We are not prepared to state the exact proportion which the fees of counsel in Scotland bear to the other expenses of a suit, but, on the most moderate computation, this Highland acquaintance of our author must have spent from fifteen to twenty thousand a year in law, if one counsel got 30007. a year by him. The general remarks and anecdotes, forming the concluding chapters, are quite in keeping with the rest; but the internal evidence of their groundlessness and inaccuracy is so strong, that it seems quite unnecessary to attempt a detailed refutation or exposure of them. Here, therefore, we take leave of a work, which (with the exception of Mr. Reginald Blewitt's Satire, noticed in our first number), is about the silliest, shallowest, worst-written and most objectionable we ever had occasion to review.

H.

ART. VII.-COLONIAL AND FOREIGN LAW.

Commentaries on Colonial and Foreign Laws generally, and in their Conflict with each other, and with the Law of England. By William Burge, Q.C. London. 1838.

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WE regard the publication of these Commentaries as an important event in the legal literature of this country. That the mere undertaking was a bold one, the title is sufficient to show but the actual production, in four large volumes, of a treatise embodying several systems of foreign jurisprudence— contrasting them with our own system and with each otherinstancing the various cases in which a conflict may arise between one or more of these in the application of a rule to a particular state of facts, and solving, or endeavouring to solve, the nice and difficult question, to which system the preference is in each case to be assigned-the production, we say, of a work so substantial in these days of flimsy wares, is a phenomenon as rare as it is creditable. To the execution of this task, Mr. Burge has brought the resources of a mind deeply imbued with the principles of jurisprudence, the accumulated results of much reading and research, and, what in a

work embracing so extensive a field is a qualification of at least equal importance, judgment in selecting, and skill in arranging and compressing, his materials. This may be thought high praise, but a perusal of the treatise will fully bear it out; and we venture, therefore, to predict that these volumes will take their place, not in this country only but abroad, among the most approved and standard works of jurisprudence.

The object and plan of the treatise are so well explained in a dedicatory letter to Lord Langdale, by whom the prosecution of the design had, it seems, been encouraged, that it would be injustice to Mr. Burge not to adopt his own expressions in describing them :

"In this work," he says, "it has been my object to bring together those several systems of Colonial and Foreign Jurisprudence which constitute a considerable part of the law administered by the supreme appellate tribunal of the British Colonial Empire, and which are frequently the subjects of judicial consideration by the other tribunals of this country. They are presented in contrast with the Law of England; and when they conflict with that law, or with each other, I have endeavoured to ascertain and state the principles on which the selection of one of those laws should be made.

"In several of the dependencies of Great Britain, a system of jurisprudence prevails wholly different from the law of the parent State. In some of them, it consists of peculiar local enactments combined with the law of England; in others the law of England is entirely excluded. In some of the latter, its place is supplied by the Roman Dutch law, in others by the law of France as it existed before the Code Civil, and in others by the law of Normandy. In one Colony the law of Spain is adopted, and in another Colony the Code Civil.

"It might be presumed, that the supreme appellate tribunal of the parent state has an acquaintance with these several systems of jurisprudence, at least equal to that possessed by the local courts administering those systems, and whose decisions it corrects and reviews.

"The large interests which numerous persons resident in Great Britain hold in her colonial possessions, and the intercourse with foreign nations so much promoted by the relations of peace, afford frequent occasions in which the courts, both of equity and law, in this country, adjudicate on rights to real and personal property which are wholly derived from foreign laws.

"There is a necessity, therefore, for ascertaining and applying those laws."

On these last sentences, we must pause to make a few remarks. The peculiar position of Great Britain, as not only the parent of numerous Colonies which have issued from her own loins, but also the sovereign mistress of many dependencies inhabited by people of different races, customs, and laws, and acquired by conquest or cession, whilst it gives frequent occasion for the application by the parent state of the law respectively prevalent in each, at the same time renders the administration of the appellate jurisdiction which is derived from and inherent in that supremacy, a task of more than ordinary difficulty.

