MURDER AND INSANITY.

MESSAGE OF GOV. ALCORN TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MISSISSIPPI.

The following special message was communicated by Gov. Alcorn to the Mississippi house of representatives on Thursday week, and by that body referred to the committee on the judiciary:

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

GENTLEMEN Murder is made to rest in law on one group of facts; insanity is made to rest in law on another group of facts. Ourjurisprudence makes the inquiry into each of these two sets of cases distinct in character as it is in kind. Many failures of justice can be referred properly to a blending of those different classes of investigation into one, in certain trials for murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill. I propose, therefore, to assert by specific legislation the principle of the distinction between the two, with a view to the absolute restriction of inquiries into indictments for taking or attempting to take human life within the purview of the questions of fact which are made in law pertinent to trials for that class of crimes.

In the sixteenth section of article six, the constitution gives the chancery court "full jurisdiction" "in all cases of idiocy, lunacy, and persons non compos mentis." And the words "full jurisdiction " make the jurisdiction thus conveyed exclusive. I propose, therefore, in order to separate questions of insanity absolutely from questions of taking human life, that your honorable bodies alter our criminal law substantially as follows:

That in charges of murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, if the question of insanity shall be raised before the committing magistrate, that magistrate, if he hold that the proof has shown a presumption of insanity, coupled with a presumption of murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, shall order the commitment of the accused to the county jail, or other place of safe-keeping, to await his examination before the chancery court of the county in which the crime shall have been alleged to have been done.

That the person thus made subject to commitment shall be held incompetent to make a bond; and, whether at the time of the trial before the committing magistrate, or at any time between that and his examination before the court of chancery, he shall not be withdrawn from the safe-keeping of the officers of the law, on bail.

That pending the hearing of the case in the court of chancery, the commitment of the magistrate, showing a presumption under which the accused must be held incapable of making an oath, that commitment shall be a sufficient answer to all proceedings on his behalf under the right of the writ of habeas corpus.

That it shall be the duty of the sheriff, into whose custody the accused shall have been committed, thus to immediately report the facts of the commitment to the district-attorney of the judicial district in which the commitment shall have been made; and that it shall be the duty of that district-attorney to bring the accused, with all the proof accessible and necessary, before the chancery court, as above defined, for a final hearing of the case.

That the court of chancery deciding the person brought thus before it under commitment as an insane person on the charge of murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, to be not insane, it shall order his return to the place in which he had been held by the sheriff, and the record of the finding of the chancery court, settling absolutely the plea of insanity in that case, the trial for murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, shall go forward to the exclusion of that plea.

That in all charges of murder, manslaughter or assault with intent to kill, brought before the circuit court, on findings of a grand jury in the county in which the crime

shall be charged to have taken place, the plea of insanity shall be pleaded specially, and, when offered, shall have been sworn to by the attorney of the accused or some other reputable person, and shall not be admissible · under the plea of not guilty.

That the issue having been joined on the plea of in-sanity, the court shall order the accused to be transferred immediately to the court of chancery for the county in which the case has been brought for trial, and the chan-cery court, if then sitting, shall proceed at once to an examination of that issue to the exclusion of all other business.

That in the event of said chancery court not being sitting at the time of the said reference from the circuit court, the sheriff shall hold the accused under a commitment which the circuit court shall make without the option of bail; and to all proceedings in that case under the right of the writ of habeas corpus, it shall be held a sufficient answer, pending the decision of the chancery court, that the accused is held in restraint for murder, manslaughter or assault with intent to kill under a commitment from the circuit court on the oath of his attorney, or some other reputable person, in affirmation of his insanity.

That in all charges of murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, wherein the plea of insanity shall have been interposed before either the committing magistrate or the circuit court, it shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney above described to follow the accused into the chancery court, there to maintain the issue on the part of the state.

