WHENCE Comes the not uncommon cry, "It may be law, but is not justice?" The indictment against law is only one form of the discontent that finds expression, at some time or other, against property, against the results of industry, of thrift, of intelligence, of self-restraint; against order, against luck, against all real or supposed mundane institutions and influences. We hear it in the cry of Job, against the existence of evil; but we are no nearer the solution of the problem which vexed him in his tribulation -the reason of its origin and continuance. "Doest thou well to be angry?" was the question asked of the prophet of old, and he answered, "I do well." We do not complain of dissatisfaction. We regard it as a sign of progress, We regard it as a sign of progress, which the recognition of defeat must necessarily precede. But the mode of its expression is, we think, in this case, injurious and misleading. The consideration of defeat or supposed defeat should be wise and calm. Does law always receive this treatment? "If that be your law," said Lady Booby to Lawyer Scout, "I am determined to change my lawyer." The element of personal interest enters so largely into the feeling of dissatisfaction that complaints must be heavily discounted. Scoundrels with defeated designs; honest men with mistaken views or disappointed expectations, which should never have been entertained; persons suffering less from the law than the incompetence of their advisers. Would any of these blame self? Shylock thought the supposed Bellario "a Daniel come to judgment," while the principles he laid down favoured the extreme claims of the Jew; but his opinion of his "justice" appears to have altered considerably, when the limitations and penalties were enunciated. In fact, the cry is based on a misunderstanding. Justice, if it means anything, means conformity to law, the administration of what has been ordered. The primary signification of right, rectum, droit, justice, jussum, jus, varies between the ideas of strictness or straightness and the thing ordered: in a word, has nothing to do with the question of the goodness or badness of the command, but everything to do with strict obedience to it. The popular appeal to justice, on the other hand, involves a statement of opinion that some provision or alleged provision of the law is not in accord with sound principles of legislation; that the law ought to be different. If so who benefits by or desires the maintenance of a bad law; whose fault is theno n repeal? Lawyers are, we affirm, not backward in promoting Legislative change, but their technical knowledge teaches them, what unfortunately the public do not know, that most instances of "injustice" are the result of imperfections only remediable at the risk or certainty of introducing greater evils. Ad ea quæ frequentius accidunt jura adaptantur. Laws beneficial in their application in ninety-nine cases may be injurious or iniquitous if applied in the hundredth. The hundredth case is necessarily peculiar in its circumstances. How can provisions be framed to extend to exceptional cases? Is then the judge to administer the general rule, within which the case falls, or to qualify it before administration? If he does the latter he is not administering but making law. This in the specific case would be a hardship on the man whose expectations, based on the existence of a principle applicable to his case, are defeated by introducing, then for the first time, a qualification. He may be a scoundrel with whose discomfiture no one sympathises; but that is beside the question. If those whose function it is to administer only, are to be at liberty also to qualify the law, when its rigid application would involve consequences they may wish, in the specific case, to avert, we should have hardship in every case instead of few only: the hardship of a state of law in which no one could know what the tribunal might consider "just." Selden wrote of Equity with perhaps some exaggeration-it was before the time of "the Father of Equity "-that it varied with the Chancellor's conscience, and was to be compared with the Chancellor's foot. The comparison would not be inapplicable to the change which these advocates of "justice" would introduce. The system-if such a term could be used of it would be certain only in its uncertainty. affirmed at the outset, that Law is not perfect. Is not everything human allied more or less with imperrevelation acquainted us with our duties in every detail? fections? Has not truth been sadly dismembered, and shall we ever find all the limbs? Yet we affirm that there has been a steady diminution of inequitable principles. The abrogation of penal enactments: the repeal of odious privileges; the development of the science of jurisprudence and the principles of legislation, and the influence these have, in turn, exercised on the framers of law have contributed to make law more what it should be. The steady diminution of remaining remediable imperfections is the desire of the lawyer, no less than the layman. Law is only a means to an end. All know and desire the end; with the means and the mode of amelioration lawyers are specially acquainted. But panegyrics on "justice" as contrasted with "law," are, if anything, in