418 Notices of New Books.-Registration and Marriage Acts. ment. All difficulty therefore will cease after the 1st of January, 1838, and all notices thenceforward will be given in a uniform manner. But until the 1st of January, what is the operation of the above act? med that the children will not be separated | ment, but in that prescribed in the second and from their parents; but I do not think the subsequent sections of the above act of parliajustices have any power to remove them to a parish in which they are not settled." For if it is to be assumed that the children will not be separated from their parents, and yet the justices cannot order the overseers to remove them with their parents, how can the assumption arise, but on the supposition, that the overseers may remove them without an order in virtue of the humane rule which forbids the separation of a mother from her infants? the overseers are bound to take the mother, whether she is willing or nilling, there can be no assumption that she will not be separated from her children,-(but a mere chance, equal either way, and therefore not to be reasoned upon,)-unless they may also take the children. If In Rex v. Hemlington, the mother of two illegitimate children, both under the age of emancipation, was removed from the place of their settlement by an order of justices, and she took with her the two children to the place of her own settlement; an order was then made on the parish to which they belonged, and from which they had been brought, for their maintenance; and the court of King's Bench held this order good. Hence the parish to which the children are taken, (though taken without an order,) suffers no real injury by the removal. The following note to the recent act (1 Vict. c. 45) respecting notices of vestry meetings, &c. is perspicuous, well directed, and practical: - The peculiar manner in which this act is framed, commencing with a recital (s. 1) of several enactments, for the purpose of repealing them, and then repealing (s. 1) only one of them from the time of the passing of the act, and the others from the 1st of January, 1838,-has caused considerable embarassment to overseers and other local functionaries, whose habits but little tend to qualify them to elicit the true meaning of an act of parliament, when enveloped and obscured by the blunders of negligence or accident. The 58 Geo. 3, c. 69, (the General Vestry Act,) contains regulations respecting vestry meetings; one of its regulations is, that the notice prescribed in the case of a vestry meeting shall be given by publishing the same in the parish church or chapel on some Sunday during or immediately after divine service, and by affixing it on the principal door of such church or chapel. Under other acts of parliament, other notices, and others by custom, without the command of any act of parliament, are given in the same manner. First, with respect to the scope and range of its operation: it relates only to the mode in which notice is to be published or given. Secondly, it has no operation whatever until the 1st of January, as to any kind of notice, except notices of vestry meetings; and therefore, until that time, the poor rate must be published as heretofore under 17 Geo. 2, c. 3; and all other notices (except notices of vestry meetings) must be given as usual. Thirdly, as to notices of vestry meetings, it merely repeals so much of the General Vestry Act, (the 58 Geo. 3, c. 69,)" as directs the publication of such notices to be made in the parish church, or chapel, on some Sunday during or immediately after divine service;" but, in repealing this provision, it does not make such notices illegal until the 1st of January, at which time the notice which it prescribes comes into operation. Consequently, if notice in the form prescribed by the act was sufficient before the act, it will still be sufficient until the 1st of January; and it seems to me, that until that time, notices of vestry meetings ought to be so given. According to the rubric, however, no one but the minister is entitled to give any notice during divine service: it is therefore in all cases desirable that his consent should be obtained to its being given; but after divine ser vice there is no prohibition to its being given. After service, parish officers may give it, whe ther the minister is willing or nilling; and even during divine service, I should think, that simply reading a notice in church, wholly unconnected with any other circumstances of irregularity, would never be deemed by any ecclesiastical Judge an offence, or a fit subject for prosecution. with which we peruse this acute and oriWe cannot better testify the satisfaction ginal kind of criticism, than by recommending the Treatise and Supplement to general circulation. EXPLANATORY NOTICE RESPECT. [6 & 7 W. 4, c. 85 & 86; & 1 Vict. c. 22.] The intention of the above act was to alter this mode of giving such notices in all cases; and the intention has been accomplished in the second and subsequent sections, from the 1st of January, 1838; from that day, every kind of notice and proclamation which is recited in the first section, must be given no longer in The registration of births and deaths is inthe manner prescribed by other acts of parlia-tended equally for persons of all religious These acts do not interfere with the religious ceremonies of the Church of England. Bap tisms, burials, and marriages, may be solemnized as before. attend to it. Registration and Marriage Acts. 449 their children the advantage of having their births registered by the registrar of the district in which they are