Mark yonder vase, where flowers dispread, O heart of mine! if, like those flowers, Be every aspirant desire Concentred in one vow- Like to a harp, whose breathing strings, Some chord ecstatic breaks. THE VOICE OF AGE. The hours that fly so fast, A burden or a curse when misemployd, O TIME! best solacer of grief, I but lament thou art so brief Sweet is the wild romance of youth, Those visions only mock'd the sight, Yet deem not, when these are no more, The aspects of a wintry shore Swept by the elements. No; like the mellow light that marks The horizon's western line, When day for other realms embarks, Comes joy in life's decline. ROGERS. Ev'n the loved muse her sway retains And nature, beauteous and sublime! Hath worshipped thee, through endless time The songs of birds, the hues of flowers, Greek sages sought in blooming bowers Their Kalon great to find. Moon hath its roseate beams ;-mid-day THE GUARANTEES OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. BY DR. MICHELSON. PART I. NOBLE and ancient descent, however gratifying to personal vanity, or whatever degree of lustre it may be admitted to confer on individuals, is sometimes superficial, and does not necessarily contribute to the true glory of a nation. The most free are assuredly the most noble people. The yet infant country forming the United States of North America will occupy a far more elevated and enviable position in the pages of history than the immemorial "celestial" empire of China, and perhaps rank equal with the olden ecclesiastical or military states of Europe. Antiquity of creation, in fact, can no more intrinsically ennoble institutions than men. It is of very little import to inquire whether the elder laws and statutes of the English constitution were framed in the thirteenth or seventeenth century. Whether they were formed to meet the casual necessities of various periods, or resulted from the profound speculations of statesmen, are also matters of indifference; provided the complete code is known to contain those guarantees which are essential to the liberty of the subject and the general welfare of the nation. The consolidators of so inestimable a national treasure would have established no less a claim to the admiration and gratitude of posterity, though the constitution had not acquired the original elements of its perfection through their instrumentality, since they were, nevertheless, capable of duly appreciating the merits of their materials, and were guided by a sound judgement in combining those ingredients into a pure and luminous whole, at once the animating and guiding principle of both the governors and the governed of the commonwealth. But as regards England, it is of paramount importance to ascertain whether its constitution may be thus described, whether it is really entitled to the perfect and spotless character generally conceded to it by Europe, and whether the benefits said to be derived by society from its establishment actually flow from its constituent parts and internal integrity, or originate in circumstances and causes independent of, or deviating from the genuine intents and purposes of its formation. The most illustrious statesmen to whom England has given birth have not been so blinded by national prejudices as to regard the entire structure of our constitution as a model of perfection, but, on the contrary, have admitted the existence of its numerous defects, as opposed to the spirit of the age and the advancement of civilization. Above two hundred years past, Lord Bacon, in the preface to his Digest observed that "our laws are as of mixed a nature as our language ;" and we may now add that those laws have never yet attained that clearness and perspicuity which the language, with all its minglings, has acquired. Uniformity of origin, though undoubtedly of some, is not of vital consequence as connected with the law, where its absence is far less injurious than the presence of ambiguity in expression. Only from a clearly defined and obvious application of the law can the subject and his property derive that certain freedom and protection which the law professes to provide, and should in all cases afford. Unhappily however, our old English civil laws are of such an inflexible, and as it were mummy-like character, that in applying their provisions to modern times, mis-interpretations are sometimes unavoidable, in a state of society where civilisation has made rapid strides and vast changes have taken place in the numerous branches of practical life. Thus by the obscurities and uncertain significations of superannuated laws, the manifold benefits which ought to flow from our system of jurisprudence are but too often converted into harms, and what were intended to be blessings become curses. Additions, too, are in many instances piled upon additions, till the very superabundance of the statutes tends to defeat the laudable objects originally contemplated; serving rather to assist the evil-disposed than to support the worthy and protect the weak. Every judgement pronounced in a court of justice is dignified with the appellation of law; and thenceforth may be quoted as a precedent by succeeding judges, each of whom, on any future occasion, delivers his own version according to the view he takes of the analogy subsisting between the present and some past case. Thus are created a host of new and varying opinions, each having the force of law; and all, in turn, again serving as stepping-stones to others, ad infinitem, till they constitute a stupendous mass of complicated yet inconsistent verbiage. The sentence which is declared to be law to-day is, with equal facility, discarded as erroneous to-morrow. Hence the so-termed "glorious uncertainty of the law," and the dangerous abyss into which litigants of the present period are, too often, disastrously plunged. The judgments of every court, then, being regarded as actual and positive law, can it be matter of surprise that in endeavouring to reconcile and unite the diversities, the statutes appertaining to five centuries have swollen to such an enormous bulk, or that the fabric itself, composed as it is, of an infinite number of loosely constructed or ill-assorted parts, should present to the unfortunate seeker after justice, all the intricacies of an almost interminable labyrinth, where every fresh step inevitably incurs a fearful increase of expenditure. More than one hundred and fifty years have elapsed since Lord Chief Justice Hale expressed his opinion that the English laws had so accumulated as to be co-equal in point of number with those of the whole Roman empire, which filled 2000 volumes. The glorious