That the chancery court deciding the person brought before it, as provided above, under a charge of murder, manslaughter, or assault with intent to kill, whether on the commitment of the committing magistrate or on a reference, as above provided, from the circuit court, to be insane, it shall order his duress in a ward or wards to be set apart for the restraint and safe keeping of the dangerous insane in the lunatic asylum.

That the public wrong of setting at large the dangerous insane shall make the commitment in all such cases by the court of chancery a sufficient answer to the writ of habeas corpus, nor shall any proof of restored reason make that answer insufficient until the said proof shall have shown a soundness of mind, undisturbed by any aberration, for periods graduated with a view to the gravity of the consequences contingently involved to the public by a premature release. In a case of assault, with intent to kill, a period of one year; in a case of manslaughter, a period of three years, and in a case of murder, a period of five years.

Executive Office, April 28, 1870.

LEGAL NEWS.

J. L. ALCORN.

Thirty-six of the graduating class of Princeton College propose to enter upon the study of the law.

The president has nominated John S. Nixon, Esq., judge of the United States district court for New Jersey.

Chief-Justice Cole, of Iowa, favors woman's suffrage, looking upon it as the grand preventive for crime, lawlessness and intemperance.

An eminent lawyer of Pennsylvania, name not published, has given Princeton college $1,000 toward the endowment of the professorship of modern languages.

A colored alderman in Wilmington, N. C., who was called "Anthony" by the counsel in a law case in which he was a witness, refused to reply till he was addressed as Mr. Howe, and the court sustained him.

An Indianapolis lawyer writes to a gentleman in Springfield that the divorce business is improving since the recent decision of the United States supreme court on the legality of Indiana divorces.

Joshua F. Bullitt, a distinguished jurist of Kentucky, who was exiled during the war on account of his connection with the Sons of Liberty, was stricken with palsy at his home in Danville last week.

It is said that Mr. Hoar will soon retire from the attorney-generalship of the United States, and be succeeded by Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, now United States district attorney of the New York district.

The Sheffield (England) Telegraph has been sued for libel by the Earl of Sefton, for saying that the Prince of Wales would soon appear as a witness in the divorce case between the earl and his countess.

District Attorney Garvin, of New York, has issued forty executions against the bondsmen of alleged criminals who have failed to appear for trial at the courts of general and special sessions.

The supreme court of Alabama decides that the statute of limitations" did not run during the war. All notes, bonds, bills, checks, drafts and other writ

ten evidences of indebtedness, given since or during

1860, thus become valid again.

A New York dispatch to a Boston paper states that on the conclusion of the McFarland trial, the friends of Mr. Runkle (Mrs. Calhoun's husband), himself a lawyer, will make an attempt to have Charles Spencer expelled from the New York bar.

The grand jury in the criminal court of Washington, D. C., have found two true bills of indictment against the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, for maintaining nuisances in that city, by blocking up, obstructing and impeding certain streets.

In a suit by the Government, against the sureties of an official bond of one of its public officers, the United States supreme court lately decided that the testimony of the sureties themselves was admissible to establish their defense.

An Irish woman at Chittenango recently caused her husband's arrest, on the ground of his whipping her. The justice sentenced him to the penitentiary or a fine of ten dollars, when the wife immediately provided her own money and paid the fine.

The vote of the inmates of the National Soldiers' Home, in Montgomery county, Ohio, was decided to be illegal by Judge McMinney, on the ground that they were not citizens of the state. The republican candidate for a county office was thereby defeated.

Buffalo must be the El Dorado of the legal profession. Just think of it - they have got a ten-dollar lawsuit, in which the costs already are over $1,200; and the contesting litigants are just getting interested in the case.

A lady's will disposing of about $800,000 worth of property is contested in Philadelphia, it being_contended that when the will was signed deceased was not in her right mind; as an evidence of which it is stated that she kept pistols in the house, and would daily engage in firing at a mark in the yard.

The attorney-general of California has rendered an opinion that until the law of the state is changed, or congress adopts some legislation in the matter, it is the duty of the county clerks to refuse to register negroes. He urges them to obey the state laws, pending the action of congress.

