The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-12 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12.

TILE LORD CLIANCELLOR has promised to explain
on Monday the intentions of the Government on the
subject of Legal Reform. The topic is a large one,
but there will be no better test for trying the sin-
cerity of the present Cabinet as Law Reformers,
than their mode of dealing with the jurisdiction of
the Ecclesiastical Courts. One portion of this juris-
diction—that relating to matters testamentary—is
now before the Chancery Commission, to whom three
Ecclesiastical Court lawyers were added by Lord
ST. LEONARD'S, with a view of inquiring into the
general subject of testamentary jurisdiction in the
different courts of the country. It was to the Com-
mission, thus altered in its constitution by the late
CLIANCELLOR, that Lord JOAN RUSSELL re-
ferred on the first day of the session, inti-
mating that he was disposed to wait a rea-
sonable Limo for the Commissioners' report,
but that, in case of delay, Government would be
prepared to come forward with a plan of its own.
We own that on this part of the subject we can see
no need for further inquiry. The evils of the exist-
ing system have been over and over again investi-
gated and exposed, nor is the difficulty of discover-
ing an adequate remedy so great as to afford any
pretext for further delay.
Englishmen in general are so little acquainted
with the nature of the laws they live under, that it
may be as well just briefly to recapitulate some of
the more prominent absurdities connected wi,h the
present state of testamentary jurisdiction. The
evils of the existing system may be classed under
two heads. Firstly, The defective state of the law
connected with the probate or proof of wills. Se-
condly, The conflict of jurisdiction between the
Courts of Equity, the Courts of Common Law, and the
Ecclesiastical Courts in all questions relating to the
validity and construction of wills; to the adminis-
tration of assets, and tho regulation and control of
executors' accounts.

The law relating to the proof of wills is in a state
of hopeless absurdity. In the first place the ne-
cessity of proof at all only applies to wills disposing
of personal property ; a will devising landed estate
alone, to whatever amount, need not be proved. It,
of course, very rarely happens that a will disposes of
landed estate alone, without any personalty. Prac-
tically, tbereforc, almost all wills are proved ; but this
proof applies only to so much of the will as disposes
of the personalty ; it confers no title on those to
whom the real property is devised. The consequence
is that a will may be established to be a good will as
far as personal estate is concerned, and yet declared
invalid as far as real estate is concerned. In which
ease either the legatees unjustly receive their legacies
or the devisees of tho real estate are unjustly deprived
of their lands.

