obviously contrary to the intention; and Sections 39 and 40 are intended to diminish the expense of proceedings respecting Wills, as regards real estate, where they are the subject of litigation in Courts of Equity. The provisions respecting which there is the most difference of opinion are Section 15, which deprives a person, under the age of 21 years, of the power of making a Will, even of personal estate; and Section 24, which makes the marriage of a man an absolute revocation of his Will. It was determined by the Committee of the House of Commons in 1835, that power should be given to make a Will at the age of 17 years, but the age of 21 was substituted for that of 17 in a subsequent stage of the Bill. The provision that a man's Will should be revoked by marriage, is understood to have been settled as compromise between the members of different opinions in the committee. It ap pears to have been agreed that the present law, which presumes an intention that a Will should be revoked by marriage, and the birth of a child, and in some cases as to personal estate, by the subsequent birth of children only, or other circumstances, must be altered for the reasons stated in the Fourth Report of the Real Property Commissioners, pp. 28, 29, and 32, and that no revocation should depend upon conjecture of what might be the intention. The Real Property Commissioners appear to have thought that where the law entrusted a testator with the power of making a Will, it should impose upon him the duty of revoking it when necessary. It is said to have been the opinion of the Committee, that marriage occasioned in almost every case so great a change of circumstances, that there was less danger in making it an absolute revocation, than in allowing Wills made previously to it to remain in force. The Bill respecting Executors and Administrators, among other useful provisions, allows an executor to prove the Will of his own testator, and at the same time renounce the executorship of other persons of whom his testator may have been the executor, and enables executors to get discharged from the office.

The principal object of the Bill respecting Deeds, is to supply the want of a means of transferring contingent interests in real estate; for since the abolition of fines, there is no legal mode of passing them. It also contains provisions for rendering unnecessary a lease for a year, and for preventing the destruction of contingent remainders and consequently the necessity of any machinery for preserving them, and for enabling several transactions to be effected by one simple deed, which now require two, and among other important amendments, it prevents a condition not to assign a lease without consent from being void as soon as one consent is given. The Bills respecting Wills, and Executors and Administrators, were brought into the House of Commons by the present Attorney-General, and the Bill respecting Deeds by Mr. Philpotts, the late member for Gloucester. The Bill respecting Wills has been introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Langdale. Lord Lyndhurst has taken charge of the other two Bills.

EVENTS OF THE QUARTER.

We are obliged to go to press without any definite information as to the Chancellor's intended bill for the reform of his Court or the division of his office. The secret has been so inviolably kept, that many are induced to doubt whether his intentions are yet known to himself, though having given notice for the 28th, he can hardly be otherwise than prepared. As the plan will probably be before the public before this number appears, we shall only notice one rumour concerning it, and even that may soon be refuted by facts. We hear that Lord Langdale takes no part in concocting it, though it is said he entered the House of Lords on the express understanding that his co-operation would be required in law measures exclusively, considering it unbecoming in a judge to take a prominent part in politics.

The death of Mr. Trower has placed a mastership at the disposal of the ministry, a little, it appears, to their embarrassment. Lord Brougham says, that, immediately on finding the Court of Review a failure, he resolved on turning the judges into masters of Chancery, so as to dispense with the necessity of pensioning them, and he has called upon the government to act upon this plan by nominating Sir George Rose (and it would be difficult to make a better nomination) to the vacancy. Some leading members of the government on the other hand are anxious to appoint Mr. Senior, in which case they would also have the gratification of coinciding with Lord Brougham, who used to contend that a conveyancing master was absolutely necessary to insure the proper working of the Equity Courts. Mr. Senior has high claims on the country for a series of important services gratuitously performed, and his professional merits are universally allowed.

The new rules relating to the Examination of Attorneys are given, ante, p. 492. The judges have since appointed the several Masters and Prothonotaries of the three Courts, together with twelve of the Committee of Management of the Incorporated Law Society, to be the Examiners for one year, five examiners to be competent to conduct such examination, one of such five being a Master or Prothonotary.

