SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

ENGLISH LEGISLATION,

The Statutes relating to the Ecclesiastical and Eleemosynary Institutions of Eng- land. Wales, Ireland, India, and the Colonies ; with the Decisions thereon. By Archibald John Stephens, Barrister-at-law. In two volumes Parker.

BIOOZAPHY,

The Dispatches and Letters of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson ; with Notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G. The Sixth Volume—May 1804 to July 1805. Coiburn. Travels in the Putijaub, Afghanistan, and Turkistan, to Balk, Bokhara, and Herat ; and a Visit to Great Britain and Germany. By Mohan Lai, Esq., Knight of the Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun; lately attached to the Mission at Kabul. Allen and Co.

STEPHENS'S COLLECTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL AND ELEEMOSYNARY STATUTES.

THESE bulky volumes form a very complete body of laws relating to Ecclesiastical and Charitable Institutions in the United Kingdoms, the Colonies, and India. Mr. Stephens has exhibited the existing statutes at full length and in chronological order, with notes of judicial decisions or from sages of the law interpreting or settling the text : so that the reader has before him the legislative enactment, the " judge-made law" upon it, and much of very curious and learned commentary, especially from the canonical writers. The repealed statutes that "affect existing interests or illustrate the present law have been printed at length ; under other circumstances their titles only have been given, with references to the repealing statutes." The titles of the acts which apply to Scotland have also been introduced ; but the Church of Scotland has not been otherwise noticed. An elaborate index of topics directs the inquirer to the subject he may have in hand ; and numerous tables of statutes and cases cited, with lists of the Year-books, text authorities, and similar information, complete the ready reference part of a work which is indispensable to the civilian and the lawyer, and will be found useful to the clergyman.

The volumes, however, have a wider than a mere professional interest ;

opening up many curious points to the historical and antiquarian student, or to the general inquirer. The first glance at their bulk suggests the vast importance and the various ramifications of the Church and Charity in English society. A little closer inspection suggests our national growth in lawmaking and law verbiage. The first volume, of 1,170 pages, contains the statutes from the 9th of Henry the Third, A.D. 1225, to the end of the reign of George the Third, A. D. 1820. The twenty- four years after the accession of e'George the Fourth require 1,108 pages, or only sixty less than suffice for about six hundred years. If we go back to the commencement of George the Third, the account stands thus— Laws from 1225 to 1760, (535 years,) require 856 pages; Laws from 1760 to 1844, (84 years,) require 2,278 pages.

The growth of our Colonial, the formation of our Indian empire, and the vast increase of business and wealth, must be taken into account, together with repealed acts omitted ; but the itch of legislating, the art of reporting in ca'tenso, and that working against time which hurries men into "getting quit " of a particular difficulty instead of providing for all analagous cases by embracing the principles of the question in a com- prehensive law, have been the real cause of this legal excrescence.

It is only by examination, however, that the intimate connexion of the Church with the State and with society becomes apparent, and the reader observes how closely connected are the Ecclesiastical and Charitable In-

stitutions with English history, and what a conspicuous place they should occupy in its pages, we do not mean as regards doctrines, but in respect to law, or rather all that law embraces. In this point of view, the volumes before us have a singular value. In their titles and preambles especially, the Statutes bring out, " unmixed with other matter," the story of the State Church, in its sweeping yet progressive revolution -under Henry the Eighth; its closer approach to a Protestant character under Edward the Sixth ; the artful and step-by-step yet decided return to Romanism under Mary, though with the "establishment of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the laity"; and the final triumph of the Protestant cause under Elizabeth. In like manner, the rationale of the "persecution" of Popish recusants, Jesuits, and Seminary priests, may be read under Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts; and the character of their proceedings indicated, without much regard to the times ; for it was the conspirator against life and order, or the clandestine propagandist, inculcating the deposing doctrines and oath- dispensing power of the Pope, that was aimed at, and not the religion of a peaceable subject or alien. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate are too shocking to be even mentioned by Mr. Stephens ; but the Resto- ration brings us to the Act of Uniformity; as the reign of toleration comes in with the Revolution ; and with the Brunswicks the regulation of mar- riages, and the "new style" of time, and religious liberty upon its present footing. These topics are not new; but we mach suspect that any one who runs through these volumes, perusing the necessary parts of the principal statutes, will receive many new lights. Perhaps, indeed, a legal history -of England is a work that might be advantageously written. We do not mean a history of the law, (which has often been done,) but the story of events, interests, opinions, and manners, as contained in the laws.

One point which strongly impresses itself on the examiner of the earlier statutes, is the manner in which the personal character of the -Sovereign is expressed in the style of his acts and his regal titles, from the right royal manner of bluff Harry to the pedantic and rather blas- phemous way of the British Solomon. Whether the Sovereign, as is not unlikely in those times, himself attended to the composition of the more general parts of important statutes, or whether those who drew them studied the manner of the Monarch, and addressed him, or the realm at large, in the style be liked best, the effect is to give to these old acts an individual character, both as regards the King and the occasion. The first indirect hit at the Pope was to restrain the payment of annates ; and here the act opens with the economical reasons which have induced " the noble men of the realm, and the wise, sage, politick commons of

the same, assembled in this present Parliament," to grudge any more such payments.

