The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-12 00:00:00

'THE BENCH AND THE BAR,

EQUITY COURTS.—The list of equity causes for hearing
on bill and answer, and for adjudication on pleas, demur-
rers, &c., exhibits an unusually large aggregate of busi-
hess at the commencement of term ; but of equity appeals
before the Lord Chancellor the number is remarkably
small, being only 24. The Vice-Chancellor of England's
list contains 163 causes ; Vice-Chancellor Bruee's, 66 ;
Vice-Chancellor Wigram's;'67 ; and that of the Master of
the Rolls, 150 ; total, 480.

COUNTY COURTS' ACT.--'
cuit under the Small Debts
_ _

-The distribution of -the cir-
-5' Act has been completed.

Mr. Bethune has

list of them. In substance they are the same as those
which were proposed_in_. November last, with some few
alterations, which have been suggested by persons whose
local knowledge qualified them to give advice on the sub-
ject. The number of districts will be sixty instead of fifty,
nine. Wales has been diyided into four parts, instead of
three ; one circuit has been added in the Eastern Counties,

quence of an enlargement of the jurisdiction of the Liver-
pool Court. The whole number of court towns, exclusive
of those in the metropolis, is four hundred and fifty-four.
Eleven courts will be assigned to the metropolis, includ-
ing those parts of Surrey and Kent which form the envi-
rons of London. The basis of the whole scheme is tile
division of the country which has been already effected
under the Act for the Registration of Births, Deaths and
Marriages.

LAW- OF LIBEL.—In some remarks on an action
brought against the Plymouth Journal and the Law of
Libel generally, the London Times of Monday observes :
" There is no duty of a public journal at once so delicate
and so dangerous, as that of exposing fraud or misconduct
in individuals. We do not fear the accusation of par-
tiality or undue regard to self-interest, when we say that
the calm unflinching discharge of this duty is most
essential to the well-being of society, and ought to be
upheld and strengthened by all possible means. It sel-

dom happens now,-whatever may have been done in for-
mer days, that a wilful or malicious libel appears in a
public print of any reputation. The worst cases are
never more than instances of negligence. But examples
are numerous of dishonesty detected and villainy fru4-
trated through the agency of newspapers. The public,
we know, can express its gratitude•in a fitting mann&
when once convinced that there is good occasion for it.
It seems to us that a good occasion is always apparent in
every case of fraud exposed. Here the Plymouth Journal
has been the means of showing up a party of blacklegs
(for such the verdict of a jury has pronounced them to
be) who had insinuated themselves into good society,

and who might have done more extensive mischief but for
the exposure. The people of Plymouth and its neigh-
bourhood are, without question, indebted to them. Yet,
—ll --a-- at.

tor all return, they are mulct in a sum of £2,000, and,
have only the beggar's satisfaction of being honest men.
Surely this is a hard case."
MARRIAGES WITH A DECEASED'S WIFE'S SISTER.—
Mr. T. C. Foster, in a letter to the Morning Post, says,
"an inquiry has been instigated into the number of these

marriages in different parts of England: Four gents,
have been engaged in four different districts of the pro-
vinces, exactly one month. Their inquiries, so far, have
not progressed beyond fourteen towns ;—Their names are
11/1 1_ TT II d• I,

lother-

these fourteen towns (a fair sample of every class in Eng-
land), in that one month, the unaided efforts of four gen-
tlemen have ascertained upwards of 500 cases of infringe-
ment of the marriage law of William IV. In all these
cases, the names, residences, occupations of the parties,

the date of the marriages, and the cireumstancesconsti-
tuting their illegality, have been furnished to me ; whilst
the gentlemen engaged in the inquiry have heard of about

_
as many more such,marriages, the names of the parties to
which were concealed and refused to be made known, les
it should subject them to unpleasant

?roceedino or to