417 NOTICES. ART. XIII. Criminal Trials in England: their Defects and Remedies. Dedicated with permission to the Right Hon. the Lord Chancellor. By G. W. COOKE, B. A. London: Ridgway. 1834. character to be allowed togo on, so what was to be done? Why to torture the jurors into unanimity. Fleta and Sir Matthew Hale lay it down as law that a jury ought to be locked up without meat or drink, fire or candle, until they agreed, and then, if they failed to do so, they were to be dragged in a cart around the circuit with the judge. In France, there is no such custom, because a majority of the jurors determines the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. The next abuse arises from the habitual employment of inadequate persons as jurymen. But another and more important failure of the present system of our criminal laws is, that many innocent persons are condemned who are too poor to provide the means of their defence, and when injustice is done to a party accused, there is no means of redressing the injury. A reform of these abuses Mr. Cooke shows to be essentially necessary to the good of the State. were re THE object of this pamphlet is to point out the defects of the present system of criminal proceedings, both as respects the statutes which relate to crime, and also to the details of the prosecutions. The first of the imperfections, or rather abuses, is constituted by the practice of requiring unanimity in the verdict of a jury. He contends that at the very commencement of the practical operations of this strange regulation, our ancestors found the greatest possible inconvenience arising from it. We find that in Henry the Third's reign, the judges used sometimes to add after the trial, other jurors who would make up the regular complement, and that the ininority of the jury who tried the case moved and actually fined, as having committed a transgression. Various cases have occurred where only one juror has dissented from the rest, and where the judges actually took the verdict of the eleven and fined the single dissentient. But these liberties taken by the judges were too gross in their He further suggests the propriety of furnishing to the prisoners in all cases copies of the indictment, depositions, and names of witnesses, as in cases of high treason; he thinks that some of the rules of evidence on criminal trials might also undergo reformation. As an example he mentions, that if a witness for the prosecution of a prisoner is asked if he has not been guilty of a felony or of some infamous crime, he may deny that he has, and the party putting the question may be able to prove it nevertheless, But then no proof can be received at the time, and the prisoner finds himself convicted on evidence which, if he were allowed to do so, he could show was not to be relied on. We are unable to follow Mr. Cooke through the whole of his able pamphlet, but the notice which we have been able to give to it will be quite enough to exhibit the interesting nature of its con ART. XV.-The American Mines: showing their Importance, in a National point of View: with the Progress and Present Position of the Real Del Monte Company; and Cursory Remarks on other similar Undertakings in South America. By G. H. London: Wilson. 1834. THE author is of opinion that sufficient interval has now elapsed since 1825, the year of the great epidemic, the mining insanity, to enable the country to look at the subject of mines with judgment and coolness. He then proceeds to give an account of the produce of the various sources of mineral treasures in South America. shows that the whole of the mines, including Mexico, Peru, Chili, Buenos Ayres, New Grenada, and Brazil, have produced, up to the year 1810, about fiftyfour millions and a half of dol lars. The produce of these mines since 1810 form the next He subject of the author's inquiry. The number of authentic facts which he has been able to collect on this branch of the history is exceedingly small, yet brief as they are, they still afford certain grounds for hope. It appears from documents which have been sent by British Consuls in Mexico, that that government has exported between the years 1810 and 1829 no less than one hundred and sixty-three millions of dollars, in gold and silver, being at the rate of more than eight millions of dollars each year. The annual average of dollars exported from the other mining countries in the same period is stated as follows: From Chili 578,000Buenos Ayres 1,710,000-Peru and New Grenada 4,000,000being a total export of Gold and silver from South America of nearly fourteen millions of dollars every year. The author having established the importance of South America as a mining country, he next proceeds to show that the actual condition of some of those mines is such, that they afford no just grounds for any thing like despondency, and that so far from the mineral riches of that country being exhausted, there is every reason to believe that their future produce will greatly exceed the whole of the past. It is proved that the Real Del Monte Company have lately renewed their operations with great profit, and those and other proceedings in South America are now only beginning to realize the suggestions of Humboldt-that the treasures to be found in the subterranean soils of that country are utterly unknown at present. ART. XVI.-Report of the Committee of the Doncaster Agricultural Association, on the advantages of Bones as Manure. London: Ridgway. 