A joint memorial, requesting a grant of lands by the Congress of the United States for the use of a female academy in each county in the state.

The legislature, at its session commencing the 15th November, 1830, passed one hundred and four private or local acts, twelve laws of a public or general nature, two memorials, and seven joint resolutions. The private and local acts contain nothing of general interest.

Decisions of the Supreme Court. The act on this subject, which is supplemental to, and amendatory of the pre-existing law, makes it the duty of the reporter to report the decisions now on file, within two years; and all future decisions, within two years after they are rendered. It also provides that the reporter shall print and publish as many copies of the reports as he may think proper, not less than five hundred, divided into volumes as the court may direct; eighty-five copies of which he shall deliver to the Secretary of State, for the use of the state; restricting the price of the remaining copies to one cent per page. The reporter's compensation is fixed at eight hundred dollars for each year's decisions reported.

Deeds. Relinquishment of Dower. Acknowledgment on probate of deeds, and acknowledgment of the relinquishment of dower, may be taken by any clerk of the Circuit Court, or any notary public in the county for which he is commissioned, whether the lands, &c. designated by such deed or relinquishment, be situated in the same county, or elsewhere in this state. All registration, heretofore made in conformity with the provisions of this act, are legalized.

State Prosecutions. The act provides that in any capital case, a juror shall not be rejected by the court as incompetent, for an opinion formed and expressed solely upon rumor, unaided by his own knowledge of the facts; that in a trial for a crime made capital by law, the defendant shall have sixteen, and the state four, peremptory challenges; for any felonious offence, not capital, the defendant shall have twelve, and the state four peremptory challenges.

Justices' Processes. Every process issued by a justice of the Peace, after the first day of May next, founded on a debt or debts, shall be returnable to the beat where the defendant, or one of the defendants, resides, or to the beat where the debt or debts were contracted—and every process otherwise issued shall be void on motion and due proof made. Provided that if there be no justice

in the beat of the defendant's residence, or he should be legally incompetent to try the cause, it may be returned to an adjoining beat.

Medical Board. A Board of Physicians is established in the city of Mobile, to consist of five members elected by a joint vote of the two branches of the General Assembly; and is invested with the same power, and subjected to the same restrictions, with other boards heretofore established in other parts of the state.

Judicial Proceedings. The same percentage shall be assessed upon appeals and writs of error from the County to the Circuit Court, as on appeals, &c. from the County and Circuit Courts to the Supreme Court.

Crimes. The attempt by any slave or free person of color to commit a rape upon any free white female, is made capital.1

The memorials adopted by the legislature of Alabama at the same session, relate to the public lands in the state, and pray a modification of the laws of the United States in favor of purchasers, relinquishers, and occupants.

The following joint resolutions are deserving of notice, viz.

A joint resolution directing the Governor to subscribe for five copies of the Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, for the use of the different departments of the state government.

A joint resolution requiring the Secretary of State to distribute the acts of the Congress of the United States, which may be in his office, among the several counties of this state, according to the ratio by which the acts and journals of the General Assembly are distributed.

A joint resolution in relation to the transportation of the mail on Sunday. This contains, among others, the following resolves.

'Be it resolved, &c. That the transportation of the mail on Sunday is of vital importance to the welfare and prosperity of the Union, and that its suspension on that day would be a violation of the spirit of the constitution, and be repugnant to the principles of a free government.

'Be it further resolved, That the sentiments expressed in the report of the committee at the last session of Congress, in opposition to the suspension of the mail on Sunday, is entitled to the highest consideration of the friends of the constitution, and every lover of civil and political freedom.'

This phraseology was adopted to avoid the embarrassment which sometimes arose from the vagueness of the expression in the old law, viz. ‘free

white woman.'

397

SHORT REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Judge Thacher's Address to the Suffolk Bar. This discourse was delivered at the annual meeting of the Suffolk Bar, in March last. The subject is the connexion between the moral and professional character. It abounds in classical and historical allusions, introduced with taste, and elegantly expressed, and is embued throughout with a rich infusion of pure and elevated moral sentiment. The speaker very happily and eloquently pays a tribute of honor and affectionate remembrance to those members of the Suffolk Bar who had recently deceased; and the short biographical notices added to the published address, give it an additional value. We cannot notice the discourse so appropriately, nor so satisfactorily to those of our readers who did not hear it, as by giving the following passage on law in general, and the duties of its professors.

