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common use in the cotton trade in Manchester and the word "Coco," though not registered as a trade mark, has also been used for years in connection with cotton goods sent from Manchester to foreign markets. The comptroller refused to register" Ko'koko," and the Board of Trade, on appeal to them, referred the matter to the Court. Held (by Kay, J.) : That the application to register must be refused, both on the ground of the resemblance of the word to "Coco" and also because, the device of an owl being common property, the word owl, even in a foreign language (and though there was no evidence of trade at present in the class of goods to which the trade mark would, if registered, apply-with the people speaking that language), could not be registered as a trade mark.

GUY et al. v. CHURCHILL et al.-Bankrupt and Creditors.Assignment of Right of Action by Trustee to some of Creditors to bring Action. Assignees to take all risk and larger share of any Fruits of Action.-Champerty.-Action was brought by Guy and Co., timber merchants, against defendants, timber brokers employed by them, to open accounts and recover the dif ference between two sales made by defendants. Stirling, J., at the trial before him, dismissed the action, refusing leave to amend; leave to amend was however given on appeal. Guy and Co. were afterwards adjudicated bankrupt, and K. ap. pointed trustee in their bankruptcy. K., with approval of committee of inspection, assigned to F. the right of action against defendants. By the assignment, which recited assignor's unwillingness to incur risk and expense of continuing the action, the right of action was assigned to F. on termsF. to continue action at own expense, free from assignor's control, but assignor, as far as rules and practice of Court permitted, would give all assistance and information in his power at F.'s expense to assist F. F. agreed to do his best to bring action to successful issue. Power to compromise was given to F., any money recovered or received under compromise, after deducting actual disbursements not repaid by defendants, but excluding solicitor and client costs of F., to be divided into four parts, three to be paid to F. and fourth to K. F. was creditor acting as trustee for himself and other creditors, including plaintiff's solicitors in the action. F. was employing plaintiff's solicitors. F. obtained an order as of course to carry on the proceedings in the action, and defendants moved to discharge this order. Held (by Chitty, J.) : That though, apart from the Bankruptcy Acts and the relations of the parties to the transaction, the arrangement embodied in the assignment was champertous and the deed void yet having regard to the fact that the transaction was in substance that some of the creditors of the bankrupt were to carry on an action brought by the bankrupt, at their own risk and therefore to take a larger share of any fruits resulting from bringing it, the assignment was valid.

POLLARD V. PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY.-Photographer and Customer.-Nature of ordinary Contract between.-Sale of Copies taken from Negative to third person Without Customer's Leave.Breach of Stipulation implied in Contract.-Violation of Confidence reposed. Injunction to Restrain.-Plaintiff and wife were com plainants in action. Mrs. P. was photographed by defendant, who carried on business under above style at Rochester. She paid him for the copies supplied her. In his window he exhibited a copy of Mrs. P.'s photograph, got up as a Christmas card, with the words "A Merry Christmas" above, and the words "And a Happy New Year" below. One of these copies was sold to A., a clerk to the plaintiffs' solicitors, who purchased it in order to bring action on the sale. Mrs. P. gave defendant no express or implied authority to dispose of or publicly exhibit her photograph. Defendant claimed a right to sell to anyone, or at least to any purchaser alleging himself to be a personal friend of Mrs. P., or to have her authority to purchase it. Held (by North J.) (the motion for interim injunction being treated by consent as the trial of the action): That the employment of a photographer was a confidential employment, and an injunction to restrain the improper use of the power placed in his hands of reproducing the object would therefore be granted. Also that it was an implied stipulation in the ordinarycontract between photographer and customer, that prints taken from the negative were to be appropriated only to the customer's use, and that a breach of such implied stipulation might be restrained by injunction. QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION.

