ments. We have already, in this number, made some allusions to what is now taking place in New South Wales. (See Art. VI.) But pretty much the same story is told whatever colonial newspaper is taken up. Thus we find Sir Charles Grey, at the opening of the present session in Jamaica, recommending “an arrangement of the written laws of the island, and the improvement of the practice of the Courts, and of the whole process by which the laws are carried into execution;" while in Canada bills are announced by the Government for removing feudal restrictions and simplifying the administration of the Law Courts. Under these circumstances, although we have neither the right nor the disposition to complain of Her Majesty's present advisers as to any lukewarmness in this matter, yet we would willingly see some department in the state especially charged with the various relations as to Justice. If the expense of such a department is to be considered, let us remark, that the expenses of commissions of inquiry since 1830, as appears by a recent return to the House of Commons, have amounted to 648,272l., a large proportion of which are inquiries into the state of our law; and that if there were such a department, all similar inquiries (which are likely rather to increase than diminish) would be conducted by it, and a great saving of time and expense, we are persuaded, would be effected. We are much pleased to find that the views as to Law Lectures in our last Number (Vol. VII. p. 379.) met with the approbation of one of the learned lecturers, as appears by the following letter, which we gladly print, as in our opinion highly honourable to him. It was addressed to one of the supposed conductors of this Review, and has been communicated to us by him: "My dear Sir, "Lincoln's Inn, Aug. 8. 1843. "I write to let you know, that I so fully coincide in the views expressed in the Article concerning the meaning and design of Law Lectures, that, having just concluded my year's course, I have given out, that when we re-commence in November, the arrangements for admission to the Lectures at Gray's Inn will be these:- -The admission will be by ticket (as before), and this ticket may be obtained, either from the Lecturer's clerk, at his chambers, or from the steward's offices, Gray's Inn, by any barrister, and by any student member of an Inn of Court, without fee; the ticket to last during the whole year's course. The small fee imposed upon admission to the lectures, has always been a secondary matter, in my estimation, and some time since I formed the design which now I have promulgated to the effect above stated. "If in your November Number you can find a corner for the information above given, perhaps it will be satisfactory, as showing (to say the least) that your Article was not wrong in anticipating that the Lecturers would not be hostile to more liberal and comprehensive plans for the efficiency of their exertions. "Believe me, my dear Sir, "WILLIAM D. LEWIS." While we are on this This Letter is written in the true spirit, and we are sure that great good will follow the course which Mr. Lewis proposes to take. subject we hope we may be equally successful in another suggestion. It is, that the libraries of the Inns of Court should be opened at nine instead of ten o'clock, and also in the evening. A great boon would be thus conferred both on the law student and on the practising barrister. As in the days of chivalry the gentle knights of those times wandered forth in search of adventure, and thus employed their vacations, so do our doughty champions of law amendment emulate their good deeds, and no sooner is the Court of Chancery closed and Parliament prorogued than forth do they sally: "Full many countreyes they do overronne, From the uprising to the setting sonne, Of all the which they honour ever wonne; Seeking the weeke oppressed to relieve, And to recover right for such as wrong did grieve.” In this spirit Mr. M. D. Hill proceeded last autumn to Mettray; and as we learn from the Midland Counties Herald of the 26th of this month, in his charge to the Grand Jury at the Borough Sessions, he gave the following account of his mission: "During the last month he had visited the reformatory institution of Mettray, near Tours, where there were 500 young offenders. It had been in action for nearly eight years, beginning with a small number, and gradually increasing. It had already sent out 400 youths, of whom the number reformed bore a very large proportion to the number unreformed. Like Stretton-upon-Dunsmore, it was an improving institution, and from the best judgment he could form, the present rate of reformation amounted to eighty-five per cent. This institution had its origin in 1839, and was due to the exertions of two French gentlemen, eminent by rank and social position, but far more eminent by their great talents, unwearied zeal, their large benevolence, and disinterested conduct in the circumstances to which he was about to call their attention. One of these gentlemen, (M. Demetz) he was proud to say, was a member of that profession to which he (the Recorder) belonged, and twenty years of honourable exertion placed him on the Bench. He was joined by M. le Marquis de Bretegnolles de Courteilles, who had served in the army with great distinction, and who being the possessor of land near Tours, made a grant of it for the purposes of the institution. They formed a plan, and laid it before their countrymen. The consequence was that they obtained large subscriptions, one gentleman subscribing sums at times amounting in the whole to 12,000l.; and they obtained aid from the general revenue, and also from that of the local departments. Having thus obtained the means, they felt it necessary to train assistants. They were too wise to begin work before they had their tools ready. They, therefore, founded a school for the training of intelligent, well-disposed youths, and so judiciously had the selection been made that a finer body of young men he (the Recorder) had never seen, nor had he ever passed more interesting hours than he passed with these young men in becoming acquainted with the details of the institution. The next step was to provide buildings. One principle of the establishment was that the youths, or, in other words, their wards, should be separated into families, as they were called. They erected several houses simple structures without any ornament whatever. - in which a strict economy was observed. The ground floor was used as workshops; the upper rooms by the family, which consisted of forty wards, at the head of which was a steady, intelligent man, carefully chosen, who was called the father of the family, and was generally acquainted with some trade. Each family was divided into two sections, and each chose one of themselves to preside, who was called an elder brother, and who was thereby entitled to certain privileges and advantages, which made the office one of emulation to reach. He (the Recorder) was informed by the superintendent, that he was often surprised at the good judgment the boys displayed in their selection. Having, then, made everything ready for the reception of the pupils, they resolved to begin carefully not by taking a great mass at once, but by selecting from the various prisons of the country (which they had the permission of Government to do) hopeful and towardly children, in order that the experiment might be made under the most favourable