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of Criminal Appeal, and cannot sit at Nisi Príus, so the case has to be again adjourned till the Monday, when, at length, it is tried. The cost of keeping witnesses waiting from the Thursday till the Monday, twice as long as need be, because no Judge was available to try the case sooner, has to be paid by the unsuccessful litigant. In many cases, this cost of keeping witnesses is the most serious item in the expense of a trial, and this is now often made double what it should be, merely because of the present faulty and uncertain arrangement of the sittings of the Judges at Nisi Prius.

Besides the improvements here suggested in the arrangement of the work of different Judges, there remain two or three minor points as to the manner of transacting business, where alterations might be effected with advantage, which would economise the time of the Bar and the Public, and thus facilitate the working of our judicial machinery. Much time is now wasted in the reading of judgments, in cases where the Judges have taken time to consider a case. In the Franconia case two days were thus occupied, during which time nearly all the Judges sat together to hear the opinions of their brethren delivered and to read their own; in the meantime suitors were waiting for Judges to try their cases. The ordinary practice of reading judgments is almost ludicrous. A Judge comes into Court, and usually in a low voice, as if he were half ashamed of himself, reads through an elaborate decision in some case, about which probably very few persons in Court know anything. No one listens to what he reads, because it is known that the document will be handed to the law Reporters and will presently appear in print, together with an abstract of the case, and of the arguments which conduced to the judgment. Would it not be much better, if a Judge were simply to announce that he gave his judgment for the Plaintiff or for the Defendant for reasons appearing in his written judgment, and to give the parties to the suit a right to have copies of that document? No good apparently is attained by the

present practice, which would not equally be attained by the proposed alteration; and at present a great deal of public time is expended on reading judgments, which might be better employed.

A great economy of the time of the Bar might also be effected, if the Common Law Divisions would adopt the practice which prevails in the Divorce Court, and works well there, according to which motions are heard in the order in which they are set down, and not according to the seniority of Counsel. A list of the day's motions might then be published and Counsel could form an idea of the time when their motion would probably be heard, and also of what cases had any probability of being taken after motions were disposed of. Junior Counsel often now waste the best part of a day waiting to bring on a motion, or argue a case in banc, while the Leaders who are supposed to be favoured by the present arrangement derive no real benefit from it, owing to its uncertainty. No one now knows till the sitting of the Court, if then, how long motions are likely to last, still less when his own particular motion will come on. By the proposed alteration this difficulty would be in a great measures avoided.

Even if the foregoing suggestions were adopted in their entirety, and produced all the improvement which is here anticipated, the impossibility of trying cases with due promptitude must still remain. Better methods of procedure may alleviate, to a certain extent, the evils that are at present felt, but they cannot cure them. At present judicial strength is misapplied, and therefore wasted. But the number of cases now waiting for trial is too great for the present number of Judges to dispose of promptly even under the most perfect system, and that number of cases would be certain to increase largely if the delay, and consequent expense, of bringing a case to trial, were done away with. More Judges must soon be appointed; and when they are, the necessity for arrangements which shall secure

a proper application of their time and energy will be even greater than it is now. The number of Courts available at Westminster is already inadequate. When more Judges are appointed, the only way in which the services of the whole number can be profitably utilised, will be by complying with a provision of the Judicature Act which has hitherto been disregarded, and by holding continuous sittings in London and Westminster. By using the Courts at Guildhall, as well as those at Westminster, many more than six Courts can sit at once to try causes, which can be consequently tried very much sooner than they are now. Rumours have been heard, to the effect that these simultaneous sittings would have been held long ago, but for the opposition of certain leading members of the Bar. And it cannot be denied that under the present absence of system and arrangement, it is exceedingly inconvenient for a man in large practice that sittings should be held in different places at the same time. Yet the sittings of the Court of Appeal and the Courts in banc at Westminster have been held simultaneously with the trial of cases at Nisi Prius at Guildhall, and the work at both places has somehow been done. Often, no doubt, Counsel have been unavoidably absent from their cases, and suitors have grumbled accordingly. But Public business requires more Courts to dispose of it. The more numerous Courts become, the greater will be the difficulty of the man in large practice, who is liable to have business in all at once. If the simultaneous sittings are established, they must be uniform. The same number of Judges should sit at Westminster and at Guildhall each day throughout the sittings; cases should be assigned for trial to a particular Court at the beginning of each Sitting, and should only be transferred, in case some other Court was in want of work to go on with, having disposed of all the cases ready for trial in its own list. Then, leading Counsel could select a Court and only accept cases there, and they would soon find the

advantage of doing so, and learn to attach themselves to that Court. There might of course be occasions on which they were called away to the Courts in banc or the Court of Appeal, but with improved arrangements there, they would be able to calculate much more nearly than they can now when their presence would be required, and would thus be able to minimise their absence from the Nisi Prius Court in which they were retained. Complaints of neglect of business by Counsel who had been retained for it would then become infrequent, and work would be done better and more easily than it is at present.

The writer believes that, if the changes here suggested were adopted, the judicial machinery of the country would be found adequate to the demands made upon it. The present want of system and block in the Courts is a disgrace to a civilised country, and frequently amounts to a denial of justice. Men are prevented from asserting their just claims, through fear of the expense, uncertainty, and delay, now attending legal proceedings. Till this has been as far as practicable remedied, the work of the Judicature Act, and reform of our system of procedure, is imperfect. And no lawyer, practical or theoretical, should remain satisfied, as long as serious defects-which could easily be alleviated or removed—are to be found in our legal system. When such no longer exist, and not before, we may fairly refuse to alter what we have. Now, we ask to have palpable defects put right, and for a system which shall work so as to satisfy the fair demands of the Public and the Country.

J. V. VESEY FITZGERALD.

199

VI.-LAW AND CUSTOM AMONG THE SOUTHERN

SLAVS.*

WHATEVER may be the political issues of the Russo

Turkish War of 1877-78, there can be no doubt that it has directed the attention of Jurists in Western Europe to a source of study fruitful for the purpose of scientific Jurisprudence. And the interest which has been aroused by this study is of no mere passing character, created by the circumstances of the moment. It is the interest arising from the rare spectacle of a people among whom may be seen, side by side, Archaic Custom and Modern Law, the disintegrating influence of Romanised Western Codes, and the possibly harmonising influence of national efforts at codification which may, if anything can, establish a modus vivendi between the two. It is not, perhaps, generally known, that among the symptoms of progressiveness to which Montenegro can lay claim is a systematic work of codification, carried out, at the request of the reigning Prince, by a Professor of the Faculty of Law at Odessa, who is by birth a Dalmatian, M. V. Bogichitch,† a native of the ancient Republic of Ragusa. Upon this work the learned Professor has been engaged, it appears, since 1873, and we are not

* Le Droit Coutumier des Slaves Méridionaux d'après les recherches de M. V. Bogichitch, par Fedor Demelitch. Paris: E. Thorin, 1877.

Bulletin de la Société de Législation Comparée, 6me Année, No. 4 (Compterendu de M. Ch. Lyon Caen). Paris: Cotillon 1875.

To reproduce the orthography of Slavonic names in all their national pecularity would require special founts of type, and after all render them none the more intelligible to Western readers. We therefore refrain from such an undertaking, and content ourselves with working out the sounds according to their powers, as indicated in the short but useful table given by M. Demelitch at the foot of page 8 of his interesting essay

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