HUGHES V. LLOYD.-Church Building Acts.-Lord Blandford's Act.-Division of old Parish into Two, with separate Burial Grounds.-Effect of on Status of old Parishioners, and Rights of Burial.-Burial Fee.-Custom to Charge.-Plaintiff is rector of Llanater in Merionethshire, in which parish in 1886, by order in Council under the Church Building Acts, 58 Geo. III., and 59 Geo. III., c. 134, and Lord Blandford's Act, 19 and 20 Vict., c. 104, a new district had been created and attached to the old chapel of Caerdon, in the old parish, and a new burial ground attached to it. Defendant was an old parishioner, but resided in the new district created out of the old parish, and in this new district his daughter died about a year after its creation; defendant desired to have her buried

in the old parish churchyard and not in the burial ground pertaining to the new district; the rector demanded a fee of 1os., to which the defendant objected; the interment took place, and, the fee not having been paid, the rector brought this action therefor in the County Court. The rector contended that the defendant's daughter was, by reason of her residing since the severance in the new district, at the time of her death a non-parishioner, and that he had a right to demand such a fee for the interment of a non-parishioner; but the County Court Judge held that the deceased had never lost her right as an old parishioner to be buried in the old parish churchyard; and that, as against a parishioner, the rector must show a custom to charge such a fee. Held (by Lord Coleridge, L.C.J., and Manisty, J.): That the right claimed by defendant that his daughter, as an old parishioner, was entitled to be buried in the old churchyard, could not be sustained, for that by the operation of Lord Blandford's Act, the new district was a separate and distinct parish "for all ecclesiastical purposes," and those residing in it had no right to burial as parishioners save in the burial ground of the new district; and that therefore the rector was entitled to demand the fee charged, without showing a custom,

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ORDER XXXVI. RULE 57A.

6. The direction in Rule 57 mentioned may be made to any one of the Official Referees, or to the Official Referee in rotation; and in such case the powers given by the said Rule to the Officer of the Court therein mentioned shall be exercised by such Official Referee; and the provisions of the Rules as to the distribution of business among the Official Referees shall apply to directions given under Rule 57.

Court, 1883, is hereby annulled, and the following Rule shall 7. Order XXXVII., Rule 39, of the Rules of the Supreme

stand in lieu thereof:

ORDER XXXVII. RULE 39.

The examination of any witness or person ordered to be taken under Rules 1 and 5 of this order shall, in any cause or matter in any division of the High Court, unless the Court or a judge shall otherwise direct, be taken before one of the examiners of the Court, provided that nothing in this rule shall interfere with the practice as to examinations in Admiralty actions.

ORDER XXXVII. RULE 52.

8. Every Examiner of the Court, and every other person appointed to take an examination under this order shall indorse on the depositions, when he transmits them to the Central Office, a statement of the hours within which the examination began and ended.

ORDER LI. RULE IA. PROVISO.

9. Order LI., Rule 1A, shall be read as if the following words were added thereto :-Provided, always that the judge shall not authorise the said proceedings altogether out of the Court, unless and until he is satisfied, by such evidence as he shall deem sufficient, that all persons interested in the estate to be sold, mortgaged, partitioned, or exchanged, are before the Court, or are bound by the order for sale, mortgage, partition, or exchange, and every order authorising the said proceedings altogether out of Court shall be prefaced by a declaration that the judge is so satisfied as aforesaid, and a statement of the evidence upon which such declaration is made.

ORDER LIV. RULE 9A.

10. In any cause or matter, on the application of any party thereto, any Master of the Supreme Court, Registrar, Taxing Master, or Chief Clerk, may, and, if the circumstances require it, shall, hear and dispose of any application therein on behalf of any other Master, Registrar, Taxing Master, or Chief Clerk respectively by whom the application would otherwise have been heard; and any taxing officer may tax costs under Order XIV. of the Rules of the Supreme Court or other short bills of costs in all causes and matters, whether assigned for taxation to him or to any other taxing officer of the same Division of the High Court.

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14. Appeals from Inferior Courts shall in the construction of Order LIX. include every appeal, motion, or application to set aside or vary any verdict or judgment in or of any County Court, or for a new trial in action in the High Court remitted to such County Court for trial or otherwise.