But greater absurdities remain behind. Supposing
it established that the will requires proof, the
question is, where must it be proved ? As a ge-
neral rule, it must be taken by the executor to
I the Diocesan Court of the district where the
testator resided: but mark at what peril. If the
testator at his death should happen to per-
sonal property, or have debts owing )li:Milestso the
amount of 51. in any other diocese, the proof of the
will goes for nothing ; the cost of probate and
stamp, and court and proctor's fees, have to be all
incarred again, and the unlucky executor has again
to go through the same troublesome and expensive
process de noro. Two consequences arise from this
absurdity : first, that where the property is small the
will is often not proved at all ; secondly, where it is of
large amount, probate is taken out not in the Diocesan
Court at all, but in the Provincial or Prerogative
Courts of Canterbury or York. This remedy is not
only expensive, but incomplete; it may of course
happen that the deceased died possessed of personalty
in each of the two provinces, in which case the exe-
cutor is not safe unless he takes out probate in both
the Prerogative Courts.
Such, in extremely faint outline, is a sketch of the
first great evil of the present system—the law re-
lating to the proof of wills. Obviously a grosser or
more vexatious abuse can hardly be conceived. All
may see its absurdity: none but those who have
looked into the evidence can be aware of the sums it
has been the means of wasting, and the vexation,
misery, and contention to which it has given rise.
Now what is the remedy ? The first step must be to
make a clean sweep of all existing regulations; next
to establish one uniform system of proving all wills
which shall possess universal validity; then to insti-
tute, either in connexion with the county courts, or
otherwise, local officers for taking probate, with a
regulated scale of moderate fees, so that any one
named as executor, however poor or ignorant, should
have no more difficulty of obtaining proof of his
will than he now has in procuring a county court
summons, and far less, if possible, than he has in
getting his name on the register of voters.
But the difficulties and expenses of the probate
system arc onl, part of the evils of our testamentary
jurisdiction. Still greater anomalies arise out of :he
conflict of the courts. The state to which things
have grown in this department is singularly charac-
teristic of the longer of our legislature, the patience of
our fellow-citizens, and the astuteness of our lawyers.
After ■ will has been formally proved, two classes
of questions may arise upon it : Ist. Wu it a valid
will ?—i. e. was it duly executed and attested, and
was the testator at the time he made it so far sane
as to have what the lawyers call a devising mind?
2nd. Assuming this to be so, is the language of
the will so clear as to leave no possible doubt as to
the testator's intentions ; or, if on the other hand, it
may bear more than one meaning, which interpre-
tation is the court to put upon it ? Ordinary minds
would, a priori, suppose that any one properly
constituted tribunal was fully adequate to entertain
and solve both these classes of questions. But the
livr of England, " whose wisdom," as some sage of
the law has somewhere said, " is greater than any
man's wisdom," has, in the exercise of that wisdom,
decided the contrary.
Do you wish to try the validity of a will of per-
sonal property ? You must carry you suit into the
Ecclesiastical Court,—where you will be denied the
assistance of a jury,—deprived of the power of riva
twee examinatiuu,—% here examiners appointed by
the Court will, at vast expense to you, reduce all
the depositions of the witnesses to writ-
ing,—where a single judge, after the tedi-
ous interposition of infinite formalities, will
have to adjudicate upon this painfully collected mass
I of dead testimony, by rules unknown to the common
law, and on principles repudiated in Westminster
Hall. On the other hand, is the will you wish to
establish or overthrow one which disposes of real
property? In this case the law indulges you with
that mode of trial which to our antiquated English
prejudices still appears to afford the best, if not the
only, medium for eliminating the truth of facts from
masses of conflicting evidence; you may enter your
cause at the sittings or the assizes and have your
case heard by a jury of your peers.
Once more: a difficulty arises on the construction
of the language in which the testator has endea-
voured to express his intentions. lu order to solve
this difficulty you must go not to the Ecclesiastical
Courts, not to the Courts of Common Law, but—to
the High Court of Chancery—and this, not because
there is any incapacity in the Courts of Common Law

for deciding on questions of construction ; so far is
this from being the case, that the Chancery e'udge,
when puzzled by a knottier point than usual, often
refers it in the form of a case for the opinion of the
common law bench, but solely because the Courts of
Common Law are un provided with any forms iu which
the question may be raised, and have no powers of
dealing with trustees whose interests are of
course often, in fact almost ittvariabiy, involved .n the
decision of causes testamentary.
It is not quite over yet : one more anomaly re-
mains behind. You wish to enforce a due distribu-
tion of the assets of an intestate; you have occasion
to sue an executor for your legacy, or find it desirable
to look into his accounts or to investigate some ap-
parent breach of duty by devisees in trust :—for each
and all these purposes you must go into the Court of
Chancery or nowhere.
It would be a waste of words to attempt further to
show the lolly and the absurdity of all this. Any
mind of average intelligence comprehends that at a
glance, and at once passes on to the question, what
remedy can be proposed? The answer is short
and simple. Entirely abolish the whole juris-
diction of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the matter of
wills. All will causes where the amount of property
was comparatively trifling, might be left to the juris-
diction of the County Courts—all above the limited
amount should be tried in the Superior Courts of
Common Law. But in order to make these courts
fully adequate to all the purposes of complete testa-
mentary jurisdiction fur the trial of will causes, both
the County Courts and the Superior Courts might
be clothed with all the powers now possessed by
Courts of Equity.
Another incidental argument in favour of this
transfer of will causes to the Common Law Courts,
arises from tie present division of business iu West-
minster-hall. The Chancery Courts are overladen
with work; one, at least, of the Common Law tri-
bunals is enjoying the enforced leisure of halt' work
on whole pay. Every ono acquainted with the sub-
ject will admit the great judicial force of the
Court of Common Pleas, and yet, unles we
are much misinformed, these powerful sages
of the law aro scarcely doing enough to give them a
conscientious appetite for the meridian chop and
sherry which is understood to form the occasional
solace of justice in the more secret penetralia of her
temple. This ought not to be : the energies of dusts
excellent and learned men ought notto run to waste,
nor the country to be paying for a superabundance of
judicial force. Both inconveniences might be
avoided by transferring to the Court of Common
Pleas a plenary jurisdiction both legal and equitable
over all wills, whether of reality or of personalty,
where the property exceeds a given amount.

