being first read, and the oaths of alle- | the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, giance and supremacy with two other by exchanging skins for manufactured oaths being taken. This admission in articles. The Indians meet the traders; the Arches Court qualifies the person for each man divides his skins into lots, practising in any of the other ecclesiasti- which have a relative value to each cal courts of Doctors' Commons. The other, as that two otter skins are equal to present number of advocates is 24. one beaver. For one lot he wants a gun, or a looking-glass, or a blanket, or an axe. The trader has the articles to give the Indian in exchange. Twenty beaverskins are given for a gun; the gun costs a pound in Birmingham; the beaverskins are worth more than twenty times the amount in London. If the Indians were brought into more general contact with the exchangers of civilised life, they would regulate their exchanges by a money-standard, and would obtain a fairer value for their skins.

Advocates admitted in the Arches Court of Canterbury are admitted to be advocates of the High Court of Admiralty of England upon their alleging such their admission in the Arches Court. The present number of advocates is 24.

The advocates of the provincial courts at York must be barristers-at-law; and they are admitted as advocates of the Consistory Court there, with power to practise in all other the archbishop of York's courts, by virtue of his grace's fiat directed to his chancellor: the stamp-duty on their admission is 50l. But it is not required that they should be doctors of civil law, nor does the constitution of Archbishop Pickham, 9 Edw. I., 1221, apply to them. The number of advocates, as far back as any record shows, has been limited to four; but the present number is only two. The admitted advocates of the courts have exclusive right to practise therein, though in cases of weight and difficulty, counsel on the northern circuit are occasionally taken in to their assistance.

BARRISTER, in Scotland. CATES, FACULTY OF.]

[ADVO

The term barter seems to have been derived from the languages of southern Europe: baratar, Spanish; barattare, Italian,-which signify to cheat as well as to barter: hence, also, our word Barratry. The want of a standard of value in all transactions of barter, gives oceasion to that species of overreaching which prevails from an ignorance of the real principles of trade, by which all exchangers are benefited through an exchange. The examples of barter, however, without any reference to some standard of value, become more and more uncommon as the commercial intercourse of mankind advances. A skin of corn, or a stone vessel of corn, among some of the Indian tribes, is established as a standard of value; councils are held to determine the rate of exchange; and a beaver-skin is thus held to be worth so many more skins of corn than a blanket. This is an approach to a standard of value, which almost takes the transaction out of the condition of being a barter. In the trade carried on between Russia and China, the exchanges of merchandise are directly effected, but the comparative

BARTER. When one commodity is exchanged directly for another, without the employment of any instrument of exchange which shall determine the value of the merchandise, the transaction is called Barter. All trade resolves itself into an exchange of commodities; but the commercial exchangers of one commodity for another effect their exchanges by a money-payment, determined by a market-value. This is a sale. Swift, in his attack upon Wood's halfpence, which he considered as destructive of the money-value of the merchandise is determined standard of value, says, "I see nothing left us but to barter our goods, like the wild Indians, with each other." The general evils of such a state are obvious; and they create dishonest attempts in one exchanger to cheat the other. The North American Indians obtain a few of

by a money-standard. This is clearly not barter. The Indian corn-measure of value is something like the animal measure which formerly existed in this country, when certain values being affixed to cattle and slaves, they became an instrument of exchange, under the

Hence it was long a maxim that nothing ↑ fore heir-at-law to none of his reputed but physical or natural impossibility, such ancestors. He is entitled to no distribuas the continued absence of the husband tive share of the personal property of his beyond seas, &c., could prevent the child parents, if they die intestate; and even so born from being held legitimate, or under a will he can only take where he justify an inquiry into the real paternity. is distinctly pointed out in it as an object Their liberality in the case of posthu- of the testator's bounty, and not under the mous children was also remarkable: for general description of son,'' daughter,' in the case of the Countess of Gloucester, or child,' by which legitimate children in the reign of Edward II., a child born alone are presumed to be designated. one year and seven months after the He can also take under a will before his death of the father, was pronounced legi- birth, if he is particularly described. timate; a degree of indulgence only ex- He may, however, acquire property himceeded by the complaisance of Mr. Ser- self, and thus become the founder of a jeant Rolfe, in the reign of Henry VI., fresh inheritance, though none of his who was of opinion that a widow might lineal descendants can claim through him give birth to a child at the distance of the property of his reputed relations. If seven years after her husband's decease, he dies without wife, issue, or will, his without wrong to her reputation. (Coke lands and goods escheat to the crown, or upon Littleton, 123 b. note by Mr. Har- lord of the fee. In the former event it is grave; Rolle's Abridgment, "Bastard;" usual for the crown to resign its claim to and Le Marchant's Preface to the case of the greater part of the property on the the Banbury Peerage.) petition of some of his nearest quasi kindred. There is a clause (§ 11) in the new Savings Banks Act (7 & 8 Vict. c. 83) which allows the sum invested by a depositor, being illegitimate and dying intestate, to be paid to such person or persons as would be entitled to the same provided the depositor had been legitimate.