15. These Rules shall come into operation on January 11, 1889, and may be cited as the Rules of the Supreme Court, December, 1888, or each Rule may be cited by the heading thereof with reference to the Rules of the Supreme Court, 1883.

December 19, 1888.

(Signed)

HALSBURY, C.
COLERIDGE, C.J.
ESHER, M.R.
NATH. LINDLEY, L.J.
EDW. FRY, L.J.
H. MANISTY, J.

PUMP COURT ACROSTICS.

The answer to last acrostic is not published, as solvers seem to have forgotten that this is the end of the year and expect the usual time for solution. So be it. A correspondent directs attention to the fact that a Mrs. Birley, under the name of Syriga, won the first prize in the second quarter. This lady resides at Eccles, in Manchester, while the Mrs. Birley who won last quarter resides at the Vicarage, Bolton-le-Sands, Carnforth. The A. E. has no reason to believe that they are even acquainted with each other, though they bear similar names.

THE UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM OF LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

POLITICAL writers often make the mistake of confining their attention to the capital points of any given problem," or the conspicuous features of some historical incident, without paying proper regard to the so-called little things. They follow the maxim-De minimis non curat lex. And yet it may well be doubted if any matter can be considered small in politics, if it has a decided social aspect or possesses a definite moral value. People are so apt to transplant their material notions and measures, their ideas of space and time and quantity, into the spiritual world, that they forget they have no real meaning there. This practice leads to endless confusion of thought. The mere mathematician, who believed the soul to be extension, may have had some sort of excuse, as he professed to be a mathematician and nothing more; but political writers, when they place material and metaphysical questions on common ground and apply the terms of the one set to the other, commit an unpardonable blunder. Of course, in ordinary conversation, such looseness of language is natural. If we always talked like philosophers, we should be intolerable; but we might often write and act as philosophers with advantage. And so, in seriously approaching any question of the day, we should dismiss from our minds at once the vulgar conception of size, as tending simply to obscure the more important features. The little things are often the great things here. Straws tell us which way the wind blows, and, in like manner, trifles light as air may give a clearer clue to the direction of the coming storm, and its amount of pressure, than all the fanfaronade of the multitude, with all its sound and fury. But the bagatelles, as we suppose them to be, not only may indicate the line of least resistance along which the expected change is travelling--not only may they, as the meteorological telegrams from America, predict with more or less accuracy the particular region on which the tempest is most likely to burst-they also form, themselves, the initial links in the new chain of events, they are the first drops of the thunder-shower, the first glimmerings of the distant lightning still below the horizon. They may be symptoms of the most insignificant appearance, that the vast majority of persons would either overlook altogether or see without taking the trouble to notice; and yet they may be pregnant with the gravest import. Sometimes, when a public procession with its blare of trumpets and pomp of banners is advancing, a dirty little boy will be first visible, blowing a penny pipe and marching in front as if he were the conductor of the whole ceremony. His action may excite a smile, and yet he is a true herald of the coming magnificence. And so the eddying leaves and dust on the political sky-line, the tiny cloudlets which few people even observe at all, may be precursors as well as predictions of mighty changes hastening to their development upon the broad stage of history. Perhaps it may be profitable to inquire if we are not now in the presence of some such signs.

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A wave of what may be roughly called Socialism appears to be slowly spreading over Europe. And the singing of Carmagnole" in the streets of Paris is only one among many little signs that the Bourgeois Government of the Republic is on its trial, and hardly satisfies the fickle spirit of the times. Words like these at such a season have an ominous sound, and seem almost an echo of the great Revolution. An incendiary song more than once has been the cause or occasion of violent outbreaks, and has stirred up the lowest suds of the populace into a pandemonium of unbridled passions. The passing of the best law has never had a greater effect; and he was a wise statesman who declared that he would rather make the songs than the statutes of a nation. When wild feelings are ripe for expression, and still lack an exponent and interpreter to translate them into articulate language, then some rude stanza, coming red-hot from the forge of ill-paid labour, has been the falling spark to explode the hidden gunpowder of sedition which lurks in every State. We do not mean to say that France, or any other country, is in immediate danger of any sharp solution of political con

that will burst out at last, effacing all the ancient landmarks and sweeping everything before it, when more imposing facts are only of ephemeral import. And there is nothing small or trifling in the slightest manifestation of that giant force, called Socialism, which is still in its sleeping infancy. ZANONI.