INSURRECTION AT MILAN.

Ore evammtnra TaLzon•ru

PARIS, SATUILDAY, 8.30 A. 31.
The government has received news, dated 10th,
from Milan. Order was entirely re-established there.

FRANCE.

PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.
Their Majesties went to the Theatre Francais last
night to see the first representation of a new comedy
by Madame Emile de Girardin, culled " Lady Tar-
luffe." This was the first visit of the Empress to a
theatre since her elevation to the throne, and that
circumstance alone would have sufficed to fill tho
house to the ceiling. But, independently of the im-
perial visit, an unusual decree of curiosity existed in
the mind of the play-going public to be present at
the performance. " Lady Tartuffe" was long an-
nounced in the bills of the Francais, and has
frequently been postponed. From reasons
of personal pique and literary jealousy, beside
my purpose to enlarge upon, a rumour was
current that certain literary coteries had con-
spired to damn the play. Numbers had secured
places last night to see the fun, without knowing that
Emperor would be present. It is now given out that
he went on purpose to insure a fair hearing for
Madame do Giraruin's work, hissing being, of course,
out of the question in the Imperial presence.
M. Billet's abominable pamphlet, the Lettres
Franques, is represented by the CollBiitutionnel as a legi-
timist manoeuvre. The legitimists, finding all chance
of overturning the government by peaceable means
hopeless, think to foment a war, and then take ad-
vantage of it to effect a third restoration. Such is
the explanation offered by the Bonapartist writer,
Arnett& de Cesenn, who signs the article.
It was yesterday stated at the Palais do Justice,
that all the persons recently arrested had been interro-
gated during the day by tho examining magistrate.
The principal charge brought against them will be,
it is said, the propagation of false news. It is the
almost universal opinion that the government has
made a sad blunder in instituting this prosecution.
Tho prisoners will be defended by resolute advocates,
who will contend that the sending of news, admit-
ting it to be " false," in a private letter to a foreign
country, is not an offence known to the law. Recent
legislation has withdrawn political libels from the
jurisdiction of juries, and referred them to the tri-
bunal of Correctional Police. But an appeal lies
from this court to the Imperial Court of Appeal,
and ultimately to the Court of Cassation. Some show
of law most be made out to obtain a judgment from
those courts, the judges of which are irremoveable.
It is believed that the prosecutioll, if based upon the
ground stated, must fail, and that government will
be much damaged in the process.
The Presse states that M. de Chantelauze, at
whose residence the police paid a visit to examine his
papers, as already stated, is not the son but the
nephew of M. de Chantelauze who was one of the
ministers of Charles X.
The Emanei.eation of Brussels says there are no
lees than 700 }ranch exiles in Belgium, of whom ten
only tue to be found in the amnesty list of the Mo-
niteur.

The congratulatory addresses on the marriage bay*
not in every instance been unanimously voted by the
municipal councils. At Nismes four or five members
refused to sign it, and in consequence of the discus-
sion that ensued two legitimists in the council, MM.
de Vallongues and de Calvieres resigned their scats.
At Orleans the municipality was so divided upon the
subject, that it was determined not to vote any ad-
dress as a corporation. 'the Bonapartist section drew
up an address, and took it round for individual sig-
nature to those members willing to concur in it.
The Emperor and Empress wen; yesterday to
visit the buildings of the Garde-Mouble, and pro-
ceeded thence to the Louvre, and visited the Museum
of the Kings of France, which is about to be almost
immediately opened to the public.
The Moniteur contains a decree appointing M. de
Royer, Procurtur-general of the Imperial Court of
Parts, to the office of Procurour-general to the Court
of Cessation. The office has been kept open an unu-
sually long time, probably in the hope that M. I
might be induced to accept it. There is now an end
to the oft-repeated reports that he was about to do
so. M. Roulland, the Advocate-general of the Court
of Caseation, succeeds M. de Royer.
We read in the Union:

