The 36th section provided that a plaint| The scale of costs to be allowed to counsel under 57. might be removed by certiorari and attorneys is to be framed by five County under the order of a Judge of the Superior Court Judges appointed by the Lord ChanCourts, on giving security for costs. This cellor. Such scale to be approved or altered privilege is now denied. by the Lord Chancellor (s. 41). It will be recollected that at present the scale is to be approved by a certain number of the Common Law Judges. The 49th section provided, that if either party declared by affidavit that the title to the hereditament, &c., was in question, or that the rent or damage exceeded 20%., the action shall be commenced in the Superior Court. This clause is now omitted. Some other clauses of less importance are also omitted, and several others are extended or modified. 2. We proceed now to the principal provisions which have been added to the Bill since its first appearance. These are independent of some verbal alterations which have been made in other clauses, but which at present seem unnecessary to notice. The most important addition to the Bill is made by clauses 16 and 17 of the reprint, by which if the plaintiff dwell more than 20 miles from the defendant, the plaintiff may bring his action in any County Court; but the defendant days before the return of the summons, state on affidavit that he has a defence on the merits, and assign a good ground for a trial in another county. may, six The amended Bill (s. 27) provides, that no action shall be brought in a County Court on any judgment of a Superior Court. The former Bill provided, that if the demand exceeded 201., the defendant was to give notice of his defence, or suffer judgment by default. It is now left in the option of the plaintiff to require the notice on pain of judgment by default (s. 28). If notice be given, the registrar is to inform the plaintiff thereof by letter. The 47th and 48th sections of the amended Bill enable the plaintiff to obtain a writ of certiorari, and remove the action from the County Court to a Superior Court at the discretion of such Court or a Judge, and on giving security for the claim and costs. The 67th section provides, that affidavits to be used in County Courts may be sworn before a Commissioner to Administer Oaths in Chancery in England, or a London Commissioner to Administer Oaths in Chancery. or a Commissioner for taking Affidavits in the Superior Courts. Under the 73rd section, the powers and responsibilities of the sheriffs with respect to replevin bonds and replevins are to cease, and the Registrar of the County Court of the district is to grant replevins; and under the 74th section, the registrar is to take securities. But actions of replevin may be brought in the Superior Courts on giving security in such cases, s. 75. And if brought in the County Court, security to be given by the replevisor, s. 76. Replevins may be removed at the defendant's instance into a Superior Court by certiorari, under the order of a Judge of such Court, upon giving such security as the Master may think fit, not exceeding 150%., s. 77. Then it is provided that no appeal shall lie from the County Court, if the parties or their attorneys, before the decision, shall agree in reciting that the decision shall be final, s. 79. Some change has also been made in regard to the plaintiff's right to costs in the Superior Courts, where he does not recover 207. In the former print he was to have no costs unless, on application to a Judge, We would respectfully suggest to the he should otherwise direct. In the amended learned counsel or officer who arranges for Bill, it is provided, that the plaintiff shall the press the amended clauses of Bills in recover no costs except in certain cases, and Parliament, that the course sometimes it shall not be necessary to enter a sugges- adopted in amended Bills should be genetion depriving the plaintiff of costs (s. 30). rally followed, namely, by printing the The excepted cases are where the Judge or amendments, alterations, and additions, in a presiding officer certifies there was sufficient different type from the Bill as first printed, reason for bringing the action in a Superior and further, that the clauses struck out by Court (s. 31); or, whether there be a verdict the Committee should be printed in smaller or not, if the Court or a Judge at Chambers type at the foot of the page in which they be satisfied that there was sufficient reason first appeared. The Law Members in both to bring the action in a Superior Court, the Houses would then more clearly perceive Court or Judge may order the plaintiff his the several alterations to be considered. costs (s. 32). Progress of Law Bills.-Commissioners' Report on the Law of Marriage. 63 In the present instance, the County The Commissioners observe, that few of Courts' Bill was prepared, we believe, mainly these marriages are found to have taken place in accordance with the Report of the Com- among persons of a high station. But they do missioners, and the omissions, additions, not attribute this to any stronger sense of alterations and modifications, (if we are not misinformed,) are the work of one or more of the County Court Judges. We should like to know the authorship of the several parts of this important measure, and it will be recollected that on many occasions the amendments proposed are previously notified by the members who bring them for ward. The 2nd reading of the Settled Estates Bill is appointed for the 26th. The Partnership and Joint-Stock Companies Bills had made no progress when we went to press; nor the Solicitor-General's Ecclesiastical Courts Bill. The Justices of the Peace Bill has been further considered in Committee, but much opposed. Sir F. Kelly's Procedure and Evidence Bill has been read a second time. religious or moral obligation than in other that where circumstances have placed persons classes. On the contrary, the evidence shows of elevated rank in situations likely to create such attachments, connexions of this kind do take place, as among other ranks. Probably the true reason why such marriages are rare in the highest class are:-1st, that the numbers of such class are small; 2nd, that in such class a sister less often occupies the place of a dethe management of domestic affairs; goverceased wife. Wealth provides otherwise for nesses take the charge of children where