have of late years been made. Such a feeling is recompense enough for any exertions we may have made (without either of us much consulting our physical strength); and it may be considered as a retainer for further service.

"Shall we be able to render these services effectually? My hopes are sanguine that we shall. Nothing can be more encouraging than the accounts of the manner in which the Commons received the bills, especially the Evidence Bill: all agree in describing the enthusiasm for Law Amendment as at its height.' Such are the expressions of more than one of our friends. The progress which the cause has made within a few years is so great (bearing, indeed, some proportion to the intolerable pressure of the evils complained of), that we need not dread the efforts of its enemies, the extent of whose personal influence is happily not to be measured by the importance of their official station.

“Here, then, is ample ground of congratulation. Your letter, however, of Saturday (received as I am closing this), reminds me that it is not the only topic of felicitation at the present moment. You call upon me to interrupt Law Amendment, justly claiming my attention to the late most gratifying announcement of Lord Palmerston, confirming our private intelligence. I verily do hope that, in spite of the errors, the grievous errors, of our Commercial Legislation, over which, in consideration of other and great merits, let us draw a veil, we shall at length see the extinction of the infernal Slave Trade, and the final emancipation of the slave.

"As you have thus drawn me away from the Amendment to the Execution of the Law, you must pardon me if, making a further digression, I close my congratulations with a less exciting but a momentous topic-the humbler subjects of the Law's dominion, and give you information which I know will gladden your heart, as it does mine. You may remember that nearly a quarter of a century ago, with our lamented friend Dr. Birkbeck, we experienced the difficulty of making the Mechanics' Institutes, which he had founded, available to the class of ordinary workmen and their families. Under the advice and with the aid of his worthy successor in these good works, Dr. Elliot, of Carlisle, this most important step

has been taken, and I feel assured with success. The men who live by weekly wages have established Reading Rooms, under their own exclusive management. That this plan afforded the only means of keeping such institutions to their true object the improvement of the humbler classes, we never doubted; indeed, we declared it, once and again, both at meetings and in publications. But at length the work is actually done, and it is delightful to see it flourish; for it must of necessity spread far and wide through the country, and produce the most blessed fruits.

"We thus have reason to be devoutly thankful for the auspicious condition of those sacred causes (not alien one to the other, but near of kin), to which we have been so long attached the Amendment of the Law, the Extirpation of Slavery, and the Education of the People.

WE close this Number with the most grateful sense of the great progress that has been made in the Amendment of the Law during the last three months, of which this Number is sufficient evidence. We have no doubt that an efficient and complete Reform will be effected. We shall here briefly notice the great features in the lives of two eminent and learned Lawyers and Law Reformers who have recently died.

LORD LANgdale.

Few men have at any period of our forensic history been a greater ornament to the profession than this learned, able, and excellent person; and few eminent members of it have left behind them so little that will convey even an adequate idea of the merits he really possessed. This is in great part owing to his modest and unobtrusive nature; to his always regarding the successful but quiet discharge of important

duties as the best reward for a devotion to them; and, above all, to his never having mingled in parliamentary strife, although few men had more examined the great political questions of the age, and none held more decided opinions upon them.

Henry Bickersteth was the son of a medical practitioner at Kirkby Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, but his family had been settled in the neighbourhood of Windermere. He began life himself as a medical man, and had even begun to practise as such, when he resolved to pursue a different course, and being entered of Caius College, Cambridge, soon distinguished himself among his contemporaries. He became Senior Wrangler, and was soon after called to the Bar. His progress was not very rapid, but his learning and his assiduity in a few years obtained their just reward; and after holding a respectable share of drawing business, his admirable judgment, his powers of clear and concise statement, his cogent though temperate style of argument, his graceful manner, to say nothing of his gracious appearance, which in Courts of Equity has far less effect than before Juries, raised him to the first place, so that he and Mr. Pemberton Leigh divided the lead at the Rolls Court for many years.

