The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 2.
THE events at Home, the policy of the Pope, and
the menaces of Austria to crush the liberalism of his
Holiness, are subjects that excite far more interest in
Germany than they do either in France or with us.
We hare grown rather cold to constitution-monger-
ing, seeing what it has produced to us in Greece and
the peninsula ; and the public, we fear, looks rather to
the efforts of Pius IX. with a dilettante feeling of
pleasure, than with any eager interest or sympathy in
his cause. As to France, it regards Italy as it does
Spain and Greece, solely with a view to the extension of
its own influence, without any of those high and generous
thoughts which French politicians once possessed.
The French applaud the sacrifice of ISABELLA to the
future grandeur of the MONTPENSIERS ; they would
willingly to-morrow see Plus IX. and his liberalism
sacrificed to Louis Plinasses tripotage with
Ambit.

The only country where popular and political feel-
ing is strongly awakened in favour of papal reform
is Germany. It there takes the shape of a religious
as well as a political reformation. The Germans con-
sider that if the papal government were liberalised, if
cardinals of liberal opinions were appointed, and the
sacred Collegeclearedof its superannuated influence, a
very great and salutary change would ensue, in e
spirit of catholicism. Prussia and England
darueleb2 peculiarly interested in this view of the
=on. The governments of both, and that of
also, have large catholic populations to rule
and to manage, to content and to instruct; so that
the spirit which is to animate the papal government
is to these three powers of the very greatest im-
potence. And seeing this, are they to allow the
Pope, having entered of his own accord into a course
of improvement and reform,—are they to allow his
Holiness to be crushed by Austria, and the Roman
pontificate flung back under that old bigot influence
that Austria has set up at home and adores abroad ?
These things are, we understand, under the serious
ociesideration of the courts of London, Berlin, and St.
Petersburg. France, under M. Guizar and Louis
PHILIPPE, has unfortunately given up its influence
and its independence to Austria. These French
statesmen have adopted the higher catholicism of the
court of Vienna, in order to flatter it, and to form a
catholic league. France supports the ultras of
Switzerland, and the klephts of Greece, in conjunction
with Austria, and seeks to join with Vienna in all
the politics of Syria and the Levant. It hopes
that Austria in turn will recognise, or not oppose, the
rights of the MONTPENSIER.S.
The most serious part of this alliance is, however,
the cement of France to sacrifice the Pope and the
liberal movement in Italy to Austria. Prince MET-
TERNICH, as we before observed, durst never have
ventured so far in his encroachment on the city of

Ferrara and his insults to the Pope, if he were not
sure of, at least, the tacit assent of France. Lucca
is threatened with disturbances, and Austrian
troops, it is understood in Germany, are to march
there too; and there is no road by which they can
march but through the papal territories. Here is an
excuse for invading the latter, and intimidating
South Italy.
If France and Austria have, however, entered iato
this new, holy, and catholic alliance against the libe
ties of Italy, does it not become the other posse
to form a counter-league for the one purpose et
counteracting their designs? It may be difficult. The
interference of the northern powers in favour of that
civil liberty to the Italians which they so grudgingly
allow to their own subjects, were singular and little
to be treated. But, nevertheless, these northern
powers are interested that the Popedoin should not
ft-become a bishopric, divided, as of old, between
the influence of France and Austria, with the head of
the catholic church completely under-the sway of
whatever statesmen may rule at Vienna and in Paris.
Such a state of things may no longer cause such in-
convenience es it did in the middle ages ; but still it
might be productive of serious evils, and it becomes
both governments and countries to be alive to them.
There is no result in politics which we more de-
peatte, than the revival of religious leagues—than
the pitting of protestants against catholics. We are
sorry to see each a country as France set so bad an
example, and play so mean and hypocritical a part,
u to set itself up as the champion of catholicism in
conjunction with Austria. It is quite plain that M.
GUIZOT has condescended to employ the political
capital which belonged to the Most Christian King.
The untoward consequence has been to awaken in
Germany, and especially in German protestants, their
old mistrust and hatred, not of catholicism, but of
that political catholicism which Austria upholds, and
which remains as much its flag in 1817 as it was in
the thirty years' war.
The King of PacastA has betaken himself in per-
son to the scenes of Italian trouble and Austrian en-
auschnsent. His journey is in part, no doubt, one of
pismire. But all know the extreme interest and
unseientionsuess which FREDERICK WILLIAM IV.
always brings to the consideration of any question
that concerns religion. He cannot forget his position
a Germany and in Europe, nor forget the double
ditty imposed upon him of putting a check to fallen-
am, whether it be made the instrument of popular
bubulence or dynastic ambition.

