7

on things, men, principles, systems; the heart is cold, blasé ; those feelings are exhibited to all, but especially to their father, whom they consider old. Behold the consequences of this new order of things; sound principles, just and binvariable, from which they never swerve; here they are as adopted: "Experience is a useless thing. .82ordeon Intercourse with men and observation teach nothing. In this age of enlightenment youth alone possesses ability. The age in which the passions are in all their effervescence, is naturally that in which reason predominates.Jews

The culminating point of judgment is necessarily to be met with between twenty and twenty-five, and rarely beyond that. After this age, society is no longer composed of usefuls men; this fact is fully proved by the following category at twenty he becomes a man; at five-and-twenty his maturity of judg 'ment is complete; at thirty, false hair;sato forty, a wig at fifty, stupid; at sixty, a mummy; at seventy, a fossil, childish, extinct.vete pre taxesque undeter escudod

In 1835, a poet expressed' the same ideas, and gave them under the same denomination in a piece of poetry entitled LE SEPTUAGENAIRE, ou le chant du say where the tirade or these designations are to be found.

Cuane! We will not

D'après nos grands faiseurs, on est homme à quinze ans ;
A vingt, par son mérite et son expérience, ¡
On appartient à cette jeune France
Que seule fait autorité:

de morge if
A vingt-sinq ans on est dans sa maturité,
A trente, faux-toupet; à quarante, perruque,
Et relégué dans la classe caduque';'

A cinquante, momie, ou fossile, ou néantolia

When the Orestes of Voltaire appeared for the first time, February, 12th, 1750, the concourse was great at the representation, and they placed as a check or countermark on the pit tickets the following letters:

457. O. T. P.

M. U. D.

which signifies this line of Horace

Omne Tulit Punctum Qui Miscuit Utile Dulce.

A sorry jester interpreted these sigles in the following manner :

Oreste,Tragédie Pitoyable Que Monsieur Voltaire Donne.

Whilst discussing the subject of Voltaire's tragedies, we must not omit the mention of another by the same author; Zaire, of which four lines were struck out, and which have been discovered in a manuscript deposited in the bureaux of the police at Paris. These four lines form part of the third scene of the second act, towards the middle, the part where old Lusignan calls on God, after having recognized his daughter :

Ne m'abandonnez pas, Dieu qui voyez mes larmes !
"Et toi, cher instrument du salut des mortels,

Gage auguste du Dieu vivant sur nos autels,
"Bois rougi de son sang, relique incorruptible,
"Croix sur qui s'accomplit ce mystère terrible,
Dieu mort sur cette croix et qui revis pour nous,
Parle, achève, ô mon Dieu, ce sont là de tes coups.

The four lines prec eded by inverted commas, are those to which
we refer.

THE FIVE LATIN WORDS OF LOUIS XI.

It is said that this prince, so amiable, so frank, so humane. gloried in his own ignorance; and it was for this reason that he wished to banish from his court, and from the education of his son (Charles VIII.) the Latin language, preserving, however, five words that he reserved as a special favor, having found them so useful that he made them through life his rule of conduct. "Not," said he, " that Latin is useless to a king, or at least a little of it; it will suffice, however, for my son to know the five following words: QUI NESCIT DISSIMULARE, NESCIT REGNARE; here lies the entire art of governing." Thus, he laid down, as a principle in his Rosiere des guerres, this maxin" Nothing is better than that your adversary should be ignorant of your intentions." That is to say-dissimulate all your resolves, in order that your adversaries may not be aware of them until after their execution.

Another maxim taken from the same work :

"De tant que fust vault mieulx que escorce, autant vault mieux soustilleté que force,"

which signifies

Know, that as far as the wood excels the bark, so does subtlety exceed strength.

ART. II.-MODERN LAW REFORMS. The Common Law Procedure Amendment Act, (Ireland), 1856-19th and 20th Victoria, Cap. 102.1

The Act before us, together with the English "Common Law Procedure Act, 1854," of which it is little more than a transcript, accommodated to the peculiarities of Irish practice, are both-notwithstanding that they contain the germs of some improvement in our legal system-specimens of that headlong and giddy legislation, which, under the name of "Law Reform," has, of late years, succeeded the more matured and wise improvements of the Benthamite School, effected during the last, and in the commencement of the present, reign. With the general nature of those improvements, most of our readers must be familiar. They consist, principally, of an almost total abolition of real and mixed actions,* and of the adoption of a new limitation of actions and suits relating to real property, appropriate to the subsisting remedies-of the abolition, likewise, of the cumbrous machinery of fines and recoveries,† and the substitution, in their stead, of forms less expensive, but more simple and rational, as well as more effective of a modification of the law of Dower, which, without prejudicing the just rights of any person, removed an obstinate impediment to the free transfer of land-of an amendment of the law of inheritance, by which parents and relatives of the half-blood, were relieved from the unjust severity of feudal rules, the causes of which had long ceased to operate-of an amendment also of the law of wills, by which an uniform system of canons was established, for the formation and construction of testamentary documents to which other measures, both in the criminal and civil departmentsof the law, might be added; all fraught with benefit to the community in general; and although some of them surpass others, in the scientific symmetry of their structure (as do, in particular, the second and the last we have mentioned), yet all are characterised by vast intellect and erudition, and bear upon them the impress of that sagacious forecast, which could scarce fail to guide the labours of those

* 3 and 4 Wm. IV., C. 27.

