franchisement from heriots, these are sums which the ord should not refuse to take, or the tenant refuse to pay.. Except in some particular manors, as those near London, where many wealthy persons reside, we are satisfied that the chance of collecting heriots is not worth more than this to the lord, and in many country manors unconnected with towns they are not worth so much, and here a smaller sum may very properly be taken.

If this sum is once agreed upon, the expense attending the enfranchisement is inconsiderable. If six tenants join, a schedule may be employed1 which is exempted from stamp duty 2, and is the only instrument which is necessary to complete the transaction. In a recent case, we are informed, the whole expense to each tenant did not exceed 27.; and although, perhaps, this was completed under somewhat favourable circumstances, yet we are assured there is nothing in the nature of the transaction to render it costly. We think it may be useful to conclude this notice by a form of schedule which was adopted in a recent enfranchisement from heriots and quit-rents, to which we are desirous of giving all possible publicity.3

Whether the time has not now arrived when some compulsory provision with respect to enfranchisement from heriots might not be safely and properly introduced, we shall not now inquire, but defer this point to a future time, when we propose entering upon the general question.

14 & 5 Vict. c. 35. s. 56. ; & 7 Vict. c. 27. s. 9.

2 4 & 5 Vict. c. 35. s. 93.

3 See the Table facing this page.

276

ART. III. · - LORD ELDON AS A LAW REFORMER.1

1. Reports of Cases in the Court of Common Pleas from 1799 to 1801. By J. BOSANQUET, Esq. and CHRISTOPHER PULLER, Esq. 2d vol. fol. 1802.

2. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By FRANCIS VESEY, jun., Esq. 13 vols. 8vo. from 1802 to 1819. 3. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By FRANCIS VESEY and JOHN BEAMES, Esqrs. 3 vols. 8vo. from

1812 to 1815.

4. Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By GEO. COOPER, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. 1815.

5. Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy decided by Lord Chancellor Eldon from 1801 to 1816. By GEO. ROSE, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo.

1813. 1816.

6. Reports of Cases in the House of Lords. By P. Dow, Esq. 6 vols. 8vo. 1813 to 1818.

7. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery. By J. H. MERIVALE. 3 vols. 8vo. from 1815 to 1817.

8. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery in the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By C. T. SWANSTON, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. from 1818 to 1819.

9. Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy from 1816 to 1820. By J. W. BUCK, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo.

10. Reports of Cases in the House of Lords. By RICH. BLIGH, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. from 1819 to 1821.

11. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By EDW. JACOB and JOHN WALKER, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. from 1819

to 1821.

The views of the writer of this article, it will be seen, are widely different from our own, as already shown in this work. We are desirous, however, of shedding all possible light on the character and labours of a man who not only held the great seal, but who practically governed this country for nearly a quarter of a century, and to whose eminent character and labours as a lawyer we are anxious to bear witness. The only excuse which can be made for Lord Eldon's conduct, as to the reform of the law, is here given, viz. that it is not the duty of the Lord Chancellor to attend to it. But if this be a good reason, how greatly is the argument of our first article helped as to the necessity of appointing a minister of justice! ED.

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12. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By EDW. JACOB, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. from 1821 to 1822.

13. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By G. TURNER and J. RUSSELL, Esqrs. 1 vol. 8vo. from 1822 to 1824.

14. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. By JAMES RUSSELL, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. 1826 and 1827.

15. New Reports of Cases in the House of Lords. By RICHARD BLIGH, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. 1827.

16. Cases in Bankruptcy. By T. C. GLYN and R. S. JAMESON, Esqrs. 2 vols. 8vo. from 1824 to 1827.

SUCH is the long list of Lord Eldon's reported judgments, to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested by the laborious student, before he can form any adequate conception of his merits as a judge. After making the necessary deductions for the labours of the Master of the Rolls, whose judgments are reported with his,-after rendering due honour to the zeal and industry which sat at the foot of this Gamaliel, and would not " that a leaf of his should fade," enough is left to excite our wonder at his indefatigable and unrivalled industry. Nearly fifty closely printed octavo volumes, which, if all his judgments and decrees had been preserved, would be doubled in number; and every individual case so well sifted, every decree so well weighed, that it may serve as a valuable precedent! What other judge has left such a monument to his memory! Lord Mansfield sat for thirty-two years, and his reported judgments fill seven or eight volumes. Lord Hardwicke held the Great Seal twenty years, and his judicial labours are comprised in six volumes. If we look to quality instead of quantity, there is the same disparity. The late Sir William David Evans gave two quarto volumes to his View of the Decisions of Lord Mansfield in civil causes. The age of quartos is past, and we hope it may never return. But, as it is impossible to put an Iliad into a nut-shell, so that it may be read, we must content ourselves at present in viewing one of the phases of Lord Eldon's judicial character.

Was that eminent judge a reformer or amender of the law