The Woman's Advocate, in combatting objections to female jurors, says that girls whose thoughts have never soared above the ribbon tying their tresses, or dived deeper than the rosette on their gaiters, are not likely to be chosen as arbiters of the fate of a criminal.

The United States supreme court has refused the petition of the Kansas Pacific railway for an injunction restraining the collection of state taxes on its road and property. Chief Justice Chase says, in his opinion, that the constitution contains no authority for the exemption from state taxation.

Welcome Howard has brought suit in the United States district court at Indianapolis, Ind., against thirty-six citizens of Lagrange county, who, he claims, maltreated and tarred and feathered him, Judge Lynch fashion, in December last. He claims ten thousand dollars damage.

The case of Asher Levy v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. An action to recover $30,000 damage for injuries sustained by the plaintiff through the breaking of a wheel of one of the company's cars while passing from Grafton, Va., to Cumberland, Md., as also for the loss of a wallet containing $7,700, has resulted in a verdict in favor of the defendants.

An English judge once addressed a criminal who had been sentenced to death for passing a forged bank note, in this wise: "I trust that through the merits of and mediation of our Blessed Redeemer, you may experience that mercy which, in due regard to the credit of the paper currency of the country, forbids you to hope for here.”

Some time since the supreme court of this district made an order_constituting the United States the plaintiff in the Farragut claims case, instead of Farragut and Porter, as heretofore. Recently the counsel for the government, by direction of the president and attorney-general, entered a motion to vacate the order, on the ground that the government could only become plaintiff in the case by its voluntary action.

The Arkadelphia (Ark.) Tribune, in announcing the return of Judge Searle to his home, says: "When such scribbling lepers as represent the Kuklux Democracy of this place, attempt to libel him, personally, and contempt his court, we shall ever be found in his support with the many others of his defenders, against these treasonable politicasters who are pandering to the tastes of their distempered associates.”

John T. Nixon, recently appointed United States judge for the district of New Jersey, in place of R. S. Feld, resigned, was a member of the thirty-seventh congress. After graduating at Princeton college, of which institution he is at present a trustee, he entered upon the practice of law in 1845, and has been one of the leading practitioners in the federal courts. He is also well known as the compiler of Nixon's Digest of the laws of New Jersey.

The Hon. A. A. King, who died a few days ago in St. Louis, was sixty-nine years of age. He was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee; studied law, and was admitted to the bar on becoming of age. He removed to Missouri in 1830, and in 1834 was elected to the legislature of that state, and was returned for a second term two years later. In 1839 he was appointed a circuit judge, which position he held until 1848, when he was elected governor of the state, his term of office expiring in 1853. In 1862 he was again placed upon the bench, but was elected during the same year as representative from Missouri to the thirty-eighth congress, serving upon the judiciary committee.

Among the victims of the late disaster at Richmond was P. H. Aylett, Jr., Esq., one of the most eminent lawyers of the Richmond bar. Both as a speaker and writer he excelled, having written much for the Richmond Examiner during the existence of that paper, and when controlled by its founder, John M. Daniel, Esq. He was appointed United States attorney for the Eastern district of Virginia, and served during the four years of Mr. Buchanan's administration. During the war he was appointed assistant attorneygeneral for the Confederate States by Jefferson Davis, a position which he filled up to the surrender of General Lee. Since the war he has edited, with marked ability, the Richmond Times, and subsequently the Enquirer. He was a great grandson of Patrick Henry, the "forest-born Demosthenes" of revolutionary fame, whose name he bore, and much of whose rare eloquence he seemed to have inherited. In person he was tall and commanding, and in manner genial and affable. He was about forty-seven years of age, and leaves a family.

NEW YORK STATUTES AT LARGE.*

CHAP. 741.

AN ACT to amend the Code of Procedure.

