Changes in the Law.

463

qualified from continuing to hold such office, borough gaol, and the sheriff of such county, and also from being thereafter elected or ap-riding, parts, or division of a county, liberty, pointed to fill any corporate office within any or jurisdiction shall not be answerable for the such city or borough. (s. 39.) safe custody of any such prisoner: Provided also, that it shall be lawful for the person or persons in whose custody such prisoner would have been if imprisoned within the borough gaol to take such security from the gaoler or keeper of the gaol to which any such prisoner shall be so removed, for the safe custody of al! such prisoners, as shall be agreed on between the council and justices aforesaid. (s. 42.) Period to which Accounts shall be made up. -And reciting that an act was passed in the last session of parliament, intituled, "An Act for the better Administration of the Borough Fund in certain Boroughs," providing among other things that accounts of the receipt and expenditure on account of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of such boroughs should be sent to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, and be laid before both Houses of Parliament; be it enacted, that every such account shall be made up to the last period of audit of the said receipt and expenditure, and not further or otherwise. (s. 43.)

Borough Gaol may be built beyond the Limits of the Borough. That it shall be lawful for the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of any borough, by their council, to contract for the purchase of, and to have and hold to them and their successors, any lands not exceeding in the whole five acres, either within or beyond the limits of the borough, and to build thereon a town hall, council house, police office, gaol or house of correction for the borough; and any such gaol or house of correction, although built beyond the limits of the borough, may be declared by a resolution of the council, and upon such resolution shall be taken to be, the gaol or house of correction of the borough, and shall be within the same jurisdiction and shall be governed and regulated in like manner as if within the limits of the borough. (s. 40.) | Gaols, &c. under County Jurisdiction previous to 6 & 7 W. 4, c. 103, excluded from the Provisions of that Act.-And reciting that by the extension of the boundaries of certain boroughs, cities, and places, the county gaols, court houses, depôts for militia arms, and other public edifices and offices of counties have been included within the boundaries of those cities or boroughs, and are thereby subject to the jurisdiction of such cities or boroughs and of the sheriffs and other municipal authorities thereof; in remedy whereof it is enacted, that all county gaols, courts, depôts for arms, and all lands, buildings, easements, and appurtenances thereunto belonging, which before the passing of the act passed in the last session of parliament to make temporary provision for the boundaries of certain boroughs, or the authorized extension of the boundaries of any borough since the passing of that act, were in, of, or belonging to any county, shall be taken to be and considered and shall remain part and parcel of such county, and under the exclusive jurisdiction of the authorities of such county, as if the said last-mentioned act had not passed. (8. 41.)

Orders for Payment of Money may be removed into the Court of King's Bench by certiorari.-And reciting that it is expedient to give all persons interested in the borough fund of every borough a more direct and easy remedy for any misapplication of such fund; it is therefore enacted, that any order of the council of any borough for the payment of any sum of money from or out of the borough fund of any borough may be removed into the Court of King's Bench by writ of certiorari, to be moved for according to the usual practice of the said Court with respect to writs of certiorari; and that such order may be disallowed or confirmed upon motion and hearing, with costs, according to the judgment and discretion of the said Court. (s. 44.)

Manner of transferring corporate property standing in the Bunk books, &c. That any stocks, funds, or public securities which may be stan ding in the books of the governor and company of the bank of England, or of any other pub. Certain Borough Debtors and Prisoners in |lic company or society, in the name of the Contempt may be removed to the County Gaol. mayor, alderman, and burgesses of any borough -That in every case in which by virtue of any either under their present or under any former contract made between the council of any style or title of incorporation, and the dividends borough and the justices of any county, riding, and interest thereof, and all bonuses and acparts, or division of a county, liberty, or juris- cretions thereunto, which shall belong to the diction, according to the provisions of the body corporate of such borough, without being said act for regulating corporations, the gaol subject to any trust for charitable purposes, belonging to such county, riding, parts, or may be transferred by and paid to such person division of a county, liberty, or jurisdiction or persons as the council of the said body corshall be used as the gaol of such borough,porate shall appoint by an instrument in wriprisoners for debt or in contempt arrested in any such borough under any process from any court may be taken and removed from such borough and confined in that part of such gaol which is appropriated to debtors, and such removal shall not be taken to be an escape: Provided always, that every such prisoner shall still be taken to be within the legal custody of the person or persons in whose custody he would have been if imprisoned within the

ting under the corporate seal of the borough; provided that such instrument of appointment shall be signed and sealed also by the clerk to the charitable trustees of the borough, who is hereby directed, upon request, to sign and seal the same. (s. 45.)