ACT.

"1. In the construction of this Act the word 'newspaper' shall have the same meaning as in the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881.

tinuity. Social storms, like atmospheric tempests, often pass over the menaced lands, or break up into harmless fragments, or are diverted into useful channels in other directions. Threatened countries, like threatened men, may live long. Again and again in history, when things have seemed culminating in a terrible crisis, something has happened to call off the attention of the masses and has cut away the ground from under the feet of the agitators and demagogues. An epidemic, a foreign war, a public THE LAW OF LIBEL AMENDMENT insult or injury, the death of some great leader, a good harvest, even a fresh idea from the study of a philosopher, has given in a moment a new aspect to affairs, and a new impulse to vigorous thought and action, and has established the government which was tottering to its apparent overthrow. The unexpected in politics is always quite as probable as the expected. Not that there is absence of causation in the grand changes of communities, or that it is impossible to predict their future from a knowledge of present conditions and from past behaviour in similar circumstances. But the true antecedents often lie so far below the surface, that the most experienced statesman may be deceived; and the singing of the "Carmagnole " in Paris, trifling as it looks, is perhaps the outward and visible sign of an unguaged discontent deep down in the heart of the multitude. Perhaps there are wants somewhere, which even the return of the exiled Communists from New Caledonia did not appease wants which a Republic, so prodigal in its promises of blessings, has as yet failed to touch or understand. A theatrical foreign policy, with its strange doctrine of reprisals and its aggressive benevolence, may startle and distract for a time, but it cannot produce a lasting content. The French ouvrier is at bottom a practical man, and he is not lightly to be dazzled with visions of unsubstantial glory.

The relations between labour and capital, all over the civilised world, are in a more or less unsatisfactory condition. The sudden development of colonial projects in France and elsewhere is a symptom of this restless state, and an attempt to provide a remedy in furnishing outlets for turbulent energy. Bad seasons, as well as various discoveries and inventions, have tended to disorganise trade. A spirit of A spirit of distrust has gone abroad. Capitalists are retrenching, afraid of large ventures, and labourers suffer in consequence from this reserve. Unstable equilibrium is the order of the day, and this fosters a feverish excitement and uneasy apprehension which cannot but be fruitful in evil. Even the iron empire of Germany is affected by the movements of Socialism, and the Conference at Berlin was a disguised confession of alarm for interests at home. Prince Bismarck may point to the Congo and the Niger, he may speak of commercial prospects and international advantages; but his eye is really on the Rhine and his ear is anxiously listening to the sullen cry in Prussian workshops, and his mind is busy with domestic troubles. What does the great Chancellor care for Africa? He is not generally known as a philanthropist; but he is known to be the creator of German unity, and he is determined to maintain that at all costs. The magnificent fabric of his genius must not be imperilled by the conspiracies of social fanatics, who would visit the sins of capitalists on governors; and the dream of colonial aggrandisement is thrown out as a sop to the grumbling Cerberus: the rising murmur of discontent may be drowned in the louder clamour of greed. Nor can there be any doubt that there is cause for serious reflection in the strained relations of labour and capital at the present day, in almost every country. Workmen are gradually awaking to a sense of rights, real or imaginary, and to a consciousness of their power. This dissatisfaction takes different forms in different lands, but it is one in sentiment; and it may be contented with mere palliatives, it may demand a share in the profits of production, it may morosely refuse to formulate its claims, it may howl for the deluge of revolution, it may not have realised what it needs or desires, and yet it is one and the same impulse, after all, everywhere. No doubt, in emphasising the singing of a revolutionary song, we run the risk of appearing to make minnows talk like whales. And yet, as second-rate writers often give a clearer view of the spirit of a particular age than the greatest authors, so obscure and unnoticed incidents that bubble up here and there in little jets of excitement may be found to betray the presence of some profound subterranean current

"2. Sect. 2 of the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881 is hereby repealed.

