acknowledged hazards of innovation will justify. If a reasonable plan of reform, in any of the departments of state, is proposed by their opponents, they will lend their whole influence to check, for the present, the triumph which would arise to their enemies from the success of their plans; and thus it happens, that many beneficial measures are unwisely postponed; that some are abandoned altogether, and that the interests of the country are sacrificed amid the struggles of faction. It is impossible to acquit either party of blame; but perhaps those who give the provocation-who are the first to betray narrow views, and to exhibit the unnatural union of generous plans with selfish principles, are even more culpable than their opponents, who yield to feelings of resentment that even the wisest and best of men cannot always restrains. It is painful, however, to reflect, that from such causes measures of great public utility may often miscarry; and it is not less honourable to the parties more immediately concerned, than it is consoling to all who really love their country, when instances are found, in which truth and sense have triumphed over every obstacle, and men of all parties have united in a salutary improvement on the laws of their country. An example of this kind was afforded during the present session of parliament, in the measure which was adopted for improving the inferior ecclesiastical courts of England. The history of the jurisdiction of these courts is very curious, and serves to explain the anomalies which till lately existed in their practice.

Be

fore the Norman conquest, the ecclesiastical and temporal powers were united; but William the First, either from a wish to imitate the institutions of his own country, or to get rid, in certain cases, of the trial by jury,

contrived to accomplish their separation. The clergy, always active and ambitious, continued their encroachments on the civil power, and, even in the vigorous reign of Henry the Second, had acquired such an ascendant, that the pope ventured to deprive that able prince of his right of nominating to vacant benefices. Such advantages indeed did the clergy obtain over Henry, that, before he could make his peace with the church, he was forced to sign certain articles; by one of which it was conceded, that a layman, breaking the peace with an ecclesiastic, should be tried by the bishop; and by another, that no ecclesiastic should be amenable to the temporal powers. Their influence increased in succeeding reigns; and in that of John, rose to such a pitch, that the king himself was forced to surrender his crown into the hands of a priest, and accept it as a grant from the ecclesiastical power. The clergy had not, however, been allowed to make these encroachments without complaint or resistance on the part of the legislature and the people. In the reigns of Edwards First and Third, and Richard Second, several statutes were passed, for abridging their power; but they still continued to gain strength, until, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, in consequence of a dispute betwixt parliament and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions, an act was passed to make the clergy responsible to the civil courts. This innovation was violently resisted by some eminent individuals of their order: But Henry VIII. in consequence of transactions which are well known, having taken up a deep grudge against the clergy, united his influence to that of the parliament, and the temporal courts at last prevailed. A commission was appointed about this time to enquire into the abuses

which had crept into the ecclesiastical courts; but it does not appear that its proceedings were attended with any practical advantages. A similar fate attended commissions which were appointed in several succeeding reigns; and nothing was effected towards improving the constitution of these courts until the acts 26th Geo. II. and 27th Geo. III. were passed. Their constitutional canons were still nominally the same as they had been du ring the reign of Henry the Eighth; although it would be absurd to deny that the spirit of their proceedings had been softened by the improvements of modern times, and that they had participated to a large extent in the progress of refinement and civilization. Many of the persons who now preside in them are men of the very highest talents, and the most spotless character; but still there existed some absurdities in the constitution of the ecclesiastical courts, which it was important

to correct or remove.

The punishment of excommunication, the only one which can be awarded by the ecclesiastical courts, and which, by the 5th of Queen Elizabeth, may be followed up by imprisonment, affords the most striking instance of the faults in their constitution. The consequences of a sentence of excommunication, according to the strict principles of the ecclesiastical law, are extremely serious: The offender is cut off from all civil rights; he is looked on as a heathen and publican; he can succeed to no inheritance, and can bring no action; he cannot be a juror or witness in a court of law; and if he die, he is not entitled to Christian burial. This punishment, although generally awarded in cases of defamation, was however incurred only by the contumacy of the offender, who, by submitting to a slight penance, might have avoided such

severity; but the punishment itself was extremely objectionable as an abuse of a religious ceremony; and there could be no difficulty in finding a substitute for it, more efficacious and less oppressive. It was declared, in the House of Commons, by one of the greatest lawyers of this or any other age or country, who himself presides in the highest of the English ecclesiastical courts, to be the general wish of all who were connected with them, to have this barbarous and absurd custom abolished.

