the current flows with unabated tide. For one example, Mr. Bentham (See Delay and Complication Tables, Table iii.) states that the profit to the chief justice of the King's Bench, upon each cause which comes before him after a decision in another court, is 7/16s 6d. He adds, "Total of income derived from this branch of the trade in 1797, 14347. 13s. 6d. paid to clerk, and squeezed out of him by the judge:" such is the interest which our judges still retain in the fee-multiplying system.

a

In treating more particularly of the plan for the Scotch courts, on which we must confine our observations within very narrow limits, he first discusses the proposal for forming three or four courts out of the 15 judges which constituted the single court of session. From this be acknowledges that advantages would be derived, but he points out other means, by which many additional advantages would be secured. His observations are highly important, and we recommend them most earnestly to general attention. They suggest the most important ideas on one of the most interesting of all subjects, the constitution of courts for the administration of justice. The proposed system of pleading is the next subject which he undertakes. No part of the technical system he represents as more full of abuse and corruption than what relates to pleading. Here no improvement was attempted in regard to the new courts of Scotland. On this point, too, it is impossible for us to enter into the elucidations which he has presented of the evils incorporated with the system of pleading in England as well as in Scotland. We can only observe that it is the principal machine by which delay, vexation, and expence are manufactured; and recommend the tract of Mr. Bentham to the attention of the public.

His observations respecting the proposed introduction of jury trial, the third topic to which he proceeds, are given at considerable length, and are in the highest degree instructive His opinion on this point is thus summarily expressed; that of this introduction "the probable mischief, in the shape of increase of delay, vexation, and expence, seems greater than its probable good effect, in the shape of a security against misdecision; that the proper stage for that species of judicature is that of appeal, after a viva voce explanation upon oath, between the parties, and decision thereupon; and not after a series of written pleadings, not upon oath, in the first instance.

His plan is, that all causes should undergo a summary trial, in the first instance, after the manner practised in the courts of conscience; that the parties, before a single judge, should themselves be heard and interrogated upon oath, the evidence sifted, and sentence pronounced. If the parties are satisfied with this decision, the suit is finished, and will be so, in almost all cases, at a single hearing. If any of them be not satisfied, an appeal then lies to another court, where the cause is tried by a jury. The advantages of this procedure, above that which is established in the English courts, he clearly demonstrates to be immense. jury-trial is managed in those courts, it is one of the main instruments of the corruptions with which they abound. It prevents, in many cases, the possibility of the cause being so much as known. How many causes are there, through the evidence of which it is impossible to go during the time a jury is sitting? It excludes dispatch. It excludes the tracing of evidence from one witness to another. It combines precipitation with delay. It renders the jury-men, in most instances, mere puppets in the hands

As

of the court. He concludes by shewing that the jury trial as employed in England, if transplanted, according to the proposed plan of reform into Scotland, would far from tend to abridge delay, vexation, and expence, in the administration of justice.

There are two other heads which the author exhibited, in the general view which he presented in his first letter, of the result of his reflections on the proposed plan of reform for the courts of law in Scotland. But in the present publication he has proceeded no farther than the last of the topics which we have above shortly explained.

He mentions incidentally, in his introductory letter, that he was putting the finishing hand to a work, to which those who know Mr. Bentham's unparalleled proficiency in the science of law, and are not in those unfortunate circumstances which give an interest in perpetuating the abuses of law, cannot fail to look forward with ardent expectation. It is a work on the sub. ject of EVIDENCE in law. Eveu this we have the satisfaction to learn, from the same passage, is "but an offset of another work, not wanting much of its completion, and designed to give a comprehensive view of what, taken in all its branches, appeared fit to be done in the way of law." The appearance of these productions, the value of which we have reason to anticipate as beyond price, we shall hail with unspeakable satisfaction, and earnestly present our solicitations to the admirable author, to hasten the

moment when we may congratulate our countrymen, and fellow creatures, on receiving so mighty a gift.

We must not close our short account of this valuable tract without mentioning, that the author has presented on two sheets, five tables, The I. representing the natural sources of delay, and complication in judicial procedure; exhibiting the causes of those evils, in so far as they are natural, necessary, unavoidable; with examples, shewing some of the principal cases, referable to the respective sources. The II. representing the mischiefs of delay. The III. representing the causes of factitious delay; containing a brief indication of some of the principal causes of the factitious, superabundant, unnecessary, and avoidable delays, fabricated under the technical or fee-gathering system of procedure, in England, Scotland, and other countries. The IV. representing the disputable causes of delay, that is, of which it may be matter of dispute, whether, or how far, they are avoidable or unavoidable. The V. representing Blackstone's false causes of delay; viz. circumstances falsely stated by him as causes of those English delays, which, in truth, are factitious and avoidable, but by him are falsely styled unavoidable. The VI. representing the uses of those tables. The extent of information which is at once brought under the view in these tables is most remarkable. They contain, in fact, the matter of volumes, and cannot be too carefully studied.

establishment. But the number of persons whom it is likely to interest is so circumscribed, that we could not be justified in here entering into the author's details. The object of

the pamphlet is, to shew that the livings of the clergymen of the church of Scotland are too small. This point the author certainly, and clearly proves; and that the opposi

tion which is made by the landholders to the augmentation of the clerical stipends, is illiberal and unjust.

