had not been done long since. For in truth, till within the last few years, when our valuable ecclesiastical reports began to be published, there was no modern work giving information to the public on ecclesiastical matters the learning of the profession seeming to be locked up in a dead language, or rendered forbidding by its confinement to dusty tomes of antique form and dingy hue, which might, to all appearance, have slept upon their shelves since the days of the Aldi and the Elzevirs.

Considering that to these circumstances may be attributed a portion at least of the odium under which the Ecclesiastical Courts labour, my first object in the present publication has been to remove, " quantum in me est," the vague idea of mystery which I have noticed to exist against the ecclesiastical law and its professors.

My second object has been to place in the hands of the junior members of the profession a work on the forms of our Courts, of moderate dimensions, clean and readable at least, which the present old books of practice can scarcely pretend to be. Not proposing to myself to convey curious information to learned advocates or proctors of eminence; nor to introduce fresh customs and modern innovations, according to the reform mania which is now spreading like the cholera morbus: but only to exhibit a faithful delineation of the established fundamental rules of practice, which have received the sanction of our fathers and our forefathers, in those days when giants, compared with us, lived upon the earth.

My third object has been in some degree to counteract, -"quicquid sive animis, sive arte, valeo," the reproach of wilful ignorance which has been cast upon the chancellors of provincial courts, and their principal surrogates.

Though after all I am aware, that a heavy load of responsibility must rest upon our shoulders, which I cannot attempt to remove.

Should it create surprise in any quarter that I have ventured to undertake so arduous a task, I beg to offer the following statement as an explanation and apology.

When the late Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Earl Cornwallis, conferred upon me the Chancellorship of his Diocese, I found the business of the Court conducted by an experienced principal surrogate, and by an admirable deputy registrar. Under such circumstances, had it not been for my anxious desire to avoid making any office a sinecure, I should scarcely have thought it desirable to interfere with the then existing arrangements, And when I did take upon myself the active discharge of the business of the Court, the vast experience and intense application of the deputy registrar caused matters to be so regularly conducted, and so clearly exhibited before me, that I scarcely felt any weight of responsibility, or the necessity for much exertion. But it pleased Almighty God in his inscrutable providence to terminate the valuable life of the deputy registrar with awful suddenness; and I found myself all at once left at the head of the Consistory Court of Lichfield, (as some other chancellors have found themselves at the head of much superior law courts), without that experience or knowledge which was desirable. I could not, with propriety, suffer myself to be influenced by the opinion of any one of the acting practitioners; for however able, and however honourable they were, each had his own client's interest to advocate and time alone could give to a new deputy registrar the weight and general information of his predecessor.

Therefore I felt, that a sense of public duty rendered it imperative upon me to spare no pains to qualify myself for the discharge of the important duties which altered circumstances had thus devolved upon me.

To decide a cause, when it came to a final hearing, was not the main difficulty: but how properly to direct, and urge forward a suit in its various stages from the commencement; and how to guard against and check unnecessary and vexatious delays. On all such matters I found that the highest authority was Oughton's Ordo Judiciorum. But his work was comprised in two quarto volumes of an appearance and dimensions formidable even to a student, much more to the generality of readers. I had, therefore, before me the alternative of either submitting to remain uninformed on matters useful and important to be known, or of acquiring the necessary information at the expence of much time and labour. I adopted the latter alternative; and I further determined to endeavour, if I could not make my studies productive of benefit to others, and lighten for them a burden which I had felt from experience to be oppressive, by publishing a translation of Oughton's Ordo, with copious notes and references, indexes and appendices.

Half my task is now complete: and it forms a work of itself. I therefore publish it separately. And I am constrained to add, that this first branch of the undertaking has engaged such a considerable portion of my time, and interfered so much with other necessary avocations, that I can scarcely suffer myself to look forward with any confidence to the completion of the work:at least not at present.

However, according to the opinion of some persons, who esteem themselves of high authority, the opportu

nity of proceeding will never be afforded me; inasmuch as they imagine the ecclesiastical laws to be so radically bad, and their administration so totally corrupt, that an immediate reformation must be effectuated in the whole system, if indeed any thing short of a total extermination of the ecclesiastical courts will suffice.

May I be allowed, with all humility, to observe, I have come to a different conclusion. As far as my experience leads me, I would venture to suggest, that the fault, if there be any considerable fault, is not in the ecclesiastical laws themselves. It may be, that instances of maladministration have occurred: but I question whether they are frequent: and whatever was the case formerly, surely few will be found to deny, that the practitioners in the ecclesiastical courts are now, for the most part, gentlemen of education, of knowledge, and of honour:of such education, knowledge, and honour, as afford a pledge of their efficient discharge of their professional duties.

It once befel me to be a suitor in the Court of King's Bench, touching a matter of some importance'. I placed myself in the hands of a most able and upright solicitor; and had for my counsel Sir James Scarlett, then attorneygeneral; Sir N. C. Tindal, then solicitor-general, now lord chief justice of the Common Pleas; Sir James Parke, now one of the judges of the Court of King's Bench; Sir Herbert Jenner, now king's advocate-general; and Mr. Preston, the talented author of many excellent

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It is my intention to publish a report of the case, with reference solely to the point of law, after such an interval of time, as to make it apparent I am influenced by no motive but the desire of conveying information to the public on an important ecclesiastical question, which requires elucidation.

works on conveyancing. Every advantage which the pre-eminent legal attainments of these gentlemen could afford was exerted in my behalf: the judges seemed anxious to render such facilities as were compatible with the ends of justice: and I watched over, and urged forward each step in the proceedings with unwearied assiduity. Notwithstanding, weeks and months rolled by ; and the important point of law was not decided at last. An archdeacon was a suitor at the same time with myself in the same illustrious court. I found him there, and I left him there. But not before I learnt that he was worn out by the charges, and his solicitor worn down by the fatigue of his attendance.

On the whole, when I returned to Lichfield, I had imbibed the indelible impression, that though our ecclesiastical courts might be called procrastinating, they did not form a solitary exception: though they might be deemed expensive, other courts high in the public favour, full as well understood the argumentum ad crumenam. In fact, I have never thought really ill of our ecclesiastical proceedings since.

As Oughton's Prolegomena states fully the plan and contents of this work, I shall not detain the reader by any observations on that head. And I only further remark, that should this translation prove in any way useful to the junior members of the profession, I shall feel myself amply compensated for the labour bestowed upon it. At all events, I may be permitted to indulge the gratifying reflection, that I have spared no pains to supply a manifest deficiency, and to remove from the public mind a groundless prejudice. And if I have failed, I trust that some one will undertake to do effectually that which I have laboured to do zealously.