the words of a Hindoo, "disbursements in the negative;" they will not advance the cause of genuine reform. We Has SOME months since, Mr. Herbert Low made a suggestion for the establishment of a Law Library in the City-a project often broached, but never before, we believe, attempted. His suggestion has now, we hear, been carried out, and the library established at 25, Abchurch Lane. WHEN a servant does not know his work, he is dismissed; but it seems that public servants are in a better position, and can make what mistakes they choose without any risk of losing their comfortable berths. Now here is a pretty piece of nonsense which we venture to say is not to be equalled: "At the Lowestoft County Court, Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son sued several persons for small sums for newspapers. The local agent appeared to support the claims, but the judge, Sir Francis Roxburgh, declined to hear him, saying he must have William Henry Smith before him, and the cases were struck out." Where does this judge get his law from? CAPEL COURT. THE Stock Exchange markets have, during the week, been firm on the whole, and an upward tendency in prices has been discernible, which has, however, been restrained by the general feeling that money will become dearer as the winter approaches. Money Market. How far this presentiment is well-founded may be open to doubt; but in view of the fact that, while money is easily obtainable in the open market at under 3 per cent., the Directors of the Bank of England still see fit to continue a 5 per cent. rate; it must be assumed that those gentlemen are in possession of information which is not vouchsafed to the outer world. The anomaly of a margin of upwards of 2 per cent. in the two prices becomes the more startling when it is considered that the Bank returns are distinctly favourable, showing that the reserve amounts to over £12,000,000, which is larger than it was last year, when the rate was at 4 per cent. It is said that the Bank has discounted for its own customers at 3 per cent.; and it is rumoured in certain quarters which deserve attention, that a reduction in the present rate may shortly be looked for. Foreign Securities. Foreign Government Securities have remained firm, but quiet. The buying of the Russian loan of 1873, referred to last week, has still continued, and the price has gone up to 101, almost the highest on record. Egyptian Securities have also been active, with a decidedly firm tendency. Notwithstanding the fact that the traffics Home on the great lines have been exceptionally Railways. large during the past week, very little business has been done, save in North-Eastern, Metropolitan Consolidated, and Midland, which have advanced 1-3 and respectively. This quiescence is almost wholly caused by the fears engendered by the strike in the coal trade. The unreasonable advance in the price of coal can only be attributed to something very like panic, and is altogether out of proportion to the advance which would be represented by a wholesale concession by the masters of the 10 per cent. rise in wages asked for by the men. But the struggle is now practically confined to Yorkshire, and, uncompromising as both parties appear to be at present, it is hardly likely that some arrangement will not be arrived at there also. When that time arrives, and with it the removal of the vague apprehensions and forebodings which tend to depress other industries than that principally involved, Home Rails may expect to benefit, and the satisfactory evidence afforded by the increased traffic receipts will have its due weight. In the meantime dealings will, in the majority of cases, be comparatively few; but I should not be surprised if Metropolitans proved an exception to the rule, and if the marked advance of the past few days was well sustained. 66 A Foreign Rails. Dealings in Foreign Railways have been The Mexican almost exclusively confined to the stocks Railway of the Mexican Railway Company. Report. fillip was given to this stock on the publication of the last traffic statement, showing a gross take for the week of £23,000, and proving that the break in the Metlac Bridge had been repaired, and prices gradually advanced until the end of the week. The report of the directors of this company for the half-year ended on 30th June last, which was issued on Saturday, states that there was an increase in the earnings of the line as compared with the previous half-year of £18,168. The increase in the total tonnage carried was very considerable, viz., 32,239 tons, indicating a growing activity in business and a general progress of the country. Although a much larger volume of traffic was carried, involving an increase in of 25,569 in the train miles run, the working expenses of the half-year were nearly the same as in the previous half-year, averaging £5,032 per week, against £4,968. The average weekly earnings of the main line during the half-year amounted to £15,224 against £14,367 and £13,949 in the previous and the corresponding half-years respectively of 1887. The weekly earnings of the current half-year, as advised by telegraph, showed-until the traffic was interrupted in the early part of September-a weekly average of £15,540. The loss on exchange