replied, thanking the solicitors and others who practised in the court, the official staff of the court, and the police.

THE President of the Incorporated Law Society, B. G. Lake, Esq., the vice-president, Grinham Keen, Esq., and the Council of the Incorporated Law Society entertained at dinner on Wednesday, the 8th inst., the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Macnaghten, the Hon. Mr. Justice Grantham, Sir Walter Phillimore, Bart., Sir Reginald Welby, Mr. J. Whitehorne, Q.C., the Hon. F. Lawley, Mr. H. C. Richards, Mr. Dicey, the Rev. H. A. Lake, Mr. Broadley, Mr. Mowatt, Mr. A. E. Finch, Mr. G. B. Rashleigh, Mr. W. H. Cousins, Mr. E. Lake, Mr. Munns, Mr. Trower, Mr. Newman, Mr. Harting, Mr. G. L. Bristow, Mr. A. J. Finch, Mr. Hugh Fraser, Mr. J. R. F. Rogers, Mr. E. E. Blyth, Mr. R. T. Webster, Mr. E. R. Still, Mr. E. W. Williamson, Mr. Bucknill, Mr. Walter Williamson. The following members of the Council were also present: Sir Thomas Paine, Mr. F. H. Janson, Mr. G. B. Gregory, Mr. E. J. Bristow, Mr. H. Roscoe, Mr. Richard Pennington, Mr. C. J. Follett, Mr. H. L. Pemberton, Mr. J. Hunter, Mr. H. J. Davis.

THE death is announced, after a short illness from inflammation of the lungs, of Mr. C. R. McClymont, of the North-Eastern Circuit. Mr. McClymont was an able and rising junior.

We understand that Lord Colin Campbell has written from Bombay, where he is at present practising, to his solicitors, Messrs. Humphreys and Son, instructing them to withdraw the notice of motion for a new trial which was

filed in the Divorce Registry, and this has accordingly been

done.

WHETHER the latter-day representatives of Mr. Tulkinghorn and Conversation Kenge, to say nothing of Messrs. Guppy, Jobbing, and Smallweed, will approve of it or no we cannot tell, but we trust that the proposal to spend some pains and money upon the gardens of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and then throw them open to the poor children of the district, will become un fait accompli. Behind the huge houses which skirt what Mr. Guppy affectionately called "The Fields," lie hidden away many a foul and pestiferous slum, swarming, as such slums always do, with the neglected little human weeds of humanity. We shall be glad to see the "Jo's" of the Drury Lane courts getting a breath of pure air in the spacious but now almost useless grounds. It is about the only pure thing which these poor wastrels are likely to know, and it would be a cheap but inestimable boon to them.

THERE are little oases of brightness even in what laymen deem the dry and dusty desert of the law. Only last week two barristers sat in solemn judgment upon a delightful entertainment, in order to satisfy certain persons concerned that it was all that it ought to be. While the learned counsel reclined upon velvet lounges in a charming hall, a band of Spanish musicians, singers, and dancers made delicious music, and illustrated the poetry of motion for their special behoof. And when the last notes of the bandurrias and citaras, the pandera and the guitarras had died away, the sweet voices of the senoritas grown silent, and the graceful forms still, then did Messrs. Lockwood and Cock pronounce the Estudiantina Espanola very good, and the pretty "International Hall," in the Café Monico, Piccadilly Circus, virtually started on what we hope will be a successful career, under the aegis of the law. As a matter of fact, the entertainment which inaugurates it is as charming as it is new to London, and should prove as popular as it is pretty.

DEAN TRENCH once said that the history of a nation was buried in its language, and only needed disinterring. A case in point is furnished by the term "moot." Probably tho minority only know the real origin of the expression, "a moot point "outside the law at all events; but light will now be thrown upon it by the revival in Gray's Inn of the ancient "moots"-the periodical meetings of the legal Inns for the discussion of subjects cognate to their profession. A mimic court was formed on Monday night of last week, and a decidedly unconventional case submitted for trial. This was quite in accordance with precedent, as in the

original "moots" the problems given for solution by the mock court were generally of some curious nature, in the working-out of which precedent practically went for nothing, and the light of reason and fundamental laws of equity were the decisive factors; hence, " moot points." The revival is a distinctly interesting incident, and will be valuable, too, if the new "moots " prove a tithe as enlightening as their ancient prototypes.

FOR Once in a way the advice of Samuel Weller, senior, to "bevare of vidders," is likely to be scorned. In Cannes at the present moment there is a widow, atat twenty-three, and with a 'tocher" of a million sterling! Her late husband was eighty-two. A good deal of discretion is needed to properly direct the disbursement of, let us say, if well invested, £50,000 a year. Now, ye briefless ones, don't all start for Cannes at once, or the traffic will be embarrassed, unless, indeed, some of you enact the stirring drama of the Kilkenny cats while waiting for the Continental express to start.