THE conclusion of the recent assizes was marked by
two complaints—one, which is repeated every circuit,
of the inclination of judges to force litigants to consent
to submit their causes to arbitration; theother, proceed-
ing from the bench itself, of the inclination of the courts
of equity to transfer their duties to judges of nisi Fritts.
There is no doubt that in their anxiety to expedite bu-
siness the judges sometimes urge too strongly on un-
willing parties the propriety of a reference ; but it is
equally certain that in many cases the suggestion
from the bench is dictated by a perception of the un-
fitness of the tribunal before which the parties appear
to do them satisfactory justice. When the issue is to
be determined by the examination of cross accounts
between plaintiff and defendant, every item of which
is probably disputed as to liability or amount, a jury
is a most useless appendage, and an arbitrator, who, if
he has less weight and experience than the judge, has
more spare time, will be able to enter into the details
of the case more fully and efficiently. It often
happens that such a cause would take three
or four days of the assizes, to the grievous incon-
venience of all other litigants, of /ritualises, public
officers, and jurymen. The attorneys in such causes
ought to refer them under a judge's order, without
bringing them into the nisi prius court; or if for
any reason they find it convenient to have them
opened there, they cannot complain of being driven
to a reference which they ought to have foreseen.
Another case in which a judge is justified in urging
a anbmbsion to arbitration arises when it appears
that material circumstances in the cause were excln-

rely within the knowledge of the litigant parties.
' Neither plaintiff nor defendant can give evidence in
open court ; but it is usual to give an arbitrator
power to examine them at his discretion. It often
happens that a claim which can be supported by wit-
nesses is answered by • set-off, which can only be
established by the testimony of the parties themselves,
and of course many other instances occur in which the
ends of justice are best furthered by a mode of proce-
dure less closely restricted than that which is esta-
blished at tasiprius.
After making, however, all reasonable deductions,
there are many cases in which parties or their attar•
neys justly complain of being deprived of the advan-
tage of a decision from the tnbunal to which they de-
liberately had recourse. It is often important to liti-
gants not only to have a cause decided by verdict, bat
to have the opinion of one of the superior judges se'
essential points arising on the hearing. An arbitra-
tor, however competent, can add no authority Or the
intrinsic value of his decisions. His award, howeese
conclusive in the matterto which it refers, Orb r'
rale for the decision of questions which may iavain

