of felony, to any other than the testamentary or natural guardian; to rescind or alter such arrangement; and to award costs in certain cases. S. 2. Infant not to be sent beyond sea, or out of the jurisdiction of the Court. S. 3. No fee to be taken by the officer of the Court; and counsel may be assigned gratuitously. S. 4. This act not to interfere with the execution of the sentence passed upon the infant on conviction. CAP, 91. An Act for the more effectual Prevention of Frauds and Abuses committed by Weavers, Sewers, and other Persons employed in the Linen, Hempen, Union, Cotton, Silk, and Woollen Manufactures in Ireland, and for the better Payment of their Wages, for One Year, and from thence to the End of the then next Session of Parliament. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 92. An Act for enabling Courts of Justice to admit Non-parochial Registers as Evidence of Births or Baptisms, Deaths or Burials, and Marriages. [10th August, 1840.] S. 1. The registrar-general shall receive, and deposit in the General Register Office, all the registers and records now in the custody of the registrargeneral, and such others as are hereinafter directed to be deposited with him, and which shall be sent, within three months, to the commissioners for examination by them.. S. 2. Continuance of commissioners for twelve months, and their duties prescribed. S. 3. Every office where registers and records shall be deposited by the register-general, with the approval of the treasury, to be deemed a part of the General Register Office. S. 4. Commissioners to identify the registers and records deposited. S. 5. Lists to be made, which shall be open to search, and certified extracts had therefrom. S. 6. Registers, &c. deposited under this act (except the registers of the Fleet and King's Bench prisons, May Fair, and the Mint, &c., deposited in the registry of the diocese of London in 1821) to be deemed in legal custody, and to be receivable in evidence in all Courts of justice. S. 7. Fees to be accounted for according to 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 15. S. 8. Wilful injury or forgery of registers felony. S. 9. Extracts had from registers to be stamped with the seal of the office. S. 10. Extracts to describe the register whence taken; and the production of a register from the office in the custody of the proper officer, or of a certified copy containing such description, and purporting to be stamped with the seal of the office, to be sufficient evidence that the register is one deposited under this act. S. 11. Upon notice and copy given to the opposite party, certified extracts may be used in evidence on the trial of any cause at law, and at quarter sessions in civil cases. S. 12. If the original be used, notice and copy must nevertheless be given. on the examination of witnesses or the hearing of a cause in equity. S. 14. If the original be used, notice and copy must nevertheless be given. S. 15. Certified extracts may be used in interlocutory proceedings in equity, and in the masters' offices. S. 16. Certified extracts may be pleaded and produced in Ecclesiastical Courts in the same manner as extracts from a parish register, but without proof of collation with the original: but the judge may order the production of the original. S. 17. In criminal cases the originals to be produced. S. 18. Rules to be made for regulating the practice as to the reception in evidence of registers, &c., and as to notice, costs, &c. S. 19. Such rules to be made for the Court of Chancery by the Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls, for the Courts of Common Law by eight of the judges, of whom the chiefs to be three, for the Court of Admiralty by the judge of that Court, and for the Ecclesiastical Courts by the official principal of the Court of Arches, with the Chancellor of London or Commissary of Canterbury. S. 20. The registers excepted in section 6 to be transmitted to the registrargeneral for safe custody, but none of the evidence clauses to apply to them. S. 21. Act may be amended or repealed this session. CAP. 93. An Act to amend the Act for the better Regulation of Ecclesiastical Courts in England. [10th August, 1840.] S. 1. The judicial committee of the privy council or judge of any Ecclesiastical Court may order the discharge of persons in custody on any writ de contumace capiendo, with the consent of the other parties to the suit; but such consent not to be necessary after imprisonment for six months, in cases of subtraction of church-rates for an amount not exceeding 5l., and after payment of the sum in question, and the costs. S. 2. Form of order. S. 3. Act may be amended or repealed this session. CAP. 94. An Act for facilitating the Administration of Justice in the Court of Chancery. [10th August, 1840.] S. 1. The Lord Chancellor, with the advice and consent of the Master of the Rolls and Vice-Chancellor, or one of them, empowered to make alterations in the forms of writs, the mode of issuing and executing them, the mode of filing bills and other proceedings, of obtaining discovery, of pleading, of taking evidence, of practice in Court, of proceedings before the Masters, of drawing up and enrolling orders and decrees, of delivering copies of pleadings, &c. &c.; and to make regulations as to taxation and payment of costs, and for altering and controlling the business of