No doubt Mrs. Besant and Mrs. Ashton Dilke mean kindly by their protégés, the working classes generally, but it is quite impossible and intolerable that they, or even the whole of that weighty and important body, the London County Council, should arrogate the right to dictate to private firms the wages which they shall or shall not pay to their employés. Women as clever and as experienced as Mrs. Besant should know that not only will such high-handed, inquisitorial, and dictatorial actions be promptly resented in the case of individuals, but that if attempted by any official body - corporate, such as the L.C.C., it would speedily bring it into contempt and paralyse its utility. We can quite sympathise with Mrs. Besant and her colleague in their desire to secure the means of comfort and decency for all workers, especially of their own sex, but they must permit us to suggest to them that they will never reach their goal by the route which they have elected to strike out for themselves, and the sooner they realise this fact the better for them. selves and those whose welfare they would secure.

Ir is said that the Prince will be conspicuously present, if he does not actually take a formal part in the ceremony of opening the Eiffel Tower. It is a secret de Polichinelle that his Royal Highness is lamentably disappointed that the sanguinary memories of 1789 forbid any official recognition of the Exhibition by any of the monarchies of Europe. The Prince never enjoys himself anywhere so much as in his beloved Paris, and it is a keen source of vexation to him that he has not been able to lend the great weight of his name and presence-no irreverent jest intended!-to further the interests of the people he likes so well, and who return his kindly sentiments to the full.

THERE is no truth in the rumour that a proposal is in the air for Prince Albert Victor to be appointed permanent Viceroy of Ireland. It would be absurd to pretend that such an appointment would be popular, and in the present critical condition of Irish matters it would be a grave blunder to run any risk of increasing existing dissatisfaction, and any rumour of the kind may safely be relegated at once to the prolific canard family.

EVERY man and every journal must pause a moment in its daily round to pay a tribute of reverence to the memory of brave Father Damien, who, with an unparalleled heroism and a sublime sense of duty, has devoted his manhood tɔ and finally laid down his life for the lepers. Years of selfsacrificing devotion to a task from which humanity itself would naturally shrink, and death in the midst of his noble work, have earned for Joseph Damien the admiration of the world and a martyr's crown, if ever a crown was nobly won, and have left to the world a lesson and example of the power of self-abnegation of which the soul is capable, which make us think better of humanity in a scoffing, pessimistic age. Father Damien has lived a saint and died a martyr, and though his church may not canonise him, his name will live for ever in the hearts of men of all creeds, an inspiring memory which may bring forth emulative deeds centuries after the noble priest offered up the supreme sacrifice that poor humanity can make.

THE TEMPLE NEWSPAPER LAW REPORTS.

COURT OF APPEAL.

or

REG. v. LAND COMMISSIONERS OF ENGLAND.-Compulsory Enfranchisement by Tenant.-Copyhold Enfranchisement Acts, 1852-1887.-Valuation of Manorial Rights.-Subsequent Sale at Price Larger than that on which Umpire's Valuation Based.— Refusal of Umpire to Reconsider Valuation.—Commissioners' Jurisdiction to Revise it." Imperfect Erroneous. ". Prohibition.-The tenant of an estate in the manor of Leigham (Surrey), of about five acres, took proceedings for compulsory enfranchisement under the Copyhold Enfranchisement Acts 1852-87. The manorial rights were valued by the tenant's valuer at £1,281, by the lord's at £2,100. The umpire valued them at £1,331, and the tenant claimed to enfranchise at that price. A few days after the estate was sold for £14,500, the lord of the manor purchasing the greater portion for £13,500. This sum largely exceeded the value which the umpire had estimated it at, as a basis for valuing manorial rights. The lord then applied to the umpire to reconsider his valuation, on the ground that the price realised on the sale showed the valuation of the manorial rights was much too low. On his refusal the lord applied to the Commissioners to revise the award. The Commissioners remitted the award to the umpire for reconsideration. He refused, and they then, declining to state a case for the opinion of the Court, in accordance with the tenant's request, gave him notice that they should themselves determine the value. A Divisional Court (consisting of Denman and Hawkins, J.J.) granted a prohibition to the Commissioners, holding that the valuation in the present case was neither imperfect nor erroneous, though it might be too low. Held (by Lord Esher, M.R., Lindley and Lopes, L.JJ.), reversing the decision of the Divisional Court, that the valuation was. erroneous within the meaning of the Section, for that as used in the Section " erroneous meant wrong, and not merely wrong in principle. Prohibition discharged.

