212

The present Law as to better, I agree with your Correspondent; but, fully convinced as I am that there is a sufficient spirit of innovation abroad, I cannot at all coincide in the regret, that "less reluctance should be manifested than at present exists in overthrowing old established enactments, and more especially those which in the slightest degree, or in any sense, affect or bear upon the liberty of the subject." The value of our old laws is very frequently not discovered until they are tampered with; and when an alteration has taken place, inconveniencies arise which were never thought of, and which our ancestors guarded against when bending under the influence of the inconveniencies themselves. As to the "liberty of the subject," I am one who would wish it to be kept within proper bounds, and I view it as a privilege

to be restrained whenever it has exceeded them; but a strong and convincing case ought to be made out before any restraint is imposed, and upon this principle I, for one, am well satisfied that the House of Commons has always acted.

I shall now proceed to make a few cursory remarks upon the more immediate subject of your Correspondent's Letter. JULIAN" seems to anticipate that there will not be "much" difference of opinion in pronouncing the exception contained in the Statute of the 44th Geo. III. c. 98 (allowing others than professional men to draw Wills) as impolitic. I am fearful he will be mistaken in this particular. The Legislature would probably never have made the exception without due consideration, and I am quite confident your Correspondent will see, that, without a great distinction had been made between the formalities of conveyance and the loose manner in which a Will is allowed to be drawn up, a crying injustice would have been committed upon the community. Wills are considered as being frequently made in extremis, and there fore the technical niceties necessary to the reality of a conveyance are not required as essentials with respect to a testamentary disposition. And let us for a moment look at what would ensue in case the drawing up of Wills were restricted to the profession! Many wealthy testators live in secluded villages and in lone houses, far removed from professional assistance, who never

making Wills defended. [March, think of settling their worldly affairs until death is upon them-nay so far is this principle carried amongst the vulgar and illiterate, that an apprehension frequently gets abroad that the making a Will is a species of death warrant, and this not unfrequently operates as a reason for postponing what ought always to be done in health, and in the possession of full mental energies. Where, therefore, in such cases as these would be the po licy of your Correspondent's suggestion? I will admit that inconveniencies may arise from improper persons drawing Wills, but is not your Correspondent aware that some of the ablest lawyers have made some of the greatest mistakes in Wills? It is known that in making their own wills some of our greatest men have committed the greatest blunders *.

Although I am one who will ever contend that distinctions ought to be observed, and that illiterate and improper persons ought to be excluded from the profession, I never will admit that it should be rendered indispensably requisite for " technical niceties" to surround the couch of dissolution, or for that just privilege to be in the least atom infringed upon, which has hitherto allowed the attendant friend or the sedulous minis ter to put upon paper the dying instructions of the companion of his youth, or the attentive hearer of the precepts delivered from his pulpit. I quite agree with your Correspondent, that a man of property would do well, when settling his worldly affairs, to consult those who generally have been his legal advisers.

I am not arguing against this; I am only arguing against the enactment of any law which should positively oblige his Will to be drawn by those advisers. Supposing such a law were to pass, the man of property would still not be secure; for your Correspondent tells us that even Wills prepared by professional men "not unfrequently afford evidence of a want of skill, and display great poverty of legal intelligence, seldom failing to escape the critical observation of those who experience disappointment under them." I find, Mr. Urban, I have extended my letter to an unreasonable length;

* Vide Sugden's Letters to a Man of Property on the Sale, &c. of Estates, p. 105.

before

Literary Puppyism.-Liverpool Society of Travellers.

before I conclude, however, let your
Correspondent understand that I am
not the advocate of unauthorized ob-
truders upon the profession; but that
I am the advocate of that mild con-
struction which has hitherto been put
upon conveyance by Will-which ne-
ver would have been put had it been
supposed that Professional Men alone
were to draw Wills, and which I
should be sorry to see exploded.
Yours, &c. J. STOCKDALE HARDY.

214

Liverpool Society of Travellers into Foreign Parts. [March,

ings which attach men to their country after encountering the dangers of other climates; whilst it concentrates the information acquired in so many parts of the world, we might have said, from pole to pole.

The town of Liverpool may be congratulated that it now possesses the advantages of a Society from which its mercantile character may acquire the graces of art and science, and certainly no other place in the empire, next to the Metropolis, is so peculiarly fitted for such a purpose.

At the entertainment I have recorded, the toasts of the day, after that of the King, who, it was justly observed by the Chairman, might now be called the first of British Travellers, consisted of those illustrious living names, who have benefited mankind by their researches in foreign countries. That of Humboldt was followed by a long list, which it would be tedious to relate.

The following song, from the classic pen of the Rev. Wm. Shepherd, written for the occasion, was sung with great spirit by the Spanish Consul.

THE BRITISH TRAVELLER.
Tune-"When day-light was yet sleeping
under the billow."

"I have travers'd the deserts of Egypt so
dreary,
[like the dew;
Where the eye-blighting mirage extends
And my heart, as I wander'd, forlorn, sad,
and weary,
[my view.
Has leap'd when the pyramids burst on
But still faster it throbb'd, and my pulse

beat the higher, [on the ground,
When in speechless sensation I paus'd
Where Menou was compell'd from the fight
to retire,
[death-wound.
And the brave Abercrombie receiv'd his

I have seen the proud turrets of lofty Gre-
nada,
[Castille;
And cross'd the wild plains of the barren
I have play'd to my fair one the sweet sere-
nada,
[ville.
And danc'd the fandango in wealthy Se-
Like thy pilgrims, St. Jago, in ardent devo-
tion,
[high and so hoar,

tion,

I have climb'd the rude mountains so And kneeling, all raptur'd, in sacred emo[stone of Moore. Due laurels I've twin'd on the tombIn the splendid saloons and the circles of [smile, Where wit brightly sparkling, and gaiety I have join'd the light throng where ennui never tarries, [ments beguile. And the Loves and the Graces the mo

