instance cited by Blackstone from Coke | such land who would have been capable (Comm. ii. p. 253), if a father were seised of inheriting the same, by tracing his in fee-simple, and his son committed descent through such relation, if he had treason and were attainted, upon the death not been attainted, unless such land shall of the father the lands escheated to the have escheated before the 1st day of lord, because the son by the corruption of January, 1834." By another clause of his blood was incapable of being heir, this act, descent is always to be traced and there could be no other heir during from the purchaser, that is, from the his life but nothing was forfeited to the person who has acquired the land in some king, for the son never had any interest other way than by descent, and the last in the lands to forfeit. owner shall be considered to be the purchaser, unless it can be proved that he inherited the same, in which case the descent must be traced till we arrive at a person as to whom it cannot be proved that he inherited. In this act the word descent means the title to inherit land by reason of consanguinity, as well when the heir shall be an ancestor or collateral relation, as when he shall be a child or other issue. By this act, if a man's son should be attainted, and should die before lands descend to him, the son of such son would be enabled to inherit the lands, which was not the case formerly.

The hardship caused by the doctrine of the corruption of blood in punishing the offences of the guilty by a heavy punishment upon the innocent, has frequently attracted the attention of the legislature; though, until lately, little has been done towards permanently remedying the evil. The 1 Edw. VI. c. 12, § 17, enacted that attainder of treason, petit-treason, misprision of treason, and murder, or any felony, should not deprive the wife of her dower; but 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 11, § 13, restored the old law in the case of all treasons, and therefore a wife loses her dower in case her husband is attainted of any treason. But it has been usual, where a new felony has been created by act of parliament, to make an express provision that it shall not extend to corruption of blood. By the stat. 7 Anne, c. 21 (the operation of which was deferred by 17 Geo. II. c. 39), it was enacted that, after the death of the Pretender and his sons, no attainder for treason should extend to the disinheriting any heir, nor the prejudice of any person other than the offender. But, both these statutes being repealed by 39 Geo. III. c. 93, the ancient law of forfeiture for treason was restored. By 54 Geo. III. c. 145, corruption of blood was taken away for attainder, except in cases of treason, petit-treason (that is, where a wife has murdered her husband, a servant his master, or an ecclesiastic his superior), and other murders. By the act of 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106, which relates to descent, it is enacted, § 10, "That when the person from whom the descent of any land is to be traced shall have had any relation, who, having been attainted, shall have died before such descent shall have taken place, then such attainder shall not prevent any person from inheriting

A dignity descendible to the heirs general is forfeited to the crown both for treason and for felony. An entailed dignity is forfeited for treason, but not for felony. Thus Lawrence, Earl Ferrers, whose peerage was limited to the heirs male of the body of his ancestor, being attainted for murder in the reign of George II., was succeeded by Washington, Earl Ferrers, his next brother. (Cruise, Real Property, lib. iv. sec. 64, 72, 73.)

The corruption of blood produced by attainder cannot be effectually removed except by an act of parliament. "The king," says Blackstone (vol. ii. p. 254),

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may excuse the public punishment of an offender. He may remit a forfeiture in which the interest of the crown is alone concerned; but he cannot wipe away the corruption of blood; for therein a third person hath an interest, the lord, who claims by escheat." But it appears from the same author (vol. iv. p. 402) that the king's pardon is so far effectual after an attainder, that it imparts new inheritable blood to the person attainted, so that his children born after the pardon may inherit from him.

2. Besides the modes of attainder by

tion became better acquainted with the principles of constitutional freedom, parliamentary attainders became less frequent. Under the Stuarts recourse was seldom had to this extraordinary mode of proceeding. It was thought necessary to adopt it in the time of James I. with respect to Catesby, Percy, and several other persons, who were killed in the insurrection that ensued upon the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, or died before they could be brought to trial, as they, not having been tried, could not have been attainted by the ordinary process of law. It was again adopted by the Long Parliament in Lord Strafford's case, on the ground that he was an extraordinary criminal, who would have escaped with little punishment if no other penalties than those of the existing laws had been inflicted on him. But even Lord Strafford's attainder was reversed after the re

the common law, as above described, there have been frequent instances in the History of England of attainders by express legislative enactment, called Bills of Attainder. This has happened when, either from the extraordinary nature of the offence, or from unforeseen obstacles to the execution of the ordinary laws, it has been thought necessary to have recourse to the supreme power of parlia- | ment, for the purpose of punishing particular offences. These enactments, either in the shape of bills of attainder or bills of pains and penalties, have been made at intervals from an early period of our history, down to very recent times. The justice as well as the policy of these ex post facto laws has been often questioned; and they have generally occurred in times of turbulence or of arbitrary government; but the number of them is sufficiently large to form a formidable list of precedents. There were some in-storation of Charles II., and all the restances of them under the Plantagenet princes, as the bills of attainder against Roger Mortimer and Edmund, Earl of Arundel, in the reign of Edward III. Both of these, however, were reversed in the same reign. It was not till the reign of Henry VIII., which was fertile in new crimes and extraordinary punishments, that the proceeding by bill of attainder became so common as almost to supersede trials according to the ordinary process of law. Scarcely a year passed without persons of the highest rank being brought to the scaffold by bill of attainder. Among them were the Earl of Surrey, Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who is said to have been the adviser of these measures, and most of those persons who suffered for denying the king's supremacy. All these persons were attainted upon mere hearsay evidence; and some not only upon no evidence at all, but without being The effect of this bill of attainder was, heard in their defence. In the following therefore, to suspend the statute of 7 Will. reign of Edward VI., the Protector Somer- III. c. 3, before it had been two years set encouraged a bill of attainder for trea- in operation, in order to destroy an indison against his brother Lord Seymour of vidual. This exertion of legislative Sudley, the Lord High Admiral of Eng- power did not take place without a strong land and husband of the Queen Dowager opposition, and has been frequently reproCatherine Parr, which was hurried bated in subsequent times. Bishop Burthrough both houses of parliament with- net, one of its most strenuous supporters, out the accused being permitted to say allowed that "this extreme way of proanything in his defence. But as the na-ceeding was to be put in practice but

