law and Equity Reports in all the Courts . Royal 8 vo . Beuning . There are few of our readers who have not a friend " at the Bar , " and have not heard of ' * the Reports , " of their number , their cost , and their lamentable arrear . The subject has been discussed until it has become of general interest , and the more it has been canvassed the more clearly has it appeared that it affects us all . A proper system of reporting the decisions of the Courts upon all cases adjudicated by the Judges is essential to the administration of justice . Without such a system there would be an absence of uniformity and
certainty in their proceedings , which would cause much unnecessary litigation , with all its train of troubles , heartburnings , and jealousies . Like other British Institutions , however , the existing system of Reporting has grown spontaneously from the necessity of the case . There are no official Reporters , whose duty it is to publish , for the guidance of the Courts and profession , accurate summaries of the judgments pronounced upon novel combinations of facts , ' or upon the interpretations to be put upon the ambiguous and sometimes inconsistent language of the new Acts of Parliament , although these judgments have the force of law upon inferior tribunals , and the force of opinion upon those of equal rank .
The necessity for regular reports of all the Courts once haying become evident , they were soon provided by the energy of individual Barristers , and so well and so accurately has the work been done , that , although without official sanction , their Reports of Cases have been accepted by the judges as accurate and binding . While . we have suffered from the system , as affected by modern changes , we must acknowledge that the staff of Reporters did good service and did it well-As years have rolled on , however , and the ti'ansactions of society have
become more extensive , the Courts more numerous , and their decisions obtained with less delay , the demand upon the system which had grown , it must be remembered , from small beginnings , has become too much for it . An outlay of 301 . a year hardly suffices to supply the current volumes , while the acquisition of the accumulated series is almost hopeless . Add to this objection that the decisions of one year are hardly available until the expiration of another , and it has occurred that the delay in their publication has been of a more extended character . The only consolation for these serious evils has been that there must be a change .
Partial remedies have been from time to time attempted by the publication of Reports in the legal periodicals , but with only partial success , foi notwithstandingthe-excellence ofmanyoLthe . Reports , there were objections which were incident to the periodical character , and which could not be
overcome . The volumes , whose general title is printed at the head of this , notice , are the results of an attempt to establish a iiqw system of reporting , und to realise those improvements which " our friends at the Bar" have been so long anticipating . Tho projectors of The Common Law and Equity Reports hava abandoned the plan of a separate series of Reports for each Court . Instead of this , while in each they have a Reporter , and in some two , all ol' them members of the Bar , whose names nnd Inns are published , they class all tho Reports under four heads : Common Law , Equity , Bankruptcy and Insolvency , and Ecclesiastical and Admiralty . They are paged to correspond with thesi four divisions , and are issued from time to time , and as early as possible after tho cases are determined , in parts ; of course , at the end of the year ,
they can be bound in volumes . Wo need not point out to our readers how superior in every respect is this plan , which admits , for instance , of the immediate issue of an Equity " Part , " containing the latest decisions before all tho six distinct Equity Tribunals , to waiting , term after term , until there have been ^ cases enough before an individual Vice-Chancellor to make up a " part of a separate series of Reports devoted to this Court alono . As an illustration ol the improvement they can and do effect , the proprietors . state , that witlim three months after , the commencement of the series in April , 1853 , Keporw
of no less than 249 cases , each , it must be observed , involving sonio point necessary to bo known , were in tho hands of the subscribers . JNotwitnstanding this rapidity , every oarc seems to have been bestowed upon tiic preparation of tho cases , which , though concisel y , dourly and tmllioioiiuy reported . Tho success which has rewarded the projectors oi the enterprise is the surest testimony of the excellence of the work , and l un «« cc-cm hns induced them to add to the yearly issue a volume ol" lu-puna oi ^** u determined nt Quarter Sessions and before tho County . Courts , ami a . iiu > k important and more useful volume , which is to contain the statutes oi cau Session , those required by the profession being printed in full . Tho continuance , in a stylo of equal excellence , of tho Common Uiu rm Equity Reports will bo of great service to all concerned or micros tea in administration of justice . Their plan is judiciously conceived ana iiuj
executed , and , if persevered in , it will command success . Vr » ltiniM Injustice to the gentlemen whoso labours are contained in uio voju before us , wo must not close ouv notice without stating timi iui .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041855/page/18/
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