PASSED May 6, 1870; three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The fourth subdivision of the eleventh section of an act entitled "An act to simplify and abridge the practice, pleadings and proceedings of the courts of this state," passed April twelfth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

In an order affecting a substantial right, not involving any question of discretion arising upon any interlocutory proceeding, or upon any question of practice in the action, including an order to strike out an answer, or any part of an answer, or any pleading in an action, such appeals, whether now pending or hereafter to be brought, may be heard as a motion, and noticed for hearing for any regular motion day of the court.

2. Subdivision third of section eleven of the said act is hereby amended by striking out the words, "But no appeal to the court of appeals shall be had or heard hereafter from any order or judgment in any proceeding under chapter three hundred and thirty-eight of the laws of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight."

23. Subdivision thirteen of section sixty-four of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

If the judgment be docketed with the county clerk, the execution shall be issued by him to the sheriff of the county, and have the same effect and be executed in the same manner as other executions and judgments of the county court, except as provided in section sixtythree.

24. Section sixty-six of the said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

The district courts of the city of New York shall have such jurisdiction as is provided by special statutes; and proceedings, under article two of title ten of chapter eight of part three of the revised statutes, may be had before any justice of such courts, without regard to the district in which the premises are situated; and the affidavits used in such proceedings may be taken before any officer authorized by law to take affidavits. And the justices of the district courts of the city of New York are hereby respectively authorized to appoint a stenographer in their several courts, whose duty it shall be to take full stenographic notes of all proceedings in trials had therein; he shall hold his office during the pleasure of the justice of the court, and shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum, out of the city treasury. The clerks of the said district courts shall collect, in all cases in which a trial is had, the sum of one dollar, in addition to the other fees authorized by law, and shall pay the same into the city treasury, in like manner with other fees collected by them.

§5. Sections eighty-eight and one hundred and one of said act are hereby severally amended, by striking out the words and figures “4. Or a married woman" from each section.

6. Section one hundred and twenty-one of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof as follows: Where an intestate, not being an inhabitant of the state, shall die out of this state, not leaving assets therein, and there shall be pending in the supreme court, or in the court of appeals, an appeal brought by such intestate from a judgment against him, the court in which said appeal is pending may order the judgment appealed from affirmed, with costs, unless the attorney for the

* These laws have been carefully compared with the originals, and may be relied upon as accurate. We have not thought it necessary to take up space by attaching to each the certificate of the secretary of state which is attached to the copy from which we print.-ÉD. L. J.

intestate on said appeal procure said action to be revived, within six months after notice to perfect such appeal, by the substitution of a representative of said intestate in said action.

§7. Section one hundred and twenty-eight of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

The summons shall be subscribed by an attorney, and directed to the defendant, and shall require him to answer the complaint, and serve a copy of his answer on the person whose name is subscribed to the summons, at a place within the state, to be therein specified, in which there is a post-office, within twenty days after the service of the summons, exclusive of the day of service.

§ 8. Section one hundred and eighty-six of the said act is hereby amended by adding thereto as follows: The defendant may give bail whenever arrested, at any hour of the day or night, and shall have reasonable opportunity to procure it, before being committed to prison. 29. Section two hundred and twenty-six of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

The application mentioned in the last section may be opposed by affidavits or other proofs, in addition to those on which the injunction was granted.

§ 10. Section two hundred and sixty-seven of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Upon the trial of a question of fact by the court, its decision shall be given in writing, and shall contain a statement of the facts found, and the conclusions of law separately; and upon a trial of an issue of law, the decision shall be made in the same manner, stating the conclusions of law. Such decision shall be filed with the clerk, within twenty days after the court, at which the trial took place. Judgment upon the decision shall be entered accordingly four days thereafter. If, upon motion, by either party, to a general or special term of the court, it shall be made to appear that the decision is unreasonably delayed, the court may make an order absolute, for a new trial, or may order a new trial, unless the decision shall be filed by a time to be specified in the order. The costs of the former trial shall abide the event of the new trial.