THIS is a sensible pamphlet, containing some important facts,

That it is but a partial view of the subject is evident from the shortness

THE most that a reviewer has it in his power to say of such a work as Dr. Beatson's, is, that if the names of persons, and places, and the dates, are correct, it will be found peculiarly and extensively

useful as a book of reference.

In a variety of cases we have endeavoured to compare it with- authorities, and have not found it faulty.

Its general contents are as follow.

"I. A List of all the Parliaments, with the several Alterations which have happened by Deaths, Preferments, and undue Elections, from the Union in 1708, to the First Session of the Third Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1807.

"II. An Alphabetical List of all the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, shewing the Time they first began to send Members, and their Rights of Election, as decided by the House.

«III. An Account of all the Contro

verted Elections, with the several Determinations concerning them, from the 29th of Elizabeth, to the present Time.

"IV. An Alphabetical List of all the Members, and their Country Seats, shewing the several Counties, Cities, or Bo roughs, which they have represented.

"V. An Alphabetical List of Petiti

oners,

"VI. The Heads of the Statutes now in Force, concerning Elections.

"VII. A List of the Peers of England, who have sat in Parliament, from the Union with Scotland in 1708, to 1807.*

"VIII. A List of the Scots Peers,

who have been returned to all the Parlia

ments since the Union.

"IX. A List of the Irish Peers who have been returned to the United Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, since the Union in 1800."

For what reason we know not, the fifth article of the contents mentioned at the beginning of the first volume, is omitted in the corresponding page prefixed to the other

two.

graphy, we have not hitherto been happy. The Biographia Britannica was projected, and the first edition published, half a century ago. To say nothing of its palpable defects, both as to materials and arrangement, the lapse of time required, from the accumulation of subject and the prevalence of a more literary taste, that a revision and augmentation should take place. It could not have fallen into better hands, allowing for some professional partialities, than those of Dr. Kippis, who commenced, and made some progress in the republication. But this office, on which his individual contributions threw so much lustre, devolved on him late in life; and since his death, the vast project has slept in oblivion. An unfinished work is no subject of criticism; and those larger biographies, which profess to furnish a complete anatomy, where he had only dissected here and there a disjointed member, are either in their minority or in embryo.

But though we have hitherto no full-grown body of universal or national biography, several very useful dictionaries have of late years been published, in a succinct style and compendious form. Of those which have been completed, the Universal Biography of Dr. Lempriere, now under review, is one of the most ex. tensive, authentic, and valuable as a book of reference. In his larger edition, he has indulged himself in the compass of a very thick quarto; and though, from the multiplicity of his subjects, he has still been obliged to confine himself to miniature painting, he has given some specimens of artist-like, though diminutive delineation. In his preface, which is written in the candid and liberal spirit of a scholar and a gentleman," the author acknowledges himself indebted to those, at home and abroad, whose labours have been directed to the same

pursuits. He has freely drawn his materials from the researches of former historians and biographers; and the accuracy and the impartiality of their statements, which concurrent testimonies fully prove and corroborate, are entitled to no small share of praise. From this mingled mass, and from various sources of information, he has endeavoured to form one general whole."

The above is a fair and true account of his own labours; and, while it disclaims the honours of originality, exempts us from the almost impracticable duty of criticising minutely so multifarious a work. Indeed, originality in biography, where all the materials extant have long been in the hands of the learned at least, if not of the public at large, would be but a softer term for lying; and we question much whether the biographer's privilege would be acknowledged with so good-tempered, laughing an allowance as the traveller's. Besides, in a book, like a dictionary, which has neither beginning, middle, nor end, proportion vanishes; and with it, the critic's jurisdiction vanishes, or is abridged, his rule and rod are broken. By proportion, we mean that sort of story-telling unity which constitutes the perfection and the charm of the epic, dramatic, and narrative styles; for with respect to those other laws of proportion, which measure the copiousness of the detail by the importance of the character, Dr. Lempriere has, in the following passage of his preface, justly decided on their indispensable necessity: "To examine, and to select the most prominent features, to compress the materials copiously scattered around him, and to assign to each, to the mighty conqueror, to the vigilant politician, to the popular writer, to the persevering philosopher, and to the