The attention of Lord Folkestone was attracted to this subject, by the case of Mary Ann Dix, a poor woman, who had committed some offence falling under the jurisdiction of one of the inferior ecclesiastical courts, for which she had been excommunicated and imprisoned. For this unfortunate woman his lordship presented a petition to the House of Commons, in which the circumstances of her case were very fully stated; but unfortunately, his lordship, in the course of the discussion, did not confine himself to those points in the practice of the courts which were really deserving of censure, but entered on a wide field of groundless accusation. He proposed that a committee should be appointed to institute an enquiry far more extensive and embarrassing than the occasion demanded. He complained not only of the punishment of excommunication, but of the heavy costs which were incurred in the ecclesiastical courts-a complaint which might, with as much justice, have been urged against any other court in the kingdom, and the statement of which could hardly be attended with any beneficial results, thus hastily brought forward, without notice or preparation. He spoke, in general terms, of enormous abuses which existed in the practice of these courts, although he was able, out

of the multitude of causes which come annually before such judicatures, to select but a very few in which there was the slightest appearance of blame. He pronounced a strong censure on the severity of the punishments inflicted in cases of defamation; and he called for an enquiry of such a nature, that, while it must have brought universal suspicion upon the ecclesiastical courts, would, in its progress, have subjected many persons to intolerable and unnecessary hardships. He was ably answered, however, by Sir William Scott, who, while he vindicated the general character of the courts, and resisted the expensive and useless proceedings which the house was advised to adopt, yet did not hesitate to concur in reprobating the punishment of excommunication. It was immediately suggested, that this eminent judge should bring in a bill for the purpose of abolishing this punishment; and, on the understanding that this would be done, Lord Folkestone withdrew his motion. Sir William Scott, on moving for leave to bring in his bill, thus explained the objects which he had endeavoured to accomplish. "In the first place, he had provided, that the process of excommunication should be discontinued, and in its place he had substituted the process de contumaci capiendo. He had next abolished excommunication generally, excepting in cases of great enormity. He had not thought fit to destroy it altogether, since, as every other establishment possessed the power of expelling its unworthy members, he did not think that the church of England should be placed in an inferior situation. The next provision was, that the civil consequences attendant upon excommunication should be removed, except in cases of incest and some others. The object he had next contemplated, was the abolition of a number of minor ec

clesiastical courts, on the maxim, that improvement in jurisprudence is promoted by extension of jurisdiction. A number of clauses had been inserted for the purpose of removing the proceedings of the inferior tribunals into the diocesan courts. The qualification of the judges had then occupied his attention, and the remainder of the bill was occupied in making provisions relative to church rates and tithes. He had omitted, in this measure, two matters that some gentlemen might have wished inserted; his bill was silent on the subject of defamation; because, if the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts were taken away in matters of slander on the church, they would not be cognizable in our courts of law. All provisions regarding Ire land were also omitted, Sir William Scott professing himself not sufficiently acquainted with the constitution of the consistorial courts there. Under many circumstances of disadvantage, he had discharged the task imposed upon him by the house, with great diffidence, well aware of the magnitude and importance of the subject. the house should adopt his bill, he should feel much pleasure; but if it disapproved of it, he would take leave of it without regret." It is hardly necessary to add, that the bill prepared and brought in by Sir William Scott received the sanction of the legisla ture. A very considerable improvement was thus effected in an important branch of the jurisprudence of the country.

If

The state of the currency had oc cupied the attention of parliament for some years. The disappearance of gold from the circulation had, in the first instance, induced Mr Pitt, with that daring spirit for which his mea sures were so remarkable, to suspend the cash payments of the Bank of England; and whatever speculative

opinions may be entertained as to the causes of the disappearance of the precious metals, few will now be disposed to doubt, that, in the actual circumstances of the country, this decisive measure had become indispensable. From the moment, however, that it was adopted, the footing on which the currency of the country hitherto stood was entirely changed; and as bank-notes were no longer, as formerly, convertible into gold, their value could not be regulated by the value of the precious metals, nor could the amount of issues issued by the bank be regulated precisely by the wants of the circulation. The immediate convertibility of the notes into gold, was that circumstance by which alone a real equality of value could, with certainty, be maintained, and the power formerly possessed by the holders of notes to demand payment of them in cash, was the only effectual check by which the directors of the Bank of England could be apprised of the over-issue and consequent depreciation of their notes. It was quite possible, therefore, and not by any means improbable, that after the restriction was imposed, an over-issue and consequent depreciation might occur; and when it was proved by a reference to the market price of bullion, and the state of the foreign exchanges, that a note of the Bank of England could no longer purchase the same amount of coin which it nominally represented, the evidence of this deficiency was complete. The evils arising out of this state of things were not less certain than the fact of the entire revolution which had been effected in the system of the currency; but, as often happens in cases of this kind, it was much easier to enlarge upon the grievance than to point out the remedy. A committee of the House of Commons had, in

