regard to its disposal by will, at least the Petitioners humbly beg that they may be allowed to dispose of the life enjoyment, or usufruct to any person, were it only to enable the proprietor to bestow such enjoyment on his wife, on his father, mother, or near relative. Such a disposition could, moreover, only have the effect of securing this kind of property to the branch of the family whence it originally sprang, as a proprietor, under such circumstances, might not feel so much disposed to sell it, as he otherwise would to accomplish so reasonable a desire.

The Petitioners beg of the Court to establish, by a formal disposition, that in cases of Wills by married women, the Baillif, Lieutenant-Baillif, or a Jurat, be allowed to administer the oath required on such occasions. Without some measure of this kind it is not difficult to foresee that, in many instances, they will be debarred of the advantages it is the object of the legislature to confer on them. They conceive that, in all wills, excepting those entirely written, dated, and signed by the testator, the forms recommended by your Committee might be adopted; but with regard to wills entirely written by the testator, they conceive that all further forms might easily be dispensed with. What stronger assurance can be obtained of the testator's real intentions, than his thus recording his dictates with his own hand ?

With regard to the proposition contained in the 13th Article of the petition respecting the right claimed in behalf of the relatives of one line, to inherit the real property in another line, preferably to the crown, and which your Committee has not thought proper to entertain, conceiving it was not within its competency, your Petitioners beseech you not to abandon it, as they persist in believing that their benevolent Sovereign will deem it the glory of her reign to cause justice to flourish, and to entertain the peace of families by granting them the right to succeed to each other's property, so long as the ties of relationship exist between them.

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What stronger bond can be found to call forth and entertain those friendly regards which the members of a family owe each other, than the conviction that disunion and discord will not only disturb their peace of mind, but mar their future prospects? Your Petitioners humbly hope

that those principles of humanity will prevail on this point, which have already prevailed on so many others connected with inheritance and wills. A petition presented at the foot of the throne, breathing the united wishes of the authorities and inhabitants, could not fail to be favourably received by a Sovereign who, abandoning rights that owe their origin to an age when the state and morals of society were wholly different from what they are at present, would rejoice at having so favourable an occasion to acquire the lasting gratitude of her people. If, then, the Committee of your Royal Court, through respect for Royal authority, has proclaimed its incompetency to entertain this measure, your Petitioners hope and trust that your Royal Court will at least recommend her Majesty to grant them their request.

Your Committee has terminated its report, by declaring that the operation of the changes respecting heirs in a direct line shall not affect the eldest of children who shall have attained fourteen years or above when the law is promulgated; and it has assigned as a reason for this, that our custom has always had too much regard for the prospective rights of heirs, particularly heirs direct, and that our usages have so conformed themselves to it, that it would be dangerous to introduce laws, the immediate operation of which would disturb family arrangements already made, or frustrate the hopes of sons of families already of a certain age, who may have received an education adapted to the fortune they had in prospectus

Your Petitioners respect the motives which have induced so much solicitude on the part of your Committee, not only respecting acquired rights, but also for rights which, in the course of nature, must ere long become such. They would nevertheless assert it as their belief, that this would be putting off to a far too distant period the operation of just laws, which the legislature is about to grant the country; and, fathers of families themselves, they unanimously venture strongly to urge it upon your Royal Court, that the age of twenty years should be the lowest fixed upon to exempt heirs in the direct line from being affected by the proposed law. Before this age, no son can exercise civil rights: he cannot, therefore, expect that his parents shall have definitively decided upon his proportion of their property. Before this period, he is neither of age major, nor capable of exercising any functions, civil or public. How, then,

can it be supposed that his parents have, with respect to him, finally decided on the distribution of their estate?

For the reasons above stated, your Petitioners beseech your Royal Court to take into its serious consideration the reforms contained in this petition, which, with very few exceptions, have been suggested by the report of your Committee, and are so to speak its legitimate consequences.

And they will ever pray.

(SIGNED) FREDERICK PRICE, JUN., President. JOHN VALRENT,

NICHOLAS LE BEIR,

THOMAS LE SAUVAGE,
NICHOLAS COLLENETTE,
FERDINAND B. TUPPER,
JOHN HARVEY,

GUILLAUME OGIER,

NICHOLAS DE MOUILPIED,

ANDREW COHU,

JOHN VIDAMOUR,

PETER BIENVENU,

JOHN MAHY,*

NICHOLAS ALLEZ, Cas Rouge.*

With the exception of the clause relating to the equal partition of real property within the barrières.