The law now stands on a more reasonable footing, and the fact of birth during marriage, or within a competent time after the husband's death, is now held to be only a strong presumption of legitimacy, capable of being repelled by satisfactory evidence to the contrary.

Another curious position of doubtful authority is also found in our old text writers; namely, that where a widow marries again so soon after her husband's decease that a child born afterwards may reasonably be supposed to be the child of either husband, then the child, upon attaining to years of discretion, shall be at liberty to choose which of the two shall be accounted his father. When a man dies, and his wife alleges that she is with child, those who may be entitled to the property in case there is no child born, or in case the child who is born is illegitimate, that is, not the child of the husband, may have a writ De Ventre Inspiciendo, the object of which is to ascertain if the woman is pregnant. [VENTRE INSPICIENDO, DE; WRIT.]

The legal incapacities under which an illegitimate child labours by the law of England are few, and are chiefly confined to the cases of inheritance and succession. He is regarded for most purposes as the son of nobody, and is there

Strictly speaking, a bastard has no surname until he has acquired one by reputation, and in the meantime he is properly called by that of his mother. The mother of an illegitimate child is entitled to its custody, although if such child, within the age of nurture, be fraudulently taken from the mother by the putative father, the order of the justices to restore it to its mother is not sufficient. The remedy is by habeas corpus in the Court of King's Bench. Lord Stowell was of opinion that the father of an illegitimate child "had very little (if any) parental authority." (Phillimore's Burns, i. pp. 130-1.) Before the passing of 18 Eliz. c. 3, it is considered that the custody of an illegitimate child was in the hands of the parish, and after this enactment it was a question whether the father could take the child out of the possession of the parish.

The first English statute which provides for the maintenance of illegitimate

a weekly payment, or was bound to indemnify the parish against the future expenses of maintenance. "In form the proceeding was against the putative father for the indemnification of the parish; but in substance it was a pro

children, is the 18th of Elizabeth, cap. 3, which conferred on justices of the peace the power of requiring from one or both of the parents a weekly or other payment for their support, and in default thereof, of committing them to jail until they found surety to make such payment, or else to ap-ceeding of the mother against the putapear at the next quarter-sessions to abide the order of the justices. The 7th James I. c. 4, punished a woman having a bastard chargeable to the parish, with one year's imprisonment and labour in the house of correction; and for a second offence she was to be committed to the house of correction until she could find sureties for her good behaviour. The 30th of Geo. III. c. 51, repealed this power, and enabled the justices to sentence the woman to imprisonment for any period not less than six weeks nor more than a year. As bastards were frequently left to the charge of the parish by the parents running away, an act was passed (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 11) which enabled the overseers to indemnify themselves at the cost of the putative father. By 6th Geo. II. c. 31, and 49th Geo. III. C. 68 (which repealed the former act and then re-enacted it with some variations), on a single woman declaring herself to be pregnant, and charging any person with being the father, a justice's warrant could be obtained for his apprehension, on the application of the overseer or any substantial householder, and such person might be committed to jail, unless he agreed to indemnify the parish. The justice had no power to examine into the merits of the case, but was compelled to act upon the woman's oath, and to commit the putative father if the necessary surety was not provided. The man had the option of marrying the woman, contributing to the maintenance of the child, or of going to jail. Under the act of Elizabeth and later acts of parliament, down to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834, the usual practice was for the mother to apply for relief to the parish officers, by whom she was carried before the magistrates to be interrogated respecting the paternity of the child. An order of filiation was then made, and the reputed father was ordered to contribute

