born in 1794, and is consequently seventy-three years of age. If his peerage be a reward, well and good: but if it be conferred to increase the legal strength of the House, we may regret that its utility is likely to last but a very few sessions. The peerage of Sir

Hugh Cairns is free from any such objection. The

new Lord Justice of Appeal is still young, and brings his faculties in their full vigour to the business of the House. Should he be able to spare sufficient time from the duties of his court, he will no doubt render important services to the country.

CAMBRIDGE AND THE INNS OF
COURT.

THE Board of Legal Studies at Cambridge have
discovered that " great practical inconvenience
arises from the law students of this University
being required to undergo a further examination
on being called to the Bar," and they hope that
the Inns of Court will be induced to accept the
examination for law honours at Cambridge in
lieu of that now prescribed by the Inns of Court.
We can offer no objection to the scheme, for
the subjects set at Cambridge and at Lincoln's-
inn are identical, and to require a Cambridge law
honour man to pass at Lincoln's-inn is asking
him to repeat himself in a manner calculated
perhaps to derogate slightly from his dignity.
A senior of the Cambridge Law Tripos might
very possibly be beaten by an obscure Middle
Temple "grind," who understands the humour
of the Readers. But we must confess that this
is the only "practical inconvenience" which can
arise, inasmuch as no residence in London is
required: it is simply necessary that the can-
didate should be in town during the four or five
days of the examination.

The Board of Legal Studies also observe that if the examination at Lincoln's-inn were dispensed with in favour of Cambridge law students the Inns of Court would secure a greater number of persons who have availed themselves of university education. We believe this to be fallacious, for if a man seriously wants to go to the Bar an easier examination than the examination passed at Cambridge would not deter him; but as it is, the number of University men at the Bar is out of proportion to the business to be done, and if the Bar is to adorn itself with attractions for University men whilst the Church repels, the amount of impecuniosity in the Profession will be multiplied disastrously, and the faithful will hunger for pastors in vain. Nevertheless, as we remarked at first, we do not see why the representation of the Cambridge Board of Legal Studies should not have effeet with the Legal Council of Education. On principle, however, we certainly think that instead of knocking down tests we ought to build up others, inasmuch as at present vast numbers of men go to the Bar who are blissfully ignorant of the practice of the profession. We want hospitals for sick suitors, which law students should be compelled to "walk."

THE JAMAICA BOY ENSIGN. Ir is no part of the duty of a legal newspaper to refute ordinary erroneous statements, but the persecution of Ex-Governor EYRE justifies us in making an exception to the general rule, and particularly so inasmuch as injustice is done whilst the misapprehension remains. A gentleman recently returned from a military command on the coast of Africa informs us that the Jamaica "Boy Ensign" at the time of the insurrection was thirty-five years of age at the least, having risen from the ranks. This being so, the complexion of the proceedings on the drum-head courts-martial is changed. He was not a beardless youth who presided, but an experienced soldier who had doubtless highly distinguished himself. He exchanged into a regiment which went out to Africa, and he has

since been killed on the Gambia.

DEEDS UNDER B. A. 1861 NOT PLEADED. On Tuesday last the Court of Exchequer was evenly divided on a point of great importance to the creditors of debtors who resort to the protection of the 192nd section of the Bankruptcy Act 1861. The case upon which the division arose is that of Emmott v. The Staffordshire Bank, and the question was, whether a deed which had not been pleaded in bar to an action could afterwards he set up to prevent the issue of execution. The newspaper report, unfortunately, does not inform us whether the deed contained a release. Assuming that it did, it is difficult to

perceive why BRAMWELL and CHANNELL, BB.
should have held that it was unavailable.
Assuming that it did not, it is equally difficult
to perceive why KELLY, C. B. and PIGOTT, B.
should have held that it could be made available
to prevent an execution.