On the 21st of June, 1839, the Petitioners were heard by Counsel in support of the different propositions set forth in the foregoing report, and on the 27th of December following, the States met to discuss the 30 Articles contained in the report of the Court's Committee, which having already appeared under LETTER C., it would be superfluous to repeat. Some of these articles were, however, considerably modified, as will appear from a comparison between them and those definitively sanctioned as law by Her Majesty in Council. The articles subjected to modification were the 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 29, particularly the 8th and 29th, in reference to the extension of the barrières, and the right of the parent to put the married daughter's portion in trust

during her marriage, without subjecting his other children to a similar restriction.

On the 7th of February 1840, the propositions of the States as thus amended were, through the medium of the President, transmitted to Her Majesty in Council, when on the 13th of July, having received the royal sanction, they were, on the 3rd of August following, promulgated or rather registered as law of the Island; the Court having specially met for that purpose, as the preamble to the Registry of the Order in Council clearly shows.

So that nearly two years and a half elapsed from the period of the first meeting of the Petitioners to that when the reforms prayed for received the ultimate sanction of the legislature, which, embodied in thirty articles under LETTER E., concludes the APPENDIX.

E.

REGISTRATION

Of the Order in Council, of the 13th of July, 1840, by the Royal Court of Guernsey.

On the 3rd of August, 1840, before DANIEL DE LISLE BROCK, ESQ., Baillif, and JOHN GUILLE, John Le MESSURIER, JOHN HUBERT, HILLARY O. CARRÉ, PETER B. DOBRÉE, and THOMAS LE RETILLEY, ESQRS., Jurats, and the only Jurats at present in the Island.

The Baillif having communicated to the Court assembled for the express purpose, an Order in Council dated the 13th of July, 1840, which confirms in all its clauses the Project of Reform of a portion of our laws approved of by the States on the 14th of February, 1840. The Court, after having heard the opinion of the Crown Lawyers, orders, that the following Order in Council, together with the changes in the laws recommended by the States, and approved of by Her Majesty in Council, such as they are to be found in the project of law, shall be registered on the Records of the Island, and shall be binding as law from the above date :—

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 13th of July, 1840, Present: the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, Lord President, Lord Privy Seal, Marquis of Normanby, Lord Steward, Lord Chamberlain, Earl of Albemarle, Earl of Minto, Lord John Russell, Viscount Palmerston, Viscount Melbourne, Viscount Duncannon, Lord Holland.

WHEREAS there was this day read at the Board a Report from the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council, for the affairs of Jersey and Guernsey, dated the 22d of June last, in the words following, viz. :

Your Majesty having been pleased by your Order in Council, of the 5th of March last, to refer to this Committee the humble Petition of the States of the Island of Guernsey, setting forth that the law of Normandy, in all matters of succession and inheritance, is still the law of Guernsey, That the lapse of ages, and the altered state of society, may, without any departure from the principles of that law, be said to necessitate changes recommended by justice, experience, and general consent. That the propriety and nature of these changes have not originated with the States, but in the public feeling expressed by Petitions of the most intelligent inhabitants, and particularly by one presented to the Royal Court, on the 27th June, 1838. That a Committee named by the Court to take that Petition into consideration, after much research, laid before the Court its report, dated the 6th April, 1839. That the Court, having taken all the means in their power to ascertain the wishes of the inhabitants, and the merits of the case, submitted a project of reform to the States, by whom it was discussed in all its parts, modified in several, and ultimately adopted in its present form, as it was with the said Petition humbly submitted. That the said Petitioners beg with due submission to assure your Majesty that the said project, far from being the result of agitation, wild innovation, or party zeal, was temperately proposed, maturely discussed, and considerately adopted. And humbly praying for themselves, and in behalf of the inhabitants of the said Island of Guernsey, that your Majesty may be graciously pleased to approve and sanction the changes in the laws of succession and inheritance proposed in the said project, and to order that such changes should in future have force of law in the said Island. The Lords of the Committee, in obedience to your Majesty's said Order of Reference, have this day taken the said petition and project