BOOK NOTICES.

LIFE OF LORD CHIEF JUSTICE DENMAN. By Sir Joseph Arnould. THIS is beyond all comparison the best and most valuable work of legal biography which has appeared in our time, if it is not the best that has ever appeared. The character and career of Lord Denman were eminently worthy of portraiture, and Sir Joseph Arnould has proved himself worthy of the work. He has succeeded in producing a biography, marked by cordial appreciation of a lofty, pure, and noble nature, and yet pervaded by a spirit of impartial candour, free from any tendency to indiscriminate eulogy. A great master in literature has well described the object and scope of a good biography: "The great object of biography," observes Coleridge, "is to fix the attention and to interest the feelings of men on those qualities and actions which have made a particular life worthy of being recorded." This object has been admirably carried out by Sir Joseph Arnould, who has succeeded in embodying in his work all that is really of interest in a biography, without even lapsing into prolixity. Every part of Lord Denman's long and honourable life is amply illustrated by every trait and feature of his noble character admirably displayed. And the work will be read with the deepest interest, especially by those who are so fortunate as to have personal remembrance of Lord Denman (as the writer of these lines happily has) and whose personal recollections will enable them at once to attest the truth of the portraiture, and to recal the incidents it records, and the traits of character it so admirably embodies. The illustrious jurist, Story, has observed upon the great interest and value of good biographies of eminent members of the profession, and certainly, no one who reads this interesting work will fail to feel the force of the observation. It would be impossible to find a better illustration of it, whether as to the subject of a good biography, or the manner of its execution. No one could imagine a finer character than that of Lord Denman, nor a nobler career than his. It is impossible to rise from the perusal of the story of his life. without finding his own nature elevated and improved, and without feeling the highest admiration and veneration for his character, and at the same time feeling grateful to the biographer who has presented us with so admirable a portraiture of it.

THE LAWYERS' COMPANION FOR 1874. Stevens and Sons.THIS useful publication still continues and preserves its character

for utility. Twenty years ago, when it was little more than a diary, it was edited for some years by Mr. Finlason, who soon imparted to it a higher character, by importing into it a variety of elements, by degrees making it really a kind of vade mecum for the use of the profession. He added tables not only of costs, but of the times for taking all the different steps in a suit at Law or Equity; lists of Statutes corrected down to the last year; analyses of the practical Statutes of the last session; digests of the practical cases decided during the previous year, and a variety of other matters all highly useful and valuable to the profession. All these features which he introduced into the work are, we observe, still retained, together with the stamp duties, postal information, tables of interest, &c., and similar details. The number for the present year contains, of course, an analysis of the Judicature Act. All this information is prefixed to the diary, and then there is added a law list for town and country; and the whole is so managed that though a half-page is given to each day in the diary, and a half page every week for memoranda, the whole is contained in a moderate volume which can go in the pocket.

APPOINTMENTS.

Sir John Duke Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, has been sworn a member of the Privy Council, and have subsequently been created a peer under the title of Baron Coleridge, of Ottery St. Mary's. The Lord Justice, Clerk of Scotland, has also been created a peer under the title of Lord Moncrieff, of Tulliebole.

The Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Charles Hall, the Attorney-General, Mr. Henry James, and the Solicitor-General, Mr. W. Vernon Harcourt, Mr. Archibald Paul Birt, Chief Justice of the Colony of Western Australia, and Mr. W. Henry Doyle, Chief Justice of the Brahma Islands, have received their honour of Knighthood. The Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas has appointed Mr. M. J. Mackenzie, of the Common Law Bar, his private Secretary under the Judicature Act. Mr. W. B. Grigsby, of Balliol College, Oxford, has been appointed Professor of International Law at Zeddo, Japan; Mr. Nelson Ward, one of the Registrars of the Court of Chancery; Mr. Thomas Shuttleworth, Solicitor, Judges Associate on the Northern Circuit; the duties of prothonotary being divided; Mr. Shuttleworth for Lancaster, Mr. Worthington for Manchester, and Mr. T. E. Paget for

Liverpool. Mr. William Smith, Solicitor, has been appointed Clerk to the West Riding Justices sitting in Sheffield; Mr. Henry Vickers, Solicitor, Clerk to the Borough Magistrates at Sheffield; Mr. William Burridge, Jun., Solicitor, Clerk to the New Local Board of Health, of Wellington, Somerset; Mr. John Graham, Solicitor, Coroner for the Chester Ward, of the County of Durham; Mr. Samuel J. Tombs, Solicitor, Town Clerk of Droitwich; Mr. Peter Leckie to be a member of the Legislative Council of the Colony of British Honduras; Mr. John Bramston, Attorney-General for the Colony of Hong Kong; Mr. Francis Snowden, Senior Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements, and Mr. George Phillippo, Junior Puisne Judge of the same Court.