Manner of transferring charitable property, standing in the Bank books, &c.-That any stocks, funds, securities, and monies standing as aforesaid in the name of any such body cor

464

Changes in the Law.-Notices of New Books: Johnson's Life of Coke.

porate, which shall belong to the charitable Powers of the act 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 76, may be trustees of the borough solely upon some cha-granted by the crown to towns or boroughs though ritable trust or trusts, may be transferred by not corporate.-That if the inhabitant houseand paid to such person or persons as shall be holders of any town or borough in England or appointed under the hand and seals of the Wales shall petition his Majesty to grant to greater part of the trustees, which appointment them a charter of incorporation, it shall be shall be attested under the hand and seal of the lawful for his Majesty, by any such charsaid clerk, provided that such instrument as ter, if he shall think fit by the advice of last aforesaid shall be also sealed with the his privy counsel to grant the same, to extend corporate seal of the borough, and the mayor to the inhabitants of any such town or borough of the borough is hereby required, upon re- within the district to be set forth in such charquest, to cause the seal of the borough to be ter all the powers and provisions of the said affixed to such instrument of nomination. act for regulating corporations, whether such (s. 46.) town or borough be or be not a corporate town or borough, or be or be not named in either of the schedules to the said act; provided nevertheless, that notice of every such petition and of the time when it shall please his Majesty to order that the same be taken into consideration by his privy counsel, shall be published in the London Gazette one month at least before such petition shall be so considered, but such publication shall not need to be by royal proclamation. (s. 49.)

By what authority and to whom dividends of charitable and corporate property, standing in the Bank books, &c. shall be paid. That the dividends and interest of any stocks, funds, securities, and monies standing as aforesaid in the name of any such body corporate which shall belong partly to the said body corporate, but subject to some charitable trust or trusts, may be paid to such person or persons as shall be authorized to have the same paid to him or them, by an instrument in writing under the corporate seal of the borough, and appointed under the hands and seal of the greater part of the trustees, which appointment shall be attested under the hand and seal of the said clerk. (s. 47.)

Receipts for monies and application thereof. That in every case the receipt of the person or persons authorised to give a receipt to the said company or society, by any instrument under the corporate seal of the said borough, and also signed and sealed by the clerk to the charitable trustees, shall be an effectual discharge to the said company or society, and all monies so paid shall be applied to the uses and in the manner provided by the said act; that is to say, so much of the said monies as may be held on charitable trusts shall be paid over to the charitable trustees of the said borough, and so much as the said body corporate shall be entitled to beneficially shall be paid over to the treasurer of the borough, and applied as directed by the said act as part of the borough fund; but no such public company or society as aforesaid shall be bound to see to the due application thereof, or to the validity of the appointment of the clerk to the charitable trustees, or to the execution of any such instrument by any of the said trustees, or to inquire whether or not the said stocks, funds, securities, or monies are charged with or held upon any charitable trust; and every person authorised to receive any monies under this act shall account to the council and to the charitable trustees respectively for all monies so received by him, and the council and trustees respectively shall have the same remedies against any such person refusing or wilfully neglecting so to account as are provided by the said act for regulating corporations in the case of a treasurer or other officer appointed by the council refusing or wilfully neglecting to account, as provided by the said act, during the continuance of his office, or within three months after the expiration of his office. (s. 48.)

Business to be transacted at general or quarter sessions for the counties &.c in which boroughs are situate.-That, in all boroughs and places where general or quarter sessions of the peace have under and by virtue of the said recited act ceased or been discontinued to be holden, all such business, matters, and things which, under or by virtue of any general or local act of parliament, or any usage or custom, ought or were usually heard, decided, or transacted at such general or quarter sessions by the justices of the peace, with the assistance of any juries there assembled, shall and may hereafter be heard, decided, and transacted, by the general or quarter sessions of the peace for the counties, ridings, or divisions, liberties, or jurisdictions in which such boroughs are situate, and by the justices of the peace and juries there as sembled respectively. (s. 50.)

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

The Life of Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England in the reign of James I, with Memoirs of his Contemporaries. By Cuthbert William Johnson, Esq., of Gray's Inn, Barrister-at-Law. In two vols. Vol. I. London: Henry Colburn, 1837.

WE always readily welcome any biographical work relating to the great worthies of the law, and therefore gladly turn our attention to Mr. Johnson's life of Sir Edward Coke. We cannot commence our notice of the work more appropriotely, than by quoting the author's Introduction.