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NULTON v. WILTON.-Action for Penalty.-Public Health Act, 1875, Schedule 2, Rule 70.-Member of Local Board Concerned in a Contract Entered into with Board.-Employment of Member by Contractor to do Portion of Work.-Action to recover penalty of £50 under Public Health Act, 1875, Schedule 2, Rule 70. Defendant, a joiner, was elected a member of a Local Board in 1885. In October, 1886, the Local Board entcred into a contract with H. for the supply of warming apparatus to the offices of the Board. H., joiner's work being necessary in the course of fitting up the apparatus, applied to defendant's foreman to do it. The work was done by defendant's workmen, and the bill (£1 9s.) paid by H. to defendant. In December, 1886, the Local Board contracted with B. for the supply of a water-tank. B. employed the defendant in a similar manner, defendant being paid £3 14s. by B. At the trial before A. L. Smith, J., at Assizes at Leeds, judgment was given for plaintiff. Held (by Lord Esher, M.R., Lindley and Lopes, L.JJ., affirming decision of A. L. Smith, J.) that inasmuch as the defendant, a member of the Local Board, acting as such, had done part of the work which the contractors had agreed to do, he was concerned in the contracts and liable to the penalty.

In re BROCKLEBANK.-Bankruptcy.-Discharge of Bankrupt. ·Commission of Offence Subsequent to Adjudication.-Obtain ing Goods by False Pretences.-Bankruptcy Discharge and Closure Act, 1887 (50 and 51 Vict. c. 66) Sec. 2, Sub-sec. 3.— Offence not Arising out of or Connected with the Bankruptcy.Brocklebank failed in 1878, and was subsequently adjudicated a bankrupt. After adjudication, in the year 1882 he was convicted of obtaining goods by false pretences, and sentenced to six years' penal servitude. In March, 1889, he applied for his discharge, which was granted. Some of his creditors appealed against the granting of his discharge. Held (by Lord Esher, M.R., Lindley and Lopes, L.JJ.) that the Registrar had power to grant the discharge, for that the Bankruptcy Discharge and Closure Act, 1887, Sec. 2, Sub-sec. 3, only required a bankrupt to be refused his discharge when the Court found he had committed an offence under the Debtors' Act in some way connected with or arising out of the bankruptcy in question, and therefore the offence committed in the present instance having been subsequent to adjudication the section did not apply.

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION.

BARKER v. HEMPSTEAD.-Costs.- Claim Founded on Contract.-Action for less than £50 Commenced in High Court. -Judgment for £45 Obtained under Order XIV.-Leave to Defend as to Residue of Claim.-Judgment for Plaintiff for Balance Subsequently.-Allowance of all Costs on High Court Scale.-County Courts Act, 1888, Sect. 116.-In respect of a claim founded on contract for £47 17s. 5s., action was com

menced in the High Court. Plaintiff, within twenty-one days after service of the writ, applied for an order for judgment under Order XIV., and obtained judgment for £45, leave to defend as to the balance of the claim being given to defendant. The Official Referee, to whom the question was referred, found for the plaintiff as to the balance. On taxation, the Master allowed all the costs on the Supreme Court Scale. Mathew, J., varied the Master's order, by directing that costs up to the judgment under Order XIV. should be on the Supreme Court Scale, the subsequent costs to be on the County Court Scale. Held (by Field and Cave, J.J.) that the decision of Mathew, J., must be reversed, for that the plaintiff was by virtue of the proviso in Sect. 116 of the County Courts Act, 1888, entitled to have the costs of the action, and not merely those up to the judgment under Order XIV., taxed on the High Court Scale.

BROCKLEY V. VESTRY OF ST. MARY, BATTERSEA.-Street Obstruction.- Power of Vestry to Remove after Notice and Neglect to Comply Therewith.-Need for Previous Proceedings before a Magistrate.-Metropolitan Management Act, 57 Geo. III., c. 29, Sect. 65.-The power of seizure, &c., conferred on vestries by Sect. 65 of the Metropolitan Management Act, 57 Geo. III., c. 29, is exercisable after notice given to remove an obstruction (e.g., hand-barrow and goods of a costermonger selling in the streets), which has not been complied with, and it is not necessary that a summons should first have been taken out before a magistrate, and the defendant convicted, and a penalty of from 40s. to £5 inflicted on him. So held by Charles, J.

