The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-14 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert, attended by the
Honourable Amelia Murray, Lord Charles Fitzroy, and
Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Seymour, visited, on Saturday,
the Model Lodging-houses for families, erected by his
Royal Highness Prince Albert in Hyde-park. The Earl
of Shaftesbury received and conducted her Majesty.
through the buildings. Her Majesty and Prince Albert
afterwards went to the Exhibition of the Works of In-
dustry of all Nations. Their Royal Highnesses the
Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, attended by Mr.
Birch, also paid a visit to the Exhibition on Saturday
forenoon. Her Majesty and Prince Albert returned to
Buckingham Palace about eleven o'clock.
The Queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Prince .Alfred,
the Princess Royal and Princess Alice, and attended
by the Countess of GainOorough, the Honourable
Amelia Murray, the Honourable Lucy Kerr, Lord El-
phinstone, Colonel the Honourable Charles Grey, Sir
Edward Bowater, Lord Charles Fitzroy, Lieutenant-
Colonel F. H. Seymour, and Mr. Birch, left Buckingham
Palace at five minutes past four o'clock on Saturday
afternoon for Windsor Gistle.

Her Majesty and the Prince were conducted to their
carriage by the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain,
and the Master of the Horse, the Vice-Chamberlain, and
Viscount Clifden.

The royal party occupied five carriages, and was es-
corted by a detachment of the Bth Hussars from the
Palace to the Paddington terminus of the Great Western

Railway.
Their Royal Highnesses Prince Arthur and the Prin-
cesses Helena and Louisa took a drive, in an open car-
riage and four, on Saturday morning.
The Queen's private band was in attendance after
dinner on Friday evening, at Buckingham Palace, when
the following pieces were performed:—
Overture, "Lo bcompigtio
Teatrale"
Solo violin, Master Rendle
(Op. 40)
Selection, "Lo Scompiglio
Teatrale" The Earl of Westmoreland.
Solo violin, Master Rendle C. D. Beriot.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, attended
by the Baroness de Speth, left town on Saturday morn-
ing, for her residence, Frog more, near Windsor.
WINDSOR, SATURDAY.
- .

The Queen and Prince, accompanied by their Royal
Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Princess Royal, Prince
Altred, and Princess ;Alice, reached Windsor Castle
about five o'clock this afternoon.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness was attended by
the Countess of Gainsborough, Lady in Waitiag, the
Honourables Miss Murray and Miss Kerr, Maids of
Honour; Lord Elphinstone, Lord in Waiting; Colonel
the Hon. C. Grey, Lord Charles Fitzroy, and Colonel
Seymour, Equerries in Waiting; Lieutenant General Sir
Edward Bowater, Mr. Birch, and Miss Hildyard.
The Queen and Prince were received by the Master of
the Household.
The Royal dinner party is expected to include her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the Baroness de
Speth, and Major Myddelton Biddulph.

SUNDAY.
The Queen and Prince, accompanied by their Royal
Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal,
and younger branches of the royal family, walked
early this morning in the Slopes and Little Park.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince
Albert, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal,
her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and the
ladies and gentlemen of the Royal Household, attended
Divine service this day, in the private chapel, in the
Castle. The Rev. the Lord Wriothesley Russell
officiated.

Nu addition to the royal dinner party is expected.

The Cambridge University Commission bad a meeting
yesterday at the official residence of the First Lord of
the Treasury, in Downing-street. Present—the Bishop
of Chester, the Dean of Ely, Professor Sedgwick, and
the Rev. W. H. Bateson (secretary).
Dispatches were receive don Saturday at the Colonial
Office from the Lord High Commissioner of the lonian
Islands. •