"The works (he says) of Sir Edward Coke have been long familiar to the legal profession; to no English lawyer, indeed, are his gigantic labours unknown. But with regard to the life

Notices of New Books: Johnson's Life of Coke.

of their great author, with the exception of the able notice by Oldys, in the Biographia Britannica, little has yet been accomplished. To the readers of English history, Coke is principally known as the pleader who so rancourously conducted the prosecution of Sir Walter Raleigh; and he is hardly remembered for anything except the part which he played in that melancholy trial. To this, many circumstances have contributed; he was much too independent in his political conduct to be a favourite with the historians of either party; too patriotic for the royalists; his high prerogative legal opinions were, on the other hand, equally distasteful to the republicans.

"In this work, I have endeavoured to supply the deficiency above referred to; and for this purpose have availed myself of the stores contained in the Plumian Library, in my own immediate neighbourhood; that of Lambeth, which has been opened to me by the kindness of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of Holkham, through the liberal hospitality of the Earl and Countess of Lei

cester.

"In none of these collections, however, nor even among the splendid stores of the British Museum, have I found so many original letters of Coke as I once anticipated. In truth, the now remaining correspondence of this great lawyer is extremely limited, and not much distinguished either for its ease or its elegance; and, upon the whole, our knowledge of his private life is but little extended by his own writings.

465

positions in which he was of necessity the aggressor. In short, while reviewing at this distant and improved period of human cultivation, the life of this, in many respects, truly great man, let us not withhold froin our estimate that liberal interpretation of his failings, the absence of which, in his estimate of others was Coke's chief error."

Mr. Johnson has bestowed great pains in the execution of his interesting task. He has not only availed himself of all the sources of published intelligence, but has pursued his inquiries amongst manuscripts, plication wherever it was likely that inforand has visited every place, and made apmation could be obtained. The materials thus learnedly and carefully collected, have been wrought up by the author in an animated and judicious manner, and with a spirit and feeling highly creditable to his character as a member of the profession.

We shall for the present, confine our review of the author's labors to such parts of them as may be gratifying to the student and the younger members of the profession. The author observes that,

"To the law student, the life of Sir Edward Coke is full of materials for the most careful, the most serious reflection. Riches did not render him idle, affluence did not enervate him. Born to a competent estate, he yet la"In the present work I have endeavoured boured in his profession as if for his very existto do justice to Coke's character, by showing ence. Rising from his bed before day-break, him not only as the lawyer and the author, but he studied unceasingly until weariness comas the unflinching patriot, for in all these pub-pelled him to seek repose. He was one of the lic relations he puts forth the highest claims to our gratitude and admiration-claims which he well maintained to the end; for at the age of fourscore we shall find him still the same ardent lover of his country as in the prime of life; still exerting his great powers and acquirements, as when he was Attorney General to Queen Elizabeth.

few eminent lawyers on whom, as Lord Woodhouselee justly remarks, 'fortune has bestowed hereditary affluence; for, to a man of talents and of moderate activity, the possession of a competence in early life is very far from being an advantage.'

'parts and poverty,' for he had a family estate, and excellent connexions-connexions which through life he studiously, perhaps too carefully, preserved and extended, certainly in his latter days more so than accorded with his happiness. He commenced however with still greater endowments than these: namely, with a moral courage which no difficulties appalled, and with habits of industry, for which no investigation was too tedious or intricate.

"Coke did not start in life with both the great advantages which Lord Talbot considerAt the same time, I have on no occasioned the best endowments of a law student, endeavoured to conceal Coke's great and manifold defects, so often displayed during his long and eventful career. But, in reviewing these errors, we must not forget the character of the age in which he lived. We must remember, that moderation of language, and liberality of feeling, were not then the fashionable attributes of public characters, or mildness of punishment the desired attribute of the criminal code of England. Moreover, we must not forget that if Coke, in common with "It would be unjust to the student to hold the political party with whom he associated, up Coke as a perfect model for his imitation, sometimes outstepped the bounds of modera- for he had many great and important defects tion and humanity, he was surrounded by diffi- of character. He was proud in the extreme, culties and perplexities at once novel and un-imperious and overbearing. This pride was precedented; that he was claiming for the Commons privileges never before exercised, and combating mighty prerogatives of the crown, which had been long enjoyed without resistance; that he was very often obliged to argue without authorities, and to maintain

one great actuating principle which followed him through life, was distinguished in his two marriages, in his pleadings, in his decisions as a judge, in his contests with Bacon, in his intrigues at court, in the marriages of his children, and even in his speeches in parliament.

