Plan. It is proposed that the Laws of England should consist of five books or codes, divided into titles, sections, and clauses. The first code to contain the Law of Persons; the second, the Law of Property; the third, the Commercial Law ; the fourth, the Criminal Law; and the fifth, the Legal Proceedings of Courts. The first code proposed to be undertaken is the Commercial, under the titles, Shipping, Insurance, Bills of Exchange, Sale, with all other titles which properly belong to this part of our law.

These to be arranged in the method of Domat's Civil Law, and each title to comprehend the whole statute and common law of the realm, connected with the subject. The most simple language to be used, and the greatest possible attention given to render it perspicuous. Each title to undergo repeated revisions before it is offered to the public; and after it has been a sufficient time under public scrutiny, and has received such alterations as shall be deemed essential for the exclusion of incongruities, and contradictions, and for the insertion of every useful provision, which the most profound attention to the subject can suggest, that it should be brought into Parliament, and if approved of, passed into a law. That the other titles should be published in their order, and be passed into laws, after the same care and examination, until the whole code shall be completed.

It is intended that all the authorities, whether statutes, reports, or any work considered an authority, should be referred to at the end of each title; that these should be arranged in tables, with the most simple and easy mode of reference, which of course will be entirely dispensed with, when they are passed into laws.

Thus we shall have, in the course of time, all the wisdom and experience of past ages brought together, and methodized in the most commodious and scientific form, blended and harmonized with the improvements of modern times. Thus will be accomplished the wishes of Parliament our Laws will be consolidated

and their language simplified.

‹ This is, no doubt, a work of immense extent, and will require the utmost wisdom and labour to accomplish; but as the country is prepared for the undertaking, and Parliament willing to promote its accomplishment, the greatest hopes may be entertained of its success. The imposing nature of the undertaking must not appal us. "It would appear that the whole machine of society has received an accelerating impulse, and that this country is beginning a course of prosperity which shall exceed all that has gone before, as much as the present exceeds all past expectations."

The first title to which this plan has been adapted is that of Evidence. While we pay the tribute which is due to the execution of this little work, we mean not to detract from the

. * Report of Mr. Canning's Speech at Bristol.'

excellent

excellent character of the several treatises extant upon this subject: on the contrary, we readily bear our testimony to their value. Indeed no subject of legal proceedings has been treated in a more masterly manner. Mr. Phillipps's well known work is one of the best of practical treatises, and has received the approbation of the bench, and of the whole profession. The treatise by Mr. Starkie in three volumes, which has lately appeared, is in a less practical form than that of Mr. Phillipps. The first volume is rather a philosophical disquisition than an abstract of law: it contains, however, the true and liberal principles on which evidence should rest, and will, if we mistake not, bring about a great revolution in this important branch of our judicial system. Both these books are excellent; and parts of Mr. Starkie's might be read and studied even if the most judicious code were to be formed. The work now before us differs essentially from these, both in its plan and execution. In a small volume of 210 pages, the accepted rules of evidence are given without any display of authorities; the whole law of evidence is digested into the fewest words which perspicuity would permit, in the shape in which, as one act, it should receive the sanction of Parliament. We shall give as a specimen of its execution the clause of the section on the Examination of Witnesses.

'Knowledge of Witness.

' IV. - A witness must speak from his own knowledge and recollection, although to refresh his memory he is allowed to refer to any written entry, or memorandum made, or at least examined by himself, either at the time a fact occurred, or very recently afterwards; but he is not allowed to give evidence of his opinions, except in some particular cases, as those of science, skill, trade, or others of the same kind, when persons of skill are allowed not only to speak as to the facts, but also to give their opinions in evidence; as is shown by the following cases decided on this point. 1. A ship-builder, may state his opinion of the sea-worthiness of a ship, from examining a survey, which had been taken by others, and at which he was not present.

6

2. A person conversant in the business of insurance may be examined, as to whether the communication of particular facts would have varied the terms of insurance; but he cannot be asked, what his conduct would have been in the particular case.

3. A clerk of the Post-office, accustomed to inspect franks for the detection of forgeries, has been examined, to prove that the hand-writing of an instrument is an imitated and not a natural hand, although he never saw the supposed person write; and also to prove that two writings, suspected to be in imitated hands, were written by the same person.

• 4. Com

4. Commercial men may be called as witnesses, to prove the meaning of any particular expression, used in a letter, on a commercial subject.

5. A seal-engraver may be called, to show a difference between a genuine impression of a seal, and one supposed to be forged.

6. An engineer may be examined, as to his judgment on the effect of an embankment, in a harbour, as collected from experi

ment.

7. The opinions of medical men are evidence as to the state of a patient, either in body or mind, even in cases where they have not themselves seen the patient, but have heard the symptoms, and particulars of his state, detailed by other witnesses at the trial; and in cases of homicide, they are always allowed to state their opinion, whether the wounds described by witnesses were likely to cause death.'