born. persuasions; and all are equally bound to [ of pedigree, and for other legal purposes connected with the disposition of property, it is of The object of the new Registration Act is, utility for Life Insurance, Friendly or Benefit to provide an authorized legal register of Societies, and to the poorer classes for apprenbirths, and an authorized legal_register_ofticeship, employment in factories, and on all deaths, neither of which existed before. other occasions when a proof of age may be The church registers are registers of bap-required. Parents therefore should secure for tisms, and not of births; of burials, and not of deaths. The church register of baptism, as provided by law, has no column for births: it is only a record of the performance of baptism, a sacred rite, which no parent who is of the Church of England, or who believes in its efficacy, ought to neglect; and which sometimes does not take place till many years after the birth. The register of burials is only a record of the burial, which sometimes does not take place till several weeks after the death. It is therefore plain that the church registers of baptisms and burials could not, even for members of the established church, furnish evidence of the date of a birth or death; and that with respect to all those who were not baptized or buried according to the forms of the established church, they furnished no evidence at all. The new REGISTRATION ACT supplies these deficiences. It provides registers of births and of deaths which record the date of each and also the place, with such other circumstances as may serve to identify the person registered; and these registers, or certified copies of them, will be legal evidence of a birth or death, in any Court of Law or Equity. THE REGISTRATION and MARRIAGE ACTS also lessen the difficulty and expense of obtain ing a copy of an entry in a register. The new register books of births, of deaths, and of marriages, both of the established church and others, will be kept, when filled, in the Superintendent Registrar's Office; and certified copies will be sent every quarter of a year to the General Register Office in London. Thus, instead of its being necessary, when the parish is not known, to go to many churches or chapels to search in the registers of haptisms, burials, or marriages, of each parish, it will be sufficient to go to the Superintendent Registrar's Office, which will contain the registers of births, deaths, and marriages for a whole district, some of which districts comprise more than 50 parishes. If even the district is unknown, parties may apply, or cause others to apply for them, at the General Register Office in London, where, on demand, and on payment of 3s. 6d., any person may obtain a copy of the entry of any birth, death, or marriage, registered in any part of England or Wales, which copy being stamped with the seal of the office will be received as evidence of the birth, death, or marriage to which the same relates, without any further or other proof of such entry." 66 It is useful to all persons, and to some it is of great importance, to be able to prove their age, which, together with the place of birth, may be proved from this time forward, by means of the Register of Births. In addition to the obvious uses of such a register for proof It is of great importance to many persons to be able to obtain legal evidence of the date of a death. The establishment of the right to a legacy sometimes depends upon this proof, which from this time forward may be obtained easily, whenever the death has been duly registered. BIRTHS.-The birth of any child born after June, 1837, may be registered by the registrar of the district in which the child was born, within six weeks after the birth, without any and within six months, the expence of regisAfter six weeks, payment being required. tering will be 78 6d. After six months, the birth cannot be registered at all. of their children to be registered before bapIt is advisable that parents causing the births tism, should state to the registrar the name by which they intend they shall be called, which will save the trouble and expence of having the baptismal name inserted in the register afterwards. When a child is baptized before registration of birth, it is not necessary to to obtain a certificate of baptism, and to shew it to the registrar. A certificate is requisite only when the child is baptized after registration of birth, and the parties, having previously stated no name, or a different one, wish to go a second time to the registrar to have the baptismal name inserted. DEATHS.-Every death after June, 1837, may be registered at any time, by the registrar of the district in which it took place, without any payment being required. It ought, if possible, to be registered before burial; and a certificate of registry should be obtained from the registrar (who is bound to give it without payment), and given to the minister officiating at the funeral, who, if this is not done, will for so officiating be liable to a fine, unless within seven days he gives notice to the registrar. Persons bringing a corpse, without certificate of registry, for interment at a distance from the place where the death occurred, should inform the minister of the name and address of the registrar of the district in which that place is situated; and persons who are without other means of ascertaining the name and address of the registrar of any district, may do so by application by letter to "the Registrar General, General Register Office, London," communicating the name of the parish; in reply to which, the name and address