'In contemplating Law as a universal principle, which all beings animate and inanimate obey, the mind is filled with the magnitude of the conception. Not only creatures, but the Creator himself acknowledges a rule of conduct. Those spirits who surround his throne, and are swift to do his will, and all inferior orders of rational beings, whether in society or solitude, recognise the will of their Creator as the law of their existence. In the revolution of the heavenly bodies, in the succession of seasons, and indeed throughout the whole course of nature, the footsteps of a divine Lawgiver are no less manifest than among the highest intelligent spirits. So that there is great truth in that well known eulogy of the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, and language would fail to express it in more sublime terms: "Of Law there be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."

'I will add, in my own humble language, that the law constitutes the ligament of society, binding the state together, preserving its peace, increasing its harmony, and adding to its happiness :-individuals, families, the farmer, the merchant, the artist, the mechanic, 50

VOL. V.-NO. X.

the laborer and his employer, the members of the learned professions, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, great and small, all feel the power, and yield to the sway of the Law, that great leveller of human arrogance, and equalizer of social right and duty. While it exacts unlimited obedience from all as its right, none deem it slavery. On the contrary, the restraint which it lays on all, secures the liberty of all; and therefore the love of rational liberty is the best security for the reign of the law. In the language of Thuanus, whose immortal folios I dare not recommend to you in this age of reviews and pamphlets, “the life, and soul, and judgment, and understanding of the country centre in the laws. A state without law, like a body deprived of its animating principle, is defunct and lifeless in its blood and members. Magistrates and judges are but ministers and interpreters of the laws and in fine, we are all servants of the laws, that we may be free."

'We belong, gentlemen, to a profession, whose duty it is to keep with vestal purity, and in a perpetual flame, this divine science. For numbers, we compose no small portion of the state. Go through the cities and villages of our country: what place is so barren, what village so small, in which is not found its lawyer, as well as its pastor? We mingle with the people in all their concerns, at home and abroad, in public and private, in the field and on the exchange. The influence of the profession is not confined to the administration of justice; it is felt in all the concerns of life and government. You see lawyers in every legislative assembly, among the first to originate, to counsel, and to effect measures of interest to the state. They are active members of every corporation, whether municipal, literary, commercial, or humane. Nothing human is foreign to their pursuits. Holding in their hands the shield of the law, they are the protectors of innocence, the avengers of wrong, the expounders of right. Though generally poor themselves, they number the rich among their clients. The mariner pursues his adventurous course upon the ocean more cheerfully and securely, because he finds among the profession the seaman's friend. Even the miserable criminal arraigned for his crimes, wants not an advocate, who will boldly, and eloquently too, defend his rights, when all the good and just of society seem to be estranged from him. So that, I may add, by their universal knowledge, their professional skill, and their active character, they have a sway over the minds of men, which constitutes moral power in an eminent degree.

'The aggregate weight and influence of our society must depend

on the individual characters of its members. No individual of any profession is an object of greater reverence than the lawyer, who, to profound learning and exalted moral qualities, adds that most rare gift of heaven, eloquence. While all, therefore, may well be proud of an alliance to such a profession, each should strive by his personal virtues, to render himself and the society worthy of general confidence. Of all communities, that of bad men is least likely to be permanent: for they carry in their head and members the elements of division and decay. But the alliance of learning and virtue is the strong arm of the state. And therefore,

in our professional pursuits, the study of justice is ever to be blended with the love and practice of mercy :-since mercy is the foundation of all charitable dealing, and judgment of all just conduct. And if the members of our profession, so numerous, so diffused, and with such powers of influence, will prove themselves true to virtue and to good government, they will compose a phalanx which no Roman legion could penetrate or divide.

'Amidst the divisions which successively agitate the state, on subjects of religion, manners, and government, it is your duty not to be indifferent spectators, but to share in them, that the conflicting parties may not lose the example of your wisdom and moderation. If every one, in his station, will do his duty faithfully, as a good citizen, things will go on well in the republic. Your pursuits qualify you to investigate truth, and your opinions deliberately formed on any subject, will have great influence upon other classes of the community. You spend days and months in the investigation of controverted titles to real estate, and on disputed cases of small value. And all your powers of body and mind are often brought into intense exertion, to maintain the good cause of your clients. Ought it not sometimes, in the vacation at least, to occur to us, that we have titles of infinitely higher interest to investigate for ourselves?'

A

Pamphlet against Lord Chancellor Brougham's Bill. pamphlet has recently been published in England, in opposition to Mr. Brougham's bill for establishing courts of local jurisdiction for the purpose of expediting adjudications, and abridging the expense, in suits under a hundred pounds. The objections are not very clearly stated, and the pamphlet appears to be written by a person more conversant with the routine of business than liberal analytical investigation. We mention it, however, for the purpose merely of noticing an argument drawn from Captain Basil Hall's