An Analytical Digest of the Reports of Cases decided in the Courts of Common Law and Equity, of Appeal, and Nisi Prius, and in the Ecclesiastical Courts, in the year 1831. By Henry Jeremy of the Middle Temple, Esq. Barrister at Law. Price 9s. boards, 148 pages.

The New Game Act, 1 & 2 W. 4. c. 32. with Notes and Forms, together with the Night Poaching Act and the Game Certificate Acts. By John Collyer, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. Price 2s. 6d., 60 pages.

The Criminal Statutes of England analysed and arranged alphabetically, with Notes. By John Collyer, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. Price 18s. boards, 724 pages.

A Collection of Statutes, comprising all the Public Acts, Civil and Criminal, Irish and Scotch, and Acts relating to the Colonies, passed in 1 W. 4; and 1 & 2 W. 4. with Notes, shewing the alteration made in the Law by each Statute. By Alfred S. Dowling, Esq. of Gray's Inn, Barrister at Law. Price 12s. boards, 606 pages.

A Concise Digest of the Law, Usage and Custom affecting the Commercial and Civil Intercourse of the subjects of Great Britain and France. Third edition, with considerable additions. By Charles Henry Okey, Esq., of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. Price 8s., 260 pages.

Letters to a Land owner, on the Disposition of Estates by Settlement and Will. By William Irving Wilkinson, of Gray's Inn, Esq. Price 7s. 6d., bds., 224 pages.

The Law and Practice of the Court of Bankruptcy, established by Stat. 1 & 2 W. 4. c. 56, shewing the changes thereby effected, and the mode of procedure under the Act, with an Appendix of practical Forms and Precedents, including those settled by the Court, with the Rules and Orders. By Duncan Stewart, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at Law. Price 6s. bds., 208 pages.

The New Bankruptcy Court Act, arranged with a Copious Index, and observations upon it, and upon the erroneous principle on which it is founded. By Basil Montagu, Esq., Barrister at Law. Price 4s. bds., 96 pages.

THE LAW MAGAZINE.

ART. I.-CCLESIASTICAL REPORT.

The Special and General Reports made to His Majesty by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Practice, &c. of the Ecclesiastical Courts of England and Wales, 1831 and 1832.

We believe these Reports may be traced, like so many other measures of legal reform, to the celebrated speech of Lord Brougham, in 1828, in which the abuses of the Ecclesiastical Courts were forcibly exposed. The first commission, bearing date the 28th of January 1829, was directed to the Bishops of London, Durham, Lincoln, St. Asaph (then of Exeter), and Exeter (then of Gloucester), Lord Tenterden, Lord Wynford, Sir N. C. Tindal, Sir W. Alexander, Sir John Nicholl, Sir C. Robinson, Sir H. Jenner, and Dr. Lushington. Nothing was done, at least nothing was reported, under this commission. The second, bearing date the 5th of July 1830, and revoking the first, was directed to the Prelates, Lords and Commoners, whose names are subscribed to the Report, with the addition of Sir W. Alexander, who has not signed it. Under this commission, two Reports have been made: the special Report as to the Court of Delegates given in a former volume,1 and the Report which we are now about to review. We shall follow nearly the same plan which we have pursued with the Common Law and Real Property Reports, except that, the subject being one of which only a general knowledge

can be either useful or interesting to the general practitioner, we shall deal much more in summaries, and much less in details. In fact, such a course would be forced upon us by the Commissioners, did it not appear advisable on grounds unconnected with them; for we too often find bare hints and hesitating suggestions doing duty for matured propositions and plans. Neither do we altogether approve of the arrangement of the contents; but our main object being to convey an accurate impression of the Report, we shall make no attempt to improve upon it.

The Report begins by reciting the scope of the commission, which, as most readers know already, extends to the jurisdictions of all the Ecclesiastical Courts of England and Wales, with the process, practice, pleading, and other things connected therewith; and goes on to state that the ordinary modes of procuring information, by written queries and oral examinations, the results of which appear in the Appendix, have been pursued. The appendix has not yet appeared, but several of the examinants' opinions have transpired, and as the forthcoming Real Property and Common Law Reports must both be reviewed in our next Number, we are under the absolute necessity of proceeding to the immediate examination of this.