of the registrar for that parish (if there is only one registrar) will be sent by letter, free of postage, by the general post. 450 80. Registration and Marriage Acts. By sections 20 & 25 of the Registration Act, (6 & 7 W. 4, c. 86) it is provided, that certain persons "shall" within stated periods "give information," respecting a birth or death, to the registrar, according to the best of their knowledge and belief, "upon being requested so to do." The registrar will tell them what kind of information is required. The informant must sign the register, without which the information will be incomplete, and the entry not valid; and a refusal to sign, will be equivalent to a refusal to inform. For refusal to give information, the Registration Act does not impose a special penalty; but all persons should know that it is an established rule of law"That if a statute enjoin an act to be done, without pointing out any mode of punishment, an indictment will lie for disobeying the injunctihn of the legislature." All persons may give notice to a registrar, officers, and to collect information of the births either by word or writing, of any birth or of all children born within their parishes, to death within his district; and it is desirable whatever religious denomination the parent that whosoever has an opportunity should do might belong, and quite irrespective of any baptismal rite performed by them, or by any | minister dissenting from their church. This duty having been found too onerous, and information as to births being unattainable by clergymen, since the parents by concealment eluded payment of the tax, the act 7 and 8 W. 3., c. 35 (1695), provided that the parents of every child should, within five days after birth give notice to the clergyman of the day of the birth of such child, under a penalty of 408.; and the clergyman should under a like penalty take an account of and keep a distinct register of every child born and not christened, for doing which the parents were to pay 6d. to him. Ultimately this tax was discontinued; but in 1783 (23 Geo. 3, c. 67) a stamp duty of 3d. was imposed on every entry of burials, marriages, births, or christenings, to be demanded by each clergyman from the undertaker, or parties married, or the parents of a child, whose birth or christening was registered; and by the 25 Geo. 3, c. 75, the act was extended to dissenting ministers, whose registrations of births, or baptisms, or burials, were so recognized by law. In 1794, however, this act was | also repealed, and at present (1833) the parochial registries for baptisms and burials are regulated by the act 52 Geo. 3, c. 146, passed in 1812." On this extraordinary statute, the whole system of parochial registration at present depends; and that it is extraordinary, will appear, if reference be made to the title, which includes a register of Births, for which no provision was framed, and which cannot legally be kept; to the clauses directing the labours of receiving, and arranging, and indexing all the copies of registers, and making reports to the bishops by the diocesan registrars, for which no compensation is awarded; and to the clause for appropriating penalties which are not imposed, and of which the only one directed is transportation." MARRIAGES.-Persons may be married as before, according to the rites of the church of England, by licence, by special licence, or after publication of banns. Persons inay also be married according to the rites of the church of England, without publication of banns, on production of a superintendent registrar's certificate. Persons may also be married otherwise than according to the rites of the church of England, in a registered place of worship, or at the superintendent registrar's office, on production of a superintendent registrar's licence, or certificate. A marriage by licence may be solemnized fourteen days sooner than by certificate. All requisite information respecting the steps to be taken for obtaining a certificate or licence, will be given on application by the superintendent registrar of the district. General Register Office, September, 1837. Birth, and that, as evidence the entries cannot be read. 2nd. That entries in register books occasionally made up from memoranda, and from day and rough books, used in many parishes, cannot be received in evidence." With respect to the existing system of parochial registration, the committee state: 66 Connected with the Statute Law are cases which should not be unknown. Those cases The following are extracts from the report have decided, 1st. That entries of Births made of the select committee on parochial registra- by clergymen on the representation of parents tion, printed by order of the House of Com-in Registers of Baptisms are not evidence of mons, August 15th, 1833, as to the previous state of the Law with respect to registration. "After the revolution, and in the reign of William 3., several acts were passed to enforce not a registry of baptisms but of births, and also of marriages and burials, as a source of revenue to the state; for by an act 6 and 7 W. 3., c. 6 (1694), an act granting his Majesty "That even as to the members of the church, certain rates and duties on marriages, births, it is detrimental and absurd, since the registers and burials, the clergy were compelled, under are mere registers of baptisms and not of a penalty of 1007. for neglect, to take an exact births, of burials and not of deaths,-since and true account, and keep a register of all they supply no adequate proofs of pedigree, or persons married, buried, christened or born means of proving or tracing ancestral descent in their respective parishes, and the collectors | since they are often falsified, stolen, burnt, and all persons concerned, were to have free inaccurately inscribed, and carelessly preserved access to them without fee or reward. Under-since the securities intended to be given by this act, it will be perceived that the clergy the last General Register Act (52 Geo. 3,) by were compelled to act gratuitously as civil directing the yearly and universal transcription On the Act for Abolishing Fines and Recoveries. 