The two great features in this excellent and accomplished persons' history, which we would chiefly dwell upon, are his retaining the love of letters and of science to the last, and, above all, his steady and uncompromising devotion to the great cause of Law Amendment: he had, indeed, imbibed the one of these honourable tastes at Cambridge, the other under Bentham, the advocate of all safe, judicious, and therefore beneficial changes in our jurisprudence; he never shrank from any that was propounded from fear of its turning counter to prevailing prejudices; yet he never entertained any scheme that was wild or inconsiderate, being a practised technical lawyer, as well as a learned jurisconsult upon principle. His loss is deeply to be lamented by all friends to the Amendment of the Law, and had his declining health permitted, he would certainly have taken a forward part in the important discussions of the present Session. Indeed the last words which he spoke in the House of Lords were directed,

while supporting the extension of the County Courts' jurisdiction, to enforce the sound and irrefragable doctrines of Bentham respecting the great abomination of taxes upon law proceedings. His services at the head of the last Real Property Commission, were of the greatest value; and no one would more have lamented the postponement of the Registry Bill, the first fruit of its labours.

A distinguishing feature in this excellent person's character was his hatred and scorn of all indirect and underhand dealings, of any thing paltry and mean; neglect of public duty he reckoned of this description, and loudly reprobated accordingly. He practised what he professed. For when upon Lord Cottenham's illness he either directly refused to take the Great Seal, or gave such a positive declaration of his determination, as precluded any formal offer of it, he yet deemed that he had no right to refuse the place of First Commissioner, although his own health had given way, and he felt little able to undergo any increase of judicial labour. But he said that, as Master of the Rolls, the duty was incumbent upon him, and at least he should make an effort to perform it.

LORD MONCRIEFF.

THE Profession in Scotland were still lamenting the irreparable loss of Lord Jeffrey, when another of its greatest lights was extinguished. There never was, in any country, a more learned, a more able, or a more diligent Judge than Lord Moncrieff. For nearly a quarter of a century he held, with universal assent, his exalted place, and has left his name among the greatest lawyers who ever adorned the Scottish Bench.

Sir James Moncrieff was the representative of an old and most respectable baronet's family, having succeeded his father, Sir Harry, who so long was distinguished as the able, honest, and learned chief of one of the great parties in the Church of Scotland. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the Bar at the beginning of this century, and he rose to a higher position among its members than, we believe, any other advocate ever attained. His profound knowledge of the law, his

powers of close reasoning, and his habits of indefatigable industry, were the grounds of his success; for to the graces of eloquence he made no pretence, and, indeed, held them somewhat cheap. But if the ignorant multitude derived little benefit from his professional displays, two material parties profited by them unspeakably-the client and the Court. It was impossible that more valuable aid could be afforded to either; and when he came upon the Bench, both the Court he belonged to, and the Appellate Jurisdiction, benefited by his well-considered and well-received judgments, in a measure that makes his loss all but irreparable.

The habits of his life led him to take an active part in politics, for he was a steady, animated, and, indeed, zealous party man, of the Whig School, until, on becoming a Judge, he of course ceased to engage in such conflicts. But he retained his liberal opinions, and took a deep interest in all the improvements, both of our law and our general polity, which have marked the last twenty years. Regard being had to his known party connexions, his promotion, as well as Lord Corehouse's, did great credit to Sir R. Peel, though it must be added, that both had refused the preferments offered, we believe more than once, being hardly justified in the sacrifice of income which was involved.

Lord Moncrieff and the present Archbishop of Canterbury married two sisters, cousins of his Lordship. By that marriage he has left a family, of whom the present Lord Advocate is the second son. The eldest (now Sir Henry) is in the Scotch Church. The elder brother of Lord Moncrieff, who was at the English Bar, and went the Oxford Circuit, died many years ago. His eldest sister was married to Sir John Stoddart.

One word more, and only one, for our space is brief. If we are certain of one thing more than another, it is that perilous times are approaching for the Legal Profession. No one will deny that a spirit of inquiry has recently been aroused as to the Law itself, its Courts, and their Procedure. If we do not entirely mistake the signs of the times, that spirit of inquiry will now be turned to the profession itself in