CHISHOLM v. DOULTON.-Negligent User of Furnace, 80 that Smoke therefrom not Consumed.-Negligence of Workman, Absence of Negligence on Part of Owner of Premises and his Foreman. Mens rea-16 and 17 Vict., c. 128, s. 1.-Case stated by Mr. Biron, one of the Metropolitan Magistrates. Sir Henry Doulton was summoned for negligently using a furnace on certain premises of his, used for the purpose of his manufactory as a potter, so that the smoke therefrom was not effectually consumed, contrary to 16 and 17 Vict., c. 128, s. 1. From the case it appeared that the furnace in question was properly constructed, that the smoke arose by the act of the stoker or person who lighted the fire, and might by proper care have prevented the occurrence; that the attention of the foreman was not called to the matter, and that he had no personal knowledge of it, and was not guilty of negligence; and that Sir Henry Doulton had no knowledge of the matter and was not guilty of negligence. Held (by Field and Cave, J.J.) that the Magistrate was right in dismissing the summons, for that in order to justify a conviction for the offence in question, it was incumbent on the prosecution to show that the respondent had been personally negligent.

COLE v. ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY.-Policy of Assu rance.-Construction of Proviso excepting Liability where Death Occurs by Poison-Suggested Limitation of Exception where Poison Accidentally Taken.-A policy of insurance had been effected by one H., whose executor was the plaintiff in the present action with defendant company. The policy insured H. against any personal injury caused by accidental, external, and visible means, the direct effect of which should occasion the insured's death within three calendar months of the happening of such injury, and also against personal injury, &c., not resulting in death. A proviso declared that the insurance should not extend to "death by suicide, whether felonious or otherwise, or to... any death or injury caused by duelling or fighting, or any other breach of the law on the part of the insured, or by poison, or intentional self-injury. . The deceased was in business as a horsekeeper, and used to go at night to his stables to see that his horses were all right. He kept on a shelf in the stable a number of embrocations for horses and a bottle of medicine for a private ailment. One night he lit a candle and went to the stables, but the light blew out on the way. In the dark by mistake he took a bottle of corrosive sublimate instead of his medicine, and died soon after. The jury found the cause of death was the corrosive sublimate, and that the taking of it was accidental. Held (by Mathew and Grantham, J.J.) that the proviso excluded liability in all cases where the cause of death was poison, whether taken accidentally or not, and that the defendant company were therefore not liable.

IN THE MATTER OF A SOLICITOR.-Suspension of Solicitor clerk from Practice for Appropriation of Employers' Monies. -Subsequent Conviction for Embezzlement in Respect of the same Appropriation.-Whether Subsequent Conviction for Felony ground for Striking off the Rolls altogether.Increase of Punishment for Same Offence.-Application on behalf of the Incorporated Law Society, to strike a solicitor off the rolls. He had been employed by a firm of solicitors as clerk, and had admitted appropriating to his own use sums received for them to the extent of £175. For breach of duty as a solicitor in not accounting to them for those sums, an application had been made to a Divisional Court, consisting of Lord Coleridge, L.C.J., and Manisty, J., and, on undertaking to set apart a

portion of his salary to repay the debt, had been sentenced to be suspended for eighteen months. A prosecution had in fact then been commenced for embezzlement in respect of the same sums, though it was not known to the Court or the counsel. This prosecution resulted in a conviction for the felony, and the solicitor was sentenced to imprisonment. Held (by Pollock, B., and Manisty, J.) that there was no absolute rule that a solicitor convicted of felony should be struck off the rolls, and that inasmuch as the circumstances (with the exception of the conviction) were the same as at the date of the former application, the Court ought not, in the exercise of its discretion, to impose a severer sentence for the same offence.

UNDER THE PUMP.

:0:

Diana of the Crossways; Evan Harrington; Harry Richmond. By George Meredith; new edition; 1 vol. each. London: Chapman and Hall, Limited. We referred in a recent issue to the publication of a capital new edition of George Meredith's works, at the very moderate price of three shillings and sixpence a volume. We now return to the subject for the purpose of referring briefly to three more volumes of the series, each of which represents a different side of the author's undoubted genius. The versatility alone of Mr. Meredith is evidence of a quite exceptional talent, and when to that is added a wealth of language and a felicity of expression unparalleled in the works of living novelists, genius itself is the only quality which can justly be accredited to the writer. There always seems to us something of a Carlylean flavour in Mr. Meredith's terminology and literary style, especially when he is philosopbic, analytic, and introspective, but, happily, the gloomy pessimism of the Sage of Chelsea is not the keynote of the romancist. George Meredith-keen as is his insight into human nature, subtle as is his interpretation of its various moods, utterly merciless as is occasionally his satirepossesses a fine sense of humour, which not only underlies even his most serious pages, but frequently bubbles up and over with absolutely rollicking fun. Above all, Mr. Meredith, with all his apparent occasional pedantry of diction, is essentially of the naturalistic school. His men and women are flesh and blood, and if now and then they seem to possess a quite unique facility of coining epigrams, their conversation is often surprisingly natural, even at its wittiest, and, as in the case of Carlyle, while we sometimes feel at first almost startled by the rugged, sledgehammer directness, or crisp, quintescent humour of some phrase, we find ourselves admitting a moment later not only that the diction used precisely fits the situation, but that it is positively the only phrase which would be completely and indisputably adequate the one possible conjuncture of words in which to body forth a distinct idea. In the three volumes under notice we find three distinct sides of the author's genius. In Diana of the Crossways we have a perfectly delightful study of brilliant womanhood-the womanhood in which ready wit and personal beauty combine to make their possessor a power. In Evan Harrington we are given pure comedy, the author revelling in the painting of the airs and graces of middle-class ambition, as personified in the Countess Seldon-as perfectly humorous a creation as one can find in contemporary fiction. In Harry Richmond, again, the atmosphere in which we move is one of high-bred courtesy, tempered by the vigorous, not to say volcanic, explosions of the hero's wonderful grandfather. We should be glad if considerations of space permitted us to dwell in detail upon the fascinating character-studies to be found in these delightful works, but that we are unable to is, in a sense, the highest tribute which we could pay to the author, for it is due to the wealth of brilliant things, to the innumerable host of ideas, that generalities alone can be indulged in. There is none of the " easy writing" which is "dhard reading" in Mr. Meredith's works. Neither is there easy reading." The absolute absence of anything approaching padding;" the brilliancy of well nigh every sentence on every page of every volume; the subtlety,