the several offices of the Court, collecting and paying over fees, payment of copy money, &c. &c.: such rules to be laid before par. liament, and to take effect, after thirty-six days, in like manner as if enacted by parliament. S. 2. Power to appoint additional officers. Ss. 3, 4, contain provisions as to payment of salaries of officers, &c., and compensation for diminution of emoluments. S. 5. Interpretation clause. S. 6. Act may be amended or repealed this session. CAP. 95 An Act to enable her Majesty to carry into effect certain stipulations contained in a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between her Majesty and the Emperor of Austria; and to empower her Majesty to declare, by Order in Council, that Ports which are the most natural and convenient Shipping Ports of States within whose Dominions they are not situated, may in certain Cases be considered, for all Purposes of Trade with her Majesty's dominions, as the National Ports of such States. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 96. An Act for the Regulation of the Duties of Postage. [10th August, 1840.] [This Act is only, in substance, a re-enactment of the Treasury warrants by which the postage is now regulated.] CAP. 97. An Act for regulating Railways. [10th August, 1840.] S. 1. No railway to be opened until after a month's notice to Board of Trade. S. 2. Penalty of 201. a day for opening railways without such notice. S. 3. Returns to be made by railway companies to the Board of Trade. S. 5. Board of Trade may appoint inspectors of railways. S. 6. Penalty on persons obstructing inspectors. S. 7. Copies of existing bye-laws to be laid before the Board of Trade within two months, or to be thenceforth void. S. 8. No future bye-laws to be valid until two months after they have been laid before the Board of Trade. S. 9. Board of Trade may disallow bye-laws. S. 10. Provisions of railway acts requiring confirmation of bye-laws by justices, &c. repealed. S. 11. Board of Trade may direct prosecutions to enforce provisions of railway acts, after twenty-one days' notice to the company. S. 12. Prosecutions to be commenced under authority of the Board of Trade, and within one year after the offence. S. 13. Punishment of servants of railway companies guilty of misconduct, drunkenness, &c. S. 14. Justice empowered to send any case to be tried by the sessions. S. 15. Persons wilfully obstructing railway carriages or engines on the railway or doing any thing to endanger the safety of passengers, guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years. S. 16. Punishment of persons obstructing officers of any railway company, or trespassing on a railway. S. 17. Proceedings not to be quashed for want of form, or removed by certiorari. S. 18. All provisions in railway acts which empower two justices to decide disputes respecting proper places for openings in the ledges or flanches of railways, repealed. S. 19. Such disputes hereafter to be decided by the Board of Trade. S. 20. Communications to the Board to be left at their office: communications by the Board to be signed by the secretary or other officer appointed for the purpose: service on one director, or on the secretary or clerk, or leaving it with the officer at a station, to be good service on a railway company. S. 21. Interpretation clause. S. 22. Act may be amended or repealed this session. CAP. 98. An Act to authorize, for a limited Time, the Application of a Portion of the Highway Rates to Turnpike Roads in certain Townships and Districts. [10th August, 1840.] S. 1. Provisions of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 81, extended to all places and districts maintaining their own highways. S. 2. Act may be amended or repealed this session. S. 3. Act to continue in force during continuance of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 81. CAP. 99. An Act for taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 100. An Act,for taking an Account of the Population of Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 101. An Act to amend several Acts relating to the Temporalities of the Church in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 102. An Act to amend the Law relating to Court Houses in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 103. An Act to amend an Act of the last Session for making further Provisions relating to the Police in the District of Dublin Metropolis. [10th. August, 1840.] CAP. 104. An Act to transfer to the Commissioners of her Majesty's Woods and Works, and other Commissioners, the several Powers now vested in the Commissioners for repairing the Line of Road from Shrewsbury in the County of Salop to Bangor Ferry in the County of Carnarvon; and to amend the London and Holyhead Roads Acts so far as relates to the Dunstable Road. