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an account of the different methods employed in the formation of an herbarium; to which succeeds a definition of the terms. used by most writers on the subject, with a particular explanation of those that are found in Hedwig and Gärtner: which, having never before appeared in this language, may be more particularly considered as a valuable addition to our stock of botanical information.

These materials, with two short dictionaries of botanical terms, (in one of which the English is prefixed to the Latin, and in the other the Latin to the English,) and twelve plates, (many of them little more than copies, and none conspicuous for their excellence,) constitute the first volume.

We must not neglect this opportunity of pointing out to Dr. Hull's notice, the celebrated Willdenow's "Grundriss der kräuterkunde;" a work which stands in deservedly high estimation on the Continent, and of which we wish that he had availed himself more than he appears to have done. Its plates, among other recommendations, are particularly good; and that which contains specimens of the different colours suggests an idea which appears to deserve the imitation of English elementary authors.

The Second Volume is chiefly occupied by the characters of the British Genera; which, many readers will perhaps think, might well have been omitted, as having little reference to this work, and as being contained in almost every Flora: not to mention Linné's Genera Plantarum, with which very few botanists can be supposed to be unprovided. In one respect, however, this part will be serviceable: since, in the class Cryptogamia, Dr. Hull brings us acquainted with Dr.Smith's arrangement of the genera of dorsiferous ferns, and with the German distribution of Musci, Alga, and Fungi. These divisions, especially in the Lichens and Fungi, appear to be carried to an unwarrantable length: but we still regret that this country so pertinaciously adheres to the old arrangement of Linné; and it would give us great pleasure if Dr. Smith, in the remaining volumes of his Flora*, could devise some method which, without entering into all the minutiae of Hedwig and Persoon, might nevertheless fix the genera on the basis so universally established on the Continent, and enable the botanists on either side of the water to understand each other's meaning.

The definition of these Genera is followed by an account of the natural orders; and Giseke's map, explaining their vicinities, concludes a performance of which the utility, if not the necessity, to every botanist, is in our judgment indisputable :

We propose to give an account of the 1st and zd vols. of this work, in our next Review.

however

however it may be their opinion that Dr. Hull has judged erroneously in publishing the major part of the contents of the second volume.

ART. X. The Jurisdiction of the Lords House of Parliament, considered according to ancient Records. By Lord Chief Justice Hale. To which is prefixed, by the Editor, Francis Hargrave, Esq. an introductory Preface, including a Narrative of the same Jurisdiction from the Accession of James the First. 4to. pp. 450. 11. 78. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1796.

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T HE late appearance of the present article will not be attri buted to any disrespect towards the learned editor of this publication, when it is recollected that we have on frequent occasions borne willing testimony to his merits; neither can it be ascribed to a disapprobation of the contents of the volume, when we sincerely acknowlege that we have seldom perused a work in which we have discovered so many proofs of patient investigation and accurate research. Causes of a very different description have occasioned a delay which we have much regretted, while it has been wholly out of our power to prevent it.

In a volume of law tracts which Mr. Hargrave presented to the world several years ago, with a promise (which, we lament to say, he has not been encouraged to fulfil) of continuing his labours in that branch, he introduced to the public notice some MSS. of Chlef Justice Hale, which were extremely valuable. The present treatise by the same venerable author, and which was communicated to the editor by John Blagden Hale, Esq. (who is now the possessor of the Chief Justice's paternal seat and estate at Adderley in Gloucestershire,) is highly to be prized; both on account of the important and interesting nature of the subject which it discusses, and because it was acknowleged by its writer, who had in other treatises exercised his attention on the same subject," to be perfected."

This work may, with the greatest propriety, be considered as consisting of two grand divisions; the one, which is the preface, comprising 230 pages; and the other, the treatise by Lord Hale, comprehending 208 pages. Of each of these we shall proceed to give a summary account; and the object of both parts of the publication we shall present to our readers in Mr. Hargrave's words:

Before entering upon an account of the controversy, between the two houses of the English parliament, about judicature, it may be fit to explain the limits, within which the editor, for the most part, and as far as the complex nature of that controversy will per nit, means to confine himself.

There

There are various kinds of judicature exerciseable in parliament. -The lords have a judicature for their privileges; and since the union have had a judicature for controverted elections of the sixteen peers for Scotland. The commons have a judicature for the privileges of their house, and also for determining matters relative to the clection of their members.-There is a judicature for impeachment: and under it, on the one hand, the commons, as the great representative inquest of the nation, first find the crime, and afterwards, acting as prosecutors, endeavour to support their finding before the lords; whilst, on the other hand, the lords exercise the function both of judge and jury, in trial of the cause and in deciding upon it. Further, there is a judicature for the trials of peers, by the lords, in and out of parliament. There is also a kind of judicature exercised by the lords in parliament, over claims of peerage and offices of honour, under references from the crown.

But the narrative, the editor means to offer, is not with a particular view to these several kinds of judicature; for his object is chiefly applicable and restricted to the controversy between the two houses of parliament,-about the exercise of an original jurisdiction by the lords in civil causes,-about the exercise of an appellant jurisdiction by the lords in the causes of equity, on a petition to themselves, and not as upon a writ of error, but without commission or delegation of any kind from the crown, about the claim to extend such original and appellant jurisdiction to all causes, whether temporal or ecclesiastical, maritime or military, which the lords shall please to undertake,-about the claim to a jurisdiction thus vast and comprehensive, under the supposition of a primitive and inherent right in the lords, attached to their order by the law and constitution of the kingdom,-and about the exercise of such original and appellant jurisdiction by the lords singly, as being in themselves, without' any participation either of the king or the house of commons, the supreme and dernier resort.