The proposed regulations for the mode and course of examination have, we learn, been prepared by the Examiners, subject to the approval and sanction of the Judges, to whose consideration they have been already referred. It is supposed that the Examiners will in the first place require, that, within a certain portion of each term, the original articles and all assignments of clerks applying to be admitted, shall be left with the Secretary of the Incorporated Law Society, with a certificate of general good conduct, and of faithful and diligent professional service during the whole period of the articles, specifying all occasional absences and the aggregate amount of them, with power, if thought fit, to call upon the master or clerk, both or either, for explanations in writing of such certificates of conduct and service. With the view of ascertaining the fitness and capacity of the clerk, it is understood that a public examination will take place, in the Great Hall of the Law Society, of all Clerks applying to be admitted, when printed questions will be proposed touching their knowledge of the law and the practice of the Courts, answers to which will be required on the spot, without any previous intimation of the nature of the questions or any liberty of reference. The Examiners will grant or withhold

their fiat according to the sufficiency of the answers, and arrange the names of the persons admitted in classes, according to the plan pursued at the Universities.

A petition has been presented, and petitions are said to be getting up, for the repeal or reduction of the duty on Attorneys' Certificates, but, from what has fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we conceive with little prospect of

success.

Another petition, in the prayer of which not merely all classes of lawyers but all classes of the public are interested, was lately presented by Mr. Tooke, whose zeal, character, and well-earned influence in the House insure a prompt attention to any representations he may make on the part of the profession. We allude to the petition for the removal of the Courts of Law from Westminster, which is in all respects a very inconvenient site for them, to say nothing of the faulty construction of the existing Courts themselves.

A Committee has been named to review the proceedings of the Record Commission, on the motion of Mr. Charles Buller, whose speech on the occasion carried the fullest conviction of its necessity. The inquiry is expected to end in the superseding of the existing Commission, the powers of which have been strangely perverted from the purposes for which they were conferred.

No Local Court Bill is to be brought in as a Government measure during the present session, and we have our doubts whether the Imprisonment for Debt Bill will pass. For the third time we warn members to took at its real scope, which extends far beyond what the title would indicate.

A Bill for improving the Registration of Voters has been introduced, but after the ample consideration bestowed on the subject in our last number, perhaps our readers will not be sorry that we have abstained from it in this. One amendment, however, has been made in Committee, as to the expediency of which we shall hazard a doubt. The Bill, as originally drawn, required the revising barrister to be of three years' standing at the least--the three is now altered into five, without any exception for barristers who have already learnt the duty by discharging it. But independently of the imprudence of disqualifying these, the slightest acquaintance with the constitution of the bar will suffice to show the impolicy of limiting the discretion of the judges in this manner. Barristers in good practice will not accept of the appointments at all; the judges therefore are generally compelled to choose between the younger members of the profession who are just beginning to get known, with all their energies alive and their knowledge in readiness, and those of the senior members who have been distanced in the race or have tacitly withdrawn from competition, and are merely going the circuit as amateurs. Which of these are most likely to do the work well, is a question hardly admitting of a doubt.

Another Report from the Criminal Law Commissioners is in preparation. We understand a partial abolition of the punishment of death is to be proposed.

A Bill for the Consolidation of the Ecclesiastical Courts is at present in progress through parliament, and expected to pass.

The New Poor Law proceeds with a steady march, crushing in its way much sessions practice. It has crushed also much medical practice. And here the public will observe the different behaviour of the two professions. The reduction of the sessions practice has been from averages of forty and fifty appeals to six, five, and one. Leaders of sessions have had their incomes reduced several hundreds a year; several have been compelled to abandon the sessions altogether; a great amount of learning, the result of much labour, is at once rendered useless; yet they are aware that the change is beneficial, and, without affecting to conceal