The court being divided, we may perhaps be
pardoned if we venture to lay down a principle,
namely, that a deed without a release cannot be
made available by way of obtaining an injunc-
tion to prevent the issuing of an execution, but
that it may be made available to set aside an
execution. Where the deed contains a release,
and is not pleaded by inadvertence or some such
cause, we, with submission, conceive that it
would be consistent with the intention of the
197th section if it were made available to prevent
the issuing of execution.

the rent payable for the premises. It also appears to us that where the term rent is introduced as here, other rates would not be covered, such as the sewerage rate, which is charged upon the premises in proportion to its value, and not upon the rent. This decision will doubtless induce some lessees to look a little more closely into this oppressive covenant in their leases, and make solicitors more cautious in drawing it.

A HOME QUESTION. IT seems that the city of Chester has had a narrow escape from being sacked by the Fenians, and its inhabitants from massacre.

If the threatened émeute had taken place, who, with the fate of Governor EYRE before him, would have dared to put it down with the strong arm of military law? We have paralysed the hands of all official protectors of our lives, properties, and liberties, by the prosecution of a man who had saved an island from destruction, and the scarcely less disgraceful abandonment of him by the Government he had served so well.

There is nothing like a little personal experience. The inhabitants of the good city of Chester have now tasted something of the terrors of insurrection; but only in fear and fancy-they have felt none of its horrible realities. This mere foretaste will, however, suffice to enable them to form a tolerable conception of what must have been the condition of their fellow-countrymen in Jamaica in the midst of actual insurrection. With veritable massacres proceeding on all sides, and their enemies as ten to one, would they not have cried out at Chester for martial law? And would not all England have showered praises upon the men who had enforced it, and saved the city and its people from a horrible fate?

LIABILITY TO LANDLORD'S TAXES. THE Legislature has very properly imposed certain taxes and rates upon the landlord, as being designed for purposes of permanent improvement more beneficial to the property than to the temporary occupier of it. Such are a portion of the rates for improvements, sewerage, and other permanent works, under the Public Health Acts, the Local Government Acts, the Metropolis Local Management Act, &c. &c. The Cattle Plague Rate is partially charged upon the landlord, and of the public taxes the land-tax and the property-tax are landlords' and not tenants' taxes. But a practice has grown up, especially in and about London, where land or buildings are let on lease, to introduce a covenant for payment by the tenant of all rates, taxes, and impositions in respect of the property so demised-a covenant which has the effect of compelling the unfortunate tenant to pay his landlord's taxes as well as his own, and thus practically to defeat the design of the We know not if there is a man in Chester who Legislature. It may be said that this is at the has thoughtlessly subscribed towards the pertenant's option; he consented to the arrange-secution of Governor EYRE; if there be, he must ment when he accepted the lease, and has no right afterwards to complain. But, in fact, tenants taking leases cannot help themselves; they are at the mercy of the landlord: they can not afford to reject a convenience for the sake of a few pounds, and submit, although the landlord might, with equal propriety, have insisted upon a covenant that the tenant should pay his subscription to his club.

If the rates were determined at the time of the lease, there would be at least no cause for dispute; but it happens frequently that, during the running of the lease, new rates and taxes are imposed, which the Legislature charges upon the landlord; and then comes the question, whether the covenant to pay all rates, &c., applies to rates and taxes imposed subsequently to the lease. Where the lease expressly uses language that includes all charges upon the landlord in respect of the premises then or thereafter to be imposed, there is of course no doubt; but in leases of old date, and in some modern ones, there is no such all-embracing language, and then arises the question, whether the new rate, which the statute expressly imposes on the landlord, and authorises the tenant to pay and deduct from his rent, is under the covenant charged upon the

tenant.

The case of Tidswell v. Whitworth, 15 L.T. Rep. N. S. 574, raises this question. The defendant's house was within the jurisdiction of the Manchester Improvement Aet. He held it on a lease for seven years, and there was in this lease a covenant that lessee would "pay and discharge all rates, taxes, assessments, and impositions whatever (except property or income tax) in respect of the said rent which during the said term should become payable in respect of the said demised premises.' Afterwards a local Act passed empowering the town council to order certain streets to be sewered and paved, and if the owner of the house should neglect to do his share of the work, the council might do it, and charge such share upon the owner. Here the owner neglected to do the work; the council charged him 2134 as his share of it, which he paid, and then brought an action against the lessee to recover it under the covenant cited above. But the Court of Common Pleas held that the covenant did not extend to such a charge; that the Act created a personal duty to be performed by the owner, and the word "imposition" in the covenant must be interpreted as being ejusdem generis with rates, taxes, and assessments, and levied in respect of the premises, and let us add, it might have been said also, in respect of

now feel how the question he had thoughtlessly entertained comes home to himself, and he will best undo the evil he has done by subscribing double the sum for his defence.