Such is the nature of the controversy, to which lord Hale's following Treatise chiefly applies, and of which therefore it is now intended to give a general account.

This great controversy, about original and appellant judicature in parliament, did not regularly begin till some few years after the restoration. But several things, which connect with and may illustrate the subject, and some of which were not wholly unmixed with controversy, occurred previously; and in respect of them it may be convenient to go back as far as the accession of James the First to the crown of England, and in some degree to look back even to a still earlier time.'

In this narrative, which is replete with historical informa tion of a very interesting nature, it appears that the Lords, in the third parliament of Charles I. which was memorable for passing the Petition of Rights, made great advances towards fixing in themselves an universal jurisdiction, both original and appellant, over causes between party and party; the orders of the house in this respect extending to spiritual courts as well temporal.

temporal. The two cases of Dr. Mainwaring, and the Banbury Rioters, which occurred in this parliament, shew that the Lords had assumed an original jurisdiction over misdemeanours unconnected with privileges or impeachment. It is observable, at the same time, that no direct precedent will be found in this period, of express petition of appeal from a decree in equity, with such a full hearing of the cause by the Lords, and such a full order expressly affirming or reversing, as to be a complete and unequivocal exercise of equitable appellant jurisdiction by the Lords themselves. The reflections which Mr. Hargrave makes on the sixth and last parliament called by the unfortunate Charles, which was usually denominated the Long Parliament, are candid, judicious, and moderate; and the account which he gives of Colonel John Lilburne (in a note, p. lxi.) is curious and interesting in no common degree. Of this extraordinary man, the fiery ebullitions of whose religious and political enthusiasm were ever involving him in state-prosecutions, and the invincibleness of whose courage enabled him to triumph under the consequences of them,' the best narrative, according to Mr. Hargrave, is to be found in the old Biographia Britannica.-At the beginning of the Long Parliament, the Lords, on occasion of petitions presented to them, exercised both original and appellant jurisdiction, as well in causes of equity as of law; extending their orders even to the punishment of misdemeanours, and to the awarding of damages; and thus they arbitrarily encroached on and controuled the ordinary jurisdictions of the kingdom, and invaded the functions both of judges and juries. No conclusive inference, however, can be drawn with respect to the proper and constitutional extent of their judicature, from proceedings which took place during a period of such excess.

In the whole account of that variable and inconsistent character, Mr. Prynne, the reader will discover much to amuse and to inform.-We shall transcribe a note, in which the editor successfully attempts to rescue the enlightened author from an unfounded censure by Roger North:

Lord Hale was not over democratically inclined, as his rash censurer Mr. Roger North supposes; but on the contrary so inflexible in his attachment to the monarchical part of our constitution, that not only in his History of the Pleas of the Crown, but in his unpublished collections of law on the Rights of the Crown in his own handwriting, there are passages, which, if they have a fault, are open to remark on that very account. Indeed both the enemies and friends of the Revolution seem to have been fully aware of this: for the former have appealed to the authority of his opinions against its principles, and the latter have thought it necessary to observe upon certain parts of his writings concerning the hereditary succession of

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the crown of England. See "The Hereditary Right of the Crown of England Asserted," 128. 179. & 221. and the last Discourse in Judge Forster's Crown Law. But whatever might be the extent of lord Hale's prejudices in this respect, his mind was too philosophi cally expanded, not to see, that the consent or agreement of the people was at least a most desirable source of political power; and that being founded upon such a basis, government becomes guarded by the sacredness of moral obligation. The following extract, from the first chapter of his unpublished manuscript intitled PREPARATORY NOTES TOUCHING THE RIGHTS OF THE CROWN, will, it is conceived, warrant this assertion.

"The right of political government may be considered under a double notion.-1. Before it is settled, or in fieri.—2. After it is settled, or in facto esse.

"1. Before it is settled.—It is clear, that no form of government, nor any government at all, can challenge any right but by positive institution. Man, though he be born subjicibilis to man, yet jure natura ⚫ he is subject to none in a politic consideration. It is true, the desire to perpetuate and preserve his own being, and profit it by communion, inclines him to society, and consequently to government and subjection as the bond. But till he subject himself he is naturally free. Therefore much less can any form of government challenge a natural right. It is true one form of government may be better in itself. Yet all are but of positive or introduced original.

"2. After it is settled.-Though natural right or justice be not the original of any government; yet when a government is once established, the same natural justice, that requires every man to keep his contract or agreement, binds the society wherein such government is settled, and the members thereof, to observe that agreement where by the government stands so settled."

From this extract, it appears how widely lord Hale differed from Prynne on the principles of government. It was the wisdom of lord Hale to render political submission a dignified offering of rational attachment, and the conscientious performance of a moral duty. It was the policy of Prynne to extort such submission as a servile tribute from bigotted ignorance.'

During the continuance of the convention-parliament, the Lords acted as if there were an unbounded jurisdiction inherent in the peerage; and as if their house were a forum for all descriptions of causes, without any other limitation than such as their own choice and moderation might suggest :-but the time was fast approaching when this question of judicature was to undergo a serious discussion; for in the second parliament of King Charles II. (and which with the greatest propriety might be called the Second Long Parliament, since it had sixteen different sessions, and continued nearly eighteen years,) several disputes on this subject took place between the Lords and the Commons. Besides the cafes of Fitton and Carr, which involved some questions relative to this topic of parliamentary REV. DEC. 1800. judicature,

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