its severity, they make no complaint. The medical men, on the contrary, who are simply prevented from charging exorbitantly for casual poor, and checked in making the parish pay their patients' bills, are banding together and forming medical trade-unions, with the view of petitioning parliament to obstruct the change and keep up their emoluments. The commissioners fix prices for their remuneration, much greater than were gained by any of them for the separate parishes; but this is not enough they clamour for an increase: the commissioners then say that they shall fix their own prices by competition or open tender. But this satisfies them still less, and they clamour louder and louder, as if the country were about to be depopulated because the consumption of pills is to be reduced. The commissioners have compelled the attorneys, in a great number of instances, to compete for their places, and to transact, as clerks, all professional business for costs out of pocket. Yet do they murmur? Does the Law Society in London, or do any of the local societies, weary the government with their complaints or the House with their petitions? We believe it may be proved, that no profession has ever made larger sacrifices of interest for the public good, silently and unostentatiously.

In the new unions which have come into complete operation, the average reduction of expenditure has been nearly one-half. This reduction has directed attention to other branches of local expenditure, which sooner or later must undergo a general and complete revision. Sir Culling Eardley Smith, and a number of the members of the New Boards of Guardians and leading landowners in Hertfordshire, contend that the expenditure now under the control of justices at sessions should be regulated by a representative Board, consisting of delegates from the several Boards of Guardians. Mr. Hume has given notice of a more radical change; and not merely the administrative but the judicial functions of the justices at Sessions are threatened by others. The Poor Law Commissioners have of late begun to require that the clerks to the New Unions should devote their whole time to the performance of the duties of the office. Where this has been required, the older attorneys in the neighbourhood of the unions have generally refrained from becoming candidates, the salaries given being extremely low, and the duties heavy.

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE Municipal Corporation Act, (5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 76.) compared with, and corrected by the Roll, with a practical Introduction, Notes and Forms, and the cases decided upon the act. By John Frederick Archbold, Esq. Barrister at Law. In 12mo. price 6s. bds.

The Acts relating to the Administration of Law in Courts of Equity, passed the Sessions of 1 W. 4, 2 W. 4, 4 & 5 W. 4, and 5 & 6 W. 4; with an Introduction and Notes. The Second edition. By William Thomas Jemmett, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. In 12mo., price 7s. bds.

[For the character of this book, see 4 Law Mag. 409. The present edition contains all the subsequent cases.]

The New Bills for the Registration of Electors critically examined, with a view to the Principles on which they should be founded, and the Evils and Defects they propose to remedy. By John David Chambers, Esq., M. A., of the Inner Temple, Barrister at law. In 8vo price 2s. 6d.

[We differ in many points from the writer, but recommend his pamphlet to the attention of all who may take part in the discussion of the new bill.]

An Essay upon the Law respecting Husband and Wife; comprising more particularly a comparitive view of the Law of Marriage in England, Scotland and Ireland. Second Edition. By Henry Prater, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister. In 8vo., price 4s. sewed.

[We mentioned this as a work of merit on the appearance of the first edition.] Tracts on Law, Government, and other political Subjects; being partly republications and partly original. Collected and edited by John Palmer, Gent. In 8vo. price 15s. bds.

[We fear the interest in most of the subjects discussed in this volume has passed away, but it does credit to the author's judgment and industry. Some of the anecdotes are curious.]

Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery in Ireland, during the time of Lord Chancellor Sugden, from the commencement of Hilary Term 1835, to the Commencement of Easter Term 1835. By B. C. Lloyd and F. Goold, Esqrs., Barristers at Law. In royal 8vo., price 17. 3s. bds.

[The unrivalled pre-eminence universally accorded to Sir Edward Sugden as an Equity lawyer renders it unnecessary to dwell upon the value of these Reports, assuming them to be (as we are informed they are) correct.]

A Treatise on the Law of Arbitration and Awards; including the Act of Parliament relating to Arbitrations between Masters and Workmen; with an Appendix of precedents. The Second Edition. By William Henry Watson, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. In 8vo. price 16s. bds.

[A work of acknowledged merit.]

Elements of International Law; with a Sketch of the History of the Science. By Henry Wheaton, LL.D. In 2 vols. 8vo. price 17. 1s. bds.

[We shall review this work in a future number.]