during the half-year amounted to £70,053 11s. 6d., being an increase over the previous half-year of £12,175 11s. 8d., of which sum £6,860 arose from a further fall in the value of the silver dollar, and the remainder from the amount remitted." In describing the competition it will have to meet, the report goes on to state "that the Inter-Oceanic Railway will require a very considerable time, about three-and-ahalf years as stated in its prospectus, for the completion of its whole line from Vera Cruz to Mexico. When completed it will become a very serious competition for the foreign goods traffic, and its influence cannot fail to tell before that time on the Mexican Railway Company's local traffic, both in passengers and goods; considerable progress having lately been made in the part of its line connecting Mexico and Puebla. There has also been much activity in railway construction to the north of Mexico City. The National line, giving a new route from New Orleans to Mexico, is ready for opening throughout. A total length of 180 miles was finished at the end of last half-year on the branch of the Cent al Railway connecting the port of Tampico with its main line to Mexico; and a line has recently been finished which connects with both the Central and National Railways the mining centre of Pachuca, the only access to which by railway has hitherto been a small line connecting Pachuca with the American railway system at Irolo. That competition of so many kinds and in such different directions must tell is not to be doubted, but it is reasonable to take into account, as at least a partial compensation, that this competition will be taking place in a country showing a continuous advance in its prosperity and in the development of its resources." The "House" has a reputation for respectability shared by a good many other close Corporations, and its new members are guaranteed by other members for a small amount for a short period after their initiation. Having said this, very little else remains. The "House" is not allowed to advertise, the "House" is not allowed to circularize, and its proceedings are impenetrably shrouded. from the curious eyes of the outside world. But all these restrictions, admirable as they may be, do not seem to confer any positive advantages on the public. The struggle between the two classes is only just beginning, and its issue will not be decided by any considerations of the abstract merit of picturesque rules. The question which the public will ask is-" Whether outside or inside brokers do straightforward business at the cheaper rates?" and when it is remembered that "members" are bound to charge a fixed commission, while in speculative accounts a great number of the outsiders content themselves with the differences between the actual quoted buying and selling prices, one is somewhat puzzled to know where the House will look for a satisfactory answer. There is no feature of importance to chronicle in connec tion with the American, Trunk and Miscellaneous Markets, which have been little dealt in pending the settlement, which was satisfactorily concluded on Saturday. The Mining Market. In the mining market, copper shares have continued their upward movement; and Tintos have marked the highest point touched for many years. Diamond shares have also exhibited a booming tendency. The amalgamation of the De Beers and Kimberley Companies is now practically completed; and the latter company have issued a circular, stating that all points being now settled with the directors of the De Beers mines, the committee and their friends are prepared to make the exchange of shares, and recommend shareholders to do so also. Outside Brokers. Some comment and some criticism has been excited by the paragraph in "Capel Court" touching the status of outside brokers. Doubtless there is something to be said on both sides, and we will return to the subject. The changes in the mining market the last few days are scarcely worth noting. The settlement commenced on Tuesday and ended on Thursday; the pay-day greatly interfered with business. The settlement however passed over satisfactorily. It was not so heavy as the preceding one, although there was a great deal of business done on the carrying-over system. This system has considerable_ ad The This vantages for the small speculator, as he is not obliged to make up his stock, but can defer payment for an indefinite period by paying the small rates from one fortnight to another. These rates can be reckoned about d. per share for every 5s. nominal value. Jobbers are rather short of some of the leading and more speculative shares, notably Don Pedro, Californian Gold, and some of the Indian descriptions. After the next settlement is over we expect to see more activity in the lower-priced the lower-priced Transvaal mines. Some of those we mentioned in our article of last week have justified our predictions, particularly Balkis. There are rumours that some good news affecting this property is to be cabled. This may arrive at any moment, and in anticipation of this the shares have already advanced Is. We ourselves should not be surprised to see them rise to the price of Moodies exploration. Balkis Company possess as large an area of gold-bearing farms, but not