OR

QUARTERLY JOURNAL

or

JURISPRUDENCE

AND

LEGISLATION.

Qui juris nodos, et legum ænigmata solvat.-Juv.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR BALDWIN AND CRADOCK.

C. Baldwin, Printer,

New Bridge Street, London.

CONTENTS.

ART. I.-MR. BROUGHAM'S SPEECH ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE

LAW...

The Speech of Henry Brougham, Esq. M.P. in the House of Com-

mons, on Thursday, February 7, 1828, on his Motion, that an

humble Address be presented to his Majesty, praying that he

will be graciously pleased to issue a Commission for inquiring

into the Defects occasioned by Time or otherwise in the Laws

of this Realm, and into the Measures necessary for removing

the same.

ART. II.-PAROCHIAL REGISTRATION

Manuel des Officiers de l'Etat Civil, pour la Tenue des Registres.

Par A. E. Le Mott.

ART. III. CODIFICATION OF THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF

AMERICA..

1. Speech of the Hon. John L. Wilson, Senator in the Legislature

of South Carolina, on the Propriety and Expediency of reducing

the Laws of the State into a Code: to which is added, a Codi-

fication of the Law of Carriers.

2. Report of Committee of the Senate of South Carolina on the

Practicability and Expediency of reducing the Law to the Form

of a Code: Presented November Session, 1827.

3. An Anniversary Discourse, delivered before the Historical

Society December 6, 1823, shewing the Origin, Progress, Anti-

quities, Curiosities, and Nature of the Common Law.

4. An Oration on the Practicability and Expediency of reducing

the whole Body of the Law to the Simplicity and Order of a

Code: Delivered in the City Hall, before the South Carolina

Bar Association, 17 March, 1827.

5. Report of the Revisers of the Laws of the State of New York.

2 November, 1827.

ART. IV. THE WELLESLEY CASE....

Observations upon the Power exercised by the Court of Chancery,

of depriving a Father of the Custody of his Children.

ART. V.

COOPER'S ACCOUNT OF THE COURT OF CHANCERY........

A Brief Account of some of the most Important Proceedings in

Parliament, relative to the Defects in the Administration of

Justice in the Court of Chancery, the House of Lords, and the

Court of Commissioners of Bankrupts: together with the

Opinions of different Statesmen and Lawyers as to the Remedies

to be applied.

ART. VI. THE MATHEMATICS OF LAW..

A Letter to the Right Honourable Robert Peel, respecting the

English Law of Inheritance, &c.

ART. VII.-ATTACHMENT FOR DEBT IN AMERICA

Report of the Committee appointed by Members of the Bar of

New Orleans to inquire into the Circumstances of the Sale of

the British Vessel called the Speedwell, sold under an Order of

a District Court of the State of Louisiana, upon an Attachment

for Debt: the Sale having been annulled as fraudulent by a

Decision in the English Court of Common Pleas.

ART. VIII.-LETTER FROM MR. HUMPHREYS IN REPLY TO DR.

REDDIE AND MR. COOPER....

ART. IX. THE NEW CHANCERY ORDERS

Orders for the Regulation of the Practice and Proceedings of the

Court of Chancery; issued in pursuance of the Recommendations

of his Majesty's Commissioners, by the Lord High Chancellor.-

April 3, 1828.

Page.

117

120

125

137

THE JURIST.

MAY, 1828.

ART. I.-MR. BROUGHAM'S SPEECH ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW.

The Speech of Henry Brougham, Esq. M.P. in the House of Commons, on Thursday, February 7, 1828, on his Motion, that an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, praying that he will be graciously pleased to issue a Commission for inquiring into the Defects occasioned by Time or otherwise in the Laws of this Realm, and into the Measures necessary for removing the same. London, Henry Colburn. 1828.

No man can be the author of a higher service to his country, than he who reforms the laws on which the security of person and property more immediately depends; with the single exception of him who reforms the legislature, because that is the power by which the laws themselves are first made, and afterwards preserved; and without a certain degree of perfection in this, the people have security for nothing, except misrule and all its abominations. At the same time, it is true, and a most important truth, that the legislature itself exists only for the sake of the laws, by which the security of person and property is maintained. This security is the end. The legislature is only the means; and if such means were not necessary to the end, the legislature would have no existence.

"I shall not (says Mr. Brougham) enlarge, after the manner of some, on the infinite importance and high interest which belongs to the question, and the attention which it, of right, claims from us, whether we be considered as a branch of the Government, or as the Representatives of the people, or as a part of the people ourselves. It would be wholly superfluous; for every one must at once admit, that if we view the whole establishments of the country-the Government by the King, and the other Estates of the Realm,-the entire system of Administra