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the epigram, the wonderful pictures of human nature which are given by the author, deserve, demand, and compel careful, even studious perusal, such as it would be folly and an utter waste of time and pains to bestow upon the average mental pabulum supplied from the circulating libraries. It is, however, pleasant to know that at last the novels of George Meredith are being asked for at Smith's and Mudie's as they never were before, and we must give a great deal of the credit of this highly salutary and hopeful development of the public taste to the facili ties afforded by Messrs. Chapman and Hall to all classes of the community, of familiarising themselves with the writings of one of the most brilliant novelists of the century; an author who is as surely destined to rank amongst the classic writers of our day, as he has most certainly had hitherto to possess his soul in patience, content with an audience comparatively small in number, but unlimited in their admiration and faith. We commend these volumes to our readers, and welcome the opportunity of doing something towards spreading the fame of an author whom we deem one of the very few great novelists to which the nineteenth century has given birth.

The Secret of the Lamas. By an anonymous author. London: Cassell and Co., Limited. One vol.-This thrilling and fascinating story of adventure in that mysterious and romantic region of India, the Thibetan Mountains, will be read with eager delight by all lovers of the picturesque, the weird, and the marvellous. The author has interwoven with his vivid descriptions of scenes and events, striking as anything in the books of Rider Haggard, a pleasant love story, which develops tragic elements as it proceeds, and so lends a strong human interest to the volume. But the chief charm of the book will be found in its powerful des. criptions of the Lamasery in Thibet, of the Lamas, their quaint appearance, strange customs, marvellous occult powers, and generally mysterious and awe-inspiring surroundings. It is always difficult in works of this kind to draw a hard-and-fast line between that portion which is historically accurate and that which is due to the imaginative powers of the author. Suffice it, however, that in The Secret of the Lamas the whole book is full of interesting matter, and that whether we accept the revelations of the awful powers of the Lamas as absolutely correct, or no, the volume itself remains a source of pleasurable excitement to all who like to read of things which, if not supermundane in character, are at least of a nature weird and uncanny to a degree, and such as is not commonly "dreamt of in our philosophy."

From

Chronicles of Glenbuckie. By Henry Johnston. Edinburgh: David Douglas. It would be difficult for a writer wishful to depict life in a Scottish village at its fullest and most fanciful to hit upon a period more striking and characteristic than that of the third decade of this century. Then the strength and weakness, the whimsical humour, pure devotion, and sturdy faith of the Scotch character found full play amid the events which accompanied the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, and the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1841. The author of Chronicles of Glenbuckie describes, with delightful humour and fidelity, the typical characters in an Ayrshire hamlet of the period: its high-minded conscientious minister and his pretty and enthusiastic young wife; its self-sufficient elders; its whimsical village humourists and fiery Radical; its honest, thrifty housewives; its poor, trusting, betrayed lassie; its uncanny "spae-wife," or wise woman. cover to cover the author gives us not one dull moment. There is no page which is not brightened by some gleam of shrewd Scotch humour, beautified by a pretty descriptive touch, or humanised by a glimpse into some human soul with its store of ambition, joy, or despair, as surely to be met with in the quiet Ayrshire hamlet as in the crowded city. The Rev. Robert McWhinnie is a delightful study, and, among the mirth-moving creations of the author, William Dickie, the senior elder, Robert Simpson, and Andrew Boles of Whinnyriggs, a jolly farmer, are perfectly irresistible. Jamie Pinkie, the Radical, is a vivid and striking sketch of a political class called into existence by the events of the time, and the sorrows of Maggie Winlestrae lend the touch of pathos necessary to complete the charm of the work. We shall be surprised if Chronicles of Glenbuckie does not speedily become a prime favourite with all who can appreciate that subtle, exquisite Scotch humour, the taste for which, like that for claret or

olives, has to be acquired, but, once acquired, never again fails.