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 105. An Act for abolishing Arrest on Mesne Process in Civil Actions, except in certain Cases; for extending the Remedies of Creditors against the Property of Debtors; and for the further Amendment of the Law and the better Advancement of Justice in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 106. An Act for raising the Sum of Ten Millions Seven Hundred Fifty-one Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty Pounds by Exchequer Bills, for the Service of the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 107. An Act to continue and amend the Laws for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 108. An Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 109. An Act to annex certain Parts of certain Counties of Cities to adjoining Counties; to make further Provisions for Compensation of Officers in Boroughs; to limit the Borough Rate; and to continue for a limited Time an Act to prevent the Alienation of Corporate Property in Ireland. [10th August, 1840.] CAP. 110. An Act to amend the Laws relating to Loan Societies. [11th August, 1840.] CAP. 111. An Act to continue until the Thirty-first day of August, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-two, and to extend the Provisions of an Act of the First and Second Years of her present Majesty, relating to Legal Proceedings by certain Joint Stock Banking Companies against their Members, and by such Members against the Companies. [11th August, 1840.] S. 1. The act 1 & 2 Vict. c. 96, further continued until the 31st August, 1842. S. 2. Members of such companies, who shall steal or embezzle any property of the copartnership, or commit any offence with intent to injure or defraud the copartnership, shall be liable to prosecution and conviction in the name of any of the officers for the time being, in whose name any action or suit might be brought. CAP. 112. An Act to apply a Sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the Service of the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty, and to appropriate the Supplies granted in this Session of Parliament. [11th August, 1840.] CAP. 113. An Act to carry into effect, with certain Modifications, the Fourth Report of the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues. [11th August, 1840.] EXTRACTS FROM SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY'S DIARY. SINCE the article on Sir Samuel Romilly was written, it has struck us that it may be advisable to print in this place some extracte from the Diary, which we omitted for fear of encumbering the narrative. Remarks on the late Baron Garrow." Sir James Mansfield, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, has during the whole of this term been prevented by illness from attending in Court; and, as he is in his 80th year, there have been various reports of his intended resignation, and of the promotions which are to take place in consequence of it. Sir Vicary Gibbs, it seems agreed on all hands, is to succeed him; but who is to succeed Gibbs as Chief Baron seems not a little doubtful. For some time it was considered as quite settled that it was to be the Attorney. General (Garrow), and he has himself talked very confidently about it, has made inquiries respecting the probable state of business upon the different circuits, and has observed that it would be an affectation in him to be silent upon what every body else was speaking of. How well qualified he is to preside in a Court in which all questions respecting the rights of the crown in matters of property are decided, may be conjectured from what passed last summer in the House of Lords. On the claim to the Earldom of Airlie, which came on in last July, I, as counsel for the claimant, had endeavoured to remove the objection which had been taken by some of the Lords, particularly Lord Redesdale, that the title had become forfeited by the attainder of Lord Ogilvy in the year 1715. The question was, whether a Scotch entailed title of honour was forfeited by its devolving on an attainted person subsequent to his attainder; or whether (as I had to contend) it was merely suspended during his life, and on his death came to the next heir of entail. Garrow, as Attorney-General on behalf of the Crown, had to answer Adams' and my argument. Perceiving, from his observations to me while the claim was depending, how little he knew of the matter, I was curious to see how, when it came to him to speak, he would extricate himself from his difficulty. He did extricate himself, but in a way for which I certainly was not prepared. He appeared at the bar of the House of Lords with a written argument, the whole of which he very deliberately read, without venturing to add a single observation or expression of his own. In the Stafford peerage, which stood for the same day, he did exactly the same thing. He merely read an argument which somebody had composed for him; and none of the Lords were malicious enough to interrupt him, or to put any questions to him on any of the doctrines which he had to maintain. I have since been informed that both these arguments were written by Hobhouse, one of the solicitors of the Treasury. A very new sort of exhibition this by an AttorneyGeneral! Two days afterwards in the Court of Chancery, on a question whether a manager of a theatre could discharge the duties of his office without personal attendance, I, who had to argue that he could not, said that it would be as difficult as for a counsel to do his duty in that court by writing arguments, and sending them to some person to read them for him. The Lord Chancellor interrupted me by saying, 'In this court or in any other?' And after the Court rose he said to me, 'You know, I suppose, what I alluded to? It was Garrow's written argument in the House of Lords.' So little respect has his Lordship for an Attorney-General whom he himself appointed, because he was agreeable to the Prince." |