considerations of expense do not intervene relations have much greater facility of seeing the children, and superintending their education, without actual residence under the father's roof; even under the roof, the society is less closely domestic and private; and the desire of not offending the opinions or scruples of the world, be they right or wrong, is stronger. These considerations, the Commissioners think, account for the small number of marriages of this kind in high life, without supposing that the feelings would be different, or differently governed, if the circumstances were the same. In the next rank of life, the evidence shows that these attachments and marriages are fre quent, and the Commissioners believe frequent in proportion to the occurrence of the circumstances which would naturally give rise to them; that is in proportion to the number of cases where the sister of a deceased wife takes up her residence under the husband's roof, the parties not having passed the middle age. The Commissioners find that the relations and friends of both parties have in some cases readily assented to the contraction of such marriages; and in other cases, where a contrary feeling may have originally existed, they have not hesitated, upon a consideration of the subject, to sanction with their approval the connexion already formed. The Commissioners do not find that the persons who contract these marriages, and the relations and friends who approve them, have a less strong sense than others of religious and moral obligation, or are marked by laxity of conduct. Among the poorer classes of society, the Commissioners believe that, in a great majority COMMISSIONERS' REPORT ON THE of cases, where the sister of the deceased wife LAW OF MARRIAGE. PROHIBITED DEGREES. THE Commissioners' Report has just been printed on the Law relating to Marriages with a deceased Wife's Sister, with the very voluminous evidence of witnesses orally examined and information and opinions communicated in writing. For the present, we shall state the conclusions at which the Commissioners have arrived. becomes an inmate of the house and the parties are not advanced in age, the end of such a state of things is marriage, or concubinage. The constant and familiar intercourse, the want of separate accommodation, and the entire privacy, give rise to feelings which, in the ordinary course of things, naturally will produce the consequences which they have stated. When a poor man with a family has the misfortune to lose his wife, some assistance for his domestic concerns becomes indispensable; assistance, too, for which he cannot afford to pay and which must be rendered immediately. All E 2 64 Law of Marriage.-Third Report of the Charity Commissioners. circumstances and all feelings point to the sister of the deceased wife; and when once she becomes a permanent inmate, the result in this class is almost inevitable; cohabitation with, or without, the form of marriage. On a review of the subject, in all these its different bearings and effects, the Commissioners are constrained, not only to express their belief that the Statute 5 & 6 Wm. 4 has failed to attain its object, but also to express their doubt, whether any measure of a prohibitory character would be effectual. These marriages (they say) will take place when a concurrence of circumstances give rise to mutual attachment: they are not dependent on legislation; and the Commissioners are not inclined to think that such attachments and marriages would be extensively increased in number were the law to permit them; because it is not the state of the law,-prohibitory or permissive, which has governed, or ever will effectually govern them. THIRD REPORT OF THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS. [Concluded from p. 48, ante.] During the past pear we have granted 167 certificates authorising applications to be made to the Court of Chancery and County Courts for various purposes connected with the administration of charities, the relative number of such applications having been 88 to the Court of Chancery and 79 to the County Courts. Whatever reduction in the expense of applications to the Court of Chancery may have been effected by the provisions which authorize summary proceedings before the Judges in their chambers, their cost is still very onerous to the smaller charities, frequently intercepting the whole income in a very embarrassing manner, and rendering the access of the trustees to judicial relief for ordinary administrative purposes, difficult, but over these circumstances we have no control. When applications to the County Courts have been required we have hitherto undertaken the responsibility (though perhaps exceeding our proper province) of so framing our certificates that they should contain a statement of all the circumstances necessary for the information of the Judge or requiring his adjudication, and should moreover indicate the precise nature of the relief to be applied for and the terms of the orders which should in our opinion be properly made. When the establishment of schemes has been required we have undertaken the further duty of preparing them for the approval of the Judge, and the Judges have rarely thought it necessary to modify the terms of the orders or schemes so suggested to them in any degree of importance. The preparation of these extended certificates and schemes, involving in most cases much minute inquiry and consideration, as well as frequent communications with the parties interested, has added materially to the duties of this branch of our jurisdiction, and greatly exceeds the labour which would be incident to the exercise of any direct jurisdiction for the accomplishment of the same objects. Under the general orders made for regulating the proceedings in the County Courts no Court fees are payable in cases of applications relating to the smallest charities; and a further order, that statements of facts in our certificates shall be received in those Courts as prima facie evidence of such facts, has tended to a much greater saving of expense; but even with these advantages the expense of the proceedings, especially where professional assistance is required for their conduct, is often a source of considerable inconvenience. We may record the frequent expressions which are made to us of disappointment, that where the relief required by charities is of a simply administrative character, relating to matters already investigated and involving no matter of title or contentious question, there is a necessity of incurring the expense and delay unavoidably incident to applications to the Courts. The additional facilities created by "The Charitable Trusts Amendment Act" of the last Session, for the transfer of funds belonging to charities to the official trustees of charitable funds, have already resulted in a large increase in the amount of stock and moneys so transferred, and further transfers are being frequently made under the orders of our board (though these are permissive only), and of the various Courts which have jurisdiction for the purpose. The amount of stock transferred to the official trustees up to the 31st of December last was 27,5197. 