11. Section two hundred and eighty-eight of said act is hereby amended by adding thereto the following words:

If any defendant be in actual custody under an order of arrest, and the plaintiff shall neglect to enter judgment in the action within one month after it is in his power to do so, or shall neglect to issue execution against the person of such defendant, within three months after the entry of judgment, such defendant may, on his motion, be discharged from custody by the court in which such action shall have been commenced, unless good cause to the contrary be shown: and, after being so discharged, such defendant shall not be arrested upon any execution issued in such action.

12. Section three hundred and nine of the said act is hereby amended by adding thereto as follows:

And in an action for the foreclosure of a mortgage, the court may make a like allowance, not exceeding two and one-half per cent.

13. Section three hundred and fifty of the said act is hereby amended by adding thereto as follows:

And proceedings under an order appealed from may be stayed by an order of the court or a judge thereof, on such terms as may be just.

14. The sixth subdivision of section four hundred and one of the said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

No order to stay proceedings, for a longer time than twenty days, shall be granted by a judge out of court, except to stay proceedings under an order or judgment appealed from, or upon previous notice to the adverse party.

§15. Section six of this act shall not apply to actions now pending, nor to any right of action already accrued,

nor take effect until the first day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy. The other sections of this act shall apply to actions now pending, as well as to such as may be hereafter brought, and shall take effect immediately.

CHAP. 175,

-AN ACT regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors. PASSED April 11, 1870; three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. There shall be a board of commissioners of excise in each of the cities, incorporated villages and towns of this state. Such boards in cities shall be composed of three members, who shall be appointed as hereinafter provided. In incorporated villages they shall consist of three members of the board of trustees, one of whom shall be president, to be annually designated by such board of trustees; and in towns they shall consist of the supervisors and justices of the peace thereof, for the time being, respectively. Any three members shall be competent to execute the powers vested in any town board, and in case the office of supervisor be vacant, or there be not two justices in the town, then the town clerk shall act in their places respectively.

§ 2. The mayor of each of the cities, except in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, shall appoint the commissioners of excise in their respective cities within ten days after the passage of this act; but in the cities of New -York and Brooklyn the mayor shall nominate three good and responsible citizens to the board of aldermen of such cities respectively, who shall confirm or reject such nominations. In case of the rejection of such nominees, or any of them, the mayor shall nominate other persons as aforesaid, and shall continue so to nominate until the nominations shall be confirmed. The present commissioners of excise for the metropolitan district and the commissioners for the counties shall continue to exercise the duties of the office until such appointments, or some one of them, shall be appointed in such cities respectively, as herein provided. Any one or more of the commissioners so appointed shall have the power to act as a board of excise for the city in which he shall be appointed until the others shall be duly appointed. Commissioners of excise in cities shall hold their offices for three years, and until others shall be appointed in their places, and shall receive a salary not to exceed twenty-five hundred dollars a year each, to be fixed by the mayor and common council of their respective cities, and shall be paid as other city officers are paid. On the first Monday of April in every third year hereafter, the mayor and board of aldermen shall proceed to appoint, in the manner above described, persons qualified as aforesaid to be such commissioners of excise in their respective cities for the next three years, commencing on the first day of May in that year, and shall, from time to time, as often as vacancies shall occur, appoint persons qualified as aforesaid to fill the unexpired term of any commissioners who shall die, resign, remove from the city, or be removed from office. Such commissioners of excise in cities shall be removed for any neglect or malfeasance in office, in the same manner as provided by law for the removal of sheriffs.

23. The commissioners of excise shall meet in their respective cities, villages and towns on the first Monday of May in each year, and on such other days as a majority of the commissioners shall appoint, not exceeding once each month in any year in any town or village, for the purpose of granting licenses as provided by law. In cities they shall meet on the first Monday of each month, and as often as they shall deem necessary. All such licenses shall expire at the end of one year from the time they shall be granted.