Paris,

I have roam'd, sprightly France, thro' thy vine-cover'd mountains, [dews And thy vales ever moist with fructiferous But true pleasure I found at the moss-bor [Toulouse. Where Victory smil'd on our arms at

der'd fountains,

Thro' thy fertile champaigns, antient Bel

gium, I've travell'd, [ing towns ; And admir'd thy neat hamlets and flourishThy intricate course, sluggish Scheldt! I've

unravell'd, [trampled thy downs. And mark'd where the war-horse has

But which was the spot, where my steps
longest dwelling,
[view?
My eyes were in transport infix'd in the
"Twas the spot, where in fancy my wrapt bo-
som swelling,
[Waterloo!

I saw WELLINGTON triumph at fam'd
Oh, my lov'd native country! wherever he
wanders,
[jesty roam;
Where the icebergs portentous in ma-
Or where thro' tall palm-groves the Ganges

meanders,

[home.

The way-faring Briton is proud of his And while fond recollections to joys long lost bind him, [charms, Tho' alive to each climate's indigenous He still dwells with delight on the scenes [in Arms." Of the triumphs of BRITAIN in Arts and Yours, &c. S. R.

that remind him

Mr. URBAN, Liverpool, Feb. 18.

AGREEABLY to the wish of one

of your Correspondents to procure authentic information respecting modation provided for them to attend the Welsh population, and the accomDivine Service in the principal towns of the kingdom, I am enabled to hand you the following particulars relative to this large town, which are the substance of the Report of a Committee deputed by the Subscribers to the Fund for a Welsh Church, intended to be be conceived correct. erected here, and consequently may

The natives of Wales, now resident in Liverpool, are computed to be nearly 20,000; of these the greater number are conscientiously and firmly united to the doctrines and discipline of the Established Church. It is manifest, however, that their very imperfect acquaintance with the English language must prevent them from profiting by the ministrations around. Their роverty at the same time keeps pace with their numbers, effectually withholding the means of that public instruction of which they are at once so destitute and so desirous.

Under these circumstances an appeal

1822.] Welsh Church at Liverpool.-Critique on Virgil.-Tomb-stones. 215

216

Tomb-stones-On the Bastardy Laws.

a great number of graves, which are in a
very ruinous and decayed condition, and the
Officers of this Parish being unacquainted
with the respective families to which a num-
ber of those tombs, and head and foot-
stones belong, are desirous that such re-
spective families will come forward and re-
pair the same, otherwise such tombs, and
head and foot-stones, must necessarily be
removed, of which all persons concerned
are desired to take notice.-W. Law, D.
NEWMAN, W. JENKINS, Churchwardens."
Yours, &c.
T. G. C.

[March,

WAS a good deal surprised at some of the positions of your Correspondent who quaintly signs himself MALFEMINOSOR." After asserting (p. 21)" that the Bastardy Laws are an absolute encouragement to fornication, &c. and promise it impunity," he goes on to say, "what else can be said

young female, that if she becomes pregnant, she will either be married to the father, or be totally released from support of the child!"

AGREEING With Your Corre of a system which kindly informs 3 spondent "MALFEMINOSOR" on the subject of the Bastardy Laws, I must still think that much of the evil of which he complains is to be attributed to the celebrated statute of the 43d Eliz. wherein it is provided that parochial relief shall be given to the sick, infirm, and impotent. Now, in the latter term are comprehended all those persons who, from any other causes whatever, are unable to get their maintenance; and of course it includes all children under ... years of age, in whose behalf the Magistrates have been in the habit of granting allowances out of the rates. A more direct bounty, not merely to premature marriage, but to an increase of births, could scarcely be invented.

The poor laws are unjust in the first place towards the payer of the rates, by forcing him either to employ a man whose services he does not want, or give him the worth of them for nothing. Secondly, they are unjust towards the free labourer, whose comfortable maintenance is taken away from him by the paupers, to whom the law gives a priority of demand for labour, or the average value of it, whether wanted or

not.

The poor laws are absurd. First, because they create the poor which they maintain. Secondly, because they suppose it possible to furnish funds for the support of labour, without any assignable limit, and that without reference to the soil, extent, or situation of the parish.

Thirdly, because they suppose the pauper to be competent to the work set him, which is very rarely the case.

We hear a good deal of the right of the poor to support. In one sense, and one only, they certainly have a right, and that sense is precisely the

had thoroughly examined the subject, Now, Sir, if your Correspondent he would have found that so directly in opposition to this statement is the truth, that an order of Bastardy is their imposing a weekly payment upon never made by two Magistrates without the mother as well as upon the father, or reputed father of the bastard child, unless she shall herself nurse the infant on the

very slender pittance laid upon lings per week in general on labouring the reputed father, now only two shilmen, which is quite inadequate to the decent maintenance of such bastard child. Added to this imposition, for the non-performance of which the mother is liable to be punished in the same manner as the father who shall neglect to pay the weekly sum imposed tard child or children is liable to be upon him, the lewd mother of a bascommitted to hard labour in the House of Correction by two Magistrates, for any period not exceeding twelve months, which, according to circumstances, the said Magistrates may in their discretion think fit to award.This punishment the Magistrates may and ought to inflict upon the delinquent for every repetition of the of fence; and whenever the Overseer of the Poor requests it, the punishment is inflicted. It is only a very few years since the discretionary power was given ther of a bastard child for a less time to Magistrates of committing the moif Magistrates committed at all for than a year; before which recent law, this offence, they were imperatively called on to commit for a whole twelvemonth.