the year 1811, been appointed to enquire into the proofs of the depreciation, and to report their opinion as to the most suitable means of relief. They accomplished the first object of their labours, but failed entirely in the second and most important. In the state of the world at that eventful period, when all Europe was combined against England-when a war was declared upon her commerce, and the sources of her prosperity were seriously threatened when it was doubtful whether she would, for many years, have that balance of trade in her favour, by which alone the precious metals could be restored, and when it seemed uncertain whether she should be able longer to carry on foreign commerce at all, it would have been no less unjust than absurd, to have compelled the Bank of England to resume its payments in cash. By the policy which government found it necessary to pursue, the bank had, in the first instance, been deprived of the means of paying in cash, and it was both a wise and an equitable measure, in such circumstances, to relieve it for a time of this obligation. A steady perseverance in the same system of policy still deprived the bank of all chance of obtaining the means by which alone cash payments could be resumed; and the legislature, therefore, could not, without the grossest injustice, have acceded to the proposal of the committee of 1811, to take off the restriction. But if it was necessary, in the circumstances in which the country was placed, to protect the bank against demands which it was now no longer in a condition to answer, another duty, not less important, was incumbent on the legislature that of protecting the people against claims for payment in cash, with which the bank could no longer supply the holders of its notes.

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Se

long as bank-notes were to form the only medium of circulation which the people could possess, it became indispensable that they should have the sanction of the legislature for applying these notes to the great use for which money is destined-the satisfaction of the demands made upon them by their creditors. For this purpose, a temporary act had been passed in the course of the last year, for making bank notes in certain cases a legal tender; and it was now proposed by Mr Perceval, that the above act, with certain amendments, should be continued, and that its provisions should be extended to Ireland.

In support of this measure, it was said that the bill offered to parliament was merely an extension of the system which had received the sanction of the legislature last year-that no alteration was intended, except that payments of bank-notes, whether in or out of court, should be declared legal payments, to the effect of staying an arrest; and that the provisions of the statute should be extended to Ireland: That, since the passing of the former act, only three cases had occurred in the courts of justice, in which the legality of the tender was disputed; one of these was the case of Lord King, who had evidently brought the action for the purpose of trying the general question; that as the provisions of the former bill were not such as to have prevented any person disputing the point, if he had not been disposed to acquiesce in the arrangements suggested by the legislature, the circumstance of so slender a resistance on the part of the people, shewed that they were in general disposed to concur in the measures which government had found it necessary to adopt.-That the only reason for not extending the provisions of the former act to Ireland was, that many Irish members were absent

VOL. V. PART I.

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when the measure was brought for. ward; no doubt could have been entertained, however, by the framers of the law, that the circumstances of Ireland, equally with those of the sister kingdom, called for this remedy.That although, in some districts of Ireland, a distinction was made by persons entering into contracts betwixt payments in gold and payments in bank-notes, yet such a practice was not general; but if any reason, such as this, were urged against extending the measure to Ireland, there would be the same ground for objecting to it in the case of England, where it was notorious that guineas were sold for a much larger sum than their nominal value. That even in Ireland, the distinction alluded to had scarcely obtained for the last seven or eight years, except in the case of rents; and, with reference to this particular case, parliament would be called upon, should the act pass, to devise some remedy.That by the measures which had already been sanctioned in parliament, tenants were placed in a very embarrassing situation; for although, by their contracts, they had bound themselves to make their payments in gold, they could never have had it in view that they might be under the necessity of purchasing gold at a premium of 25 per cent, which was its price at this time. That there could be no reasoning from an enlarged experience as to the present money system of England; that no parallel case had ever existed in the history of the world; and so far as a short and limited experience, from the year 1797 downwards, could be the groundwork of any sound argument, an inference was fairly deducible in favour of that system which had been so strongly reprobated by some members of opposition. That there was no reason to fear an inundation of bank-notes, from the imprudence or avarice of the di

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