difference,―no preliminary expense would be incurred in taking the evidence in writing, the witnesses would be called at once into open court, put into the box, examined and cross-examined, and the truth extracted from them, by the most certain of all processes; and after the trial let the findings of the jury upon the issues, and the evidence itself, be returned to the Court of Chancery, that court having then to perform its peculiar functions, i. e. to apply the principles of equity to the facts so found.

"Is there anything very startling, or even very novel in principle, in this proposition?"

Nothing novel certainly, or startling either, but simply needless. The County Courts Bill, to be re-introduced by Lord Brougham, provides the easiest and least costly way of doing this. Suitors, who agree with Mr. Morton in his estimate of the value of juries, can then have them at their option,-an option they avail themselves of in about one case in 5000.

Mr. Morton objects to giving the County Courts equity jurisdiction; but he overlooks the fact that his own scheme keeps the equity jurisdiction in the Equity Courts, who are, he says, "to apply the principles of equity to the facts so found." He forgets, in his low estimate of the powers of County Court judges, that, inasmuch as they are taking evidence of facts nearly every day in their lives, they become very much better judges of it than any other judges in the land, having twenty times the same practice. A much less considerate plan we have seldom seen broached.

Mr. Morton seems

wholly ignorant of what the County Courts are, which he persists in calling Small Debt Courts, unaware that they try causes without limitation of damages where the parties consent, and, where they do not, up to 50%. The immense amount of heavy business and important causes now voluntarily brought into them stands in somewhat amusing contrast with Mr. Morton's ipse dixit:·

--

"I say that in cases involving any higher questions than-' Do you owe this? -How do you mean to pay it?—the County Courts are not such satisfactory tribunals as the Courts of Westminster Hall!!!”

Where questions arise then of consideration for a promise or contract, of actual delivery or acceptance of goods, of requisite stamp on written instruments, &c. &c., and in all the myriad of issues raised by the facts in commercial transactions,-where sums, say, of ten, twenty or thirty or fifty shillings are at stake,-it is Mr. Morton's deliberate conviction that an action at law, decided in six months, in which the costs would be moderate perhaps at 50l., would be more "satisfactory" than the prompt decision of the County Court judge, with costs little more than nominal; and this Mr. Morton propounds, in a letter addressed to one of the acutest minds and most able statesmen of the day, as one of the main arguments (?), whereby he seeks to recommend his suggestions!

Events of the Quarter.

MISCELLANEOUS.

We believe it is in contemplation to propose that the circuits of the judges be made four times in each year, one judge only performing the circuit and sitting simultaneously with the Quarter Sessions.

THE LAW OF PARTNERSHIP.-A Parliamentary blue book has been printed, containing the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Law of Partnership. The committee are of opinion that the law of partnership, as at present existing, viewing its importance in reference to the commercial character and rapid increase of the population and property of the country, requires careful and immediate revision. The committee state: "By the existing law no person can advance any capital to any undertaking, public or private, in the profits of which he is to participate, nor become partner or shareholder in any enterprise for profit, without becoming liable to the whole amount of his fortune, as expressed by a great legal authority, to his last shilling and his last acre." The evidence printed forms a goodly-sized volume; and the actual matter might be usefully condensed into a fifty-paged pamphlet: and the recommendation and result in as many lines. A Bill we hear is in preparation, which is to be introduced at the beginning of the Session, and most probably smothered at the end of it.

THE ROLLS COURT.-The "Globe" says, that since Sir John Romily took his seat on the Rolls Court, on the 15th April last, he has cleared off every portion of the business of the court. He has disposed of 90 causes and rehearing, 101 further directions, pleas, demurrers and exceptions, 25 claims, 3 special cases, 160 petitions, besides short causes and consent petitions. Judgment has been given in every instance with a single exception, in which it was thought that by delaying a decision the parties may be brought to an amicable arrangement.

THE WOODS AND FORESTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS.-On the 18th of October, the act separating the management of the Woods and Forests from the direction of Public Works and Buildings came into force. The First Commissioner of the Woods becomes the First Commissioner of Public Works and Buildings, at a salary of 20007.

a year, and a Surveyor-General is appointed at a salary of 1500l. a year. The Surveyor-General is to have all the duties and powers of the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests.

ST. ALBAN'S BRIBERY COMMISSION.-The commissioners appointed in the last Session of Parliament to inquire into the manner in which the elections for the borough of St. Alban's have been conducted, with a view to arrive at the extent to which bribery and other corrupt practices have prevailed, commenced their sittings on the 27th ult. The court is not an open one, although it was originally intended by the commissioners that it should be. The ground alleged for hearing the evidence with closed doors is the usual one, that the commissioners believe the publication of the evidence would defeat the object the House of Commons had in view when the commission was proposed. A very large number of witnesses are being

examined.