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3. A fair and accurate report in any newspaper of proceedings publicly heard before any Court exercising judicial authority shall, if published contemporaneously with such proceedings, be privileged: Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise the publication of any blasphemous or indecent matter.

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4. A fair and accurate report published in any newspaper of the proceedings of a public meeting or (except where neither the public nor any newspaper reporter is admitted) of any meeting of a vestry, town council, school board, board of guardians, board or local authority formed or constituted under the provisions of any Act of Parliament, or of any committee appointed by any of the abovementioned bodies, or of any meetings of any commissioners authorised to act by letters patent, Act of Parliament, warrant under the Royal Sign Manual, or other lawful warrant or authority, Select Committees of either House of Parliament, justices of the peace in quarter sessions assembled for administrative or deliberate purposes, and the publication at the request of any Government office or department, officer of State, commissioner of police, or chief constable, of any notice or report issued by them for the information of the public, shall be privileged, unless it shall be proved that such report or publication was published or made maliciously: Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise the publication of any blasphemous or indecent matter: Provided also, that the protection intended to be afforded by this section shall not be available as a defence in any proceedings if it shall be proved that the defendant has been requested to insert in the newspaper in which the report or other publication complained of appeared, a reasonable letter or statement by way of contradiction or explanation of such report or other publication, and has refused or neglected to insert the same: Provided further, that nothing in this section contained shall be deemed or construed to limit or abridge any privilege now by law existing, or to protect the publication of any matter not of public concern, and the publication of which is not for the public benefit. For the purposes of this section 'public meeting' shall mean any meeting bona fide and lawfully held for a lawful purpose, and for the furtherance or discussion of any matter of public concern, whether the admission thereto be general or restricted.

"5. It shall be competent for a judge or the Court, upon an application by or on behalf of two or more defendants in actions in respect to the same, or substantially the same, libel brought by one and the same person, to make an order for the consolidation of such actions, so that they shall be tried together; and after such order has been mide, and before the trial of the said actions, the defendant's in any new actions instituted in respect to the same, or substantially the same, libel shall also be entitled to be joined in a common action upon a joint application being made by such new defendants and the defendants in the actions already consolidated. In a consolidated action under this section the jury shall assess the whole amount of the damages (if any) in one sum, but a separate verdict shall be taken for or against each defendant in the same way as if the actions consolidated had been tried separately; and if the jury shall have found a verdict against the defendant or defendants in more than one of the actions so consolidated, they shall proceed to apportion the amount of damages which they shall have so found between and against the

said last-mentioned defendants; and the judge at the trial, if he awards to the plaintiff the costs of the action, shall thereupon make such order as he shall deem just for the apportionment of such costs between and against such defendants.

"6. At the trial of an action for a libel contained in any newspaper, the defendant shall be at liberty to give in evidence, in mitigation of damages, that the plaintiff has already recovered (or has brought actions for) damages, or has received or agreed to receive compensation in respect of a libel or libels, to the same purport or effect as the libel for which such action has been brought.

"7. It shall not be necessary to set out in any indictment or other judicial proceeding instituted against the publisher of any obscene libel the obscene passages, but it shall be sufficient to deposit the book, newspaper, or other documents containing the alleged libel with the indictment or other judicial proceeding, together with particulars showing precisely by reference to pages, columns, and lines in what part of the book, newspaper, or other document the alleged libel is to be found, and such particulars shall be deemed to form part of the record, and all proceedings may be taken thereon as though the passages complained of had been set out in the indictment or judicial proceeding.

"8. Sect. 3 of the 44 & 45 Vict., c. 60, is hereby repealed, and instead thereof be it enacted that, no criminal prosecution shall be commenced against any proprietor, publisher, editor, or any person responsible for the publication of a newspaper for any libel published therein, without the order of a judge at chambers being first had and obtained. Such application shall be made on notice to the person accused, who shall have an opportunity of being heard against such application.