The first sentence here given contains the general rule; the paragraphs numbered 1, 2, 3, &c. contain the points decided in cases under the rule, and are given to show its application; the words in italics serve as references to the authorities given in tables at the end of the work, in the following neat

manner:

IV. From what degree of knowledge witness must speak: Entry, 3 T. R. 752.; examined, 2 Camp. 112.; ship, Peake, 25.; survey, 1 Camp. 117.; insurance, 2 Stark. 258.; Post-office, 4 T. R. 498.; commercial, Peake, 43.; seal, 4 T. R. 498.; engineer, 4 T. R. 498.; medical men, 1 Phil. Evid. 275.'

We have but one fault to find with these tables, which is that they do not contain references by sections in the margin at the top of the page, as we find them in the text. We would suggest to the learned author the propriety of making this simple but very useful addition to his work, if it should see another edition, as no doubt it will.

We next come to the letter to Mr. Peel by Mr. Hayes, in which, as it is nearly all nonsense at the beginning, we were somewhat surprized to find some sense at the end. In order to introduce a few proposed improvements, this gentleman thought it necessary to give a splendid exordium. Twentyfive pages are consumed in display, in which Mr. Hayes entangles himself somewhat heedlessly in abusing innovation, and in defending the established length and uncertainty of deeds and abstracts.

His proposals, which are spread over ten pages more, are briefly these: 1. A simplification of the proceedings in the action of ejectment, which is a string of legal fictions, for

the

the recovery of real property, and which, although it is more expeditious than our law-proceedings in general, might be rendered much more so. 2. The abolition of real actions, as by writs of entry and assize, writ of right, writ of intrusion, and writ of formedon; because, although they are obsolete in practice, the possibility of their being brought is often objected to a title. 3. He thinks that the universal adoption of twenty years as the period of limitation, in all cases involving the title to real estates, would be desirable. 4. He proposes the abolition of fines and recoveries, and the substitution of some less intricate and cheaper method of effecting their objects. 5. The adoption of the above alterations would render it necessary, or at least proper, to abolish feoffinents.'This is the substance: the rest is all rant and common-place, -a happy compound of jarring metaphors, and inflated nothingness, which, if he meant it to be looked at, it was quite cruel to inflict upon Mr. Peel.

We should be inclined to give Mr. Hayes more credit for his proposals, did it not so happen that they are at war with old-fashioned principles which he so strenuously defends; and that some suggestions are to be found, in substance, in Mr. Miller's excellent book, against which Mr. Hayes has been pleased to point several ungenerous sarcasms. We do not know what Mr. Hayes practises; but if he be a conveyancer, we dare to say that he is a very respectable one, because he can so easily involve a little matter in a multitude of words. Every class of dealers have a fashion of advertizing their commodities: the fruiterer of Constantinople cries, "In the name of the Prophet,-figs;" tradesmen write their names and callings upon their doors; and lawyers write books for their signs. With this last method of advertizing we are by no means disposed to quarrel, because books generally afford some criterion by which to judge of the writer's skill. In conclusion, we may observe, that we shall be always ready to notice the efforts of those who devote their talents to the great work which Mr. Uniacke has proposed, and whether present distinction or future fame be the object of their ambition, we' sincerely believe that they cannot apply the sickle of their industry to a more abundant harvest.

ART.

ART. X. Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Daughter of King James I.; with Sketches of the most distinguished Personages, and the State of Society in Holland and Germany during the Seventeenth Century. By Miss Benger, Authoress of ، The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots," ،، Anne Boleyn," &c. 2 Vols. 8vo. 1825.

THE story of the lovely and unfortunate woman, with whose Memoirs we are here presented, is among the most affecting pieces of royal biography. The daughter and the mother of a long line of kings, she was doomed to gain nothing but the empty title of Queen, in exchange for a whole life of humiliation and misery: born and reared in a palace, her youth was crowned with a splendid bridal, only that she might become a wanderer without a home, and a dependant upon republican bounty. Charming all hearts, she created devoted servants, but to incur fruitless debts of gratitude which she never enjoyed the enviable power of repaying: — the consort of a prince who adored her, she was widowed in youth: the mother of a numerous offspring, she was left by their misfortunes or their crimes with no filial tenderness to soothe her declining years: - and, finally, she revisited her native shores to experience only neglect or indifference from the princes of her own family; and she died in ignorance that her German descendants, by the female line, were one day to supplant the male heirs of the house of Stuart on the throne of these realms. Thus, altogether, whether we consider her in her royal station or her private life, her brief dream of splendour, and long reality of fallen greatness, - her public cares and private sorrows, - bereaved at once of home and kindred, of crown, husband, and children, - we know not, in all the long and mocking pageant of human grandeur, a spectacle of more melancholy and touching interest than Elizabeth Stuart, the fair scion of an ancient and illustrious stock, the common link between two great and royal dynasties.

In the work before us, the story of this ill-fated Princess is invested with many graces of composition and feeling, which enhance the attraction natural to her chequered fortunes. Miss Benger is already favourably known to the world as the biographer of several illustrious females; and the present volumes cannot fail to add very considerably to her previous reputation. In the collateral details of character, manners, and political history, these Memoirs exhibit judicious reflection, animated delineation, and very respectable research: the sketches which they offer of the personal life of Elizabeth are finely blended with the coarser details of public affairs; and the whole affecting picture of her domestic sufferings is