466

Notices of New Books: Johnson's Life of Coke.

"His pride, however, was not confined to himself, storehouse as he was of common law, or to his own gigantic acquirements. He felt proud of the equity of the laws of England, proud of his country and of his country's rights, and, when tottering towards his grave, in one of his last addresses to the Commoners of England, he again spoke of his country's glories, of the feats of her children in by-gone days of triumphant victories, with all the buoyant enthusiasm of youth. This proud feeling of patriotisin is discernable in all his works; it is found in every page of his ⚫ Commentaries,' and it peeps out even in the dry prefaces, to still more uninviting reports.

and, in the following year, April 24, 1572, entered himself a student of the Inner Temple. As a student, it appears, he speedily was noticed for a very close application to his studies; and more publicly by a very clear statement to the Benchers of the Cook's case, which had considerably embarrassed these grave lawyers and who very much admired the way in which Coke unravelled the story. It was probably a case relating to the management of the House, with which I confess myself unacquainted.

"He was admitted to the bar in his twentyseventh year, when he had been a member of the Middle Temple only six years, which at "His ever anxious solicitude for the progress his age was thought to be a very extraordinary of the student was worthy of so great a inan. circumstance, for the students were then acIt was not with him an occasional feeling, for customed to remain eight or nine years on the it will be found beaming through all his gigan- books of the society, before they were called. tic labours-he let no opportunity escape to "From the period when Coke left Camfurther this benevolent intention. bridge, until his twenty-eighth year, when he "Of Coke's morality, of his religious feel-pleaded his first cause, I have few materials ings, we have abundant evidence. The student will not fail to be struck with the testimony he gives to the unvaried non-success of every lawyer of his day, who was distinguished for his disregard of the rules of virtue or the laws of God."

Of the early studies of Coke we have the following account.

from which I can learn the course of his studies, the books he read, or the students with whom he associated. That he was not an idle reader is proved by his published works; for he never touched upon any theme, commented upon a section of his author, or reported any case, but he apparently exhausted all the learning which could be applied to the subject. His habit of early rising, which attended him "He remained at the University four years. through life, gave him ample time for his stuThere is no account of his studies to be found dies. His grandson, Roger Coke, tells us that at Cambridge; there exist no traditions con he usually rose at three o'clock in the morning, cerning his sayings and doings. Being intend and in his time, the courts seldom sat later ed for the profession of the law, he probably than noon. The business of a barrister having paid more attention to the study of Norman the most extensive practice would then leave French, and to the year books, than to mathe-him ample space for a very careful and extend

maties or classic lore.

ed course of study. The cases, too, in Coke's "He had now arrived at an age when young day, principally involved questions of real propersons begin to acquire the chief portion of perty: these were rare, and others not more the useful information which they are to benefit important were trivial ones of defamation of by in life. Coke certainly was not an idler; character. Trials on bills of exchange were he early began to read such books as would then nearly unknown. There are not moro serve him in his future professional pursuits. than two or three reported cases of this descripAmong the books at Holkham Hall, there are tion préviously to the time when Coke quitted many law authorities, containing his auto-the bench. Few cases then occurred of the graphs and notes, dated at a very early period kind, which now so incessantly occupy the of his life. He must have possessed from his attention of the courts. The labours of the boyish days the power of intense application, judges were slight. in a very remarkable degree. The books "The course of legal study was, in his time, which he studied so steadily, and so perse-rather different from the system at present veringly, were of a nature which almost defy adopted. A student was then usually obliged the mental digestion of a modern student. to be eight years on the books of an inn of "There were then no law books written court before he could be called to the bar; with the elegance of Blackstone's Commen five years longer than is at present necessary. taries, or Fearne's Contingent Remainders. Clifford's Inn, as well as several other Every law authority was composed in the bar-subordinate inns, were then, as now, appenbarous law French of the age, and Coke had dages to the larger Inns of Court, and in to struggle to obtain knowledge from such these it was usual for the law students to dwell, authors as Fleta, Britton, Hengham and Lit-and associate together, for the purpose of tleton from the year books, and the reports of Plowden and Dyer."

study and the disputation of doubtful or difficult points of law. The practice has long been disused. I learn from an old manuscript of the time of Henry VIII, that in these inns a curious system of study was then adopted.

After dinner and supper,' says this writer, the students and learners, in the house, sit together, by three and three, in a company;"

Notices of New Books: Johnson's Life of Coke..