having been so long in existence have not made so much progress as the former. At 6s. 6d. now they seem to be a cheap speculation. Indian mines have been weak and lower, a circular having been issued by the directors of the Mysore Wynaud Company, saying they want more money and must reconstruct. has rather damped the ardour of the bulls. We look for lower prices in the principal Indian mines. Among copper shares Rio Tinto and Mason have maintained their rise, the Rio Tinto market being well supported from Paris. Whatever people may say about the copper operations, there is no doubt that they have proved the most successful market manipulators of late years. Speculators would do well to turn their attention to some of the low-priced copper shares, which seem to have been neglected. Such shares as Bratsberg, Tocopilla, and Argentella seem to have a fair chance of a rise, whereas in these cheap shares the risk of a fall is very small. Diamonds have continued to rise, principally De Beers and Jagersfontein, the former having risen as much as £3 since our last issue. The smaller-priced diamond shares have again come into favour, particularly St. Augustine. We have information that this mine is now proved to be a bona fide diamond mine, and it is only a question of time when their diamonds will come into the market. It must also strike anyone that, sooner or later, they will become amalgamated with their neighbour. This, of course, will enhance the value of the shares some hundreds per cent. They should be a cheap lock-up at the present price, at least there can be no fear of a decline in value. MERCATOR. IS LLOYD'S ON THE "DOWN GRADE?" THE above is a question which must have presented itself continually, during the last year or two, to those whose interest is described upon an Insurance Policy as that of the Assured. Merchants and bankers, years ago, were accustomed to readily accept, for personal cover or for collateral security, a Lloyd's Policy; but to-day, whilst not absolutely refusing, they frequently express a decided preference for one issued by a good English Insurance Company; to discrimate between which is not, however, within the scope of the present article. Rather is it to examine those reasons which might be given in deciding whether an affirmative or a negative reply should be given to the title query. We have all of us become better acquainted with the peculiar method in which business is transacted in Lloyd's underwriting room, and its relative importance, quite recently; have seen the self-conscious move on the part of members for allaying a mistrust, gently breathed, but unmistakable, in the serious manner in which a sort of jointstock guarantee policy or policies have been underwritten. amongst themselves. They have had a spasm of fear. Some few people have imagined that the familiar "blue anchor" stamped upon a Lloyd's Policy, with its quotation from the Act of Parliament, forbidding anyone not an underwriting member of Lloyd's to underwrite thereon, was an implication of participation in the risk by the Society. Such, of course, is not the case, each separate underwriter being only individually liable for the amount of risk he may choose to run, and which he designates, in figures and writing, in conjunction with his signature. The Committee, presaging evidently that which has now occurred, made it incumbent some dozen years ago, upon each new underwriting member to deposit a sum of five thousand pounds with them: this money has been invested in the joint names of the committee, and the new member in such approved security as would become the dealing with trust funds, the depositor receiving all Interest thereon, whilst Capital is only available for paying, if necessary, any losses incurred by him in underwriting within Lloyd's Rooms, when it may be decided to wind up his account. This system seemed undoubtedly a sound one, arguing a possession of sufficient other resources when a member could afford to lock up such an appreciable sum in a business of which nine times out of ten, he could possess very little knowledge, the practical part thereof being generally deputed to a "substitute "-one whose information had been gained by a long acquaintance with the mysteries of underwriting. But, on the other hand, it implied something unsound in their previous method. New members were carefully proved solvent; how could the old ones be tested? The committee stedfastly set their faces against allowing interested persons to obtain the slightest information regarding depositors and non-depositors, and rather increased the general fogginess by allowing intelligence to leak out, that some of the old members had voluntarily made deposits in order to allay any fears which might exist touching their solvency. The movement was not however unanimous, leaving room in the minds of Insurers for something nearly allied to a suspicion that they did not all follow, because of their inability to provide the necessary capital. Reasons for secrecy may have been of the best, but these, as well as the needed public information were kept jealously guarded in the Committee Room. Naturally, a comparison would be instituted between these individual underwriters possessing unknown and problematic resources