1834. In this small pamphlet we have the results of a series of inquiries instituted by the Doncaster Agricultural Association, as to the results which have been experienced in various parts of the country from the use of bones as manure. It is impossible for us to through the whole of the details, but the general principles established may be shortly stated. : It appears that bone dust forms a highly valuable manure for dry lands, limestone, chalk, light loams, and peat in particular that it is not so good, but is still useful on grass and arable lands, particularly on fallows for turnips. The method of using the bones when broad cast, is to mix them up with earth, dung, or other manures, and let them lie to ferment; when used alone they may be either drilled with the seed or broad cast. The bones after fermentation are better than those without it: the quantity per acre is about 25 bushels of dust, or forty of large bones. Bones will not answer at all on clays and heavy loams. It appears that the use of bones as manure is of very recent origin, and the first time of their employment is traced to the year 1775, when Colonel St. Leger introduced them on his farm at Warmsworth. ART. XVII.-A Dessertation on the advantages that may be derived from a more Systematic Attention to the Construction of Fire-places, in Warming and Ventilating Apartments for Domestic Purposes. By THOMAS J. HADFIELD, Architect. London: Ridgway. 1834. THIS is a very useful work, as containing suggestions of much importance on a subject of universal interest. The author gives a description of the common annoyances which proceed from badly planned and badly constructed chimneys; he says that in most cases the air of a room in which a fire is kept, is too much deprived of its oxygen or its preserving power, and that consequently the room becomes unhealthy. Another effect of the absence of oxygen is that the air which is to supply the fire will not effect the object properly, since the due quantity of oxygen is wanting. He traces to this wrong coustruction what is well known as the smoky chimney. The author then enters into a full description of the best methods of constructing flues and chimneys, with the view of rendering the heated apartment wholesome, making the chimney permanently capable of passing off the smoke, and what is more saving, a considerable amount of money in the diminution of the quantity of necessary fuel. ART. XVIII.-Lord Brougham's Law Reforms, and Courts of Local Jurisdiction, with Practical Reflections on the Justice and Necessity of establishing New Local Courts ; and a General Vindication of the Lord Chancellor. By Wм. GLOVER, Esq. M.A. Barrister-at-Law. London: Ridgway, 1834. THE author of this pamphlet takes a very extensive view of the whole subject of Law Reform, carrying his inquiries retrospectively, for the sake of founding comparisons between the results of experience and the course which should be pursued in modern times. After some pages devoted, we think quite superfluously, to the defence of Lord Brougham, the author proceeds to show the salutary influence which the Local Courts Bill is likely to effect: he then adverts to the report of the Common Law Commissioners, and continues his remarks on the whole of the reforms which have been effected, or which have been proposed, unsuccessfully for the present; and lastly, those which have not been as yet proposed, but are seriously contemplated. The learned author concludes the pamphlet by a high eulogium on the Lord Chancellor, whom he describes as the philanthropic legislator, who unites in his person the merits displayed by Lycurgus in Sparta, by Solon in Athens, by Timoleon in Syracuse, and lastly those of Bacon, of Clarendon, and Lord Somers, adding that his transcendent talents have illumined our hemisphere, and that not only has he attained the highest rank in the legal profession, but that he is also enumerated among the greatest men that the world has ever seen, whether for thought or action! ART. XIX.-Great Britain, for the last Forty Years: being an Historical and Analytical Account of its Finances, Economy, and General Condition during that Period. By THOMAS HOPKINS. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1834. ཝཱ THE plan of this work is ingeniously conceived, and is carried into execution with accuracy and care. The object of the compilation is to specify the principal causes which, either directly or remotely, have acted on the social condition of the people; to exhibit the details of that condition; to contemplate them as they were created or modified by the measures of government. The process of illustration is carried on by reference to statistical facts, these being traced in their diversified state, so as to present the results upon them of the policy which the government has pursued. The first chapter enters into an inquiry as to what are the true principles which should regulate the amount of rent, of tithe, of wages, and of the profits of the owner. He then proceeds to describe the general state of the country from 1793 to 1802, comthe years paring the productive power of the people with the amount of their burdens. The author then devotes a chapter to each period of six years up to 1834, enumerating the various measures of government, the varieties of events which influenced our social and political state, the variations in the amount of the exports and imports, the state of the currency, the effect immediately of the imposition of fresh taxes, as also of the repeal of old ones, the price of food, &c. The author in the course of this work, takes freqaent occasion to dispute the principles of Malthus, showing, by striking illustrations, that those principles are not only erroneous, but that if taken for granted and acted on by the legislature, will prove extensively mischievous. It appears to be the opinion of this author, that the principal source of the weakness which is certainly now the character of this country as a moral nation, springs altogether from the millions which, in the shape of taxes of one sort or another, are abstracted from the earnings of labour. To this, as to a curse, are flourishing countries indebted for their degeneracy and final destruction: such was the origin of the downfal of the Eastern monarchies, of the Roman empire, of Italy and of Turkey. The decay of empires, the falling to pieces of cities, and the wasting of the most glorious monuments of architectural perfection,-all are the result of that great moral, social, and political scourge, excessive exaction. |