disposition, and of which, during the whole of my official intercourse with his Lordship I have received so many proofs.

To the Right Honourable C. P. THOMSON, the President of the Board of Trade, I am greatly obliged for the access which he afforded me to the documents in his office.

TO JAMES STEPHEN, Esq., one of the under Secretaries of State for the Colonies, I consider myself greatly indebted for the friendly manner in which he permitted me to refer to him, and avail myself of his great experience and extensive acquaintance with Colonial subjects.

TO GEORGE MAYER, Esq., the Librarian of the Colonial Office, I offer my best thanks, for the courteous assistance which he always rendered me, and for the facilities which he afforded me in referring to the laws and documents in his office. Those who have had occasion to resort to this office, will join in the commendation so justly merited by the admirable method and arrangement with which its immense mass of correspondence and documents are classed and preserved, and which admit of the most prompt reference to any subject on which information is sought.

I was relieved from the labour of finally examining
the revised sheets as they came from the printer by
my friend RICHARD Heathfield, Esq., of the Chancery
Bar. He kindly undertook this task, irksome in
itself, but at the same time requiring those qualities
of critical accuracy and attention which he possesses
in an eminent degree.

The Index is entirely the work of another friend of
the same Bar, W. W. MACKESON, Esq. Its fulness
and arrangement, whilst they reflect on him the
greatest credit, increase my obligations to him for
the kindness with which he undertook it, and for the
manner in which he has performed it.

WILLIAM BURGE.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PART I.

ON THE LAWS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES, AND THE PROCEEDINGS
AND PRACTICE ON APPEALS.

A preliminary treatise on the several systems of jurisprudence which pre

vail in the British possessions. The proceedings and practice by which

the decisions of their courts are reviewed on appeal by the judicial com-

mittee of the Privy Council.......

page xiii.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONFLICT OF LAWS.-HOW IT ARISES.-STATE OF JURISPRUDENCE

ON THIS SUBJECT.

The municipal law. The limits of its authority.-In what manner the sub-

jects of one state are affected by the laws of foreign states.-The conflict

of laws. The necessity of selecting some other law than that of the

country in which a claim is contested.-A principle adapted to such a

conflict not to be traced in the early history of jurisprudence.-Doubted

if it prevailed in the civil law.—The various coutumes of France gave occa-

sion for its application.-Subsequently recognized in other states of

Europe. Early writers, Bartholus, Baldus, Argentræus, Burgundus,

Hertius, P. Voet, Froland, Boullenois.-The great merit of the latter.-

Their classification of laws.-Their controversy in assigning the different

laws to their respective classes.-Object of this classification attainable

by considering the different subjects which belong to each class.-Per-

sonal laws. Real laws.-Mixed laws.-Definitions of each.-General

principles. The only laws between which there can be a conflict.-Manner

of treating the subjects to which they refer, with a view of ascertaining

the appropriate law.

p. 1

CHAPTER II.

DOMICILE.

The law of domicile.-Its influence.-Domicile of birth or origin.—By

operation of law. As of the wife on her marriage. The domicile of

children.-Persons born at sea, or on a journey.-Domicile of choice.—

Presumptions in favour of the domicile of origin.-Change of domicile.-

Definitions of domicile.-How new domicile acquired.-Abandonment

of acquired domicile, and no new domicile fixed.-Domicile in respect of

acceptance of office.-What offices necessarily effect a change.-Code

Civil.

p. 32

CHAPTER III.

SECTION 1.-LEGITIMACY.

The different qualities and capacities constituting civil status.-Legitimacy

and illegitimacy.-By birth.-Rule Pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant.—

Exceptions to the rule.-Physical impossibility.-Utero-gestation.-Civil

law, &c.-Law of France.-England.-Lord Coke's doctrine.-Claim to

the Gardner peerage.-Moral impossibility.-Civil law.-Law of France.

-Of England.-Banbury peerage case.-Evidence.-Certificates of re-

gistry. Acts of birth and marriage.—Enjoyment of corresponding

status. Civil law.-Law of England.-France.-How far any of these

principles are obligatory in foreign courts.-Actiones præjudiciales; or

Suits on status.-Sentences therein.

SECTION II.

LEGITIMATION.

p. 57

Legitimation, per subsequens matrimonium.-Under the civil law. Canon

law. The fiction which is adopted.-Essential that there should be no

impediment to the marriage-At what period the absence of such impe-

diment must exist.-The removal of the impediment.-Its effect.-Inter-

vening marriage.-How far the issue of such marriage is affected by the

subsequent marriage.-Effects of this legitimation in giving to the issue

all the rights of children legitimate by birth.-Extends to grandchildren

whose parents are dead at the marriage of their grandfather and grand-

mother.-Legitimation by the letters of the sovereign, or ex rescripto

principis.-In what respects it differs from the preceding legitimation.

SECTION III.

LEGITIMATION.

p. 92.

Possible conflict between the law of the domicile of origin and that of the

actual domicile, or that of the situs of property, in consequence of the one

law admitting, and the other rejecting, legitimation per subsequens matri-

monium. The law which ought to be adopted when the question regards

the succession to real and personal estate....

p. 101.

CHAPTER IV.

MAJORITY.

Age of majority by the Civil Law.-Puberes.-Impuberes.-Coutumes of Paris.

-Normandy.-Code Civil.-Law of Spain, Holland, Germany, Saxony,

United States, England, Scotland.—The period when minority ceases.-

The venia ætatis.-Lettres de benefice d'âge.-Emancipation under the Code

Civil.-Marriage rendering the husband a major absolutely or partially.

-If the law of the domicile of origin differs from that of the actual domi-

cile in fixing the age of majority, the law of the latter to be adopted.-

The lex loci rei sita, if it differs from the law of the domicile, is to be

adopted, if the question regards the capacity to alienate real propeoty.-

Conflict between the lex loci contractus and that of the domicile...

p. 113