and those English insurance companies with large capitals standing intact after fifty years of work, whose financial positions are made public year by year. Still, the cause of public distrust would not have grown to any extent but for the powerful aid of competition. Foreign companies, most of them financially rotten, their domicile abroad, where a creditor might have to pursue them, opened agencies in London, and a war of rates between Lloyd's underwriters and themselves was begun, the English companies coolly standing aloof, conscious of their own staying powers. Reduction after reduction in premiums followed, and the loss in receipts, combined with a loss of business, must have severely tried the underwriters. All at once, a feverish rush was made to participate in the risks of fire insurance. The fire insurance companies allowed all bad and indifferent insurances to reach the "Room," but not all of their good ones, the result being another rush to close all fire accounts and cut losses before they increased. They turned out disastrous, and at the present time it is difficult to insure fire risks at Lloyd's, even to a fiftieth of the extent possible four years ago. Not the least interesting point in this connection was the problem whether the vaunted deposits were only available for marine losses, and not fire? At the beginning of this year, the importance of knowing who were and who were not depositors came in natural sequence to be a matter of urgency. In an easy manner the difficulty was shelved by the members guaranteeing one another in a system of insurance, keeping, advisedly, the premiums in Lloyd's, where they were badly wanted. (To be continued.) TEMPLE CHURCH.-NOVEMBER, 1888. November 4.-Morning: Te Deum Laudamus, in C (Hopkins); Benedictus, in C (Hopkins); Anthem, "I have surely built thee an house" (Boyce); Kyrie Eleison, in C (Hopkins). Evening: Cantate Domino, in E flat (Hayes); Deus Misereatur, in E flat (Hayes); Anthem, "Heaven and the Earth display " (Mendelssohn).. UNDER THE PUMP. Matrimonial Law and the Guardianship of Infants. By Douglas M. Ford, Solicitor. (Wm. Clowes and Sons, 1888.)-Mr. Ford's plan has been to give those sections of the various Matrimonial Causes Acts which are in practice the most important, at length, with short footnotes; the provisions contained in the sections not given in extenso are also briefly indicated. One conspicuous defect in the work has been the insertion of a solitary reference to the Law Times Reports. For cases of such importance as Wilson v. Glossop, reported also 20 Q.B.D., 354; Pape v. Pape, reported also 20 Q.B.D., 76; re Scanlan, reported also 57 L.J.R., Ch. 718; and this is not an exhaustive list of instances: the notes consist, almost exclusively, of statements somewhat short, and sometimes of insufficient or inaccurate decisions; and in some cases the brevity aimed at has been prejudicial, not merely in this respect, but also by reason of cases which should have been cited having been passed over in the process of selection. On page 5, there is a statement that " unreasonable delay will disentitle the petitioner to a decree" for nullity on the ground of respondent's impotence. This is hardly correct; if it is clear there is no want of sincerity in petitioner's complaint, and the impotence is undoubted, mere delay is not sufficient to disentitle the injured person to relief. See M. otherwise D. v. D., 10 P.D. 75. Pape v. Pape (ubi supra) did not decide, as stated on p. 57, that "where there is an agreement to live separate "" the Married Women (Maintenance in Case of Desertion) Act, 1886," does not apply." What if the agreement were entered into not in good faith, but for the very purpose of evading the provisions of the Act? the Court did in fact decide that, taking all the facts, including the bonâ fide agreement for separation, into account, there was no evidence of desertion within the Act. So in citing In re Bethell, 38 Ch.D., 220. Mr. Ford says, "a polygamous marriage must necessarily be void according to the law of England." Of course it is, but the peculiarity of that case consisted in the fact that only one wife had been taken, and the question was whether the union recognized by the tribe of the Baralongs, who permitted polygamy, as a marriage was also a marriage in the Christian sense; and the judge was of opinion that Bethell did not, in going through the tribal form of marriage, when the evidence was considered, indicate (polygamy being permitted by them) an intention to contract "a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others." These are not the only instances in which greater fulness would have been preferable to the brevity we find. Rules and regulations as to procedure, a table of fees and an appendix of forms, render the book, even with the defects we have pointed out, a useful pocket companion; but it is to be regretted that Mr. Ford did not carry out more thoroughly a plan admirable in conception. Elocution, Voice, and Gesture, by Rupert Garry. (Bemrose and Sons, 23, Old Bailey, E.C. 1888.) (Second Thousand). -Mr. Garry's remarks indicate a clear comprehension of the various defects in reading and speaking which the unhappy listener is doomed but too frequently to endure. To state these