allowed the obnoxious words "on the faith of a Christian," to be omitted from the declaration made by a member on taking his seat. The marriage laws have been wholly reformed, so as to enable all parties to have this most important rite celebrated according to such form as will satisfy their own consciences; the scruples of Quakers and others, however singular or absurd they may seem to most people, are respected by law; and there is a steady and very rapid advance to that entire equality of sects, and perfect freedom of religious opinion and expression which now prevails in America. Catholic emancipation, after long resistance on the part of the crown and of a majority of the national church, was finally effected, under the leadership of Sir ROBERT PEEL, in 1829, and the penal legislation since aimed at that denomination, in order to defeat the supposed encroachments of the court of Rome, has been allowed to remain a dead letter, and will probably be repealed at any time when any considerable portion of the people shall express a desire to that end. And a crowning act of justice to the Catholics has been done in the abrogation of the state church in Ireland, where it was the church of a small fraction of the people only, so that its support was a grievous oppression.

The last half of the reign of George III was characterized by exceedingly stringent measures to repress freedom of opinion and of expression, which, indeed, at one time threatened the most alarming disorders, and were well calculated to excite intense anxiety. The excesses of the French Revolution, and the spirit of independent inquiry which that great event made so active in England, alarmed the conservative government of the day, and led to coercive measures which tended to produce the very dangers which the government sought to preclude. The prosecutions for treason for engaging in organized, and sometimes, it must be confessed, in imprudent and threatening opposition to the existing authorities, were treated by British juries with an independence, a prudence and a wisdom which was something new in state prosecutions, and the liberties of the people found protection in the courts of law at a time when the parliament was lending itself to despotic measures. The parliament, however, is entitled to the credit of passing the libel act, under which juries were at liberty to pass upon the intent of publications prosecuted as libelous, and which, perhaps, has done more than anything else to make the press as free in fact as it was before in theory. Indeed, we may safely say, now, that the restraint upon the licentiousness of the press in its discussion of public affairs and of the conduct of public men, consists rather in a regard to a just and enlightened public opinion than in any penalties which the law threatens or would be likely to impose. And while the press of Great Britain is now much more free and much less subject to restraining laws than that of many other countries, it is gratifying to know that its freedom has not been productive of license, but that a gradual improvement in its tone and character is perceptible, and self-imposed restraints are generally found sufficient to prevent serious abuse.

The ameliorations in the criminal law have been so numerous and so great, that it would be impossible to enumerate them all in the compass of a note. Among the principal are, allowing a full defense by counsel in all cases; the entire abolition of trials by battle, appeals of murder and felony, and the ab

surd privilege of benefit of clergy, and the reduction of the list of capital offenses to the two-treason and murder-regarded as the most heinous; the discontinuance of the pillory, the burning and whipping of females, the hanging in chains, the horrible accompaniments of capital executions for treason, and the punishment of families of offenders by corruption of blood. And at length, by the statutes 24 and 25 Victoria, the body of the criminal law has been revised and methodized, and its punishments moderated and better proportioned. And, by extradition treaties with other nations, provision is made whereby one country no longer becomes an asylum for the desperate criminals of others.

Imprisonment for debt has at last been abolished in Great Britain. A clear idea of the barbarity of treating an unfortunate debtor as a criminal seems to have dawned slowly upon the minds of legislators in any country; but when once the public attention was fixed upon it, the inhuman laws which permitted it were not long suffered to disgrace the statute books. Only in cases of fraud or other wrong in contracting the debt, or in obstructing the creditor in obtaining satisfaction, can the body of the debtor be now seized, and even then he is relieved from imprisonment on making surrender of his property to be applied to the just demands against him. And while thus the good of the unfortunate debtor has been had in view, the interest of the creditor, also, has been consulted in various statutory changes which have improved his remedies. One of the principal of these-the subjecting of real estate to the payment of debts-is alluded to further on; but the creation of courts for small demands, in which justice could be had speedily and inexpensively, has also had an effect highly beneficial upon all the branches of small trade and commerce in which the middle and poorer classes of the people are most particularly interested, while it has aided the poor in giving confidence to credit, and protecting them against ruinous costs in cases of misfortune. The law of bankruptcy has also been wholly remodeled, and its barbarous penalties mitigated; many restraints upon trade and upon the freedom of artificers to employ their services in their discretion have been abolished, and the penalties for usury have been entirely done away with, without being followed by the evils which so many were ready to predict.