24. The board of excise in cities, towns and villages shall have power to grant licenses to any person or per

sons of good moral character, who shall be approved by them, permitting him and them to sell and dispose of, at any one named place within such city, town or village, strong and spirituous liquors, wines, ale and beer, in quantities less than five gallons at a time, upon receiving a license fee, to be fixed in their discretion, and which shall not be less than thirty nor more than one hundred and fifty dollars. Such licenses shall only be granted on written application to the said board, signed by the applicant or applicants, specifying the place for which license is asked, and the name or names of the applicant or applicants, and of every person interested or to be interested in the business, to authorize which the license shall be used. Persons not licensed may keep, and, in quantities not less than five gallons at a time, sell and dispose of, strong and spirituous liquors, wines, ale and beer, provided that no part thereof shall be drunk or used in the building, garden or inclosure communicating with, or in any public street or place contiguous to, the building in which the same be so kept, disposed of or sold.

5. Licenses granted, as in this act provided, shall not authorize any person or persons to expose for sale, or sell, give away or dispose of, any strong or spirituous liquors, wines, ale or beer, on any day, between the hours of one and five o'clock in the morning; and all places, licensed as aforesaid, shall be closed, and kept closed between the hours aforesaid.

26. The act entitled "An act to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors within the metropolitan police district of the state of New York," passed April fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, is hereby repealed, and the provisions of the act passed April sixteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, except where the same are inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of this act, shall be taken and construed as a part of this act, and be and remain in full force and effect throughout the whole of this state.

27. In no town or village shall the commissioners of excise, created by this act, appoint a clerk of the board of excise. The pay of commissioners of excise in towns or villages shall be three dollars per diem. The moneys arising from licenses in any town or village shall be deposited with the county treasurer, within thirty days after receiving the same, to be expended under the direction of the board of supervisors at their next annual meeting, for the support of the poor of such town. Moneys arising from licenses in cities shall be paid into the treasuries of such cities respectively. The book of minutes kept by the commissioners of excise in any town or village, except when in use by such commissioners, shall be deposited in the clerk's office of such town or village. The expenses of procuring necessary books for minutes, and necessary blanks, in any town or village, when actually incurred, shall be audited and paid in like manner as other town or village charges.

28. The provisions of this act as to the appointment of commissioners of excise, in each of the cities of this state, their tenure of office, the supplying of vacancies and their removal from office, shall not extend to the territory included in the Niagara frontier police district, until the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two. And at all times hereafter up to the last mentioned day, the board of police commissioners of the said police district shall continue to be the board of commissioners of excise in and for said district, and the territory embraced therein, as now provided by law, subject to the provisions of this act; and up to the time aforesaid all fees for licenses which shall be issued by the said board, and all fines and penalties herein provided for, shall be received by said board of police commissioners of said Niagara frontier police district, and shall be paid into the Niagara police fund, for the use and benefit thereof, as now provided by law. 9. This act shall take effect immediately.

The Albany Law Journal.

ALBANY, MAY 21, 1870.

REFORM OF BRITISH JUDICATURES. Besides the Law Digest Commission, a Judicature Commission was appointed a few years ago in England, to report upon the present mode of administering justice in that country, and also to suggest the necessary forms. The report of the commission was presented to parliament last year, and its leading provisions are now in the shape of a bill, which, with little modifications, is certain to become law this session. The bill is of an innovating and radical nature, and is, so far, very unlike the labors of the law digest commissioners, who propose no change in law or procedure, but merely seek to digest into order the legal miscellany called English law.