Messrs. Cassell and Co., Limited, have just added to their wonderful little "National Library" of standard works, at threepence a volume, Aubrey de Vere's The Legends of St. Patrick, which is not only a collection of delightful verse, but a reverent and dignified study of a theme which cannot but add to the refinement and beautification of life. Noble in theme and cultivated in diction, the little volume is a noteworthy addition to the excellent "Library" of which it is the latest example.

Cásga, by Ivaniona. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.-Love, jealousy, intrigue, a private lunatic asylum, a heroine of snow-white purity and angelic loveliness, a loyal lover, and an unscrupulous rival, help to make up the sensational dish which is offered to the public in this volume in exchange for a shilling. The hercine, Cásga O'Donnell, is a charming Irish girl, and there is some pretty writing in the story, which on the whole is worth the money charged for it.

Chiel and 1: Our Wedding Tour, by Both (London: Digby and Long), is a chatty little unaffected volume about a Continental tour undertaken at a time when, with most people, the Inferno itself would be Paradise so long as they were "together." But it happens that this gossipy couple visited some charming places during their honeymoon tour, and the present volume is the outcome of their pleasant

experiences.

Poems, by Arthur Stanley (London: Digby and Long), is a modest little volume, showing some poetical promise, rather than fulfilment a volume of leaves, rather than fruit.

LEGAL HONOURS.

:0!

Mr. HADEN CORSER, barrister, has been appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate for the Metropolis, in succession to Mr. Thomas Irwin Barstow, resigned. Called at the Middle Temple in Trinity Term, 1870, and joined the Oxford Circuit and the Staffordshire, Wolverhampton, Lichfield, and Walsall Sessions. He has been for some time Recorder of the borough of Wenlock.

Mr. GILBERT GEORGE KENNEDY, barrister, has been appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate for the Metropolis, in succession to Mr. George Chance, resigned. Called at the Inner Temple, in Easter Term, 1870, and joined the Midland Circuit,

and

the Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire Sessions. He has been Recorder of the borough of Grantham since 1883.

Mr. RICHARD DAWES, solicitor, of 9, Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of the County of London (Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild) to be Under-Sheriff of that county for the ensuing year. Admitted

in 1859.

Mr. WILLIAM RUSTON, solicitor, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of the County of Middlesex (Colonel Edward John Stracey Clitherowe) to be Under-Sheriff of that county for the ensuing year. Admitted in 1870. He is Registrar of the Brentford County Court and Clerk to the Twickenham and Ealing Local Boards.

Mr. JAMES ANSTEY WILD, jun., solicitor, of 10, Ironmonger

Lane, has been elected Registrar of the City of London Court, in succession to the late Mr. Thomas Speechly. Admitted in 1878. The berth is worth £1,000 a year.

Mr. WILLIAM PEED, solicitor, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire to be Under-Sheriff of those counties for the ensuing year. Admitted in 1864.

Mr. WILLIAM JOHN STEWART, solicitor, of Darlington and Spennymoor, has been appointed Solicitor to the Darlington Model Building Society. Admitted in 1880.

Mr. HARRY JEWITT JORDAN, solicitor, has been appointed Deputy-Coroner for the Stafford Division of Staffordshire. Admitted in 1886.

Mr. PETER DELME AWDRY, solicitor, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of Wiltshire to be Under-Sheriff of that county for the ensuing year. Admitted in 1877.

Mr. ANTHONY TEMPLE, solicitor, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of Herefordshire to be Under-Sheriff of that county for the ensuing year. Admitted in 1858.

Mr. GEORGE ROWLATT, solicitor, of Leicester, has been appointed by the High Sheriff of Leicestershire to be UnderSheriff of that county for the ensuing year. Mr. Rowlatt is deputy-clerk of the peace for Leicestershire. Admitted in

1871.

NEW RULES OF THE SUPREME COURT. (TAXATION OF COSTS), May, 1889.

ORDER LXV.-Rule 18.

1. After the word "rotation" insert "or in such manner or order as the Lord Chancellor may from time to time direct."

ORDER LXV.-Rule 19, B, C, and D.