defects clearly is to render a service of no inconsiderable merit, but Mr. Garry also gives practical remedial hints, by some, at least, of which there are very few of us who could not profit. It is a century since Mr. Cowper It is a century since Mr. Cowper made the wearisome impeachment of Warren Hastings more than bearable by his admirable reading, and some of our readers may remember one who, at a later date, made the epistles of Saint Paul sound, in the cathedral of our metropolis, with the force of a new revelation. Non cuivis homini contingit to reach such power of expression, yet we entirely agree with Mr. Garry that though "everyone cannot be taught the same amount of expression," yet expression can be learnt and taught. The quotations from authorities on the value of elocution are interesting, and the chapters on "expression" and "reading" alone would render the book a very cheap purchase. We have received a little book entitled The Investors' Guide and Speculators' Vade Mecum, from Messrs. William Bevan and Co., of 3, Copthall-buildings, Throgmortonstreet, E.C., which contains a good deal of interesting information, and is explanatory of the mysteries of the Stock Exchange. It is full of sound advice, and is valuable as a handy reference book. The Insurance Register, 1888. By William White, F.S.S. (C. and E. Layton).-The twentieth publication of this useful annual sustains its well-earned reputation for keeping us informed up to date on the subject with which it deals.. The fund of information it contains relative to all British Insurance Companies may be said to be indispensable, not only to the officers and shareholders of the Companies but to the general public. Solicitors, who have so constantly to be advising clients on Insurance matters, cannot well afford to be without this handy book of reference, whose great value consists in the clearness of its arrangement. Whatever they want to know about the Insurance world is to be found in this compact Register almost at a glance. Messrs. William Clowes and Sons Limited have recently, or will shortly, publish the following: A Third Edition of "The Powers of Executive Officers," by A. W. Chaster; "Patent Laws relating to Foreign Countries," which will form a companion to "Carpmael's Patent Laws of the World"; a work on "Fraud and Fraudulent Misrepresentation," by Sydney Hastings, Barrister-at-Law; "Matrimonial Law," by Douglas M. Ford, Solicitor; "County Court Acts and Orders," by Henry Stephen, of the Middle Temple, and Reginald Arthur Stephen, Registrar of the Lincoln County Court; and they have several others on important legal subjects in preparation. The "Annual Practice" (Maxwell & Son), which is now looked for at the commencement of Michaelmas Term, will we understand be published to-day. With a view to making the work as complete and reliable as possible, the Notes to certain Orders regulating special parts of the practice, such as Order 14 (Summary Judgment) and Order 31 (Discovery), &c., have been re-written by members of the profession who have made these particular branches of procedure their special study. In order to keep the principal part of the book within a portable size, a Supplementary volume has been added, in which are printed such matters as are not in frequent use, or which can be used independently of the matter contained in the principal work. The system which has been so successfully carried out in the "Annual Practice," of publishing every year a work brought down to date at a low price, is now about to be extended to the County Courts. The two well-known Practices "Pollock and Nicol's County Courts" and "Heywood's County Courts," are to be amalgamated under the editorship of Messrs. Nicol and Heywood, and published annually at a price that will be comparatively nominal. The first annual edition will be issued shortly by the publishers of the "Annual Practice." Books received: A Digest for the Intermediate Examination of the Incorporated Law Society. By R. M. Stephenson, LL.B. (Horace Cox). The Whewell Lectures on International Law. By Henry Sumner Maine, K.C.S.I. (John Murray). The Magazine of Sport. (Iliffe and Son)." A Guide to Criminal Law at the Bar Final. By Charles Thwaites. Co.) The Holy Bible. Lord Chesterfield says:-" If you would either please in a private company or persuade in a public assembly, airs, looks, gestures, enunciation, proper ac cents, just emphasis, and tuneful cadences are full as necessary as the matter itself." How to acquire these, and also how to Keep the Voice in good preser vation, can be learnt from RUPERT GARRY'S Work," ELOCUTION, VOICE AND GESTURE." (Bemrose, is.) [Advt. CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of PUMP COURT. SIR,-"As a constant reader, I have observed with satisfaction, that for some months past PUMP COURT has taken to itself as a leading motto Pro Lege. You have always, I know, been a consistent and soundly sensible upholder of law and order, and I do not regard your new motto as evidence of any new faith or aim, but I do congratulate you on choosing this motto, as the very war-cry and watchword of honest citizens who desire the welfare of their country, and who have the clearness of vision to see the present loosening of moral and