CAUSES AT THE LAST SPRING ASSIZES.-Among the papers lately printed, by order of the House of Lords, was one giving an account of the number of causes tried on all the circuits of England and Wales at the Spring and Summer Assizes for the last seven years, and also an account for the last Spring Assizes:-On the Home Circuit, it appears that there were on the last Spring Assizes, 111 causes; on the Midland Circuit, 41; on the Norfolk Circuit, 14; on the Northern Circuit, 75; on the Oxford Circuit, 63; on the Western Circuit, 53; and on the North Wales and Chester Circuit, 19-Total, 376. On the last Summer Assizes the business was further diminished.

DIMINUTION OF PAUPERISM.-A return to the House of Commons shows that on the 1st of July, 1850, there were 831,780 paupers in the receipt of relief, and on the 1st of July last 813,089, showing a decrease of 18,691. Of able-bodied paupers the decrease in the same period was 7,903.

COURT OF CHANCERY.-A return relative to the amount of cash and stock standing to different accounts in the AccountantGeneral's name, and not dealt with during a period of fifty years prior to the 1st of August, 1850, shows that the number of cash accounts so standing is 3,251, and amount to 247,495l. 5s. 10d.; those for stock are 762 in number, and amount to 314,543l. 19s. 3d.

BARON PLATT.-At the recent assizes at Liverpool a stabbing case from Manchester was heard before Baron Platt, who, in summing up to the jury, used these words: "One of the witnesses tells you that he said to the prisoner,' If you use your knife you are a damned coward;' I say also (continued the learned judge, apparently in deep thought) that he was a damned coward, and any man is a damned coward who will use a knife."-Manchester Courier.

MR. ALDERMAN SALOMONS, M.P., AND THE VIOLATED RULES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.-On the 11th instant Mr. Alderman

Salomons's solicitor received" notice of trial" in two separate actions, which will bring the question of the admission of Jews into parliament before the Court of Queen's Bench in the course of a few weeks. The notices of trial are for the sittings after Michaelmas Term; consequently the cases will come on early in December, as the term ends on the 25th of November. The actions are brought for "having voted in the House of Commons without having first taken the oaths required by law."

This is as it should be; the issue cannot be

very doubtful.

MR. RAMSHAY.-An inquiry into the case of this judge will take place at Preston, on the 5th November, by the Earl of Carlisle.

APPOINTMENTS, CALLS, &c.

The Queen has been pleased to direct letters-patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the united kingdom appointing the Right Hon. Sir James Lewis Knight Bruce, and the Right Hon. Robert Monsey Lord Cranworth, to be judges of the Court of Appeal in Chancery.

Mr. Kindersley, Master in Chancery, and Mr. James Parker, Q. C., are appointed Vice-Chancellors.

There never has been any intention of conferring a peerage on Sir J. L. K. Bruce.

The office of Professor of English Law in the Queen's College, Cork, has been conferred upon Mr. O'Donnell. This gentleman is the son of a Fellow of Trinity College, who was married to the daughter of the late Mr. Denis Creagh Moylan, of that city.

OBITUARY.

On the 9th October, Charles Frith, Esq, of Park Village West, Regent's Park, and the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-law, at Dover. Mr. Frith was called to the Bar in June, 1847, and practised as a conveyancer and equity draftsman.

On October 12th, by his own act, Richard Ellison, Esq., Solicitor, and chief resident of Tickhill, Yorkshire. During the previous week the unfortunate gentleman had been labouring under deep depression of mind, which at length assumed such an appearance that it was deemed necessary to place a watch on his moveOn Sunday morning, after taking exercise for some time, he contrived to elude his watchers' vigilance, and returned to the house unnoticed and alone. The unfortunate gentleman appears to have gone direct to his room, and there cut his throat. A gloom

has been cast over the neighbourhood by this untoward event, as the deceased (who was the eldest son of John Ellison, Esq., estate steward to the Earl of Scarborough) was highly esteemed for his kindness and generosity to the neighbouring poor.

On the 14th October, Armorer Donkin, Esq., for many years an eminent solicitor in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and an alderman of the corporation, at Jesmond, aged 72.

GRAY'S INN.

The Lectures on Law will be resumed in the Hall of this Society, by the Lecturer, Mr. W. D. Lewis, in the ensuing Michaelmas Term, commencing on Monday, the 3rd of November, at half-past seven o'clock, when an Introductory Lecture will be delivered on "The general Advantages of a Study of the English Statute Law." This will be followed by a course of Lectures on the Statutes relating to Property on every Monday and Thursday Evening. The "Mootings" of the Students will take place on every alternate Thursday evening, after the Lecture. Tickets of admission may be had by any Member of an Inn of Court, on application at the Steward's Office.