Alarming rumours have been of late in circulation res-
pecting the health of the Couutess de Chambord. We
have not bem able to discover the source of these
rumours, but we arc happy to be able to contradict
them completely. Letters from Venice of the 3rd inst.,
which arrived yesterday in Paris, speak of the perfect
health of the august Princess, u well as that of the Count
de Chambord.

It appears from the returns of the Bank of Franco
that the metallic reserve has fallen off 41 millions
in Paris, and increased nearly one million In the
branch-banks. Thediscount-accommodation has fallen
off 41 millions in l'aria, and tive millions in the
provinces. Advances on French ltente have de-
clined 211 millions in Paris, and 11 millions in the
branch banks. Advances on railway securities have
fallen off 3 millions in Paris, and increased
somewhat more than half a million in the
departments. On the side of the liabilities,
the notes in circulation have declined 11 millions in
Paris, and 41 millions in the branch banks. The
account-current of the Treasury has fallen 22 millions.
Those of private individuals have also declined 6:
millions in Paris, but increased about of a million
in the departments. The wlrle amount of the me-
Wile reserve is at present 475: millions to 670: mil-
-1 lions of notes in circulation. - -

The official report of the state of the bank of
Franee to the 10th inst., is given in this morning's
Monitcur, from which the following itetna are

taken ruined money and ingots, 393,761,163 fr. ;
ditto in the Branches, 83,033,509 fr.; advances on
tlic p• perty,41,192,136fr.; ditto by the Branches,
1.1.;33,1'. air. ; ditto on Railway Stock, 49,363,000 fr.;
ditto, diem by the Branches, 16,446,821 fr. ; ditto to
the State ;treaty, Jane 30, 1845), 73,000,000 fr.; Bank
Notes in • .ta Illation. payable to bearer, 509,897,700 fr. ;
ditto, ditto by the Branches, 161,014,373 re.
t/a the Bourse to-day there has been a general
improve! a nt. The Three per Cents. were last called
714.70 e. and the Four-and-a-Half, 103 f. 43c.
In one of the railway securities, an unprecedented
arsine ;u taken place. Dieppe and Fecamp stock,
which telt:in the last two days was down to 21.5 t,
bss sincs twen quoted 313 f., and was last called
312 f. 31A The Jfontereau and Troyes stock has also
sil%anct t. from 216 f. 23e. to 2371. 30c. The Stras-
bourg at 1 the Dijon have respectively gone back,
bat most of the other huts remain with a slight im-
revemel.t.
The t •nteinplated railroad between Paris and
Chcrbou ; is to be commenced immediately. The
purchast of land are proceeding ; and the telegraphic
line is r. pidly approaching completion. The wires
see already laid between Erre= and Bonnieres.
Berlin —Latest prices: Five per Cents., 103;
Thrt:-ar.l-a-llalf per Cents., 931; Bank, 109}.—
sienna: Fives, 911 ; (B), 105; ; Bank, 1,372.

PAItIS. yiteRSDAT APTIRNOOX.