political sanctions. As every lawyer is, I am, well aware of the distinction between lex, the existing recognised law, which is well known or easily ascertainable, and jus in its broadest signification of moral right and justice; but I fear that this distinction is not distinctly enough recognised by the people at large, and I am not the only member of the legal profession who may regard with apprehension, and even with some shame, the indifference shown by even prominent members of the bar to this fatal confusion in some lay minds. The whole object for which any legislature exists is to bring lex, the law, into harmony with jus, the prevailing moral sense of fitness and justice. I say the prevailing sense, because it cannot surely be supposed that any dishonest or ignorant person is to set his sole judgment up in condemnation of the existing law and custom of this realm. If the lex be at fault, change it or get it changed by the available constitutional methods; but it is quite as justifiable for any single individual to defy any enactment that does not suit his fancy, as it is for any class, large or small, to abrogate at their pleasure any statutory rule which does not quite suit their convenience. People may tire of hearing this dinned into their ears, even as the Greeks of old tired of hearing Aristides called the Just. But it is the first lesson and should not be ended, but begun and read over and over again till it meet with the unanimous approval of the audience." [We quite approve these views of our learned correspondent, and we shall not tire of pointing out the necessity of marking, digesting and acting upon the motto of Pro Lege. We regret to observe signs of the spread, even in the rural districts of England, of a disposition to set lex at defiance. Witness the absurd recent claim of some people near Winchester to go "nutting" and breaking the trees of the woods there in dispite of warnings and prohibitions by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and only last week the case of cow impounding in Epping Forest. We should like much to hear the honest private opinion of Mr. William Morris, Socialist, on such matters. His methods of inculcating the new morality are not always the most wise. His last socialist play aims at bringing the law and its administration into contempt. It is clever, no doubt, but that is no "set off" to its immorality.] THE Right Honourable JOHN HAY ATHOLE MACDONALD, C.B., Q.C., LL.D., Her Majesty's advocate for Scotland, has been appointed Justice Clerk and President of the second division of the Court of Session, in the room of the Right Honourable James Baron Moncreiff, resigned. Mr. MOIR STORMOUTH DARLING, Scotch advocate, has been appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland in succession to Mr. James Patrick Bannerman Robertson, who has been appointed Lord Advocate. Mr. Darling was born in 1844, educated at the University of Edinburgh, and admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland in 1867. Sir THOMAS CHAMBERS, Q.C., Recorder of London, has been appointed Returning Officer for the London County Council. Mr. GURUDAS BANERJEE has been appointed a judge of the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta. Sir THOMAS SIDGREAVES, Knt., has been appointed a Magistrate for Worcestershire. Sir T. Sidgreaves was born in 1831, educated at Stonyhurst College, and graduated B.A. at the University of London in 1853. He was called at the Inner Temple in Trinity Term, 1857, and joined the Northern Circuit. He was Attorney-General of the Straits Settlements from 1871 till 1882, and he received the honour of knighthood in 1874. Mr. CLAYTON LEWIS GLYN, Barrister-at-Law, has been appointed a Magistrate for the County of Essex. Mr. Glyn was born in 1857, and educated at Merton College, Oxford. He was called at the Inner Temple in June, 1883, and joined the South-Eastern Circuit and the Essex and Hertford Sessions. Mr. JOHN GORDON WALSH, solicitor, of Oxford and Bicester, has been appointed Clerk to the Police Committee of the Oxford Town Council. Mr. Walsh was admitted a solicitor in 1886. Mr. JOHN RILEY, solicitor (of the firm of Riley and Kettle), of Wolverhampton and Dudley, has been appointed Registrar of the Dudley County Court (Circuit No. 23), and District Registrar under the Judicature Acts, in succession to the late Mr. Thomas Walker. Mr. Riley was admitted a solicitor in 1845. THE INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY. (Continued from p. 348, Vol. VII.) Advocacy is a noble art, and it is one of such varied experience that it makes its followers charming companions and agreeable friends. I always feel, therefore, that it is a thousand pities that the pleasantness should be marred, to a great extent, so far at least as the other branch are professionally concerned -aye, and even beyond that--by an idea of exclusive caste superiority, which is generally imbibed, and seldom, if ever cast off. I do not attach much importance to the fact that the history of the barrister and of the solicitor, distinctly and undoubtedly, shows that the assumption of the sole right of advocacy by the former is an act of professional usurpation; because, there it is, and in this age we must take things as they