14s. 2d., belonging to 62 different charities; and we may add, that since that period, further sums of stock amounting to 13,7311. 17s. 7d., belonging to 23 different charities, have been already transferred, and we have been required to execute numerous orders for similar transfers, which have not yet been carried into effect. The amount belonging to each charity is placed to a separate account in the books kept for that purpose in our office under the immediate superintendence of our secretary, and the dividends are apportioned and remitted to the trustees of the various charities with entire regularity. The possibility of loss or irregularity in the management of these funds is carefully guarded against by the provisions of the Act of the last Session; and recourse will doubtless be had most extensively to this mode of investing charitable funds, as its security and economy and great practical convenience become generally known. The duties and responsibilities attending the direct management of this branch of the business of our office which is becoming very important, have devolved upon our secretary, in addition to the other functions of his office; and their labour is little relieved by the control over them required to be exercised by the board. Third Report of the Charity Commissioners. We have already referred to the present impracticability of entering upon any systematic or general investigation of the charities of the kingdom, but our inspectors have been actually engaged in the performance of their duties in various localities, and have examined the circumstances of very numerous charitable foundations, necessarily varying in magnitude and importance. They have proceeded with the investigation (which is not completed) of the charities of the City of London, and have examined among other charities of minor importance those of The city of Hereford. The towns of Leominster and Ledbury, in the county of Hereford. The parishes of Sevenoaks and Goudhurst, in the county of Kent. The towns of Northleach and Wotton-underEdge, in the county of Gloucester. The towns of Tipton and Walsall, in the county of Stafford. The city of Salisbury and the town of Westbury, in the county of Wilts. The towns of Nottingham. Northampton. 65 The schemes referred to, containing numerous provisions of detail, and intended in most instances for the organization of very comprehensive institutions, are unavoidably voluminous; and the Act having also imposed on us the duty of stating fully the reasons for which the schemes have been approved, the mode in which any objections to them have been disposed of and the particulars and grounds of all proceedings had in relation to such objections, it has been found expedient to extend our Report even more largely, by prefixing to each scheme a full statement of the foundation and condition of the charities proposed to be affected by it. These statements render any detailed observations on the same subjects unnecessary in this place. The schemes for the reconstitution of the Sherburn and Magdalen Hospitals afford examples of proposed restorations of very ancient institutions to purposes kindred to those of which they were the instruments at very remote periods. The scheme relating to Dulwich College is designed to effect the expansion of a munificent institution, in accordance with the plan of the founder, to enlarged purposes commensurate East Grinsted, in the county of wth the extension of the value of the endowSussex, and Southampton. Illminster and merset. ments. The schemes for the enlargement of the beFrome, in the county of So-nefits and for the regulation of the Moulton School, and for the better adaptation of the Hospital of Stoke Poges to the limited objects which its contracted means are now capable of accomplishing, involve little variation of the original trusts. In the result of such inquiries, and of others prosecuted under our direction, we have thought it our duty, in the course of the past year, to prepare schemes to be submitted to Parliament for the application and management of the following charities, viz. :— 1. Sherburn Hospital, in the county of Durham. 2. The Endowed School at Moulton, in the county of Lincoln. 3. The Grammar School and other charities, in the town of Spalding, in the same county. 6. Dulwich College, in the county of Surrey. 7. The Hospital of Stoke Poges, in the county of Bucks. S. Saint Mary Magdalen Hospital, near the city of Bath. These schemes have been provisionally approved and certified by us, as required by the law; and they are set out in full, as is further directed by the Act of 1853, in the Appendix to this our Report, in which the grounds of our approval thereof respectively, and the other particulars required by the law, are also stated. The schemes in the two first cases were made the subject of a Supplementary Report submitted by us to your Majesty in the month of June last, but no measures having been founded on that Report, it is our duty to annex them to the present Report. The schemes for the improved application of the charities of Coventry, Nottingham, and Spalding are examples of proposed applications of funds to purposes of great public advantage, but to which they have not hitherto been appropriated. The scheme which relates to the charities of Coventry proposes to deal with funds which have been applicable by way of loans to young freemen, but have become so excessive, that there is an existing accumulation exceeding 20,000l. wholly unemployed, and which, moreover, receives accretions equivalent to more than a yearly amount of 3007. There are even much larger funds arising under the same and other foundations, and exceeding in yearly income 2,000l., the subject of direct, and somewhat indiscriminate pecuniary distribution among the inhabitants. It is proposed with these ample resources (after reserving a sufficient loan fund) to establish and largely endow an institution, which all parties interested in the welfare of the city concur in recommending, namely, an industrial school for the maintenance and instruction of the daughters of the poor; to aid and expand the benefits of a high school in which classical and commercial education shall be accessible on very moderate terms to all the inhabitants, with a reservation of some preferential advantages to the children of freemen; and to provide other facilities for educational improvement 66 Charity Commissioners' Report.