451 of the registers, their deposit with the diocesan | where the interests of married women are records, and the preparation of indexes, to concerned, their acquiescence might be testifacilitate searches, have all experienced only a fied before commissioners, as the present act most limited fulfilment; as, while one-fourth has directed; or, what perhaps would have of the parishes make no return, the returns been better, before two neighbouring magisthat have been sent are never indexed, and are trates, (duly verified by the affidavit of the subject to fire and decay; and the directions attorney concerned, or of some other practisof the act have not been and cannot be en- ing attorney,) which would, in many cases, forced, and since the value of property is save the trouble and expense of travelling diminished by the difficulties incident to its perhaps ten or more miles, in order to make transfer, and the insecurity with which it is their appearance before two "Perpetual Comso often held and acquired." missioners," who are neither under the obligation of an oath for the faithful discharge of the duties of their commission, nor do they move in a higher grade of society than the local magistracy. ON THE ACT FOR ABOLISHING FINES AND RECOVERIES. THE object of this act, 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 74, so far as regards the first section of its title,"An Act for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries," has unquestionably been attained to the fullest extent of its letter, by the substitution of a simple deed of conveyance enrolled," for the absurd and almost unintelligible forms of fines and recoveries, which in themselves contained no mark or criterion of identity with the specific entailed property intended thereby to be conveyed; but how far the general intention and spirit of the act has been accomplished will admit of much doubt. Indeed I think it will be allowed by most of the profession, that this act, instead of simplifying the science of conveyancing, has, on the contrary, rendered it more mystified and abstruse. It is difficult for the most experienced conveyancer (however astute he may be) to comprehend all the points of the act, so as to reduce its provisions to easy practice, until after many readings and much study, and even then doubts may still arise in his mind; whereas one might naturally infer from its title generally, that conveyancing was thereby reduced to a simple science, easily comprehensible to any man of common understanding, who would take the trouble to peruse the act with some degree of attention. Notwithstanding all the labours of the Law Commissioners on this subject, and of the person who framed the bill, I submit to the profession generally, whether it would not have been better had the Legislature passed a short act, simply abolishing fines and recoveries, declaring that a common conveyance enrolled (expressive of its intention,) should have the same effect and operation as fines and recoveries respectively would have had before the passing of the act? I say respectively;" for though some times they produced the same effect, yet most generally not so. For instance, a fine would in some cases bar an entail as effectually as a recovery, and indeed preferably, both as regarded expense and operation, whilst in others it would not produce the effect required. And such act might have contained a proviso or two regarding its operation on "base fees," without introducing the novel, and I may say absurd, doctrine of protectorship. And in cases Had the act in question simply abolished fines and recoveries, and substituted a common deed enrolled instead, leaving its operation and effect (as analogous to each of the two former respectively) as it before stood, according to circumstances and the existing state of the title, the old conveyancer would have been saved a vast deal of trouble, and relieved from much doubt (which sometimes occurs) in ascertaining who is to be considered "the protector of the settlement." In fact, this act has rendered a greater degree of nicety and attention to be observed by the practitioner than was requisite before its enactment. Before I quit this subject, I must notice one advantage derived from the act in question, namely, the feasibility of identifying the property of which the entail is barred by inspecting the enrolled deed, an object which could not be attained merely by a reference to the fines and recoveries on record, for in them the parcels were so vaguely described that it was almost an impossibility to pronounce decidedly that they appertained to the property in question. So as the requisite persons were made parties, and the quantity and quality, parish and county a specified were sufficient to embrace the entailed lands, the recovery, &c. was prima facie deemed good. It is well known that the immediate locality (as to boundary or other local description) was never inserted in the fines and recoveries themselves, so that where a person happened to have two distinct entailed estates (corresponding in description) in the same parish, it was difficult to ascertain to which the recovery, &c. applied. As, for instance, a man might be seised in tail of several houses in the same parish, some of them descended to him from his father, and the remainder from his maternal ancestor. He thinks proper to dispose of one of the entailed properties. A recovery is accordingly suffered, and the premises duly conveyed. After a lapse of some years the property in a To bar an entail of a single share in the New River Company, it was necessary to suffer three several recoveries, the water running through portions of three distinct counties; (and quære, would not the same necessity have now applied (but for the act) to the modern railway shares?") What an enormous expense for so small a concern! 