We gave, in our impression of the 23d ult., a sketch of Lord Hatherly's speech, in which he described the purport of the Judicature, or "Judges Jurisdiction Bill." At present there is a great variety of judicatures in England, each with a distinct, and, in many cases, an exclusive jurisdiction. A suitor may consult a common-law attorney, who consults a commonlaw counsel, who advises proceedings in a commonlaw court. The case goes on to a hearing before a jury, every mere equitable element being carefully eliminated from the pleadings and evidence, and the verdict is, we will assume, for the plaintiff. He then considers that he is at last owner of his hereditary estate, and issues an habere to the sheriff to put him in possession of the long contested acres. The defendant, however, goes into a court of equity, and gets an injunction, restraining the plaintiff from acting upon his judgment at law. The common-law attorney now perceives his mistake in not having gone to an equity practitioner at first. In his next case he flies to a chancery lawyer, who advises a bill for relief, discovery, injunction, and what not. But the bill is at last dismissed, the court having no jurisdiction, and a common-law tribunal being the appropriate forum. Were the two professions of attorney and barrister amalgamated in England, errors such as we have cited would less frequently be common there than they have been hitherto. But, the attorney, not having legal knowledge enough to ascertain the diagnosis of his client's complaint, shapes a random case for counsel, who cannot be very certain for some time whether he is not going into the wrong box. The error being, to use a Baconian phrase, in the first digestion, no subsequent process can rectify it. But, even a lord chancellor has sometimes had serious doubts whether his jurisdiction extended to the case before him. To cap the climax, there are two ultimate courts of appeal in England, -the house of lords and the privy council-and causes are often dismissed by the latter tribunal for want of jurisdiction. The judicature or judges jurisdiction bill proposes to amalgamate the courts of law, equity, admiralty, probate and divorce, etc., and to reduce all to a single denomination, and having one uniform scope. suitor, therefore, cannot in future err as to the juris

A

diction. This "highway for the simple" will have seven wide doors, all leading to a common penetralia, instead of the seven separate and narrow apertures at present leading each to a distinct tribunal. There will still, it seems, be suits in equity and actions at law; and the plaintiff may shape his complaint for either side of the court, as he pleases. But the judge before whom he first appears may transfer the cause to the equity or common law side of the court, as the case may be. This seems to be an odd mode of consolidating jurisdictions. The plaintiff still has the power of subjecting the defendant to the expensive process of chancery, where almost all the evidence is entered as pleadings on the record. It is likely, however, that next session, at latest, a new code of common forms of procedure will be introduced, which alone a suitor will be at liberty to adopt.

British law has been long approaching this fusion of law and equity. The common law procedure acts of 1852 and 1854 conferred upon courts of common law a jurisdiction to compel discovery and to issue injunctions. The Regulation act, 1860, reciprocated the compliment, and gave the court power to determine issues of common law fact. But the judicature bill will consolidate the jural federation and render it one single integer.

There is no provision in the bill for the amalgamation of the two professions. But this, we think, will result, in the course of time, as a corollary to the general tendencies to consolidate. Last year a measure was before the house of commons to consolidate the Irish and English bars. We hope it is not long until every learned profession will have not only an imperial, but even an international significance. All

measures of legal consolidation pave the way for this desirable result. The reforming lawyers of England, however, seem at present to have enough on hand besides amendments in the constitution of the bar. The efforts of the law digest commission, and of the judges who are to prepare general orders for the carrying out the provisions of the judges' judicature bill, will probably see another autumn or two before the harvest of their labors (on the old world deliberate plan), will be complete. We have thought an outline of the projected British law reforms would be interesting to the social reformer west of the Atlantic, inasmuch as the British designs contain much that recommends itself to our own adoption.

THE LESSONS OF THE MCFARLAND CASE. It was long since practically settled that if a man surprise his wife in the act of adultery, or in such proximity to the act of adultery that it is apparent that the crime has been committed, he may lawfully slay both or either of the adulterers, provided his passion has not had time to cool. This doctrine has been, in practice, extended to the cases of a brother avenging the seduction of his sister, a father avenging the seduction of his daughter, and a woman avenging her own seduction, or even a breach of promise of marriage without seduction. The uniform tenor of the late American decisions is that the aggrieved person may lawfully kill, even though sufficient time may have elapsed for passion to subside. These cases are mainly based on the actual