2. Rules 19B, 19c, and 19D are hereby annulled, and the following three rules are substituted therefor :directing a taxation of costs shall be drawn up, shall certify Rule 19B. The proper officer, by whom any order upon the order the date on which it was signed, entered, or otherwise perfected.

of the order fail in Rule 19c. Should the solicitor having the carriage leaving at the office of the proper Taxing Master within seven days after the order. was signed, entered, or otherwise perfected, a copy of it, and (annexed to such copy) a statement containing the names and addresses of the parties appearing in person, and of the solicitors of the parties not appearing in person, no costs of taxation shall be allowed to the solicitor so failing.

Rule 19D. On the copy of the order being left with the Taxing Master, he shall forthwith send by post to the parties appearing in person, and to the solicitors of the before which the bills, the taxation whereof is directed by parties not appearing in person, a notice fixing a date the order, shall (with all necessary papers and vouchers) be left for taxation, and a subsequent date on which the taxation shall be proceeded with.

3. Rule 19F is hereby annulled.

ORDER LXV.-Rule 27. Regulation 27.

4. So much of Regulation 27 of Rule 27 as follows the word "unnecessary," is hereby annulled.

ORDER LXV.-Rule 27. Regulation 38A. 5.-(a.) If in any case in which a taxation is directed with a view to the payment of the costs out of a fund or estate (real or personal), or out of the assets of a company in liquidation, the costs shall have been increased by unnecessary delay, or by improper, vexatious, or unnecessary proceedings, or by other misconduct or negligence, or if from any other cause the amount of the costs shall, in the opinion of the Taxing Master, be excessive having regard to the value of the fund, estate, or assets to which they relate, or other circumstances, the Taxing Master shall allow only such an amount of costs as would, in his opinion, have been incurred if the litigation had been properly conducted, and shall assess the same at a gross sum, and shall (if necessary) apportion the amount among the parties.

(b.) If on the taxation of a bill of costs payable out of a fund or estate (real or personal), or out of the assets of a company in liquidation, the amount of the professional charges (exclusive of disbursements) contained in the bill is reduced by a sixth part, no costs shall be allowed to the copying it, nor for attending the taxation. solicitor leaving the bill for taxation for drawing and

6. These Rules shall come into operation on the 1st of June, 1889, and may be cited as the Rules of the Supreme Court, May, 1889, and each Rule may be cited by the heading thereof with reference to the Rules of the Supreme Court, 1883. May 1, 1889.

(Signed)

HALSBURY, C.
COLERIDGE, C.J.
ESHER, M.R.

NATH. LINDLEY, LJ.
EDW. FRY, L.J.
C. E. POLLOCK, B.
H. MANISTY, J.

DURING Mr. Terry's recent indisposition, his part of Dick Phenyl in Sweet Lavender was so well played by Mr. Prince Miller that, in commemoration of same, he has presented the latter gentleman with a gold pencil-case with suitable inscription, accompanied by a letter of thanks.

might even hope that the days of codification were at

IV.

THE remedy suggested for the state of things that we have sketched is neither heroic nor far to seek. The Legislature have already, by passing the Solicitors' Remuneration Act of 1881 concurrently with the Conveyancing Act, recognised the fact that the length of legal documents is never likely to be reduced until lawyers cease to have a direct pecuniary interest in verbosity. If anything were wanted to justify in this particular the prescience of the learned authors of these Acts, it would be found in the circumstance that of all the Acts which have from time to time been passed for the improvement of conveyancing, the Act of 1881 is the only one that has had any effect towards the shortening of deeds. But the system introduced by the legislation of 1881 (viz., the substitution for the detailed bill of costs of an ad valorem commission on the amount of money changing hands) is clearly incapable of much extension. It might indeed be applied to such instruments as marriage and other settlements by a process similar to that by which the death duties are calculated, but this appears to be the limit to which its applicability could be stretched. Its importation into contentious business would be for many reasons undesirable, and would seem likely to trench upon the ground occupied by the mystical offence of "champerty."

We are therefore thrown back upon the only alternative to the present system which the law has yet recognised. This is to be found in those clauses of the Solicitors' Remuneration Acts which provide that a solicitor may agree with his client to perform any specified work in consideration of a fixed sum. This provision is not only so eminently reasonable, but so exactly fitted to the needs of the case, that we may well wonder how it escaped on its re-enactment the amending zeal of the advanced section of the Liberal party. Unfortunately the authors of the Act of 1870 in which it first appeared did not go far enough. With the touching trust in the better instincts of our imperfect nature that so distinguished the first Reformed House of Commons led by Mr. Gladstone, they actually left it to the solicitor, and not to the client, to choose the mode in which remuneration should be assessed. The result does more honour to their hearts than to their heads. Almost the first question which the ordinary client asks his solicitor when he determines to embark upon the stormy sea of litigation is, "What are the costs likely to be?" and the invariable answer is that, "It is quite impossible to say." What did the Legislature expect? Is it not in vain that the snare is set in the sight of any bird? Does not the solicitor know that if the bright vision which floats before his eyes of attendances, instructions, and the rest of it, falling "Fast as autumn rains, flash in the pools of whirling Simois," could be shared by his client, the victim would revoke his fatal determination, and flee away upon his feet? Is it, therefore, surprising to find that the solicitor does not generally mention to his client that he is enabled by law to agree upon a fixed charge, and that, in the vast majority of cases, costs continue to be entered, concocted, and paid upon the old system?