467

and one of the three putteth forth some doubt-dated 2nd October 1576, he has written: This ful question in the law to the other two of his was the first purchase made by the aforesaid company; and they reason and argue unto it Sir Edward Coke.' These purchases succeed, in English; and at last, he that putteth forthed each other with great rapidity, and at last the question declareth his mind, also shewing attracted the notice of government. There is unto them the judgment, or better opinion of a tradition in the Coke family, that when he his book, where he had the same question; was in treaty for the family estate of Castle and this do the students observe every day | Acre Priory, in Norfolk, James I told him, that throughout the year, except festival days.""

Such, says our author, was the legal school in which Coke was educated.

"That he was industrious and persevering, time, by its fruits, demonstrated; pleasure did not tempt him from the dry legal inquiries of his profession; he was never even suspected of any licentious conduct. If the youth is the epitome of the man, he was proud and reserved, economical in his expenses, neat in his dress, ambitious of distinction, and leaving no means unemployed to realize his aspiring hopes, the fondest wishes of his heart.

"His public principles, there is little doubt, partook of the spirit of the age. Born in the short reign of Edward VI, he first became a public character in the reign of Elizabeth, when an intense dread of popery and an earnest, grateful admiration, of Elizabeth's services in the cause of protestanism threw a veil over even her most arbitrary proceedings;-public feelings, which were completely lost in the reigns of her not more arbitrary, but inore

selfish successors.

"In Trinity term 1578, Coke pleaded his first cause; his practice speedily became considerable, and, soon after this great event in a barrister's life, he received the appointment of reader of Lyon's Inn, a situation which he held for three years with the highest credit.

he had already as much land as it was proper a subject should possess. To this Sir Edward replied, "Then, please your Majesty, I will only

add one acre more to the estate."

Of his style and manner of pleading, says Mr. Johnson, we have no very correct account.

"His recorded speeches are distinguished for their legal knowledge, their learning and their close adherence to the facts of the case; there is little trace of imagination; he was seldom figurative, and still more rarely eloquent. His speeches, to a modern reader, will often appear tedious from the mass of facts with which they are inelegantly crowded; and their effect is by no means assisted by the writers whom it was his fate to have as reporters.

"I have already stated that the first cause in which Coke was engaged was in Trinity term 1578, when he appeared as counsel for the defendant, in the case of the Lord Cromwell against Denny. From this case, which was an action of slander, his client the Rev. E. Denny, vicar of Norlingham in Norfolk, appears to have had the misfortune of such a neighbour as the Lord Cromwell, who introduced as preachers into Norlingham Church two unlicensed persons. These, in their sermons, denounced the book of Common Prayer, "The benchers,' says the manuscript I have as iinpious and superstitious. For this reason, before referred to, appoint the utter barristers when they again came to preach, the vicar ento read among them, openly in the hall, of deavoured to prevent them, but, being supwhich he has notice half a year before. The ported by Lord Cromwell, they succeeded in first day he makes choice of some act or sta-gaining possession of the pulpit. At this time tute, whereupon he grounds his whole reading for that vacation; he reciteth certain doubts, and questions, which he hath devised upon the said statute, and declares his judgment thereupon, after which one of the utter barristers repeateth one question, propounded by the reader who did put the case, and endeavours to confute the objections laid against him. The senior barristers, and readers, one after the other, do declare their opinions and judginents in the same, and then the reader, who Coke's practice as a lawyer was certainly did put the case, endeavours to confute the ob- very great; we have it from good authority jections laid against him, and to confirm his that he was employed in most of the great own opinion. After which, the judges and causes in Westminster Hall, and the tradition sergeants, it any be there, declare their opi-among the members of the bar is, that his nion.' emoluments were equal to those of a modern

some high words passed between Mr. Denny and Lord Cromwell, who exclaimed in his anger, Thou art a false varlet, and I like not of thee.' To this the former replied, 'It is no marvel that you like not of me, for you like of these (meaning the preachers) who maintain sedition against the Queen's proceedings.' In the action for these words, the Lord Cromwell failed, another was then commenced, but finally the matter was compromised.

"Coke had begun, some time before this, Attorney General. to accumulate considerable property. His This is, probably, a correct report, when practice at the bar was lucrative, and the es-the difference in the value of money is taken tates left him by his father, had evidently in-into the account; for otherwise, such were the creased in his hands. There is at Holkham comparative smallness of the fees then usually Hall, the original book of title deeds belonging to Sir Edward, with various notes in his own hand writing. Thus, at the end of the first indenture, which relates to Titleshall Austens,

paid to a barrister, that the gross amount of the sums received by him could not have amounted to the receipts of a modern lawyer in first-rate practice."