And albeit that our said Sovereign the King, and all his natural subjects, as well spiritual as temporal, being as obedient, devout, catholick, and humble chil- dren of God, and Holy Church, as any people be within any realm christened; yet the said exactions of annates, or first-fruits, be so intolerable and importable to this realm, that it is considered and declared, by the whole body of this realm now represented by all the estates of the same assembled in this present Parlia- ment, that the King's Highness, before Almighty God, is bound, as by the duty of a good Christian prince, for the conservation and preservation of the good estate and common wealth of this his realm, to do all that in him is to obviate, repress, and redress the said abusions and exactions of annates, or first-fruits."

Next year, a direct blow was struck, in the forbidding of appeals to Rome; and the King comes more distinctly forward with an historical exposition, showing the nature of the English constitution, and the entire independence of the realm, not only by precedent, but by reason, as con- taining within itself all things necessary for discharging its natural func- tions—and therefore Rome may be done without.

"Where by divers sundry old authentick histories and chronicles, it is mani- festly declared and expressed, that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same; unto whom a body politick, compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms, and by names of spirituality and temporality, been bounden and owen to bear, next to God, a natural and humble obedience; he being also institute and furnished, by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God, with plenary, whole, and entire power, preeminence, authority, prerogative, and jurisdiction, to render and yield justice, and final determination to all manner of folk, resiants or subjects within this his realm, in all causes, matters, debates, and contentions, happening to occur, insure, or begin within the limits thereof, without restraint, or provoca- tion to any foreign pnnces or potentates of the world; the body spiritual whereof having power, when any cause of the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learning, then it was declared? interpreted, and showed by that part of the said body politick called the spirituality, now being usually called the English Church, which always hath been reputed, and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity, and sufficiency of number, it bath been always thought, and is also at this hour, sufficient and meet of itself, without the inter- meddling of any exterior person or persons, to declare and determine all such doubts, and to administer all such offices and duties as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain."

_ In strong contrast, but equally characteristic, is the act of James the First, under which is kept the festival of "the fifth of November," "the gunpowder treason and plot."

" Forasmuch as Almighty God bath in all ages showed his power and mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of his church, and in the protection of religions kings and states; and that no nation of the earth hath been blessed with greater benefits than this kingdom now enjoyeth, having the true and free pro- fession of the gospel under our most gracious sovereign lord King James, the most great, learned, and religious king that ever reigned therein, enriched with a most hopeful and plentiful progeny, proceeding out of his royal loins, promising con- tinuance of this happiness and profession to all posterity: the which many malig-, nant and devilish Papists, Jesuits, and Seminary priests, much envying and fear- ing, conspired most horribly " [the gunpowder plot] ; * * * which would have turned to the utter ruin of this whole kingdom, had it not pleased Almighty God, by inspiring the King's most excellent Majesty with a divine spirit, to interpret some dark phrases of a letter showed to his Majesty, above and beyond all ordinary construction, thereby miraculously discovering this hidden treason not many hones before the appointed time for the execution thereof: therefore the King's most excellent Majesty, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and all his Ma- jesty's faithful and loving subjects, do most justly acknowledge, &c."

Mr. Hallam, in his History of Literature, has noted in passing, the Radical and Democratic doctrines broached by Jesuits and others when arguing against Protestant potentates in the turmoil of opinion immedi- ately following the Reformation. Many other liberal views have perhaps sprung from the Popish Church when under a cloud or " winning its way by yielding to the tide." Here is a mild and philosophical opinion from the first statute of " bloody" Mary, which we have not yet reached in practice, and which forty or even thirty years ago would have been scouted for its origin, by those who professed to follow the " wisdom of our ancestors."

" Forasmuch as the state of every king, ruler, and governor of any realm, dominion, or commonalty, standeth and consisteth more assured by the love and favour of the subject toward their sovereign ruler and governor than in the dread and fear of laws made with rigorous pains and extreme punishment for not obey- ing of their sovereign ruler and governor; and laws also justly made for the preservation of the commonweal, without extreme punishment or great penalty, are more often for the most part obeyed and kept,. than laws and statutes made with great and extreme punishments, and in special such laws and statutes so made, whereby not only the ignorant and rude unlearned people, but also learned and expert people, minding honesty, are often and many times trapped and snared, yea many times for words only, without other fact or deed done or perpetrated."

We had marked many other passages, indicative of the manners of the times, or curious construction by the commentators of general words in the statutes ; and had intended to enter at some length upon the question of Dissenting or Lay baptism, very largely exhibited in the second volume : but fully to review The Statutes relating to the Ec- clesiastical and Eleemosynary Institutions, would require a whole Spectator; so we will stop while we have yet space for other things.