The same spirit of philanthropy which has secured the improvement of the criminal code, has also effected great reforms in prison management, and the law now endeavors to prevent parties who are accused of crime being punished as criminals before condemnation, or subjected to needless and inhuman barbarities afterwards. The care of insane persons is also better provided for, and asylums in which they are confined are not now, as formerly, mere prisons in which to restrain their excesses, but are retreats where, unless improper persons shall chance to obtain the management, the most, careful, patient and humane efforts are made for their cure, so long as cure is believed possible, and for their comfort afterwards.

No invention of either ancient or modern times has so sensibly affected the laws as the application of steam as a motive power, and especially for the conveyance of freight and passengers. Railroads have introduced many new questions in the law of eminent domain, of principal and agent, of bailments,

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and of negotiable securities, which have been solved by the application of old principles of the common law, but under such new circumstances as to make them really innovations, and sometimes of a very remarkable character. To particularize all these cases would fill many pages of this work; and even a complete enumeration would give but a faint impression of the manner in which business and society have been affected by them, unless we go beyond the law books, and, at the centres of traffic and exchange, consider how large a proportion of all business transactions is connected with steam transportation, and governed by the principles of law which have been laid down and established with special reference to these improved modes of conveyance. Railroad securities now constitute a very large share of the commercial paper of the world, and the law of negotiable paper has been modified and changed so as to embrace them: and they have become for many purposes a substitute for money in the markets of the world, not surpassed in value or convenience by any other securities, except, possibly, the public debt of a few of the leading nations.

Perhaps in no particular has the change in the law of property been so palpable and so beneficial as in its relations to real estate. This species of property has at last been made liable generally to the payment of the debts of its owner, and the absurd exemption which formerly prevailed has been done away. Estates tail are also brought under more reasonable rules; restraints upon alienation have been limited within narrow bounds; the forms of conveyance have been simplified; fines and recoveries have given way to a simple deed, acknowledged by the party and expressing the real purpose of the conveyance; real actions have been abolished, and the proceedings to try claims to real property have been reduced to the action of ejectment, which, at the same time has been divested of all its cumbrous forms and needless fictions. Limitation laws have also been passed, under which claims to real property must be pursued within a reasonable period; and the law of descent has been considerably improved.

The establishment of penny postage has increased the correspondence of the kingdom to enormous proportions, and has doubtless tended, in a considerable degree, to the spread of intelligence among the people, and to a more general desire that the means of education may be brought within the reach of all, which bids fair, at a period not now remote, to result in a general system of free schools supported by public taxation. Postage to the colonies and to foreign countries is also established at very low rates, and the facilities which are afforded for still more rapid communication by means of the electric telegraph, though comparatively expensive, are made available, by means of a cheap public press, for diffusing among all classes of the people the speedy intelligence of important affairs as they transpire in every quarter of the globe. When our commentator wrote, the general disposition among the statesmen of England was, to assert and maintain the unlimited power of the British parliament to control and govern the British colonies at its discretion, and to bind them by its enactments as well in respect to local concerns as to those of a more general nature. The attempt to enforce this view by military power lost to the empire the finest portion of her colonies, and the dissevered country

has since, by the establishment of free institutions, by the enactment of just laws, and by the cultivation of the arts of peace, attracted to itself a large immigration of industrious, enterprising, and liberty-loving people, and attained a population, a wealth of resources and a financial standing that gives it rank among the first nations of the globe in point of influence, power and importance. The lesson of this loss has not been thrown away upon the British nation, and a more liberal and just spirit now controls the relations between the mother country and its colonies. The right of the colonies to regulate their internal affairs is conceded and protected. At the same time it is perceived that those colonies are but embryo states, whose maturity and independence must at some time be recognized, and the government, instead of seeking to perpetuate their condition of pupilage and dependence, favors and encourages their increase in strength, population and resources, and prepares the way for making the separation, should it take place, result in the mutual benefit of both, and in permanent amity between them. The cruel and exacting government of India by the East India Company, has been abolished, and though the subject people of that country are not likely soon to be in condition to share the blessings of self-government, the rule of the crown is much more mild and just than that which it superseded, and the change is a long stride in the direction of substantial progress.