the same principle, even though they arise between
the same parties. Attorneys and counsel are
often aware of these and other reasons for
declining the suggestion, and sometimes resist.-
ing the urgency of the bench; and they are justly
dissatisfied by being forced into opposition, though on
a collateral point, to the presiding judge, and com-
pelled to appear in the light of obstinate claimants on
the time of an impatient and disappointed jury.
It appears to us that a part, at least, of the evil
might be removed by a change which appears in
many ways desirable, and which might be adopted
gradually by way of experiment, and retraced if
found to be a failure. We can see no good reason why
judges of nisi prius should not, under that or some
new commission, sit for the trial of issues without the
assistance of juries. There is no doubt that in many
cases the jury is a great impediment to justice,
and in many that it is merely nugatory. Nothing is
more common than for a jury to be told at the end of
two hours' discussion wholly unintelligible to th em, that
they are to find a verdict for the plaintiff or defendant
as the case may be. Their presence is, however, •
greater evil where an issue, of which the judge tho-
roughly understands the bearings and merits, is left
to their decision, with only an indirect instruction,
which, as far as it relates to facts, they are wholly at
liberty to disregard. For the present, however, we
are recommending an experiment of dispensing with
juries rather from considerations of convenience, than
with a view to justice. The saving of time in the
hearing of causes would be very great. Counsel could,
with safety to their clients, be comparatively concise ;
summing, up might be converted into short state-
ments of reasons for the judgment, and many diffi-
culties as to technical points of evidence would be
gradually disposed of. It ought always to be remem-
bered that the extreme technicality of our common
law, and especially of the law of evidence, has arisen
as a counterpoise more or leas necessary to the want
of scientific training in juries. They are
forbidden altogether to look at an objec-
tionable piece of evidence, because they have
no rule by which they can assign it to its proper
class. The modern law is in practice quite as careful
as the ancient to make provisions—Par cause de
!'ignorance des lais gents. When a document tendered
in evidence is objected to, the first remark of the
judge is, for the most part, "Let me look at it," which he
is allowed to do without scruple, though every exertion
is used to prevent it from biassing the innocent minds
of the jury. If he added to his present functions the
duty of deciding the issue of fact, we see no reason to
suppose that he would be more prudish in risking the
temptation of undervaluing a technical objection.
The saving of time which would be produced by
this alteration, and the additional facility given to the
judge for dealing with minute and complicated de-
tails, would evidently go far to obviate the inconve-
nience of semi-compulsory references, of which so
much complaint is made. The judge of assize would
hear the important causes which are now sent to
arbitration ; and the remainder will perhaps best be
disposed of by the continuance of the present practice.
Parties who complain of references which continue
day after day for weeks at a heavy but unavoidable
expense, will do well to calculate the cost of an
equally long-continued attendance at Nisi Prins to
themselves' even putting out of the question the
burden to the country at large, and the intolerable
grievance to suitors waiting to be heard in their turn.
Among the advantages which world arise from a
trial of issues before a judge, would be a great dimi-
nution of subsequent litigation before the warts
at Westminster. All motions for new trials on
the ground of perverse verdicts against the direction
of the judge would be at an end. Nonsuits would no
longer be entered or new trials granted, except in
greatly diminished numbers, on account of the im-
proper reception or rejection of evidence. At present
the court above has no means of judicially knowing
whether a document submitted to the jury, which
probably they never thought of, may or may not have
been the substantial ground of their verdict. The
j judge, if he had beenjudge of fact, could satisfy them
in an instant that, although he did improperly admit
the evidence, his judgment was based on independent
reasons. It is unnecessary to give farther instances
of the forms of litigation which, having, as we have
said, been provided to correct the incompetency of
juries, would become superfluous in their absence.
The experience of every lawyer will suggest abundant
illustrations of our position.
In considering the mode of introducing the change,
which ought certainly in the first instance to be par-
tial and experimental, we are not disposed to recom-
mend an adherence to the system established by the
Local Courts Act, where the suitors have it in their
power to demand a jury. It seems probable that
this choice might be exercised as often for a bad as
for a good purpose. Either tide might be aware
that it was stronger in popular and ad cuptandum
arguments, and fear the cold impassibility of a judge.
We have little doubt that it would be more judicious
to select a particular class of cases for the experiment.
In one of the late numbers of the Law Magazine, a
writer who adopted views somewhat similar
to those which we are now advocating, sug-
gested as proper matters for the exclusive jurisdie-
tion of a judge, actions on bills and notes, and those
very common and complicated causes which depend
upon the priority of claim on behalf of aheriffs, bank-
ruptcy and insolvency assignees, holders of bills of
sale, landlords, and all the other conflicting sufferers
who struggle with one another for the wrecks of
ruined fortunes. We should not be unwilling to
adopt the suggestion. In both classes of causes the
judge has generally, much more than the jury, to
decide even under the present system, and his labours
would be rather diminished than increased by adding
to them the power of finding the issues of fact,
which are often simple and distinct even when
the legal questions are most complicated. If the
experiment was found to succeed, the plan might be
extended to all actions of contract, and to those
which, although they are technically said to sound in
tort, substantially involve only questions of property.
We should hesitate longer before we extended the
jurisdiction of a single judge to civil actions for per-
sonal violence, libel, cram. eon , and other causes of
action which are in the nature of quasi-criminal pro-
ceedings. In finch causes as these, common opinion is
often the truest measure of the damage sustained,
and common sense the fittest judge of the probability
of the facts narrated. With a 'Aron impression of
the advantage of juries in criminal trials, we are not
at present prepared to dispense with them in capes
of a similar nature.

On a future occasion, we may show that a change
as slight and easy as that which we suggest for
diminishing the necessity of arbitrations, might enable
the Court of Chancery to dispense with the amistance
of Nisi Fritts.

WrrEN the houses in Middle-row, Holborn, fell
down, fhe neighbourhood congratulated itself. All
London knows the story. Every one had been saying
for years how they ought to go. The authorities
would not lend a band to relieve the cumbered
ground. At last, one fine morning, the houses, as if
fairly ashamed of themselves, tumbled down—
committed suicide, in fact. And now, at last, every
one thought, the desirable riddance was achieved—that
the ground must be cleared, the thoroughfare
widened, and increased air and light let in on a quarter
which wanted all it could get of both. We grieve to
find that the congratulation has been premature.
Middle-row is not to be cleared away. The houses
are to be built up again as before.

We know nothing of the particular parochial sta-
tistics of this quarter of London. We have no in-
formation as to how many persona are interested in
this property, what they ask for it, who are the parties
that should purchase it. All we know is, that the in-
habitants of High Holborn are losing a good oppor-
tunity of widening their crowded thoroughfare, and
removing a block of buildings which has always,
within our recollection, been a nuisance and an impe-
diment. But the inconvenience is by no means a
purely parochial one. It affects all who have occa-
sion to travel eastwards along Holborn, and in these
days, when the Strand is liable to periodical eruptions
of its pavements, it is of no little importance that
Holborn should present the widest possible thorough-
fare. The acquisition of the 'diddle-row property
appears quite as proper an appropriation of the public
funds as that of George-street, Bloomsbury, or West-
street, Smithfield. We trust that it is not yet too
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