But if this defect were to be corrected; if the solicitor were to be compelled by law to state to his client the sum for which he was willing to undertake the business on which he was consulted; if it were further provided that the agreement to pay the sum demanded should be evidenced and subject to revision by the Taxing Master in the manner specified by s. 8 of the Act of 1881, is it not plain that the benefit to the community would be immense? We should then hear no more complaints from successful suitors whose Pyrrhic victories have been won at the expense of fabulous "extra costs;" nor would the victims of adverse decisions again be forced to dread less the charges of their own defenders should consume the little store that the mercies of judge or jury have left to them. Nice points of law would be settled at the expense of those only who could afford to raise them, and the expenditure in counsel's fees and other "out of pocket" channels would be speedily reduced. In time it might even come to pass that legal documents would lose much of their mysterious obscurity, and legal phraseology might cease to be a language not understanded of the people. If such a state of things were ever to occur, we

The objections to the proposed reform seem to be singularly few. The client would be protected againstthe risk of entering into an improvident agreement by the clauses in the Act of 1881, which provide that the agreement should in all cases be in writing, and should be liable to revision by the Taxing Master. The last-named official would be freed from much wearisome and useless drudgery. Hence he would be at liberty to bring the experience which he had acquired (either before or after his elevation) to bear upon the question of whether the remuneration sought for was or was not fair, rather than the upon conformity with precedent of a mass of petty charges. It is probable also that the proposed change would bring about an increase instead of a diminution in the gains of the legal profession. Every successful attempt to cheapen litigation has hitherto led to an increase in the number of actions brought; and the timely knowledge of its limit might tend to lessen that fear of a lawyer's bill which Mr. Escott in his "England" declares to be characteristic of the English layman. The solicitor would also be exposed to less risk of making bad debts, and freed from the necessity of spending much time and money in the manufacture of his lengthy bills.

Yet it is impossible not to feel that all this is but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The subject is not one that lends itself easily to platform oratory. The proposed measure could not by any possible ingenuity be held out as one for the benefit of the English working man or the Irish tenant. Vacui viatores indeed are they who can sing with the same freedom before a lawyer as before a landlord. It would only act as a relief to the long-suffering and muchabused upper and middle classes, who, while paying the greater part of the taxation of the country, seem likely to be deprived of any but a small share in its government. Can we expect that an enlightened House of Commons should turn its attention from the consideration of such important questions as the treatment of imprisoned demagogues and the salaries of the clerks in the Tin Tax Office, to the investigation of anything at once so nauseous and, from a party point of view, so unprofitable as the taxation of bills of costs?

"EXTRAS" IN BUILDING CONTRACTS.

ALL persons, individual or corporate, who are not under any legal disability, may grant building leases for such terms, and subject to such conditions and restrictions, as are not inconsistent with the nature and quantity of the estates which they have. By the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882-reproducing the provisions in the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835-it is enacted that building leases and contracts for building leases for any term not exceeding seventy-five years may be made by the council of any borough "of tenements or hereditaments, the greater part of the yearly value of which, at the date of the lease or agreement, consists of any building or buildings, or of land proper for the erection of any houses or other buildings thereon, with or without gardens, yards, curtilages, or other appurtenances to be used therewith, or where the lessee or intended lessee agrees to erect a building or buildings thereon of greater value than the land." Longer terms may, of course, be granted by consent of the Lords of the Treasury. The local authority, under the Artizans' Dwelling Act, has power to grant leases under certain conditions. The local authority under the Public Health Act, 1875, may let any lands which it may possess for any term; and the County Council, under the Local Government Act, 1888, has similar powers of dealing with lands and tene

ments.

Incidental to such powers as those to which we have been referring, is the relation of local authorities-using the phrase in its widest sense-to contractors, builders, and architects. Local authorities or public bodies are bound by practically the same rules of law in the enforcement of their building contracts. Thus, in Thames Iron Works Company v. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, 31 L.J.C.P. 169, where a contract for the building of certain steamships provided that no extra work or alterations should be charged for unless they were previously authorised in a particular manner, it was held that that provision, if not legally waived, must be strictly followed, in order to enable