Next the Senior Counsel for Southgate began-*
He affirm'd as a Lawyer, and felt as a Man,
That where'er there clearly was a lis contestata,
The judgment which followed was-Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

"Were proceedings (said he) in each country renew'd,
"And the flying Defender in this way pursued,
"We should have Jurisdictio non explicata,
"Which can never result from a Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

"If this were the Law, then, of course, every Spring,
"Defenders, like woodcocks, would henceforth take wing,
"And the very worst case might be vitio purgala,
"Just by shifting the scene of the Res Judicata !
Sing down, &c.

66

Suppose the Pursuer, my Lord, to pursue

"Some travelling Merchant-some wandering Jew"What avails your Decree, if the whole Gens barbata Might cry, with one voice, Tish not Reesh Judicata!' Sing down, &c.

"But my Friend puts a case

Supposing,' says he,

"That the only point ruled by this foreign decree

"Were a point of Scotch Law: must the foreign Errata ""Be sanction'd, because it is Res Judicata ?'

Sing down, &c.

"Now, in answer to this, I would ask, in what School

"The single Exception is held as the Rule?

"The Rule is, in fact, exceptione firmata,

"A maxim which long has been Res Judicata. Sing down, &c.

Having stated thus much, I need hardly bestow a

Single word on the rival Decree of St. Croix :

* John Hope, Esq. Dean of Faculty.

"For a Res inter alios at the Equator

"No Cockney could hold as a Res Judicatur.
Sing down, &c.

"If Titius and Mævius there should unite,
"To prove that Sempronius's Sambo was white,
"Must Yamba, the Timbuctoo Merchant, abate a
Single cowrie of price on this Res Judicata?
Sing down, &c.

66

"Here Yamba, my Lord, might most properly say,
"It matters not whether he's black, white, or grey-
"This is MERA potestas, et non prorogata—
"" And I don't give one yam for your Res Judicata !'
Sing down, &c.

"On the whole, then, my Lord, keeping these things in view,
"And attending throughout to the case of the Jew,
"We submit 'twill be dies carbone notata,
"When a Judgment like this is not Res Judicata."
Sing down, &c.

Then Montgomerie's Senior rose in reply-*
That his friend had been able he could not deny :
Yet the case was untouch'd in those deeper substrata
Into which one must look for a Res Judicata.

Sing down, &c.

'Twas there that the thoughtful inquirer must trace The great leading rules which must govern the Case: He almost might call them the Desiderata,

In treating a question of Res Judicata.

Sing down, &c.

The Law of his Brother he scarcely could meet,
For 'twas Law in the abstract and not the concrete:

His in fact was throughout far too much of a meta-
physician's idea of Res Judicata.

Sing down, &c.

Andrew Rutherfurd, Esq. then Solicitor-General, now Lord Advocate.

He urged the case on the common mistake,

That Decrees were pronounced for mere principle's sake:
He really was grieved that he should propagate a
Crude notion like this upon Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

Of the Law of the Romans he merely would say,
That it now had been stated in quite a new way:
For at least the Comitia Centuriata

Always spurn'd at the doctrine of Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

Of the case of the Negro he could not allow,
For that was a case of apprenticeship now:
His friend really made the most strange postulala,
In stating this question on Res Judicata !
Sing down, &c.

For the case of the Jew he was hardly prepared ;
And, on such an occasion, it might have been spared:
He envied not those who could try to create a
Foolish laugh on a subject like Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c,

JURISDICTION (he said) was a delicate thing:
And as to Defenders henceforth" taking wing"-
"Twas a question ambagibus multis nodata:
But one thing was clear-'twas not Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

A full week or more in this way had been past,
And even his Lordship was wearied at last :
For they held him in solidum 'stead of pro rata,
And nothing was heard but their Res Judicata.
Sing down, &c.

If you came to the House any morning at Nine,
You would probably find them just crossing the Line :
If you staid on till Three, (quod averterent fata!)

There was Echo still answering
Sing down, &c.

"Res Judicata !"

Every Counsel was dumb-every Clerk in despair-
And THE HAIGS came half-way up the Library stair;
When at length said his Lordship,* “ Biberunt sat prata-
"Is my Life to be made a mere Res Judicata?

Sing down, &c.

"For more than a week has the case stopp'd the Roll,
"Yet a part is but heard—which is less than the whole;
"So I'll now put the matter on quite a new basis—
You have made it so clear, that I must-order CASES."
Sing down, &c.

XXXIV.

HER MAJESTY'S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH, DELIVERED at the OPENING OF PARLIAMENT ON THE 5TH OF FEBRUARY 1839.

No Royal Speech was issued from the Parliament House of the Modern Athenians, upon occasion of the opening of the first Parliament of Queen Victoria, on the 20th Nov. 1837.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

In again meeting my Reformed Parliament, I beg to congratulate you and the Country on the universal Tranquillity and Contentment prevailing throughout the Empire, at Home and Abroad, and particularly in the Kingdom of Ireland, and in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.

I continue to receive from all Foreign Powers the most satisfactory accounts of the Prosperous State of their Dominions, and assurances of their Amicable Feeling towards this Country, on both of which I can place equal reliance. The rightful Heir of the Throne of Caboul, having extinguished the light of his Predecessor, has naturally turned his own eyes to the concentration within narrower limits of my Dominions in the East; and as he is aided in his exertions by the Schah Soojah (who is about to resume his seat on the Guddee of Persia), I doubt not, that, in the course of a few years, these combined Powers will remove all difficulty as * Lord Jeffrey,-who, after hearing the counsel, pronounced an order for cases.

to the Government of my Possessions in that part of the World.

Europe is in a state of Tranquillity equally exhilarating, and no interference on the part of Great Britain is required for expediting the active measures now in full vigour in Spain and Portugal. Our West Indian Colonies have, by the removal of Slavery, and the consequent establishment of one universal holiday, ceased to be the seat of the labours of Business, and are relieved from the weight of profitable and unprofitable speculation. The repeated outbreaks in Canada have tended to forward in no small degree the extension of that great spirit of Liberalism which it is the main object of my enlightened Government to render universal.

The unexpected advent in this Country of the most august Ex-Autocrat of all the Canadas-an event of an unusually auspicious character-has given universal satisfaction to my Liberal Subjects. It has at the sametime tended in a most remarkable manner to strengthen the hands of my Faithful Servants, whose devotion to me has been such that no idle or fastidious attachment to Principle, Honour, or Consistency, has for a moment led them to contemplate the possibility of deserting their Royal Mistress. Their enlightened Chief has, with the most praiseworthy zeal, and with a total abandonment of the comforts of Domestic Life, devoted himself entirely to personal attendance upon me.* He has never left me for one moment to solitary reflection, or allowed the intrusion into my presence of any of those disloyal subjects who are blind to the spirit of the age, and attached to the antiquated forms of a Constitution, parts of which still present an untoward resistance to the true principles of Utility and overwhelming Reform.

Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

I congratulate you on the state of our Finances, and specially on the felicitous circumstance, that it has been consi

Lord Melbourne, whose perpetual dining with her Majesty was the subject of great ridicule.