It is confidently calculated that Parliament will be
prorogued about the 12th or 14th of August. Some people,
judging from the lassitude exhibited by_ the Members, and
the state of public business, would be disposed to fix on an
earlier day ; but those who are better informed do not anti-
cipate a speedier release from the business of the session than
we have here indicated.—Sunday Paper.
GRAND BALL AT THE GUILDHALL FOR THE
WARD SCHOOLS AND DISPENSARIKS.-011 Saturday a large
number of the gentlemen connected with the committee for
c•inducting the arrangements with reference to the ball to be
held for the benefit of the above-named excellent institu-
tions, and which is appointed to be held on Wednesday, met
in No. 3, Committee-room, Guildhall. From several state-
ments made during the meeting, it appeared that the
committee continue to receive increased announcements of
patronage from the nobility and other distinguished per-
sons, eminent for their ardent support of local charities,
both in and out of the city of London, the majority of whom
have expressed their intention of honouring the ball with
their presence. It is expected that the ball upon the occa-
sion will equal in point of magnificence and splendour that
of Wednesday last, when her most Gracious Majesty visited
the City. The corporation of London, with their accus-
tomed liberality, have placed at the disposal of the com-
mittee the whole of the beatuiful decorations and ornamental
fittings prepared on the occasion of her Majesty's late visit,
and as the cause is one of so benevolent a character, it is
gratifying to find that the price of the tickets has beenj udi-
ciously fixed at a rate to bring together a most select and
distinguished company. It is stated that a large number of
the most accomplished visitors from foreign parts intend to
avail themselves of the opportunity of attending this ball,
and of witnessing one of the grandest displays of this present
eventful year. The friends of the poor will be delighted to
learn that the whole of the funds accruing from this ball
will be devoted to the cause of charity, the entertainment
being intended solely for the benefit of the dispensaries and
the ward schools of the City. The committee inspected the
beautiful and most splendid room appointed for the retire-
ment of her Majesty, which with the whole of its fittings,
as well as the other arrangements as prepared for the Queen
and the royal suite, will be open to the visitors.
FEROCITY OF THE WEASEL.—As Thomas Matthew,
carrier, was passing along the public road to the Burgie
quarrie, last week, be observed a boy loitering opposite the
plantation at Burnend. On inquiring the cause, the boy
said he " couldna gang by for fear o' the futterits, as they
aye chased him back." Thomas went forward in the direc-
tion of the place, and on searching the part of the road
opposite the weasel's burrow, a few of them immediately
ran out and attacked him, and they were followed by several
others. He laid about him lustily with his whip and killed
some "end- put the rest to flight:— Zama Gazette; • •

14, 1851.

LAW IMPROVEMENTS.