That those on whom this important function is devolved ought to have some acquaintance with the various systems of law which they may be called upon to apply, is of course undeniable; but Mr. Burge, we are quite sure, cannot himself think it reasonable to presume, that the appellate tribunal has, or ought to have, an acquaintance with all these systems "at least equal to that possessed by the local courts whose decisions it corrects and reviews." None can entertain a higher respect than we do for the learned and eminent persons of whom the judicial Committees of the Privy Council are now ordinarily composed; and yet we venture with all reverence to say, that there is not a barrister of five years' practice in any of the Colonial Courts, who, in knowledge of the particular system administered in that colony, would not surpass either Lord Lyndhurst or Mr. Baron Parke. It is obviously impossible that it should be otherwise-a whole life of intense and laborious study would not suffice to master the details of several systems as actually administered, even if any study, however prolonged, could supply the place of that practice which alone can render forms familiar. But fortunately such minute acquaintance is not necessary. The cases which are remitted to the decision of the Privy Council for the most part raise questions which a general knowledge of the local system, applied by a judicial mind well stored with the principles of law, is sufficient to decide; and even where a closer investigation of the local law may be required, what is wanted is not an à priori knowledge of its particular.

dispositions, but a facility of reference to the sources from whence that knowledge may be obtained. In a former article, when reviewing a less ambitious treatise on Colonial Law, we ventured, in adverting to the want of such facilities, to suggest the framing of digests of the systems existing in the several colonies, by the persons most competent to the task in each, under the direction and superintendence of the Government. It would be flattery, which the author would be the first to reject, if we were to say that in the work before us this desideratum has been either supplied or dispensed with. The true value of Mr. Burge's labours in this department, is not that he has compiled a text book of the laws of the Colonies sufficient for the decision of any practical question which may arise, but that he has brought into one view the several systems of jurisprudence on which those laws are respectively based, and has given us a pass-key to their inner recesses and repositories.

Nor certainly can he himself be accused of over-estimating his own labours in this respect; for, after adverting to the inconvenience which is felt in proceedings before Courts of Equity from the reference to subordinate officers to ascertain points of foreign law, and some remarks accounting for the ignorance of the profession generally in this branch of jurisprudence (an ignorance which indeed it is easier to account for than to excuse), he proceeds thus:

"From these and other considerations, it appeared to me that it might be useful to the public, and acceptable to the profession, if there were furnished a more ready access to the sources from whence an acquaintance might be derived with those systems of foreign jurisprudence, which are most frequently presented to the consideration of an English tribunal.

"The following work aims at the accomplishment of that object. In commencing it, I was fully conscious of its difficulties; I even felt, that in the very undertaking itself, there might seem a presumptuous confidence which I disclaim. This feeling has not been removed, nor even lessened, but on the contrary confirmed and increased, in the prosecution and completion of this work. Yet I have endeavoured to bestow on it the time and research which it required."

The work itself, we are next informed, would not have been undertaken had not the circumstances of Mr. Burge's profes

sional life made him in some degree acquainted with the systems of jurisprudence which it embraces. The best proof, however, of his qualification for the task, is to be found in the manner of its execution. For the subjects which it comprehends, and the method which has been followed, let the author himself speak.

"The systems of jurisprudence in this work are, 1st, the Civil Law, the great source from which every other Code has largely borrowed; 2d, the Law of Holland, as it existed before the promulgation of the Civil Code; 3d, the Law of Spain; 4th and 5th, the Coutumes of Paris and Normandy; 6th, the present Law of France; 7th, the Law of Scotland; 8th, the Law of England; 9th, the Local Laws of the Colonies in the West Indies and North America; 10th, the Laws of the United States of America.

“The law of England forms so considerable a part of the jurisprudence of these colonies and of the United States, that it could not be omitted without rendering the view of that jurisprudence incomplete and imperfect. Its peculiarities also serve to illustrate and render more striking the distinction between it and other systems of jurisprudence. I have also been influenced by the desire of affording foreign jurists the means of becoming acquainted with the English law; and these means may be facilitated when it is placed in contrast with the law of their own country.

"The several systems of jurisprudence which have been just enumerated are considered, in the following Work, in their relation to and dealing with all those subjects which may be classed under the heads of the status of persons and title to things or property immoveable or moveable, by contract, by operation of law, by succession ab intestato, by testament.

"The first volume commences with a preliminary account of the several systems of jurisprudence adopted in our colonies, and of the appeal from the decisions of their Courts to her Majesty in Council; it then treats of status of persons, the rights, capacities, incapacities and obligations which are incident to it, and its effects on property. It comprises, therefore, the status of legitimacy, of husband and wife, of aliens, and slavery.

"The status of husband and wife necessarily includes the constitution and dissolution of marriage, and its effects on property.

"The law of the domicile has so extensive an influence on the decision of the various questions to which the status of persons and the title to moveable property give rise, that a consideration of