LAW BOOKSEller and pUBLISHER, 194, FLEET STREET: ADAM BLACK, EDINBURGH; AND HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN, 1833. CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. Adjournment of Assizes, 510. Suits at Common Law, 360, 375. Patents for Inventions, 360, 377. Law Amendment, 389, 422, 515. Local Jurisdictions, 453, 472. Privy Council Appeals, 462. Court of Chancery Regulations, 501, 515. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND COMMIS- Second Common Law Report, 389, 478. RECENT DECISIONS IN ALL THE SUPERIOR The subjects of the Decisions are stated in NEW RULES OF THE SUPERIOR COURTS: Michaelmas Term (1832), 17, 50. SITTINGS IN THE SUPERIOR COURTS, 34, 64, CIRCUITS OF THE JUDGES, 50, 243, 290. New Editions of Watkins's Conveyanc- Bentham on Plurality of Judges, 27. Dowling's Collection of Statutes, 88. Shelford's Law of Lunatics, 106, 121. Atkinson's Marketable Titles, 152. Theobald on Special Pleading, 165. Hayward's Common Law Statutes, 189. Manning's Courts of Revision, 217. Woolrych on General Registry, 312. Lumley's Law of Annuities, 345. Beaumont's Law of Insurance, 364. Dax's Exchequer Practice, 378. Corder's Local Courts of Westminster, 236. Strickland on Law Reform, 422. Matthews's Digest of Offences, 509. LETTERS OF A BARRISTER TO THE LORD TABLE OF CONTENTS. PRACTICAL POINTS OF GENERAL INTEREST: Annuity obtained by Medical Man, 2. Validity of Composition Articles, 40. DISSERTATIONS ON CONVEYANCING: Presumption of Survivorship, 38. Trust to Pay Debts, 102, 141, 222. FOREIGN Laws, 89,281, 284. LAW LECTURES, 69, 437. LAW OF ATTORNEYS: Practising in Courts without Admission, Abandoning a Cause, 246. INSTRUCTOR CLERICALIS: Actions at Law, 325. Conveyancing Department, 441. Lawyers' Bills of Costs, 108. Arrear of Nisi Prius Causes, 215. Privileges and Rules of Parliament, 234, ATTORNEYS TO BE Admitted, 97, 109, 125, 282. Royal Fish, 296. Attorneys' Certificate Duty, 333. Bills for Partnership Accounts, 494. SELECTIONS FROM CORRESPONDENCE: Delays in the Masters' Offices, 62. Pretended Attorneys, 154, 203. Certificated Conveyancers, 155. Education of Attorneys, 203, 314. Examination of Attorneys, 222, 283. Metropolitan Local Courts, 360. CHANGES IN THE LAW DURING THE LAST SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, 1831-1832. No. IV. historical event, fixed from time to time; as the beginning of the reign of Henry 1; the return of King John out of Ireland; the journey of Henry 3 into Normandy; or the coronation of Richard 1. This last epoch is considered as the commencement of legal memory at the present day "; so that, strict THE PRESCRIPTION ACTS, 2 & 3 W. 4. c. 71, ly, the right to an easement of this nature AND 2 & 3 W. 4. c. 100. Two of the most important Acts passed in the last Session of Parliament are those relating to the law of Prescription. It will be proper therefore for us to see how the law stood before the alterations recently effected, and then to mention the substance of the new measures. It should be first stated, that the changes made are of a partial nature. It would have been well if the whole law relating to the limitation of actions at law and suits in equity had been amended by one Act; but the defects remedied by the above Acts are those only which relate to incorporeal hereditaments; and we are ready to admit that these are the most glaring. The prescriptive right to profits and easements over the soil of another, as rights of way, common, light, &c., were rendered very difficult of proof, as by the antient rule of the common law, enjoyment of such rights was to be proved from time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, or during legal memory. The limits of legal memory have greatly fluctuated. They long depended on the period for bringing a writ of right, which till the 32 H. 8, was not any certain period, but dated from some NO. CVII. could only be established by legal proof of an adverse enjoyment of six hundred and forty odd years. A rule so absurd and unjust as this was partly alleviated by the practice of the Courts, and the doctrines of presumption; and proof of enjoyment as far back as living witnesses could speak, was held sufficient to raise a presumption of enjoyment from a remote era, and a grant would be presumed; (see Knight v. Halsey, 2 Bos. & Pul. 206; Livett v. Wilson, 3 Bing. 115; Cross v. Lewis, 2 B. & C. 686;) but still difficulties frequently arose. This presumption, like all other presumptions, was liable to be rebutted. It might be distinctly proved that the right did not, or could not exist at any one point of time since the commencement of legal memory; and variances between the fictitious grant pleaded and that attempted to be presumed, frequently arose. This state of the law, as it frequently led to the defeat of just rights and claims on purely technical grounds, obviously required a remedy; and it is therefore enacted by the 2 & 3 W. 4. c. 71," Commissioners, printed in the Monthly Record a See First Report of the Real Property for September, 1832. b Printed verbatim, 2 M. R. for October. B |