The G ,vernor of the Bank of France has just made
known t e annual reprt of the proceedings of that
establish:tilt for the year 1832. The profits have
amount, t to 5,292,300 f. for the first six months, and
to 5,47.1.0110 f. for the second, or in all 10,767,500 f.,
reprtmn .lig a dividend of 38f. per share for the first
holt•vta,, and one of 601. per share for the second, or
in all 118 f. The discount accommodation has
amountol t 3 608,048,381 f., and the advances on canal
ohms, r. rate, railway shares, ingots, and treasury
Weds o 481,341,836 f. This large movement of
business has given to the bauk a return of
3,883;191f. 90c., to whi.th may be added, for commis-
sion and other items of profit, 207,717 f. 90c., or in
all 1,111...:15f. 80c. This sum is for the Paris Bank
• th. profits of the branch banks being added
to A give a gross produce of 14,872,701 f. 49c. In
cumpatit.g the year 1852 with the two preced-
ing on, . it is found that 1832 has an advan-
tage of about two millions on an average over each,
the profits of 1851 being 12,999,3.151. 70c., and those
of 1830, 12,303,231 f. 30c., so that 1832 is superior to
1851 by 1,832,365[ 79c., and to 1830 by 234,746f.98c.
7bs movement of business during the first six months
el 1852 was 738,804,472 E, and during the latter
1,063,6 d Ida., being a very decided increase. The
sontrery was the case in 1831, as during the first Ma
months the amount was 669,623,425 f., and during
the last six mouths only 571,787,455 f. The total
amount of bills discounted by the branch banks in
1552 has been 1,216,121,000 f., giving a profit of
3,632,2191. In 1851, the same operations gave a,
total of 855,073,000 f., or 3,102,700 f. of profit. In
1830, the total was 835,813,000 f., or 3,373,830 f. of
profit. The advantage consequently in this point is
also in favour of 1832. The average of the discounts
I. the branch banks during 1852 was 88,230,000 f., of
the circulation 141,500,0001., of the metallic reserve
103,000,000f.,and of the accounts-current 27,930,000 f.

_ . .
These figures show an increase over 18.51 and 18,50
in the two first items, and a diminution in the two
last. In tine, the operations of the branch banks for
18.52 give a nett profit of 1,829,56.5 f. 4c. The thirty
branch banks are placed for the year in the following
order of importance as to the amount of business
done : Marseilles, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Valen-
ciennes, Besancon, Rouen, Saint Quentin, le Havre,
Angoalime, Montpellier, Toulouse, Rheims, Saint
Etienne' Nantes, Mulhouse, Nimes, Strasbourg, Le
Mans, Metz, Caen, Orleans, Avignon, Limoges,
Troyes, Grenoble. Angers, &macs, Clermont, Chh-
teauroox. The branch banks of Mulhansen, Avig-
non, Troyes, Angers, Bonne*, and Clermont, have
not paid their expenses, bat have caused a loss of
198,081 f. 10c. At the general meeting at which the,
report use read, M. Bayvet was re-elected censor for
three years, and Count Pullet-Will, M. James Odiot,
and X. Halphen regents for five years.

ITALY.
NAPLES.
The government has more than filled up the ranks
of the Swiss regiments, and there now stand sixteen
thousand of these foreigners under the banner of the
Bourbon. A correspondent, writing on the 31st ult.,
states that a movement of troops towards the
Abruzzi, to join the Austrians concentrated on the
strong positions of La Cattolica, was talked of.
We read in the Modena Messenger:
Yes ore aware that the Cardinals met lately to examine
a propositon made by the King of Naples to purchase the
Duchy of Benevento and the district of Poetseorvo. This
proposition was unanimously rejected on the traditional
principle of the Roman church not to part with, give, or
ode for ever, any portion of the territory composing the
civil principality. In a financial point of view, the 'dal.
aistrstinn of that tanNery, included within the Neapolitan
paseisions, in mac GOMM than useful to the Holy See •
bat that consideentima 0111110 i 'militate against the traditional
principle. As amuses at territory may, perhaps, be ae
eared, but it is usawaplail that any other arrangement
was ever agreed to.

TURKEY.

THE TANZIMAT.

We have received from Constantinople a copy of
the firman concerning the powers accorded to the
pvernors-general of the Turkish provinces. We
have sought in vain in this document for the proof
of the abolition et the Tanzimat, which has been so
categorically affirmed in the Austrian papers. The
imperial ordinance, in giving to governors-general
the faculty of superseding the magistrates under
them, makes them responsible for all the acts of their
subordinates, and so far gives vigour to the admini-
stration. All the formalities reiuired by the Tonal-
mat for guaranteeing the administration of justice
are preserved. The same &man also prescribes
energetic measures for the suppression of brigandage.