his was the whole system; and it was found
completely to obviate the whole difficulties that might be
expected to arise in fusing the legal and equitable
proceedings. With regard to the practical results of the
system, he might state that he had not found the
slightest difficulty in the world, and he did not know of
a single person at the bar of New York who asserted
that the union of the two practices was attended with
any difficulty. Of course there was great clamour at
first, and many prophecies of failure; but in practice
no difficulty had been found. The code had been copied,
in whole or in part, by the States of Missouri, California,
and Mississippi; and conventions for adopting it were
about to be held in Kentucky, Iowa, Tenessee, and
Massachusetts.

In answer to questions put to Mr. Field respecting
the working of the new system in New York, he said,
that the parties in a cause are sworn to the truth of
their statements according to their knowledge and
belief; with this exception, that if the plaintiff dispenses
with the oath of the defendant, he is not called upon to
give his own. They may also be brought before the
jury. One effect of this rule is, that a plaintiff
sometimes at once proves his case without the expense of
other witnesses, and at other times he learns immediately
that which shows him that he cannot prove his case at
all. As to costs, between the lawyer and client, the old
fee-table has been abolished: the law does not interfere
with bargains for remuneration between the lawyers
and client; and if no specific bargain is made, the court
decides according to the custom of the profession—as it
does on the fees of doctors, and of gentlemen in other
professions. Between party and party, the scale of costs
is regulated by stages of the proceeding—so much up to
preparation for trial, so much more for the next stage,
and so on. Any cause may be got ready for trial in
forty days—an ordinary one in twenty days; and, when
the heavy arrears of the old system shall have been
cleared off, it will be possible to carry a case wholly
through in a single year, including a first appeal before
three or four judges, and a second appeal before eight
judges. The meeting cordially thanked Mr. Field for
the valuable information he had given.

The Dangers of the Navigation of the Channel are
strikingly exhibited by an important document just
published, compiled by Mr. J. Young, of the
Underwriters' room at Lloyd's, giving a list of the wrecks and
casualties to shipping which have been officially reported
to have occurred between Dungeness and London during
a period of eighteen months, from January, 1849, to
June, 1850, inclusive. To each casualty is affixed the
extent of damage sustained, estimated as nearly as could
be ascertained. The result is, that during the eighteen
months in question the amount of property destroyed
by known wrecks and casualties, is between £400,000
and £500,000, besides the sacrifice of a great number of
lives. The object of the compiler is to show the enormous
annual destruction of property occasioned by the
dangers of navigation between the Isle of Wight and
the Thames, which would be avoided by homeward-
bound ships discharging in the Southampton docks,
besides the saving that would be effected in the rate of
insurance, time occupied between the island and London,
and the extra cost of wages, provisions, and incidental
expenses. It is a remarkable fact that few wrecks ever
take place in that part of the British Channel to the
westward of the Wight, but that the real dangers
commence after passing the back of the island to proceed to
the Thames. To this document is subjoined an abstract
of the loss of shipping and life, between the Isle of
Wight and London, for the seven years from 1837 to
1843 inclusive, by which it appears that during that
period 499 vessels lost anchors and cables, were partially
dismasted by bad weather or being run foul of, or
sustained other damage; 560 vessels took the ground, but
were got off again; 260 vessels entirely wrecked or
foundered, of which the crews and passengers were saved;
66 vessels were totally lost, with all or several of the
crews or passengers; the total number of casualties being
1375. Amongst the ships lost in 1842 and 1843 were
those splendid Indiamen, the Reliance and the Conqueror,
nearly every soul on board of which, amounting
to little short of 200, perished. In the latter year
the ship Burhampooter, with emigrants from London
for New South Wales, was, a few hours after leaving
the Thames, utterly wrecked near Margate, on which
occasion the people on board had a hair-breadth escape
with their lives, losing all the property they had. The
loss of the Amphitrite is also too recent to be forgotten;
she was riding at anchor in the Downs, was driven out
by violent weather, and totally wrecked near Boulogne;
she had on board nearly 200 female convicts, bound to
Australia, all of whom, with the whole of the crew, were
drowned, and the vessel scattered in fragments on
the shore. During the first six months of 1850 it
appears that no less than eight vessels have been lost
between London and the Wight, with all on board; and
the number of lives so sacrificed is estimated as little
short of 500.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

THE Queen and the Royal Family returned from
Osborne to Windsor Castle on the 1st instant. Her
Majesty's private band, which had not played before
the Court since the death of Sir Robert Peel, resumed
its rehearsals on the day before her Majesty's arrival.

Mr. George Arbuthnot has been appointed Auditor
of the Civil List, one of the most important offices in
the Treasury. Mr. Stephenson succeeds Mr. Arbuthnot
as private secretary to Sir Charles Wood.

At a Court of Directors, held in the East India House
on the 13th, Lieutenant-General Sir John Grey, K.C.B.,
was sworn in Commander-in-Chief of the Company's
forces, and second member of Council on the Bombay
Establishment.

The Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil has been
appointed her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary at
Florence, in the place of the late Sir George Hamilton.

It is understood that Sir John Herschel will succeed
Mr. Sheil as Master of the Mint. This appointment
will no longer be held by a member of parliament, and
the salary will be reduced to £1500 a year.

The Gazette of the 5th announces that the Queen has
granted to Sir Robert Monsey Rolfe, late Baron of the
Exchequer, the office of a Vice-Chancellor of the Court
of Chancery in England.

The Queen has granted a Pension of £100 a year to
Mr. John Payne Collier, the editor of "Shakspere,"
and author of the "History of the English Stage." The
warrant expressly mentions that the pension is given
"in consideration of his literary merits."

Mr. (now Sir Charles) Eastlake has been elected
President of the Royal Academy, and has received from
the Queen the honour of knighthood.

Obituary of Notable Persons

The Dowager Lady SUFFIELD died at Blickling Hall, in
Norfolk, on the 27th ult.

Dr. INGLIS, Bishop of Nova Scotia, died in Curzon Street,
May Fair, on the 27th ult., in the 73rd year of his age.

Sir DONALD CAMPBELL, Bart., Lieutenant-Governor of Prince
Edward's Island, died at the Government House, Charlottetown,
on the 18th ult., aged 50.

Mr. Commissioner HARRIS, of the Insolvent Debtors' Court,
died at his residence in Chester-place, on the 25th ult., in his
77th year. He had been a commissioner of that court for nearly
thirty years.

Lord RANCLIFFE died on the 1st inst., at Bunney Hall, near
Nottingham. He was in his 65th year; the title is extinct.

ANNE LANCEY, widow of the late Thomas Lancey, Esq., died
on the 9th, at Greenwich, in her 101st year.

The Countess of CRAWFORD and BALCARRES died at Haigh
Hall, Lancashire, on the 16th, in her 67th year.

Alexander RAPHAEL, Esq., M.P., died at Surbiton, on the
17th, in his 75th year.

The Right Rev. Dr. KENNEDY, Roman Catholic Bishop of
Killaloe, died at Parsonstown, King's County, after a
protracted illness, in his sixty-third year. Dr. Kennedy had
attended the synod at Thurles, where he had taken an active part
in opposing the condemnation of the Queen's Colleges; and he
was one of the thirteen prelates who subsequently signed a
memorial to the Pope, with respect to those institutions. The
deceased prelate had been most earnest and successful in his
exertions to discourage the "Young Ireland" movement during
the excitement of 1818.

Tlie Right Hon. Lord NUGENT, M.P. for the borough of
Aylesbury, at his seat, Lillies, on the 26th.—