cords of the proceedings cancelled by act of parliament. The Duke of Monmouth, also, on his appearing openly in arms against the government in 1685, was attainted by statute. A remarkable instance of a proceeding by bill of attainder occurred in the case of Sir John Fenwick, who, in the year 1696, was attainted for a conspiracy to assassinate William III. There is no question that Sir John Fenwick might have been tried by the ordinary process of law. The excuse urged for resorting to a bill of attainder was, that there was no moral doubt of Fenwick's guilt; but that as two witnesses were required by the stat. 7 Will. III. cap. 3, in order to convict him; and as one of them had been tampered with and removed out of the kingdom, a legal proof of an overt act of treason became impossible.

their affidavits within the limited time. By the last general stamp act, a duty of 120. is imposed upon the articles of clerkship of attorney, and 17. 15s. on the counterpart; and by 34 Geo. III. c. 14, § 2, the articles, duly stamped, were to be enrolled or registered with the proper officer in that court where the party proposes to practise as an attorney. No attorney is allowed, either by former acts or the one now in force, to have more than two articled clerks at once, and these only during such time as he is actually in

time during which he himself is employed as clerk by another attorney. The clerk, in order to be admitted an attorney, must actually serve five years under his articles, unless he has taken a degree; but by 6 & 7 Vict., in case the attorney dies, or discontinues to practise, or the articles are by mutual consent cancelled, then the clerk may serve the residue of the time under articles to any other practising attorney, and the new articles are not subject to stampduty. The articled clerk may serve one year, but not a longer time, with the agent of the attorney to whom he is articled: a

of, and reside in, some inn of court or chancery, and keep commons there. These were superseded by the 2 Geo. II. c. 23, § 5, which provided that no person should practise as an attorney in the superior courts unless he had been bound by contract in writing to serve for five years as clerk to a regular attorney, and had continued five years in such service, and had been afterwards examined, sworn, admitted, and enrolled in manner in the act mentioned, under penalty of 50l. and an incapacity to sue for his fees. This provision is, by sub-practice on his own account, and not at any sequent statutes, extended to practising in the county court or the quarter-sessions; and by 34 Geo. III. c. 14, § 4, any person practising as an attorney without due admission and enrolment shall forfeit 1007. and be disabled from suing for his fees. The 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 48, and 3 Geo. IV. c. 16, are repealed, except as to Ireland, but the following provisions are re-enacted in the new act respecting attorneys (6 & 7 Vict. c. 73), with the addition of Durham and London to the other universities: persons having taken the degree of bachelor of arts or bachelor of law, in the university of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin [also Dur-plan generally adopted by country clerks, ham and London], and having served under contract in writing for three years with an attorney, and having been actually employed during the three years by such attorney or his agent in the business of an attorney, shall be qualified to be admitted as fully as if they had served five years; provided the degree of bachelor of arts was taken within six years after matriculation, and the degree of bachelor of law was taken within eight years after matriculation: the binding to the attorney must also be within four years after the taking of the degree. By the 22 Geo. II. c. 46, which is now repealed so far as relates to attorneys and solicitors, an affidavit was required to be made, within three months from the date of the articles of the execution thereof, by the attorney and by the clerk, which affidavit was to be filed in the court where the attorney was enrolled, and be read in open court before the clerk was admitted and enrolled an attorney. Acts of indemnity were, however, occasionally passed, relieving persons who had neglected to file

who thus acquire a year's experience of the practice in London, without delaying their admission: and by the 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 48, § 2, now repealed, an articled clerk who became bonâ fide a pupil to a barrister or certificated special pleader, for one whole year, might be admitted in the same manner as was done if he had served one year with the agent of the attorney to whom he was bound. Under 6 & 7 Vict. he may now serve one year with the London agent, and also one year with a barrister or special pleader, leaving three years only to spend with the attor ney to whom he was articled.

Formerly, before the clerk could be admitted an attorney, an affidavit was required of the actual service under the articles, sworn by himself or the attorney with whom he had served, to be filed in the court to which he sought admission; he also made oath (or affirmation, if a Quaker) that he had duly paid the stamp duty on the articles, and that he would truly and honestly demean himself as an attorney; and he then took the oaths of

allegiance and supremacy, and subscribed | of the proper duty, he is liable to a penalty of 50l. and an incapacity to sue for his fees. Acts of indemnity are occasionally passed to relieve attorneys who have neglected to take out their certificates in due time. The omission by an attorney to take out his certificate for one whole year formerly incapacitated him from practising, and rendered his admission void; but the courts had power to re-admit him on payment of the arrears of certificate duty, and such penalty as the courts thought fit. (37 Geo. III. c. 90.) This part of the act is repealed by .6 & 7 Vict.