cept the inconvenient necessity of doing an allowed act by a circuitous, instead of a direct mode. If this only increased the length of conveyances, the evil would not be a slight one; but it does not stop there. All these evasions are, and must be, practised under the colour, and by the use of forms originally applicable to quite different purposes; and hence arises the necessity of framing every deed with reference to two objects instead of one;-first, to make the formal machinery of evasion so complete, as to take the subject matter out of the rule of law, and then to express the real intention of the instrument. The consequence of this is, that the design of the parties has a double chance of failure; for it may not only be itself insufficiently expressed, but, even though it should be ever so clear, and ever so conformable to the spirit of the modern rules of law, yet it may be impossible to carry it into effect, because the part of the deed that was intended to evade an obsolete regulation, happens to be inartificially framed. These evils might be obviated by a law to remove all such restraints upon the disposition of property as are found to be beneficially evaded in modern practice. The whole system of conveyances operating under the statute of uses, and all the array of trustees in whom no trust is really reposed, but who are mere men of straw, dressed out to fill up the gaps through which the common lawyers would otherwise force their way into the fortress of a settlement, would thus be done away; an immense step towards the simplification of the law. But as the present forms of conveyancing would be inapplicable to such a state of things, and it is to be feared that the abundant caution of the practitioners might lead to some degree of verboseness in those which must be invented, it would be a still farther improvement if the Legislature were to set forth forms of all such assurances as are in most common request, and thereby exhibit a pattern which might be imitated in the construction of such as are of more unusual occurrence. Such a collection of authoritative precedents would be of inestimable value for the attainment of brevity, because it would leave no room for that doubt as to the effect of a particular word or phrase, which the most judicious conveyancer may often feel, and which, knowing well that a mistake once made cannot afterwards be rectified, he, of course, obviates, not by leaving out the word or phrase which he himself thinks best calculated to convey his meaning, but by adding another which may happen to be more intelligible to minds differently constituted.

Many other amendments might, doubtless, be made in our law of real property;-thus, for the sake of facilitating the know

ledge of the law by rendering it uniform, all local customs varying from the general law of Descent, which is in the main sensible, and what is, at least, equally important, very intelligible, ought to be abolished, and that law itself should, in some few particulars, be revised; for the security of titles and convenience of purchasers, a general Registration of deeds and wills ought to be established and strictly enforced; and for the sake of justice to creditors, land ought to be charged, by the operation of law, with the Simple Contract-debts of a deceased owner, who could have so charged it by his own act. But our limits preclude us from farther expatiating on so wide a field.

For the same reason we shall glance but slightly on the topics discussed in our author's last chapter; and we the less regret the necessity of so doing, because on many of them there exists scarcely any difference of opinion,-as, for instance, on the propriety of having the proceedings in courts of justice car ried on in public, the buildings wherein they are held, convenient both for those who are concerned in, and those who are mere spectators of their transactions, and the system of judicature simple and uniform,-while others are of such a nature as to involve questions which, though of considerable interest, scarcely admit of any general solution, but must be decided as well as circumstances will admit upon each particular emergency-such are the qualifications of Judges, and the mode of selecting them. The subject, however, of the following observations, demands a distinct notice:

"There is one other point which so greatly affects the system of judicature, that it ought not to pass wholly unnoticed. It is, whether all the tribunals which it recognises should be permanent, or whether some, and which of them, and to what degree, ought not to be rendered ambulatory. There are decided advantages and disadvantages to be met with either way. There is no state in Europe where the judges of the supreme courts of law make annual circuits round the whole country, except in the British empire; nor is there any other method by which the whole body of the subjects are enabled to avail themselves of so much ability on the Bench and at the Bar, with so much convenience, and at so little comparative expense. On the other hand, if courts were to continue ambulatory too long, the life led would become so disagreeable, that men of the highest reputation would cease to preside in them, or to practise before them; and even though they did, their attention would become so dissipated by change of place, that the faculties of the mind could not be brought to bear upon any subject with their usual energy. Besides all this, if there is a press of business, and the time of the court at any one place is limited, the Bench and the Bar are apt to become impatient, and to despatch business with much greater rapidity than the difficulty of causes will warrant, and by contrivances to which they ought never to be permitted to resort. This is said very

often now to happen; and it is a sort of mal-administration of justice which cannot be guarded against with too much vigilance. From this last defect, permanent provincial courts are more likely to be free. But besides the disadvantage of forming an additional step in the ascending scale of appellate jurisdictions, there is a strong disposition everywhere prevailing, to be dissatisfied with what is nominally of a secondary order, and the indolence or contraction of mind which a provincial residence frequently induces, is apt to make the value of the judgments of these courts secondary, in reality as well as in appearance. It may, therefore, be desirable to postpone the establishment of these courts as long as it can, and to provide a sufficient supply of judges belonging to the supreme courts, deliberately to dispose of all the causes which are set down before them, within a period not exceeding the six weeks during which the longest circuit is supposed to last." -pp. 435, 436.

