CONTENTS OF VOLUME XV. LAW REFORM, AND SUGGESTED IMPROVE- REPORTS OF COMMISSIONERS: MENTS: Opening of Parliament, and State of Bu siness, 33 Progress of Law Reform, 81, 145, 257, Abolishing Arrest, 86, 97 Delays in Scotch Courts, 134 Bankruptey, 226, 434 Copyholds Enfranchisement, 273, 369, Equity Proceedings, 294 Sabbath Legislation, 337 County Courts, 353, 481 Copyright, 449 STATUTES EFFECTING CHANGES IN THE LAW: Public Records, 161, 183 PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS: Chancery, 327 Bankruptcy, 328, 435 LAW OF PARLIAMENT : Election Petitions, 1, 305 Resolutions as to Private Bills, 64, 240 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES: Imprisonment for Debt, 97 EXPIRED AND EXPIRING LAWS, 326 NEW RULES AND ORDERS: Common Law Fees, 148 Copies and filing Affidavits, 217 New Table of Common Law Costs, 262 Justification of Bail, 265 Special Juries, 265 Dating Rules of Court, 265 Signing Judgments C. P. 287 RECENT DECISIONS IN THE SUPERIOR COURTS, REPOrted by BarrISTERS OF THE SEVERAL COURTS, see Digested Index. SITTINGS OF THE COURTS, 32, 48, 64, 95, 191, 271, 286, 461 Funeral Expenses, 104 Executor's Duty in paying Debts, 113 Publication of Ex parte Proceedings, 129 Law of Partnership, 146 Evidence of Handwriting, 227 Costs of attending Revising Barrister, 274 Damages for Seduction, 306 Privileged Communication, 357 Evidence in Bankruptcy, 467, 486 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS: Legal Almanac, 11 Bench and Bar, 17 Woolrych's Criminal Statutes, 36 Maugham's Outlines of Criminal Law, 119 Power to stay Proceedings, 278, 312, 360, LAW OF ATTORNEYS : Costs of Letters, 104 Re-admissions, 135 Certificate Duty, 202 Lien on Papers, 196, 261, 292 Fees and Emoluments, 217, 264 EXAMINATION OF ARTICLED CLERKS: Observations on, 31, 48, 55, 85, 203, 232, 240, 279, 296, 343, 345, 375, 392, 410, 440 Questions, 39, 243 Names of Candidates passed, 170, 332 Palatine Court Admissions without exa- USAGES OF THE PROFESSION, 360, 393 Country Bankruptcy Commissioners, 22, 408 Record Clerks acting as Agents, 212 Mr. J. W. Smith, 65 Early English Lawyers, 70 THE HILARY CLUB, 130, 146, 195 French Law-Security for Costs, 85 Magistrates' Clerks' Fees, 279 Perpetual Commissioners 294, 312, 440 Certificated Conveyancers, 295 Removal of Courts, 295 Brokers' Charge on Distresses, 295 Expence of Official Assignees, 377 Incorporated Law Society, 78, 172, 254, 334, 430, 494 United Law Clerks, 10, 218 SHERIFFS, UNDERSheriffs, &c. 40, 361 BARRISTERS CALLED, 170, 331 ATTORNEYS AND SOLICITORS ADMITTED, 74 218, 248, 473, 489 ATTORNEYS' RE-ADMISSIONS, 24, 218, 472 LISTS OF NEW Books, see each Monthly Re cord. MASTERS EXTRAORDINARY IN CHANCERY, Ib. DISSOLUTION OF PROFESSIONAL PARTNERSHIPS, 1b. BANKRUPTS, Ib. BANKRUPTCIES SUPERSEDED, Ib. Liability for Papers destroyed by Fire, 437 PRICES OF STOCKS, Ib. Annual Indemnity Bill, 393 THE EDITOR'S LETTER Box, end of each No. The Legal Observer, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1837. "Quod magis ad Nos HORAT. THE PRACTICE ON ELECTION in the sum of 500l., for securing the payment of costs; and full inquiry is to be made into their sufficiency, and proper time allowed for it. The member may, if he please, decline to defend his return; and the voters may, on petition, become a party to oppose or defend the return. An important limit is put to the ex the act, re-enacting the 1st section of the 57 G. 3, c. 71, which provides that lists of votes intended to be objected to, with the heads of objections to each, shall be delivered to the Clerk of the House of Commons, and shall be open to inspection, and evidence is to be confined to the objections particularised in the lists. As a much greater number of petitions will be presented to Parliament in the ensuing Session for setting aside the election of members than on any previous occasion, we think it may be useful to give an out-pense of a petition, by the 14th section of line of the manner of proceeding on them. Previously to the tenth year of George the Third, petitions could only be presented against undue elections by electors or candidates, and such petitions were decided by the House at large; but by the 10 G. 3, c. 16, commonly called the Granville Act, a new mode of disposing of them was introduced. This statute, and many subsequent acts, were repealed, but reenacted and consolidated by the 10 G. 4, c. 22, which is now the act by which election petitions are regulated. By this act, whenever a petition, complaining of an undue election of a member, shall be presented to the House of Commons, within such time as shall be from time to time limited by the House, a day and hour shall be appointed by the House for taking the same into consideration, and notice thereof given accordingly; and this time, within which election petitions are to be presented and so to be limited, is always fourteen days, from an order passed by the House at the beginning of every session. This time is strictly observed, and no petitions of this nature, presented after such time, will be received. On the time appointed by the House for taking the petition into consideration, if the petitioners do not attend, the order will be discharged; and recognizances are to be entered into by the petitioners fourteen days after the petition is presented in the sum of 1000/., with two sufficient sureties VOL. XV. NO. 428. When the day arrives on which the petition is to be taken into consideration, the House will proceed to the order of the day for that purpose before any other business. The Serjeant at Arms is to go with the mace to the places adjacent and require the