OBITUARY.

October.

29th. Sharp, J. A., Esq., Solicitor, aged 51.

November.

17th. Fearon, John P., Esq., Solicitor, aged 70. 22nd. Bartley, Henry J., Esq., Solicitor, aged 47.

26th. Poynder, Thomas H. A., Esq., Barrister-at-Law. aged 60. 27th. Hughes, William, Esq., Solicitor, aged 72.

28th. Ayrton, Edward Nugent, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 58. 30th. Pole, E. S. Chandos, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 48.

December.

3rd. Rose, Sir George, F.R.S., Barrister-at-Law, aged 91. 3rd. Berkeley, R. J., Esq., Q.C., Barrister-at-Law, aged 68. 5th. Twopeny, William, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 76. 7th Walter, Edward, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 70. 7th. Winterbotham, H. S. P., Esq., M.P., Barrister-at-Law, aged 37.

10th. Rollit, John, Esq., Solicitor.

12th. Cholmeley, Stephen, Esq., Solicitor.

12th. Southie, Horace R., Esq., Solicitor, aged 44.

13th. Stubbs, George B., Esq., Solicitor, aged 81.

13th. Ward, J. W., Esq., Solicitor, aged 63.

14th. Myres, Mr. Alderman, Solicitor, aged 65.

14th. Briggs, John Adolphus, Esq., Solicitor, aged 49.

19th. Woodthorpe, F., Esq., late Town Clerk of the City of London, aged 58.

20th. Edwards, Frederick, Esq., Solicitor, aged 45.

22nd. Pigot, Lord Chief Baron.

23rd. Anderton, H. Lyon, Esq., Barrister-at-Law.

THE

LAW MAGAZINE AND REVIEW.

No. II.-VOL. III.-FEBRUARY, 1874.

I. THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW.

THE great object of legal history is to show, as Guizot

observes, the causes of legal events, and the origin of legal institutions. Without this knowledge, the reasons for their adoption or continuance may be entirely mistaken; and they may be supposed to have an application to modern times when, in truth, they are wholly inapplicable. It is of peculiar importance to distinguish those barbarous elements in the institutions of a nation which are fated to disappear from those founded on the eternal principles of reason, which are destined to endure; and to mark the decline and decay of the one, and the gradual advance of the other. This, as it is the great object of the history of law, so gives to it its greatest interest and attraction, blending, as it does, the philosophy of law with practical utility. For in this way we come to see what parts of the early institutions of a nation are suited, or unsuited to the present state of society, the causes of their existence in former times, and the reasons why they should now be modified, in accordance with the dictates of advanced intelligence and experience; or why, on the other hand, being based upon the eternal principles of reason, or on the enduring necessities of a free and intelligent community, they are destined to remain.

This

may

be illustrated by reference to that which is now

the prominent subject of interest-the judicial system—and especially as to the constitution of the judicature. It was a

8

cardinal principle with the Romans, in their best age of the republic, that no free citizen should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without the judgment of a judge taken from the people, nor of life without the judgment of a popular tribunal. Hence, said Cicero, it was a law: Nihil de capito civis, aut de bonis, sine judicio populi, aut eorum qui, de quaque re constituti judices, ut detrahi posse." This, which almost reads like a paraphrase of the celebrated clause in our Great Charter, expresses a principle necessarily regarded as vital in any free and intelligent community, and which has, therefore, been always adhered to in this country, and will be adhered to for ever. And more than that, as regards a popular tribunal in criminal cases and public prosecutions, it has been, in modern times, adopted in every country in Europe and will be adopted in every free and intelligent community that is ever formed, to the end of time. So the whole course of criminal trials-under the old Roman system, trials before sworn and impartial judges, aqui et jurati judices, as Cicero called them, hearing the evidence of sworn witnesses, audietis ex juratis, as it was founded in reason and justice, gradually displaced the ruder usages, and will in substance continue for ever to endure, because the principles of justice and reason are eternal. But, again, while a popular tribunal will always be regarded in a free country as a necessary guarantee of liberty and personal security, it was equally a principle of the Roman system that in civil cases, not involving any such question, and only requiring accuracy of investigation, special judges should be selected for particular cases; and this rational principle, long ago adopted in foreign countries, has gradually, in modern times, been prevailing in our own, and was finally sanctioned by the legislature in the recent Judicature Act, enabling the court to commit cases to official referees.

Thus we see the eternal principles of reason and justice prevail and endure; and the great object of legal history is to trace their influence and progress. This it