"9. Every person charged with the offence of libel before any Court of criminal jurisdiction, and the husband or wife of the person so charged, shall be competent but not compellable witnesses on every hearing at every stage of such charge.

"10. This Act shall not apply to Scotland.

"11. This Act may be cited as The Law of Libels Amendment Act, 1888."

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Mr. WILLIAM GEORGE PEARCE, barrister, has succeeded to a baronetcy on the death of his father, Sir William Pearce. Sir W. G. Pearce was called at the Inner Temple in 1885.

Mr. EDWARD JAMES CASTLE, Q.C., has been appointed Recorder of the City of Winchester. Mr. Castle was called at the Inner Temple in 1868, and practises on the Western Circuit and at the Parliamentary bar. He took silk in February.

Mr. WALTER WILLIAM MACGEOUGH BOND, barrister, has been appointed a Judge of the Native Court of Appeal at Cairo, in succession to the late Mr. Sheldon Amos. Mr. Bond was called at the Inner Temple in 1884.

Mr. MCLEAN, solicitor, of Belfast, has been appointed one of the Resident Magistrates in Ireland. This we believe to be the first appointment of a solicitor to the office.

Mr. ARTHUR BURCH, solicitor, has been appointed Registrar of the Dioceses of Exeter and Truro. Mr. Burch was admitted in 1853. He is also secretary to the Bishops of Exeter and Truro, and solicitor to the Exeter School Board.

Mr. JAMES POTTER, solicitor, of Derby and Matlock, has been appointed Clerk to the magistrates for the Matlock Division of Derbyshire, in succession to the late Mr. John William Skidmore. Mr. Potter was admitted in 1870.

Mr. HENRY JACKSON, Solicitor, has been appointed Clerk to the magistrates for the borough of West Bromwich. Mr. Jackson was admitted in 1854.

MINERALS.

Mr. Justice Day has added one more substance to the judge-made catalogue of the various substances known to lawyers as minerals. Mr. Justice Day had before him last term the case of The Earl of Jersey v. Guardians of the Poor of Neath Union, which is reported in another column, and after a long and patient hearing determined to designate as a mineral a certain alluvial deposit consisting of "pure clay of a superior quality" suitable for making bricks. The judgment in itself is, perhaps, not so very striking, but as showing the general tendency of the legal mind in this connection, it is important, for that tendency for many years past has been to bring everything within the scope of minerals that can be got from underneath the earth for the purpose of profit. This conclusion, further, is remarkable as showing how the Courts have shunned, especially in recent years, etymological and scientific meanings of the word. Twenty years ago, and judges would have discoursed with much lexicographical learning upon the derivation of the word, and seemed to be not a little pleased with formidable citations from standard dictionaries. The frequency with which we have to discuss what constitutes minerals in our correspondence column show that the subject is not yet fully appreciated by many of our readers; and it is of some consequence to local authorities, such as the Neath guardians, who have sewage works to construct. The Neath guardians, by virtue of the powers vested in them by the Public Health Act, 1875, found it necessary to construct certain sewage works, and a portion of these had to un through the land of Lord Jersey, in whom was vested the fee simple of all mines of coal, culm, iron, and all other mines and minerals (except stone quarries), with power for working the same and for making any roads, watercourses, or other works in the land for the purpose of raising and carrying away the minerals. Lord Jersey alleged damage to his right in the minerals by reason of the defendants' sewage pipe running over a portion of his land, under which was a certain kind of earth suitable for making bricks, which he contended, came within the designation of minerals, and, as we have already said, he succeeded in his contention.