are, and as their merits stand, without endeavouring to undermine them by antiquity; but this superior assumption is well-known, and between two callings, whose duties should be reciprocally equal, it is detrimental to the characters and usages of both. I now turn to my last point-the question as it affects the solicitor. For what the statement may be worth, we are assured by "Temple " that he is not "inferior"; and I have, myself, heard leaders of the bar-especially at public banquets-give the same assurance, and urge that the whole profession should never lose sight of the grand distinction between bench, bar, and solicitor, on which our law is based, and within the grades of which all are brethren! I always listen to speeches like this with a smile, and remember the recent utterance of the great statesman "beati possidentes!" The fact is, that this admission of fraternity is merely convivial compliment; and, while it may be listened to with momentary applause, it is well known that it is such. Shakespeare has said it, and it is as true now as it was in his day, and ever must be true, that, except side by side, two men cannot ride on the same horse unless one is behind, and has the back seat. A back seat is a back seat all the world over; and the man who sits in it, even on a noble animal, has all he can do to keep level with the holder of a front seat, even it may be on such an inferior animal as a donkey. There is no getting out of this, be it disguised as it may. Nothing but consciousness of this could lead the practical lawyer to put up with various acts within the legal profession which are called etiquette, but which, but for that name, would, between gentlemen, be marked insults. Nothing but a long-standing and habitual recognition of this position could lead the Council of this Society to submit patiently to the humiliation so often put upon it, when in its own council chamber, and in the seat of its own president, and, at times, to his displacement, in one of the most important com. mittees, an official, almost always a member of the bar, takes the chair, and conducts the deliberations. I will venture to say that such a thing does not happen in a single other calling in the country; but it is based on the absurd old dictum that while the barrister is an "amicus curiæ," the solicitor is but an "officer" of the Court. I remember that, some years ago, we ventured, upon invitation, to express our candid views, perhaps a little bluntly, but quite truthfully, on the question of counsels' fees. We intend it as a mere reference to a system, and with no aspersion on the honour of any single human being. Words can hardly describe the indignation with which this act of supposed rebellion was received. We scarcely, indeed we dare not, address our domestic servants in the terms in which the Society were, as a body, scolded and rated by bench and bar for this act of insubordination by those whom, after dinner, they call brethren; and we were dosed with homilies as to the integrity of the great scientific profession, who would be "wanting in all self-respect" if they listened to such suggestionsas if integrity were concentrated in that calling, and existed nowhere else! There is, in fact, no getting out of it. How can there be, so long as, with a few exceptions to be counted on the fingers of one hand, practical lawyers are deemed unfitted to hold any post under the Crown beyond such as could be adequately filled by any one of their decent managing clerks? To say that practice in advocacy is necessary for judgships or should be necessary in a proper legal system is moonshine. Judgeships are given to barristers, and they are by no means our worst judges, who have seen little of Courts. I could name at our council table half-a-dozen men straight off who would at once be as good judges as any on the bench. We have," says a Canadian correspondent of the Irish Law Society," several excellent judges who were never eminent as advocates." The exclusion of the practical lawyer in our country from high judicial posts is an act of flagrant injustice to him, and of injury to the public. But, to the profession the injury goes far beyond the mere loss of post and emolument; and this, to my mind (so far as the profession is concerned), is the greatest point of all. Wealth is, no doubt, a great essential in these days; but, I always rejoice that, in our historic country, money is not the only honour. It must be good for a country that there should be something else to be striven for; and, while we may have no desire to destroy an old system of hereditary title, the chief value attaches to those which are personally earned. And it is an honour-it is an ennobling and elevating thing to be able to strive for a recognition-for it comes to that-from our Sovereign and our fellow-countrymen that we have not laboured in vain; and, that the mark of our not having done so is to be borne about our names, our persons, and our families. I say that this is an elevating and ennobling agent in man's work; and, if it is so, it is an unjust and injurious thing that it should be closed to any profession which can boast of work, of honour, and integrity. It is marked, emphatically, as an injustice when a calling closely cognate |