uncertainties of the law naturally produced that glorious state of profitable dubiety, attained by its practitioners, and followed by the long train of ills that their clients too often find themselves heirs to. Towards the close of the last century, London alone contained above 7040 lawyers; all more or less, then as now, threading the mazes of mystified disquisition, and each supporting his own case by citing authorities opposed to the decisions referred to by his antagonizing "learned brother;" the judgements insisted on by either party, admitting arguments as vague as the opinions are various. These common openings for legal sophistry are widened by the practice of a phraseology replete with technicalities only to be understood within the sphere of their usage, which manifestly permits truth to be involved in such intricate folds, as to render the aid of a professional man indispensable to her developement and the consequent attainment of that justice, which the claimant, unless he possesses adequate wealth, is therefore frequently deterred from seeking; aware of the enormous expense attending law suits, even of a trifling nature. Thus law, which doubtless was intended to be made, and is still idly boasted by us, as available to the peasant as the prince, is in truth, become a species of luxury in which scarcely any but the rich can venture to indulge. Not the least remarkable proofs of this occur in the difficulties experienced either in establishing or disproving any pecuniary claim, "by due course of law." Any affirmed debt exceeding 21. in amount, may be sued for in the higher courts of judicature, and if contested, the charges attendant on the result of the action would reach at least 501. Consequently, prudent men often put up with the minor rather than hazard a visitation of the exorbitant evils: they either forego the recovery of inconsiderable sums though justly due to them; or, on the other hand, pay a demand though wrongfully claimed, sooner than appeal to a court of law and incur the possibility of an expense, perhaps, ruinous to a man struggling to turn the tide of fortune. Hence too, the advantages taken by unprincipled men to release themselves from their pecuniary obligations, hoping that their creditors will rather surrender their claims than involve themselves in a law-suit, that might be prolonged by evasive chicanery for years of bootless litigation, and at last end in the debtor's emigration, insolvency, or death. In the county of Middlesex only, the number of small debts averaging from ten to twenty pounds sterling, and which were respectively sought to be recovered in the several courts of law, during a single year amounted in the aggregate to 81,7137.; and gave rise to 5719 separate legal proceedings. The costs incurred in carrying on these suits through the same period, amounted to 68,7281., and of course increased in proportion to the advancement made in each case; so that the actual expenses alone may be computed at upwards of 285,950., or many thousands more than treble the sum first stated! The field guarded from encroachments by well-grown fences ceases to be of any value when those fences overspread the surface which they were originally intended to protect. But with respect to the blemishes of the law, whilst the subtleties and impurities which notoriously deform its superficies are allowed to exist, not only are its ostensible advantages rendered nugatory, but they are transformed into active instruments of mischief, baneful to those they were formed to defend. The proceedings of the ancient Germanic law courts are brought into full practice in the English court of chancery with multiplied additions, and all pursued with a blind, perverse, and snperstitious adherence to customs which prevailed in the darker ages; though obviously violating every sound and equitable principle. A chancery suit is contemplated with direful apprehensions by every one exposed to its approach, as pregnant with evils of the most hideous and unmitigable description. It may be termed a legal locust, preying on the mind and exhausting the pecuniary resources of a suitor to an extent incalculable. Who will deny that an application to the highest court of the realm-the assigned residence of justice in her most benificent shape; whose open halls were designed to shelter the widow and orphan from oppression, and whose decrees should righteously arbitrate for all, on facts, regardless of formalities-may lingeringly lead the baffled, worn-out suppliant to pauperism, lunacy, or the grave! In chancery causes the official documents are commonly voluminous almost beyond credibility, and the uncouth language employed in their composition being framed in accordance to forms derived from the old Norman courts, is utterly unintelligible to the poorer class of litigants; yet, any non-observance of antiquated etiquette subjects a petitioner to imprisonment for lèse-majesté and contempt of court, though the alleged disrespect should be solely and manifestly attributable to helpless ignorance;-helpless from inability to purchase professional assistance. Palpable as are the defects of the present system, there is, notwithstanding, room to doubt whether even the English people are yet sufficiently advanced in intellectual freedom, however highly they may prize their rights and liberties, to cherish from conviction, and, in reality, prefer the primitive and natural principles on which suits might be decided, without the observance of those superfluous forms and empty ceremonies, which evidently obstruct, rather than promote, the ends of justice; and it may with equal probability be questioned whether the introduction of a new code of laws, as proposed by Bacon, yet ridiculed by Bentham, could entirely remove or materially remedy, such long existing and deep-rooted evils. Still, any regeneration, however limited, would. in some degree, ameliorate the condition of those unfortunates who are compelled by fate to present their oblations in the desecrated temple of equity; and we may instance the few reforms effected during the Chancellorship of Lord Brougham, as corroborating this assumption. The cause of the comparative freedom from glaring faults found in the practice of the common law, subject, as it is, to the views of the jury, is certainly not to be sought in the nature and spirit of that institution itself, since the jurymen, whose responsibility it is very difficult to define, are more liable than the Judges to be biased by personal prejudice, private motives, or popular opinion, to the detriment of impartial justice. What reader of our national records |