In fact, the result of the press of business upon the circuits at present is, that many of the causes brought to the assizes for trial are not tried at all. The time allowed is barely sufficient to get through the business, even if all the causes run off lightly; but if it happens, as is generally the case, that some of them hang rather longer on the hands of the court than was expected, the parties in those which are late on the list must make up their minds, either to refer their causes to arbitration, or to let them stand over to the next assizes. The first of these courses is, indeed, very often adopted, for reasons quite unconnected with the pressure of business of which we are now speaking. Many causes-those, for instance, which involve the examination of intricate accounts-are in their nature so unfit to be decided by a jury, that the influence of a judge's recommendation is most beneficially exercised in inducing the parties to consent to a reference, which obstinacy, ignorance, or irritation, on one or both sides, could alone have prevented them from agreeing to of their own accord. Where, however, the cause is of a kind proper for trial by jury, a reference is by no means a satisfactory mode of terminating it. The parties lose the assistance of their leading counsel, who do not attend upon references, and are obliged to take the much less weighty opinion of the arbitrator, probably one of the juniors of the Bar, upon any point of law, instead of that of the judge, with the additional disadvantage, in general, of not being able to set right any mistake of his by an application for a new trial to the court out of which the record issued. Deferring the cause to the next assizes is in the highest degree inconvenient to the suitor;-all the expense of bringing witnesses, perhaps from a considerable distance, to the county town, must be incurred over again, and the trouble and inconvenience of preparing for trial again encountered.

These evils will appear still more serious, if we consider that, as the special jury causes are generally placed late, sometimes last in the list, (an arrangement which becomes necessary, because the special jurors are often engaged during the early part of the assizes as grand jurors in the Crown Court,) the causes which are thus put off from one assize to another, are generally the most important as well as the most troublesome and expensive in preparation. Nothing can be more disappointing to the suitor than to be thus refused a hearing, and sent home to suffer, for six months longer, the anxiety of suspense, from which he had expected to be delivered at once; and, though necessity may justify the refusal in each particular instance, no justification can be found for permitting the habitual recurrence of the necessity. An increase in the number of the Judges is the only remedy that appears likely to be effectual; but we feel that, if it should be adopted, there would be considerable doubt as to the proper mode of applying it. It would probably be impracticable to add another Judge to each or any of the existing circuits, so as to have two Nisi Prius courts sitting at once, because of the difficulty of effecting a division of the causes between them. Upon every circuit there are commonly one or two favourite leaders, without whom it is thought impossible for any business to be properly conducted, till death, infirmity, or promotion removes them, when others are soon found to supply their places. But, in the mean time, they are engaged in every suit; so that it would be difficult to find in the whole list even one or two pairs of causes that could be satisfactorily tried at the same time; and to reduce the whole business of an assize to such an arrangement would be quite impracticable, unless the leaders were to run from court to court, leaving their unfinished causes, as soon as they had performed their own more especial duties in them, to the care of their juniors, a practice so detrimental to the interest of their clients, that no scheme could be tolerable which tended to introduce it. Nor would anything be gained in this case, by obliging each counsel to confine himself to one of the two courts. For either all the favourite leaders would go to one court, and then the other would be reduced to a state of inefficiency; or, if the counsel were more equally distributed, parties would frequently find themselves deprived at short notice, either by accident or the manœuvres of a crafty opponent, of the power of trying their causes in that court which was attended by the counsel who had advised them in the previous stages of their business, and was well acquainted with their case,-a privation which would often make it impossible to proceed to trial with any hope of success. It appears to us, therefore, that the

only practicable course is to divide the kingdom into a greater number of circuits; a measure which would probably be attended with some inconvenience, both to barristers and clients, at its first adoption, inasmuch as it must in some instances compel them to break off their old connexions and form new ones. But if the new division was skilfully made, such an opportunity might easily be left open for counsel to select for their new circuit, one which contained the counties with which they were most closely connected on their former one, as to confine this inconvenience within very narrow bounds. A very short period of time, at any rate, would render the new arrangement familiar to all parties; and it would introduce no perplexing change in the established constitution or practice of the Nisi Prius courts.

A very important question remains,-how the improvement of our system of law can best be effected, if it is thought expedient to attempt it. Our legislative bodies are not so constituted as to be able to settle the details of any delicate or complicated measure. It must be digested before it is submitted to them. But we have no officer in England whose province it is to originate proposals for the amendment of the law. The members of the Government are, for the most part, occupied each with the peculiar business of his own department. The Judges are equally busy; and, besides, though their opinions ought to be asked and received with great deference upon such subjects, it is perhaps not so well that they should be forward in proposing alterations in the law. "There is no other per

* son,

says Mr Miller, p. 524., "known to our constitution "but the Lord Chancellor, upon whom everything which con"cerns the jurisprudence of the country practically devolves;" and our author, accordingly, takes Lord Eldon pretty severely to task for having neglected his duty in the improvement of the law. But however clearly it may be the duty of the Chancellor to promote the improvement of the law, and that it is a most imperative duty, there can be no doubt, we do not think he ought to take upon himself the ostensible management of any great change that may be proposed. His labours are too heavy and multifarious to leave him time for more than a very general superintendence of the execution of any proposed alteration. He must commit the details to others; and yet, the public opinion that the whole had his sanction, would often prevent the due canvassing of the measure while in progress; and when it was brought to a conclusion, the blame of all the defects, discovered when too late, would be thrown upon him, and his reputation, and consequently his utility, would be proportionably diminished. It is, therefore, better that such plans should be avowedly, as well as VOL. XLVI. NO. 91.

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