Much has been done in the interest of humanity by the laws which regulate the working of children in mines, factories, etc., and which give for the benefit of the surviving family an action against the party whose negligence or default has caused the death of another. Much also has been done for public morals, and for the equal and just administration of the law in the interest of the people, by the abolition of profitable sinecures, and by modification of official emoluments, to make them correspond in some degree with the services performed and the responsibilities assumed. And, while to those who live under a simpler form of government, and in a society less decidedly aristocratic in organization, habits and sentiment, the emoluments of many English offices must still appear enormous, yet the change in the direction of economy has been as great, perhaps, as could reasonably have been expected, and the phrase that "all abuses are freeholds," once justly applied to the English official system, may now be dismissed as obsolete.

Of the petty annoyances to which British subjects were liable, and which, in the aggregate, amounted to serious evils, two of the chief were abolished by the statutes so modifying the game laws as to do away with the previous qualifications, and those for abolishing tithes and substituting a rent charge instead. These will be found particularly alluded to, and the extent of the changes indicated in the preceding pages. The abolition of tithes has undoubtedly done something to strengthen and support the national church, or, at least, to render it less odious to those not in communion with it, and the statutory provisions against pluralities have also removed another source of serious complaint, and all together have resulted to the substantial benefit of the cause of religion and public morals.

The poor laws of Great Britain have been wholly revised since the time of our author; and we wish we could say, with entire confidence, that they have

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been greatly improved. No doubt the changes are for the better; but with so large a pauper population as that country unfortunately possesses, the inherent difficulties are great, and we must still look to the future for any such reforms as can benefit their condition to any considerable degree. Upon these, and similar subjects, changes must generally be in the nature of experiment, and it is difficult to determine, many times, until after considerable experience, whether they do or do not constitute substantial improvements.

Upon one particular subject we are glad to have it in our power to say that the English system and English opinions have undergone no change. We refer to the deep settled conviction, that standing armies are inconsistent with liberty; which has prevented the people from being burdened with the support of large military forces, which could only constitute a means of oppression to the people at home, and of menace to other nations. While some of the neighboring nations have been steadily and rapidly enlarging their standing armies, until they constitute a very large proportion of their able-bodied men, and the life and energy of their people are exhausted by their withdrawal from the avocations of industry, and being made a charge upon the public, instead of contributing to the public wealth, Great Britain, secure in her insular position, and trusting to tue patriotism of her people to protect her against unexpected assaults, has contented herself with garrisons for her forts and other fortified places, and relied upon the training of voluntary organizations to fit them for the wars whion may be inevitable, but which the policy, not less than the best sentiment of her Christian people, now inclines her to avoid.. In this policy she is followed by the great republic of the western hemisphere, which, in the most important and threatening crisis of its national existence, has demonstrated that, with a free people, standing armies are worse than useless, and that the best dependence of any government is in civil and political liberty, and in just laws, justly administered.

Among the minor changes deserving of note are the abolition of the counties palatine, and the bringing of Wales more directly within the jurisdiction of the English courts. Among those of greater importance are the simplification and expediting of proceedings in chancery; the abolition of the office of master in chancery, and the introduction of jury trial in the courts of equity; the taking away, from the ecclesiastical courts, the jurisdiction over probate and matrimonial causes, and conferring it upon courts specially created for its exercise; the simplification of pleadings and proceedings in courts of law; the transfer to a more suitable tribunal of most of the appellate jurisdiction of the house of lords; the remodelling of the judicial committee of the privy council, so as greatly to enlarge its powers and give to its constitution and proceedings more of judicial character and importance; the establishment of a court of criminal appeal, and the almost total abolition of the legal objections to the competency of witnesses. All the new improvements in these and similar matters are noted in the preceding pages, and so given as to enable the reader to compare the existing system with that which it has displaced. Many of the most useful and beneficial changes in English law could not, with any propriety, be given in notes to the foregoing Commentaries, because they relate to subjects not treated in them, and but distantly, if at all, re

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