of reform that have subsequently arisen, and the practical experience here, have rendered a revision of this code too necessary. This revision is not indeed quite complete: but during the present year it resulted in the passing of a novel of the highest importance, which introduced the institution of conditional condemnation that is becoming daily more general in foreign countries, initiated a special system of correction and training for juvenile offenders, and contains several other significant modifications and additions.

The codification of Civil law, which is unfortunately still incomplete, has been left till the last. The situation in which the re-establishment of the constitution found the country in this respect, and which is still unchanged, is as follows: in Transylvania and the South of Hungary, the Austrian Civil Code of 1811, introduced in 1853, is still in force; while in the greater part of Hungary proper the code was not maintained at the time of the restitution of Hungarian law in 1861, except in so far as it was connected with the institution of land registers. As, however, owing to the extensive reforms carried out in 1848 and in the fifties, the old Hungarian law was out of place in the new conditions, the latter was duly modified by a Conference. summoned by the Lord Chief Justice which met in 1861, in the form of temporary rules: while the law of contracts and real property referring to estates not entered in the land registers was developed for the most part on the basis of the Austrian Civil Code, though often by irregular judicial practice too.

The new constitutional government, fully conscious of the absurdity of the situation, at once undertook the codification. of Civil law, together with the other reforms. At first, however, the only result was drafts dealing with particular parts of Civil law, which were either not passed into law, or merely referred to individual institutions the regeneration of which had already become urgent. So in 1876 the legal requisites

of wills were regulated; in 1877 the institution of guardianship was settled, and, in connection therewith, the scope of individual capacity of action was determined. Laws were passed dealing with expropriation, interest, the service of servants and agricultural labourers, the adjustment of the conditions of possession, etc. But the most significant creation was Act XXXI of 1894, dealing with the laws of matrimony, which introduced, in a binding form, civil marriage, an institution previously unknown in Hungary, which, however, owing to the differences in religion, was indispensable: as a consequence of the same, the system of State registry offices was organised. In the meantime, the work of preparing the civil code had progressed. The progress was more rapid after the completion of the German Civil Code, which could be used as a model; although we are convinced that this great national work was not so successful as might have been expected after the strenuous efforts made to prepare it, and does not render superfluous a careful study of the civil codes of other nations,—e.g., the older French, Austrian and Italian, as well as the new Swiss, -and of the literature dealing with the same. At present the position with regard to the new civil code is as follows: in 1900, a commission prepared the first draft of the same together with the motives, published in 5 volumes in 1901— 1902. The same has been discussed afresh by the commission and these discussions, as well as the criticisms and proposals offered by the general public, have also been published. On the basis of the same, a commission of wider scope, appointed for purposes of codification, is engaged in systematically discussing the main questions of principle. After the latter have been finally decided, a result that may be expected before the present year is out, a second draft will be prepared, which will be laid before Parliament as definitive. Consequently we have every reason to believe that, before long, this crowning piece of codification, which

has already become an urgent necessity, will be completed: and then we shall be able conscientiously to say that the new legal edifice of Hungary is entirely ready. And the citizens of Hungary, as well as those foreigners who hold intercourse with us will, under its protection, enjoy complete security with respect to all those conditions of life which require legal adjustment.

Before concluding this short sketch of the legal conditions of Hungary, I must refer to one more important peculiarity, due to the singular political status of Croatia and Slavonia, which form an annexe to the lands of the Hungarian Crown. While the other parts of the country, even those which, like Transylvania in particular, were formerly separated from the mother country,-at present form one uniform whole, both in point of legislation and administration, Croatia and Slavonia possess an extensive autonomy in both respects. This autonomy includes, besides home affairs and education, the department of justice too. The Courts (both of first instance and the higher ones) acting in the territory of Croatia and Slavonia are organised independently, and are subordinate, not to the Hungarian Minister of Justice, but exclusively to the governor, called the Ban of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, who resides in Zágráb. The legislation concerned with Civil and Criminal law and with procedure belongs to the sphere of authority of the separate Croato-Slavonian Diet. Consequently the Civil and Criminal laws that have been or may be passed by the Hungarian Parliament do not refer to the territory of Croatia and Slavonia: and, in so far as the Croato-Slavonian Diet has not passed any new laws dealing with such questions, the Austrian laws introduced in the fifties of last century are still in force. The affairs which belong to the sphere of authority of the Hungarian Parliament acting with the assistance of the Croato-Slavonian delegates are the following: those which are not strictly legal, viz: financial,

military and all affairs relating to commercial politics and to traffic; international treaties; besides these: citizenship and naturalisation, which is the same for the whole territory belonging to the Hungarian Crown; Commercial law and laws of bills of exchange, including banks and insurance companies; mining laws; patent and trade mark laws; copyright laws; industrial legislation; and several other affairs. These are all regulated and adjusted for the whole territory of Hungary in common. But, apart from the extension of the sphere of authority of the administrative Court and the patent offices to cover Croatia and Slavonia too, Maritime law is the only instance in which not only the legislation but also the jurisdiction is exercised uniformly all over the country. In this respect the jurisdiction belongs to the Royal Court of Justice of Fiume and to the Hungarian superior Courts respectively.

This, Gentlemen, is the short sketch I considered it necessary to give you of our legal conditions, in order to enable you, on the occasion of your visit among us, to gain a due impression of the same, and to convince yourselves of the honest endeavours we are making to secure a worthy place in the ranks of civilised nations in the field of law as elsewhere, and to prove the justice of our claim to take part in all international conferences of as significant importance as the present one, as independent factors.

F. NAGY.

II. THE DEFECTS OF THE DEBTORS ACT.

THAT imprisonment for debt ought to be wholly

abolished is the opinion of many eminent legal authorities, and in this opinion the writer of the present article fully concurs. But it is certain, notwithstanding the title of Part I of The Debtors Act of 1869 (and the corresponding Irish Act of 1872), that the framers of

the Act in question did not contemplate or aim at total abolition. They proposed to abolish imprisonment for debt, "with the exceptions hereinafter mentioned,” which are six in number, and are set out in detail in the statute. Still less is it true, as has often been alleged, that the statute in abolishing imprisonment for debt substituted for it imprisonment for contempt of Court. In some of the exceptions, e. g., imprisonment for non-payment of rates, no order of any Court has been disobeyed; and even when there is such an order, the imprisonment is not for contempt but for debt, i. e., for non-payment of a sum of money. This was judicially decided by Mr. Justice Cave, in In re Ryley ex p. the Official Receiver.1 If some of the dicta in Stonor v. Fowle point in the opposite direction they were extra-judicial and not necessary to decide the case. The County Court in that case had found that the debtor had the means of paying the entire sum mentioned in the committal order, and the question what would have been the effect of a finding that he was able to pay part but not the whole did not arise.

But that the number of imprisonments for debt which have taken place of late years is far in excess of what the framers of the statute either intended or desired must, I think, be admitted by all. It has, in fact, become an evil which calls for a remedy, more especially since, under the Prison Rules of 1899, the condition of the imprisoned debtor while in prison is much worse than it was before the Debtors Act. The fault, we are often told, lies not in the law but in the administrators of it; but the administrators usually referred to are the County Court judges, whose legal capacity would be quite sufficient to keep them straight where the path had been clearly chalked out for them. Great diversities in the administration of a statute usually mean great indefiniteness or

1 15 Q. B. D., p. 329.