circumstances. They went to various prisons, and some affecting incidents took place. The feeling excited in the minds of the youths by the substitution of kindness for severity, produced very hopeful effects. They were taken to Mettray, and there subjected to a discipline which, while it had the warmest benevolence for its origin, was tempered by the severest judgment. The object had been to make good men, not to give immediate pleasure to children. It was no part of the system to elevate these children, because they had committed crime, to a higher rank than that to which they were born. The greatest skill had been shown in making the children the agents of their own reformation. In accordance with these principles, their food, though ample, was of the plainest description, of a character precisely similar to that of the peasantry of the department of the Loire in which Mettray was placed. Care was also taken of their health, some of the youths being sometimes brought there to die. In France, as probably they were all aware, there were what were called Sisters of Charity, excellent persons who devoted themselves to assisting and comforting the distressed. The founders of this institution availed themselves of the services of nine of those persons, who had made the sick room their sitting room; and he found it an airy, cheerful apartment, overlooking the garden, every thing being in the greatest order; the convalescent walking about or making lint for the other patients in the Infirmary; others employed in various ways; and two, who were evidently suffering pain, were yet quiet and tranquil. The kitchen, too, was under the care of some of these excellent By far the greater number of these young persons were employed in agriculture; and, in fact, the whole of the hard labour of the institution was performed by boys who must be under the age of sixteen when admitted, and many of them not more than seven or eight. Others were engaged in trades, such as making wooden shoes, or leather shoes for Sundays, in making apparel, in constructing agricultural implements, and he observed cabinet and carpentry work going forward. It might be supposed that where there was so much labour there would be little time for education, That was certainly true, as the time allotted to instruction, much of which was devoted to religious matters, was about ten hours in the week; but the most, in the proper sense of the term education, was made of it. The religious instruction was in the hands of a Roman Catholic clergyman. Protestants, he believed, there were none. At what cost was this done? At Mettray, the cost of maintenance and superintendence (which was necessarily expensive, consequent on the number of officers, there being 500 youths, 120 officers), taking an average of the whole 500, gave the amount at 201. per boy per annum ; but this was materially lessened by their labour, so that the actual cost was not more than 127. per youth per annum. Were they aware, he would ask, that at that moment the borough of women. * * * Birmingham was paying 20l. per head per annum for every one of its prisoners at Warwick; and that notwithstanding the benevolence and skill, both of which were great, in the conduct of that prison, the chances of a further advance into crime far outweighed the chances of reformation? But if it should be said that even 121. was a large sum to pay for offenders who had been in hostility to the law, they would recollect that the fair comparison lay between those who were reformed and those who were not. A petition was presented to parliament by the magistrates of Liverpool, in 1846; and among other important facts it stated that fourteen cases of young offenders, fairly chosen, were taken, and that it was found that these fourteen persons had been many of them committed to prison a considerable number of times -none less than eight, one twenty-three times. Now, with regard to the cost, it would be found that the reformatory principle was cheaper, besides making good members of society; but that the other system was dearer, without improving the man. The cost of each of these fourteen youths, arising from trials, &c., was 631. 8s. Not one of them was reformed. From a communication with which he had been favoured from M. Demetz, he had found that since the revolution there had been a change in the institution at Mettray. The Revolutionary Government had not, certainly, withdrawn their aid from the institution, but its funds were aided before the revolution, not only by the manufacture of articles for their own consumption, but for sale elsewhere; and but for the revolution, he was informed that there would have been a net income from that source alone of 1000l. But the government had been of opinion that such sales were an undue interference with the honest labourer." October 28. 1848. We have received the following letter: "Sir, "Walsall, Oct. 3. 1848. "I always look out for the Law Review, which I read with pleasure and instruction. But I am desirous of stating to you that if it were possible to insert more articles of a practical nature, I think it would be more useful. "I am, Sir, "Yours respectfully, "JOHN BOYLE.” We have taken the liberty of printing Mr. Boyle's letter, because, in the solitude of the long vacation, we had come to the same conclusion, that our work might be rendered less unworthy the acceptance of the profession if it were rendered a little more useful, and a little less speculative. We have therefore, in the present number, endeavoured to make some improvements in this respect; and we think we shall be able to make some others. We are not going to point out what we have done, or to say what we intend to do. Our readers must find out the one, and must trust us for the rest. We do wish to say, however, that we have not abandoned the "Adjudged Points," although they have been excluded in this number by other articles. THE LAW REVIEW. ART. I.- THE SUPREME COURTS IN INDIA. Papers laid before Parliament by the Indian Law Commission, 1848. AMONG the many anomalies connected with our empire in the East, the existence, possibly, of the Supreme Courts is not the least remarkable. Erected, in the first instance, for the two-fold purpose of asserting the supremacy of the Crown, and of correcting the malpractices and peculations of the Company's servants in a distant and newly-acquired country, they present the singular aspect of Courts of Law planted down in the midst of a despotic government, but wholly independent of it. The East India Company, succeeding to the government of the Great Mogul, necessarily inherited the despotic powers which have always belonged to powers in the East, and which apparently are inseparable from dominion in that sunny realm. Yet the servants of that Company who exercise this dominion, are themselves subject to the jealous enactments of the Common Law of England, and, according to a decision of Baron Parke in the Privy Council', are liable to an action for trespass and false imprisonment for any one of those petty oversights in practice, which magistrates even in England, with an experienced clerk within hail, cannot fail occasionally to commit, and which sharp attornies are so fond of detecting. Our readers are aware that the Supreme Courts exercise jurisdiction, and administer the law of England (with certain partial exceptions) to the inhabitants of the presidency towns 1 Calder v. Halket, Moore's P. C. C. VOL. IX.-FEB. 1849. ૨ |