-Review: Trevor's Taxes on Succession. and for instruction in the sciences most appli- | there has been an absence of special reasons cable to the industrial pursuits of the popula- for imputing to them any more grave neglect tion; to build and endow a ward in the hos- of their trust. In some instances, however, pital for the benefit of the freemen; to support during the last year we have found it indisthe dispensary; and to provide a pension fund pensable to direct the institution of proceedings and means of affording also direct and discri- for the purpose of obtaining the requisite reminate aid, under proper regulation, to the turns or other information from trustees, and really necessitous. they have had the effect of inducing an obedience to the law without a necessity for continuing them to any ultimate stage. It was to be expected that these extensive proposals would receive considerable opposition from many parties, including the dispensers as We anticipate great advantage from the sawell as recipients of so large funds under the lutary provisions of the Act of the last Session, present system, and much objection to them which requires the trustees of all parochial hes been expressed. Being however satisfied charities to submit them to public audit in the that the 66 commonwealth and permanent vestries. The performance of this duty will no benefit of the whole town may be legitimately doubt be very generally exacted; and the reand most materially advanced by the adoption gularity of the accounts to be kept for the purof the proposed measures, we have considered poses of this examination, and their necessary it our duty to embody them in a scheme to be publication, being insured, we may well expect submitted to the wisdom of the Legislature. their remittance to this office also with imIts decision may enable us the more confidently proved regularity. to select our course of duty in other cases. We have received a representation that the distribution of these doles has the effect of diminishing the claims on the poor's rates, but certainly do not find in that statement an objection to any scheme for the proper regulation of their employment; and although it is not doubted that they now afford proper relief to many and deserving persons, we should confidently hope for the diffusion among a much greater number of meritorious persons under the provisions of the scheme of benefits exempting them from the necessity of seeking relief either from public funds or from those which are now the subject of discretionary distribution. These observations are applicable in degree also to the schemes relating to the charities of Nottingham and Spalding." The expectation expressed in our last Report of a more general compliance with the law, which requires from all trustees of charities an annual return of their accounts, has been only partially realised. The investigation of the accounts of which the returns have been received is prosecuted with as much regularity and expedition as the large number to be dealt with, and the difficult and complicated questions frequently involved in them, permit; and this investigation has already led in very many instances to the recovery and due investment of the funds of charities, and to the rectification of errors and irregularities in their administration. All which we humbly report to your Majesty. In witness whereof we have directed our official seal to be hereto affixed, this 28th day of February, 1856. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. The Taxes on Succession: a Digest_of_the Statutes and Cases relating to the Probate, Legacy, and Succession Duties; with Practical Observations and Official Forms. By CHARLES CECIL TREVOR, M.A., of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barristerat Law. London: Stevens & Norton. 1856. Pp. 408. The number of such returns received at our office during the past year has been 10,602, of which number 8,266 only belong to the year 1854, and the remainder to the year 1853, "TAXES on Succession" form a subject which ought properly to have been made in the of great interest as well to the Community preceding year. Many of these returns, how- as the Profession, and Mr. Cecil Trevor has ever, embrace numerous charities consolidated rendered good service by the volume before under the management of the same trustees, us,-in compiling which he has availed himand many others relate to charities of which we self of the valuable notes of his father, forhad received no former returns, and they have materially increased the entire number respect-merly Solicitor and afterwards Comptroller ing which material information is afforded to of the Legacy Duties. us by such means. It is difficult to overAfter a brief historical account of these estimate the importance of a regular return of taxes on property, the Author observes that such annual accounts as one of the efficient the chief objection to such taxes payable on means of securing the due administration of the transfer of property from the dead to charitable trusts. We have availed ourselves the living is, that they fall finally as well as of every opportunity of promoting this object immediately on the persons to whom the without causing the institution of any compul sory proceedings, being sensible of the necessity property is transferred, or on capital. But, of using great consideration in the application on the other hand, it is said that the testaof measures of such a character to persons dis-tor is aware of the tax and has an addicharging gratuitous and onerous duties, where tional motive to save, in order that his |