The following order of inquiry is proposed:-" In order to elucidate the general subject of our investigations, we will advert briefly to the origin and character of the Ecclesiastical laws administered in this country, and the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Tribunals; and we will describe, summarily, the several Courts, the matters of jurisdiction, and the modes of proceeding, which belong to this system of law."

The first head, the origin of the Ecclesiastical laws, is by no means remarkable for accuracy.

"The Ecclesiastical laws of this country (say they) have been, for the most part, derived originally from the authority exercised by the Roman Pontiffs, in the different states and kingdoms of Europe."

"Spelman mentions the adoption of the decrees and canons of the Church of Rome, as they then existed, by the clergy and people of England, so early as the year 605, soon after the establishment of Christianity in this country, and there

were Ecclesiastical councils in England, and canons passed therein, before the Conquest."

No reference to Spelman being given, we turned to the Concilia of the date. In the year 605, nothing appears except the mention of a mission into Germany, and the confirmation of the earliest Anglo-Saxon Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, given at a common council at Canterbury, but not a syllable of the adoption of any decree or canon whatever. For 673, however, Spelman extracts from Bede an account of a council of bishops held at Hereford or Hertford, in which the archbishop produced a book of the canons which the ancient fathers had decreed, and extracting from it ten canons relating to monks, bishops, and clerks, procured the bishops' subscription thereto.1

The compilation and promulgation of the canon law is then traced; and we are told of the Decretum of Gratian the monk, and the Decretals of Gregory the Pope, which last were a collection of the Decretal Epistles of the Popes. To these succeeded the Clementine Constitutions of Clement V. published in 1317 by the western or opposition Pope John XXI. at Avignon in 1317; whose further Constitutions, published in 1340, are also enumerated, but their very characteristic name, Extravagantes, is left out. A seventh Book of Decretals (we forgot to mention that the former consisted of six) and a Book of Institutes, were added by Gregory XIII., under whose sanction the Corpus Juris Canonici, containing all the above parts, was published in 1580. To show the operation of this law, and at the same time obliquely commend it, a garbled quotation from Lord Stair's Institutes is inserted. We give the paragraph entire, marking the omitted parts by italics :

"This Pontifical Law extended to all persons and things belonging to the Roman Church, and separated from the laity all things that may relate to pious uses, or which may be claimed to be under the protection of his Holiness, as orphans, the wills of defuncts, and matters of marriage and divorce. All which, by long force and fraud of his fulminations he hath obtained to be (in the Report the passage runs, all

'Spelman, Conc. 153.

which were exempted,' &c.) exempted from the civil authority of those sovereigns who are (were in the Report) devoted to that See. Those persons and things being holy, are not to be temerate by the profane hands of princes or free people. And so deep hath this canon law been rooted, that even where the Pope's authority is rejected, yet consideration must be (had been in the Report) had to these laws, not only as those by which Church benefices have been erected and ordered, but as likewise containing many equitable and profitable laws, which, because of their weighty matter and their being once (this word is omitted) received, may more fitly be retained than rejected."1

The quotation was introduced, no doubt, for the sake of the last sentiment. The motive for garbling it is left to the reader to suppose. Of course, the right reverend prelates who signed the Report, were not aware of the falsification.

In England, however (continue the Commissioners), the authority of the Canon Law was at all times much restricted; so much of it as has been received, having obtained by virtual adoption, has been for many centuries accommodated by our own lawyers to the local habits and customs of the country; and the Ecclesiastical Laws may be now described, in the language of our statutes, as "Laws which the people have taken at their free liberty, by their own consent, to be used amongst them, and not as laws of any foreign prince, potentate, or prelate."

To avoid mistakes, it may be as well to state, that the statute here referred to is the 25th Hen. VIII. c. 21, which took away the appeal to Rome, and of which the preamble, in disclaiming the pope's dispensing power, asserts the legislative independence of the kingdom in the terms so ingeniously applied to Ecclesiastical Law. With these prepossessing quotations, the Commissioners part with the canon law of foreign extraction. But we think the public would willingly have detained them to a more careful investigation of its merits. Now that the spirit of Ecclesiastical Reform is revived, it will not be forgotten that the father of that reform, Luther, publicly burnt the whole of the canon law, without

1 Lib. 1, tit. 1, p. 7. The Report also refers to 1 Bl. Com. p. 83.