452 Debts of Married Women.-Admission in Chancery.-Superior Courts: Rolls. question is again sold, and the contracting purchaser questions the validity of the title. It is true he sees, upon making the usual search, that a recovery was suffered of a terin corresponding with the date of the former conveyance, and sufficiently comprehensive also to embrace the property in question; but he knowing also that the former proprietor (who suffered such recovery) was possessed of two separate and distinct entailed properties in the same parish, (it might be in the same street, and apparently corresponding in every respect but the site,) but held under distinct titles, and it might be, for ought the objector knows to the contrary, that this recovery was suffered in order to complete the title to the other entailed property. D. W. DEBTS OF MARRIED WOMEN. Rolls Court. PRACTICE.-APPEARANCE FOR INFANTS. A solicitor who entered an appearance to a bill on behalf of infants, parties thereto, IN answer to the case put by "An Articled without authority or due inquiry, was held Clerk," at p. 405, I cannot come to an opinion liable to the costs thereby incurred, and favourable to the lady being sued as a feme the appearance so entered was discharged. sole. It does not appear that she is separated from her husband-he is only out of the counThis was a motion to discharge an appeartry. If she is separated, the income she enjoys on behalf of infants, by Mr. Smith, a solicitor ance alleged to have been improperly entered under her father's will, would be a sufficient of the Court, and also to compel him to pay maintenance (Clifford v. Laton, in the articles all costs thereby incurred. The facts of the referred to). But even with this income, and under the circumstances, the case of Marshall Mr. Richards, the testator in the cause, made case appeared to be these :-In the year 1827, v. Rutton, 8 T. R. 545, (overturning Corbett his will, and appointed his son, the plaintiff, v. Tolmitz, 1 T. R. 5, which was decided on his executor, giving him and his children a the general ground that the wife was liable for certain interest in his property, bequeathing debts contracted by her living apart from her also part of his property to his son-in-law and husband with separate maintenance) would his children, and leaving the remainder to his decidedly be opposed to an action against her, daughter's children and to another class of the Judges, after two arguments, declaring their infants. The testator died in the year 1831, opinion that by no agreement between baron and Mr. Husband, a country solicitor, who had and feme could the latter be made responsible acted for him during his lifetime, having subfor debts she had incurred as sole and unmar- sequently ascertained that it would be necesried. M'Namara v. Fisher, 3 Esp. 18, still fur-sary to institute a suit for the purpose of approther opposes an action in a case like the present, and which bears some analogy thereto. There the husband was out of the country, and had been for a considerable time; the wife also had a separate maintenance, and contracted debts as a feme sole. Yet it was held that no action could be maintained against her, as her husband was living at the time of the action. priating the assets of the testator to the infants, and thereby securing their interests under the will, applied to Mr Richards, the son and executor of the testator, to allow him to file a bill Mr. Husband subsequently declined to interon behalf of the infants, which was agreed to. fere, and another solicitor was employed, by The only cases in which she can be sued as tioned. Mr. Husband having come to the whom a bill was filed for the purpose mena feme sole, I take it to be, are:-transporta- knowledge of this fact, instructed Mr Smith tion of the husband, and even though his term has expired-abjuration of the realm-adultery bill, without the authority of Mr. Richards or to enter an appearance for the infants to the with separate maintenance-and in the case of his family, or the relatives of the other infants. an alien husband abroad, and the wife con- An appearance was entered accordingly by Mr. tracting debts as a feme sole; but not other-Smith, but the fact having been ascertained by The effect of a misrepresentation would, I be entered for the infants, and then both parthe plaintiff, he caused another appearance to think, only subject the party making it, toties endeavoured to sue out a commission, for plead her coverture if she had been arrested, as the Court would not discharge her on comG. M. wise. mon bail. the purpose of assigning guardians to the infants, but in this attempt Mr. Smith failed, in consequence of the refusal of the relations to produce the infants. A petition embodying these facts, and complaining of the conduct of Mr. Smith in the transaction, and praying tha、 |