The Common-law Commissioners have at length fired
their first shot, which has fallen like a shrapnel shell
among the antiquated forms and absurd technicalities
of Practice and Pleading. Alias and pluries writs, writs
of distringas and process of outlawry, special demurrers
and forms of action, proferts and oyers, express colour
and special,traverses, general issues by statute, legal fic-
tions, signatures of counsel and rules to compute—these
are some of the mischievous subtleties in which quaint
old legal coxcombs have hitherto revelled, but which are
now doomed to a speedy and ignominious extinction.
The leguleius quidam cautus et acutus: prceco actionum,
cautor formularuni, auceps syllabarum—in one word, the
pettifogger—will doubtless mourn over these inno-
cents, like Rachel over her children, because they
ame
are not. The Lord Chancellor, advised by his friends
the attorneys, will, of course, utter a touch-
trig Jeremiad, and will expatiate upon the danger of
advocatendme oflehntg h
the law,
it
" waso f
the which entrustingwa was
t he
staunch the
fashion
hiehhe
to be se,': to the " rash bends" of sueb men as the
Commissioners. Mr. Baron Parke, too, will assuredly
put in a special demurrer to some of the propositions
contained in the report, and will then fancy that the
Legislature, like the Court of Exchequer, will be content
to give jedment in this suit of Common Sense v. Com-
mon Law on some formal point which is wholly beside
the substantial merits. Interest and ignorance, and
obstinacy and indifference, will each and all use their
small endeavours to defeat, or at least to diminish and
delay, the threatened reform. But still it must come.
The public are determined to have it, and the Com-
missieners have pointed out in what way it can be ac-
complished.
Nay, they have done more; for, not c(!titen, with care-
fully remodelling their former " Suggestions', they have,
in an admirable report of sixty-six pages, explained the
nature and extent of the evils which they seek to re-
medy, and shown in detail the foundations
ion which
their recommendations rest. Moreover, all this nforma-
Monis conveyed in plain, straightforward, and manly lan-
guage, which, being equally intelligible to the non-pro-
fessional and to the processional reader, will enable every
one to judge for himself how far the changes proposed
are likely to be productive of good. This is precisely
what we want. The physician who prescribes pure water
as "aqua distillate"—the haberdasher who, eschewing
plain figures, marks his goods with an "n. w." or
an "sr. y."—and the lawyer who conceals his meaning
under the guise of a technical jargon—may respectively
humbug the patient, the customer, and the client, and they
will be suspected of doing so, even though they are ac-
tuated by the purest motives. It is, therefore, obvious
that the Commissioners, in condescending to :.translate
the technical terms of law into ordinary English, have
taken a very wise step; for they have not cnly enabled
laymen to comprehend their meaning, but they have
secured a feeling of' confidence towards themselves,
which would certainly have been, in a great measure,
withheld had their report been clothed in mere legal
phraseology.
The importance of thus gaining the confidence of the
public will be more fully appreciated when it is under-
stood that the report already presented by the Commis-
sioners embraces only a small portion of the subjects
referred to their consideration. The Commission,
which was issued on the 13th of May, 1850, directed
an inquiry " into the process, practice, and system of
pleading of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster;
the manner of conducting suits and other proceedings in
such courts and on the circuits, and the costs, charges,
and expenses incidental thereto; the practice of the
Judges' Chambers, and the duties of the several officers,
clerks, and other persons of and connected with such
courts, circuits, and Judges' Chambers.", This, it will
be seen, opened up a vast field of investigation, and we
think that the Commissioners have exercised a very
sound discretion in confining their attention, for the
present, to the ordinary proceedings in an action
at law ; but we confess that we should have
felt better pleased had their report included
all such proceedings. It was very judicious to
reserve for future consideration the law relating
to quo warrantos, mandamuses, informations, motions,
affidavits, costs, and a variety of other miscellaneous
matters; but it is not easy to perceive why the Report
should be wholly silent on the subject of venue, of judg-
ments as in case of a nonsuit, of the proceedings at nisi
prius, and, above all, of the law of evidence. The omis-
sion of this last subject is, indeed, of less importance, as
Lord Brougham's Evidence Bill—which has passed the
Upper House with the hearty approval of the best
lawyers in it, and which, under the auspices of the At-
torney-General, has already been read a second time in
the Commons—will unquestionably go far towards
curing the most flagrant defects in our system of legal
proof; but still there are several matters respecting
the law of evidence, not touched by that Bill,
which require amendment, and which might advan-
tageously have been discussed and determined
upon by the Commissioners. However, we have
no wish to canvass in a hypercritical spirit a report
which so justly deserves praise, and we readily accept it
as a moat valuable instalment. We cordially concur in
the opinion expressed by Lord Campbell, when he de-
clared in the House of Lords, on Monday last, " that
the:report reflected the highest credit upon the Commis-
sioners, to whom the country was under the greatest obli-
gation for their valuable and gratuitous services."
Notwithstanding our hearty assent to this well-
deserved eulogium, we will not disguise the fact
that we still entertain doubts as to the feasibility of
dovetailing the new and the old law, so as to make
the one consistent with the other, and both intelli-
gible; and we should infinitely have preferred a
scheme of amendment resting on the solid basis of an
entire new code of procedure. Nay, we believe that
the proposal for fusing law and equity, which has re-
cently emanated from the Law Amendment Society,
and which is rapidly attracting the attention that it
deserves, is a safe, practicable, and most salutary plan ;
and we are, of course, aware that, if it should ulti-
mately be regarded in that light by the country, much of
the labour of the Commissioners in preparing their pre-
sent report will prove to have been needlessly bestowed.
Still, no one can doubt that both these proposals—em-
bracing as they do comprehensive and fundamental
changes—are little likely to challenge immediate assent;
and we therefore hail with satisfaction the recommend"-
tioneof the Commissioners, which, at least as a provi-
sional scheme, will remedy some of the most flagrant
evils with which suitors are now oppressed—whilst, in
the event of the other more enlightened and adventurous
measures falling, they will lay the foundation for several
important improvements in the judicature of the country.
I --Chronicle.