† 3 and 4 Wm. IV., C. 74. Eng. 4 and 5 Wm. IV. C. 92. Ir. 3 and 4 Wm. IV., C. 105..

3 and 4 Wm. IV., C. 106.

7, Wm. IV., and I Vic., C. 26.

Oue

great minds, to whom their authorship is attributed.
most practical proof of their excellence is this, that, in this age
of change, they have already lived nearly quarter of a century,
without any of them undergoing any serious alteration—a cir-
cumstance, which, when we contrast with the patching, piece-
ing, splicing, mending, repealing, and re-enacting again, by
which the "Law Reforms" of later years are, but too frequently
distinguished,† makes us naturally enquire, how it happens,
that, while the one class of reforms showed such maturity at
their birth, and issued forth in full panoply, like Minerva from
the head of Jove, the others are produced with a hideous re-
semblance to Kiug Richard, in the play

“Deformed, unfinished, sent before his time,

Into this breathing world, scarce half-made up."

The reasons seem to be, that the one class were instituted, principally for the sake of reform, and by men, not only qualified for the undertaking by intellects of enormous power, and an abstruse knowledge of the subject matter, on which they undertook to operate, but who also brought to bear upon it such an amount of diligence and care, as opened to their view (so far almost as it was possible for human foresight to discern them,) the various interests obnoxious to each intended change, and the results likely to follow from it in after time.

For nearly all the legal reforms which took place during the period to which we refer, the public are indebted to the labours of three great commissions of that day, viz. those issued for enquiry into the state of the Common Law, the Law of Real Property, and the Criminal Law, of which the two first, caused by Mr. Brougham's famous motion in the House of Commons, of Feb. 7th, 1829, preceded the third by some years, and on which sat the following distinguished individuals.

Common Law.-Messrs. Bosanquet, Parke, Alderson, and Sergeant Stephens, until the three first were elevated to the bench, when Messrs. Pollock, Starkie, Evans, and Wightman, were substituted.

Real Property Law.-Sir J. Campbell, Messrs. Tierney, Sanders, Duval, Hodgson, Duckworth, Brodie, and Tyrrell.

Criminal Law.-Messrs. Starkie, Austin, Kerr, Amos, Jardine, and Wightman.

Amongst whom are to be found the names of the framers of the principal acts referred to, and professional opinion assigns all of them to the ablest hands.

† Amongst the late measures, in this department, which are not open to the above observation, but are happily assimilated to the earlier class of reforms, we must prominently mention Lord Campbell's Act of the 14 and 15 Vic. C. 100, "For Further Improving the Administration of Criminal Justice."

Most of the more modern reforms, on the contrary, are mere experiments, the offspring of speculation, precipitancy and doubt; introduced, as it would appear, not so much for the purpose of effecting any salutary improvement in the law, ast of elevating their authors into the rank of "Law Reformers" and enabling them to write their names on the same page with those of Brougham, Campbell, Duval, Sanders, and Brodie. Not that we mean to classify the authors of those reforms with the incompetent or worthless. Quite the reverse. Most of them are men, of whose abilities we entertain a high opinion, and who, we doubt not, would, with the aid of some industry and patience, become excellent Law Reformers, in the fullness of time. But, we say, that without industry and patience, no man can become such, and that industry and patience are just the qualities, which they, as legislators, at least, do not exhibit. For that, whether the fault rest more with themselves, or with that "go-a-head" spirit of reckless impetuosity, which, wafted to us from beyond the Atlantic, has of late years infatuated large numbers in these countries (and legislators among the rest,) making them think, on many points, as if there were no distinction between mind and matter,as if speed, with or without accuracy, were the paramount ob ject, in the working of both-as if the most profound investigations of abstract science, and the wisest adaptations of human law, were not creatures of time and trouble, but to be produced, off hand, to order, as a turner makes a top-whether, we repeat, the error be more their own, or that of the day we live in, certain it is, that their legislation bears a kindred likeness to each and all of those convenient theories, being more the random shots of poachers for the fame they covet, than the painstaking hunt of legitimate sportsmen, through the tracks of fact, and the windings of contingency-the more tedious process of the two, we readily admit, but the more likely one also to be successful.

Hence, we seldom at present see a new measure of Law Reform, that does not, at first sight, strike us, as being so deficient, for its professed purposes, that its alteration at no distant time, appears a matter of necessity. Hence, some of those measures contain blunders, so patent on the face of them, that, without amendment, they actually cannot be enforced at all. Hence, the altering or amending statutes, prepared, as the chance is, with no more care than the originals, occasionally stand them