The development of the great mining industries of the country has necessitated a considerable addition to the law on this particular subject. Not that in former times the subject was unknown. It has always been well discussed by text writers; but at the same time it has been difficult to arrive at a true meaning on account of the difficulty there always has been in construing minerals with reference to mines with which the word minerals has a real or an apparent etymological connection. It was at one time attempted to limit the term "ininerals " to such substances only as were obtained by mining, as opposed to quarrying, in the sense in which mines and quarries are distinguished. Thus, in a case in Plowden, 333, it was said in argument that there were two kinds of mines, namely, mines royal, consisting of or containing gold or silver, and base mines, which consisted only of base metals, or base substances, as copper, tin, lead, iron, or coals. In the Year Book, 11 Edw. 3, 7 b, mines of coal, iron, and stone are mentioned; and in Viner's Abridgment, under the title "Mine," a distinction is drawn between mines and pits, and it is there stated that a mine is not properly a mine till it is worked, but only a vein. Lord Coke (Co. Litt. 536) mentions metal, coal, "or the like;" and alum mines are referred to in one of the statutes of James I. So that we may say that in the older legal classics, minerals constituted that which was got from mines and mines only.

The etymological meaning of the term has caused judges to err. Darvill v. Roper, 24 L. J. Ch. 779, is a case in point. In that case Kindersley, V.C., after referring to the diverse definitions of the word minerals which were in evidence-some of them scientiic, some of them local or customary, and some of them lexicographical--continued: Therefore, when such a diversity is found to exist, the elementary rule must be resorted to, and the ordinary meaning given to the word. Now, the ordinary meaning is not the local meaning, and certainly not the scientific meaning, but the etymological meaning derived from the word mine, which latter word in itself is clear;" and

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accordingly, the minerals intended in that case were held to be such substances, whether metalliferous or not, as were obtained from mines. In the subsequent case of Bell v. Wilson, 13 W. R., 708, Kindersley, V.C., again took the etymological sense combined with the contextual criterion of the extent of the denotation of the word, and came to a conclusion similar to that which he had come to in Darvill v. Roper, thereby excluding freestone from the list of minerals. The case of Bell v. Wilson was, however, appealed (L. R. 1 Ch. 303), and the Lords Justices of the Court of Appeal set their minds decidedly against the etymological meaning being considered at all. They discarded that criterion altogether, and held that the word mineral in itself effectually denoted freestone, among other things, and that the context did not in any way narrow such denotation, but was referable exclusively to the mode of winning the freestone, which was to be by mining and not by quarrying. It is not, however, to be inferred from that decision that where the substance in question can only be got by quarrying, it therefore follows that that substance is not a mineral. On the contrary, it is now good law that in cases where it is "impossible to get, or where it will not pay to get, a mineral otherwise than by quarrying it, the circumstance that the person claiming to be entitled to it is not entitled to get it by quarrying, is not in itself sufficient to restrict the meaning of the word mineral.”

Following the case of Bell v. Wilson is the case of Hext v. Gill, L. R. 7 Ch. 699, where the question was whether china-clay (a substance which could not be got without destroying the surface) was reserved under an exception of mines and minerals. Wickens, V. C., after remarking that . etymology was a very unsafe guide to meaning, held that the word minerals had acquired a meaning of its own independently of any question as to the manner in which the minerals themselves were obtained. In that view he was supported by the Lords Justices, while overruling that portion of his judgment which decided that a grantor who had reserved the "minerals within and under" the lands granted, might quarry china-clay from the surface. "The result of the authorities," said Mellish, L.J., p. 712, "appears to be this, that the word minerals includes every fossil substance, every substance in fact of every kind which can be got from underneath the surface, and for a profitable purpose, unless there be something in the context or in the nature of the transaction which would induce the Court to give it a more limited meaning. "The case of Bell v. Wilson," continued the learned judge (p. 713), "appears to be a direct authority that the mere circumstance that a mineral cannot be got without destroying the substance, though it may be a very strong ground for holding that the owner of the mineral is not entitled to get it, is not a ground for straining the meaning of the term."