tive father, the benefit of which accrued to her, and to which the parish was little more than a nominal party, except when it made good the father's default. It was in truth an action of the mother against the putative father, for a contribution towards the expenses of their common child, in which, by a fiction of law, the parish was plaintiff." (On the law concerning the maintenance of bastards, by the Poor Law Commissioners, Parl. paper, No. 31, Session 1844.) In this state of things, the Commissioners of Poor Law Inquiry (1834) recommended that the mother of a bastard should be rendered liable for its maintenance, but that she should be exempted from punishment under 30th Geo. III. c. 51, and that all enactments charging the putative father should be repealed. The Bill for amend. ing the Poor Law, brought in in 1834, contained clauses for giving effect to this recommendation; but a clause was introduced into the Bill in the Commons. authorising the making of orders of affiliation in petty sessions. In the House of Lords the Bill was amended in the form in which it ultimately passed (4th & 5th William IV. c. 76, §§ 72-76). The law now was, that the parish might still apply for an order upon the putative father, but this was to be done at the quarter-sessions, instead of the petty sessions; and corroborative evidence was required; and other difficulties and onerous conditions were thrown in the way, which increased the trouble and expense of all parties, and showed that “the object of the Legislature was to impede rather than encourage the applications to quarter-sessions, and by so doing to conform partially to the recommendation of the Commissioners of Inquiry, that the remedy against the supposed father should be abolished altogether." (Report of Poor Law Commissioners to Secretary of State, May, 1835.) The number of bastards affiliated in England and

Y

Wales, in the years ending respectively | the custody of the child, and not to the 25th of March, 1835 and 1836, was parish officers; and such person is to re12,381 and 9,686. The practice of ceive the child on the condition that it is affiliation was therefore rapidly diminish- not to be chargeable. Parish officers are ing under the Poor Law Amendment guilty of misdemeanour for endeavouring Act, but the obstacles which it threw in to promote the marriage of the mother the way occasioned great complaints. It of a bastard by threats or promises rewas alleged that the putative father was specting any application to be made for not punished, while the consequences fell maintenance. The mother of a bastard solely upon the woman. In 1839, there- may summon the putative father before fore, an act was passed (2 & 3 Vict. c. 85) the petty sessions within twelve months which transferred the power of making after the birth of the child, or at any orders in bastardy from the quarter ses- time on proof of money having been sions to any two justices in petty sessions, paid to her in respect of such child. and facilitated instead of discouraged | The justices may then make an order on affiliations. The controlling power of the putative father for maintenance of the Poor Law Commissioners was here the child and other costs, and enforce the of use in preventing evils which might same by distress and commitment; but otherwise have attended a change from not more than thirteen weeks' arrears one principle to another of an opposite can be claimed. The sum paid for mainkind. Payments by putative fathers tenance is to be paid to the mother, and under orders in bastardy have, under 2 if she neglect or desert her offspring she & 3 Vict., "been limited to the cost of may be punished under the Vagrant Act the relief actually given; they have been (5 Geo. ÎV. c. 83). The liability of the made bouâ fide to the parish, and there- mother, while unmarried or a widow, fore the parish has not been a purely continues until the child is sixteen. Any formal party to the proceeding, and a person having the care of a bastard child mere skreen to the woman." (Report of under an order of maintenance, who malPoor Law Commissioners, Jan. 31st, treats it, or misapplies moneys paid by 1844.) The law respecting bastardy has the putative father for its support, is liable been still more recently the subject of to a penalty of 10l. on conviction before legislation, and by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, two justices. The putative father may the principle of charging the putative appeal to the quarter-sessions, as under father is totally different from that of any the old law. All orders for the mainprevious law on the subject. "Formerly tenance of a bastard cease after it has the remedy was intended exclusively for attained the age of thirteen, or on the the parish: now the mother alone can marriage of the mother. Existing orders obtain it... . Formerly the chargeability are to continue, but those made before of the child, either in fact or in prospect, August 14, 1834, are to cease on the 1st was the ground of the remedy: now the of January, 1849. actual or probable chargeability of the child is made wholly immaterial." (Official Circular, No. 39, Oct. 1, 1844.) The officers of all parishes and unions are deprived of the power of applying for orders of affiliation with regard to illegitimate children born before or after the passing of the act, and the mother alone is entitled to apply for such order; but in case of the death or incapacity of the mother, the guardians (or if there are no guardians, the overseers) may enforce an order, although they cannot apply for one, and payments are to be made to some person appointed by the justices to have

According to the census of 1831 the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births was, in the year 1830, as 1 to 20 in England, and the proportion in Wales was as 1 to 13. But the more accurate returns obtained under 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 86, for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, show the proportion of illegitimate births to be greater than one in twenty. Out of 248,554 registered births in England, 15,839 were illegitimate, or one in sixteen. (Fifth Report of Registrar-General, p. 10.) We may probably assume that the illegitimate births in England and Wales are somewhat higher