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), "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

the common law, as above described, | tion became better acquainted with the there have been frequent instances in the principles of constitutional freedom, parHistory of England of attainders by ex- liamentary attainders became less frepress legislative enactment, called Bills quent. Under the Stuarts recourse was of Attainder. This has happened when, seldom had to this extraordinary mode of either from the extraordinary nature of proceeding. It was thought necessary to the offence, or from unforeseen obstacles adopt it in the time of James I. with reto the execution of the ordinary laws, it spect to Catesby, Percy, and several other has been thought necessary to have re- persons, who were killed in the insurcourse to the supreme power of parlia- rection that ensued upon the discovery of ment, for the purpose of punishing par- the Gunpowder Plot, or died before they ticular offences. These enactments, could be brought to trial, as they, not either in the shape of bills of attainder having been tried, could not have been or bills of pains and penalties, have been attainted by the ordinary process of law. made at intervals from an early period of It was again adopted by the Long Parour history, down to very recent times. liament in Lord Strafford's case, on the The justice as well as the policy of these ground that he was an extraordinary criex post facto laws has been often ques- minal, who would have escaped with tioned; and they have generally occurred little punishment if no other penalties in times of turbulence or of arbitrary than those of the existing laws had been government; but the number of them is inflicted on him. But even Lord Strafsufficiently large to form a formidable ford's attainder was reversed after the relist 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.

do other acts for his principal, by an in strument called a letter of attorney; or he is an attorney at law, practising in the several courts of common law. The latter description only will be treated of under this head.

An attorney at law answers to the procurator, or proctor, of the civil and canon law, and of our ecclesiastical courts. Before the statute 13 Edward I. c. 10, suitors could not appear in court by attorney without the king's special warrant, but were compelled to appear in person, as is still the practice in criminal cases. The authority given by that statute to prosecute or defend by attorney formed the attorneys into a regular body, and so

The legislature, acting in conformity with this opinion, have seldom, since the accession of the House of Hanover, had recourse either to bills of attainder or bills of pains and penalties. Bishop Atterbury, however, was deprived of all his offices and emoluments, declared incapable of holding any for the future, and banished for ever, by a bill of pains and penalties, which received the assent of George I. on the 27th of May, 1723. He was charged with carrying on a traitorous correspondence in order to raise an insurrection in the kingdom and procure foreign power to invade it. It was by a bill of pains and penalties that proceed-greatly increased their number, that seings were taken against Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV., in 1820. During the Irish Rebellion, in 1798, Lord Edward Fitzgerald was arrested on a charge of high treason, and dying in prison, before he could be brought to trial, of the wounds which he had received in resisting his apprehension, he was attainted by act of parliament. But when the violence of party-spirit had subsided, the old principle of the constitution, that every man shall be considered innocent of a crime until his guilt has been legally proved, prevailed, and a few years ago the attainder was reversed.

The proceedings in parliament, in passing bills of attainder and of pains and penalties, do not vary from those adopted in regard to other bills. They may be introduced into either house. The parties who are subjected to these proceedings are admitted to defend themselves by counsel and witnesses. Bills for reversing attainders are "first signed by the king, and are presented by a lord to the House of Peers, by command of the crown, after which they pass through the ordinary stages in both houses, and receive the royal assent in the usual form." (May's Parliament.)

ATTAINT. [JURY.]

ATTORNEY is a person substituted (atourné, attornatus), from atourner, attornare, to substitute, and signifies one put in the place or turn of another to manage his concerns. He is either a private attorney, authorised to make contracts, and

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veral statutes and rules of court for their regulation, and for limiting their number, were passed in the reigns of Henry IV., Henry VI., and Elizabeth: one of which, the 33 Henry VI. c. 7, states, that not long before there were only six or eight attorneys in Norfolk and Suffolk, quo tempore magna tranquillitas regnabat," when things were very quiet; but that their increase to twenty-four was to the vexation and prejudice of the counties; and it therefore enacts, that for the future there shall be only six in Norfolk, six in Suffolk, and two in Norwich-a provision which is still unrepealed, though fallen into disuse. It will be convenient to consider:

1st. The admission of attorneys to practise, their enrolment, and their certificates.

2nd. Their duties, functions, privileges, and disabilities.

3rd. The consequences of their misbehaviour.

4th. Their remedy for recovering their fees, &c.

1. The admission of attorneys to prac tise, their enrolment, and certificates.The earlier regulations as to the admission of an attorney (3 Jac. I. c. 7, § 2, and rules of courts in 8 Car. I., and 1654) required that he should serve for five years as clerk to some judge, serjeant, counsel, attorney, or officer of court; that he should be found, on examination by appointed practisers, of good ability and honesty; and that he should be admitted