Among the various substances that have now successively been held to be minerals besides those found in the works of the old text writers, namely, coal, iron, lead, tin and copper, are stratum of stone, stone in quarry, freestone, slate and china-clay. In Midland Railway Company v. Checkle, L. R. 4 Eq. 19, it was held that the reservation of mines and minerals within and under the land included everything below the surface available for agricultural purposes which could be made useful for any purpose, and included the right of quarrying as well as of underground mining. And in the recent case of Earl of Jersey v. Guardians of the Poor of Neath Union, it was held that a clay suitable for the manufacture of bricks was also a mineral, Day, J., remarking that "this particular earth was workable at a certain profit and had a value in itself which brought it within the description of a mineral." Hence we may say, generally, that mineral will include not merely such articles as coal, ironstone and freestone, but fire-clay and china-clay, porcelain clay or brick clay, and also every kind of stone, flint, marble, slate, brick earth, chalk, gravel, and sand; provided only that these substances are under the surface and do not lie loosely upon it. It is immaterial, as we have seen, whether the substance in question is usually worked or can only be profitably worked by open quarrying. Coprolites also must be added to the list, although they are generally supposed to be the fossilised dung of animals, and that substance has been so regarded in at least one Act of Parliament (21 Vic., c. 16). This enumeration, it is to be observed, goes somewhat further

than what would be included in the definition of Kindersley, V.C., that "the best definition of a mineral was that which was worked by means of a mine." Indeed, the authorities justify us in saying that the term "minerals" comprises all the substances which now form or which once formed part of the solid body of the earth, both external and internal, and which are now destitute of, and incapable of supporting, animal or vegetable life; and thus it will be found to embrace, as has been remarked, the bare granite of the high mountain as well as the deepest hidden diamonds and metallic ores of the valley.-Justice of the Peace.

WELSH GOLD MINING.

rapidly turned into a solid reality. WHAT has heretofore been looked upon as a myth, is being History has told us of the results of the discovery and working of gold mines in Wales by Sir Hugh Myddelton and Sir Thomas Bushell, and some twenty-five years ago there was considerable excitement throughout England by the discovery of gold in Wales. Companies were formed and a good deal of money was recklessly spent by many who little knew what they were doing. During this Welsh Gold Mining furore, there was, however, enough done to establish the fact that payable gold existed in the Principality. Some 11,000 tons of ore had been mined and crushed during a few years, which produced about 14,000 ounces of gold; at any rate, such is the record of results published by authorities who cannot well be disputed. Gold Mining, like other industries, requires to be under the control of experienced persons to make it profitable; and, in consequence of a good deal of extravagance and mismanagement, the Mining Companies then hurriedly formed came to grief. The mines then lay in abeyance for many years, although Professor Readwin made repeated efforts to get them re-started. It was not however, until he obtained the co-operation of an Australian gold miner, in the person of Mr. Wm. Pritchard Morgan, late of Queensland, that any practical results were obtained. Mr. Morgan, a well-known celebrity in Queensland, both as a miner and a solicitor, and a native of Wales, determined to give the Welsh Gold Mines a fair trial. He obtained possession of the Gwynfynydd Mines and other lands adjoining. After a long time in practical prospecting, he obtained sufficient encouragement to induce him, with the co-operation of others, to proceed with the practical development of the mine. Adequate machinery was obtained, and the results so far have been of the most satisfactory character. Up to the end of May last, some 1,300 tons of quartz have been mined and crushed, yielding over 4,000 ounces of gold at £3 10s. per oz. represents £14,000, or about 2 oz. of gold per ton. The yields from July to November have been also equally good; 1,685 tons of ore giving a yield of 4,043 ounces of gold.

Mr. Morgan has sold his property to a Limited Liability Company, with a capital of £210,000 in 1 shares. The price paid was £190,000, of which £120,000 was payable in cash, and £70,000 in fully paid up shares; leaving a working capital of £20,000. The success already attending the efforts of Mr. Morgan in the development of the Welsh gold fields is sure to lead to very important results, and be the means of inducing other enterprising capitalists to follow in the footsteps set them by the enterprising Queenslander Miner and Solicitor. The credit of successfully developing the Welsh gold mines is, therefore, due to Mr. Morgan, and he has already received substantial reward in the shape of good profits for his pluck; but the honour of representing Merthyr Tydfil in the House of Commons, where, if we mistake not, he will be heard to advantage, and his influence felt in the cause of mining generally, not only in Wales, but throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

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