attendance of the members; the House is then to be counted; and if there are not 100 members present, the House shall adjourn until the following day, and so from day to day until there shall be a sufficient attendance of members. If 100 members shall be found to be present, the parties, their counsel, or agents, shall be ordered to attend at the bar, and then the door of the House shall be locked, and no member shall be suffered to enter into or depart from the House until the parties, their counsel, or agents, shall be directed to withdraw; when the door shall be locked, the names of all the members of the House, written on distinct pieces of paper, being all as near as may be of the same size and folded up in the same manner, shall be put into six glasses to be placed on the table for that purpose, and then the Clerk shall publicly draw out of the six A 2 Practice on Election Petitions. shewn and verified on oath; the committee is not to sit until all are met, and on failure of meeting within one hour, ad glasses the pieces of paper and deliver the same to the Speaker, to be by him read to the House, and so shall continue to do until thirty-three names of the members pre-journment is to be made. The chairman sent be drawn. But if the name of any is to report absentees, who are to be cenmember who shall have given his vote at sured by the House, unless they shew on the election, or who shall be a petitioner, oath good cause of absence. If more than or against whose return a petition shall two members be absent the committee be then depending shall be drawn, his shall adjourn, and if any committee is rename shall be set aside, and not entered in duced to less than nine, by non-attendance the list of names drawn. Members above of its members, it shall be dissolved; and sixty years, or who have previously served these committees are not dissolved by any on a select committee, shall be excused, if prorogation of Parliament, but shall be ad. they require it; and any member is at journed to twelve o'clock on the day imliberty to offer any other excuse, and the mediately following. opinion of the House shall be taken thereon. If any member be excused, another shall be drawn, so that the number of thirtythree members shall be completed; and then, and not till then, the House shall proceed to other business. As soon as the thirty-three members shall be so chosen, the petitioners and sitting member, their counsel, or agents, shall withdraw, together with the clerk appointed to attend the select committee, and the petitioner and the sitting member shall alternately strike off one of the thirtythree members until the number shall be reduced to eleven, and the clerk within one half hour afterwards shall deliver into the House the names of the eleven members, who shall be sworn at the table to try the matter of the petition. The committee so chosen shall meet within twenty-four hours after the appointment, unless a Sunday, Christmas-day, or Good Friday shall inter vene. The committee on their meeting shall elect a chairman: they are to be attended by a short-hand writer, and are empowered to send for and examine persons, papers, and records, and to examine witnesses upon oath; and such witnesses, if misbehaving, may be reported to the House, and committed to the custody of the Serjeant at Arms. The majority of the committee is to determine the merits of the petition, and to report their decision to the House; and to report whether the petition or the opposition to it is frivolous and vexatious, or whether the return is vexatious or corrupt. The duty of attendance on these committees is enforced with great strictness. They are not to adjourn for more than twenty-four hours without leave of the house, unless a Sunday, Christmas-day, or Good Friday intervene; a committee-man is not to absent himself without leave obtained from the House, or on special cause The important question of costs is also provided for to a certain extent by this act. If a petition is reported frivolous or vexatious, the party who shall have opposed it shall be entitled to recover from the persons who signed the petition full costs: if the opposition be reported frivolous or vexatious, the persons who signed the petition shall recover from the persons opposing the petition full costs. These costs are to be taxed within three months after the trial of the petition, by a clerk of the House, and one of the masters in Chancery, clerks in the Court of King's Bench, prothonotaries in the Common Pleas, or clerks in the Exchequer. The costs are to be taxed as between attorney and client, and are to be recovered by action of debt in any Court of Record. It is to be observed, that in most petitions the great practical question is the one of costs. As they are frequently very heavy, it is of great importance to consider, not only whether a petition or an opposition will be successful, but whether it will be pronounced frivolous and vexatious. It is almost impossible to lay down general rules on this subject, as the particular circumstances alone will be taken into consideration by the committee. But it may be observed, that the opposition by a sitting member will very rarely be reported frivolous and vexatious.a Irish petitions, in some respects, differ from English. Lists of the names of all voters to which either party objects must in like manner be interchanged, and the grounds of objection must be specified and particularised. But in Irish petitions a commission to Ireland to examine witnesses may be moved for, if notice of the intention is given on the petition being pre a Rogers Prac. on Elec. 222, ed. 1837. |