THE MONEY MARKET REVIEW AND RAILWAY DEBENTURES. THE "Minister of Public Instruction ought to know French," was once said of such a funetionary who had offended the Academy. Even a Money Market Review, when it writes legal articles, ought to know law. It ought to be armed at all points, if it throws down a challenge like this: "One of our legal contemporaries-the Law TIMES has rendered itself especially conspicuous for its unlearned, irrational, and reckless comments upon the effects of this judgment" (Sir HUGH CAIRNS' in Drawbridge's and Gardner's cases, 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 552), and, if its readers have any confidence in the soundness of its legal opinions or in its commercial knowledge, such teachings are sil the more to be lamented." Let us look at the internal evidence of qualification in this teacher to charge want of learning, want of reason, and recklessness against anybody's comments on the law of railway companies securities.

66

The Money Market Review does not know the difference between a railway company's debenture and a railway company's bond. This, however unseemly on the present occasion, is, perhaps, not to be wondered at in the case of a mercantile newspaper, since the term “debenture" has come into use, in Stock Exchange language, instead of "mortgage," which is the statutory name. But that kind of thing will not do west of St. Paul's. The Review, thrown into confusion by local terminology, says that capitalists "advanced their money upon the faith of the capital and credit of the company and its undertaking, relying upon the adequacy of the revenues to repay them at the time fixed, and to pay the interest thereon in the meantime. In the case of a real mortgage, the houses or lands, on the security of which the advance is made, are actually assigned and conveyed to the mortgagee, and... he has the right to enter into possession or to foreclose.... The debenture was clearly the evidence of a debt on the part of the company in the nature of a bond-debt, which gave the holder a legal right to be paid his principal and interest according to the tenor and effect of the bond, and a legal fight to enforce the payment by judgment and execution against the property and assets of the company. But,

like a common bond, it gave him no right of entry, and no right to foreclose." The difference then is between a railway debenture and a common bond, not between a railway debenture and a railway bond. The Review shows here no consciousness of the fact that a railway debenture is a mortgage, and that "the undertaking' on the credit of which it says that capitalists advance their money is, in fact, assigned to the mortgagee, and "all the estate, right, title, and interest of the company in the same." The peculiar remedy of a debenture-holder to procure the appointment of a receiver of the tolls is plainly unknown to the Review, which confines the mortgagee to the right of a bondholder, namely, to enforce payment by judgment and execution. According to this legal authority, the mortgage is "evidence of a debt," "in the

nature of a bond-debt."

With amusing self-confidence this newspaper puts its finger on our interpretation of the judgments, that the effect of them was, the debenture gave the holder nothing more than a first charge upon the profits, and the supposed charge on the estate was pronouneed a nullity. "The writer," says our dogmatic friend, "is wrong again. The holder has a first charge and claim upon the revenues of the undertaking, whether there be any profits or not;" just as if the debenture-holders could run away with the gross earnings and leave the payment of the wages of clerks and porters, and of drivers and stokers, and every other head of working expense, including the Government dues themselves, unprovided for. Yet this eager critic, in the very next paragraph, quotes Lord Justice TURNER, "who may well be supposed to know as much about the legal effect of this judgment as the LAW TIMES" (or the Money Market Review) as saying, "there was no occasion for alarm as to the nature of the security of the debenture-holders of a railway company which was carrying on business at a profit, as the debenture-holders still have the first charge on the profits earned "the words adopted by the LAW TIMES, and found by the Review to be wrong again." Want of knowledge is a fault which a public writer of quick parts may readily hide, while natural dulness betrays not only the want of knowledge but itself also.

66

and appearing among the public general Acts
simply because they are passed, for some
reason or other, at the public general expense;
3. Annual Acts, like the Mutiny Act, Acts to
indemnify persons who have omitted to qualify
themselves by taking obsolete oaths, and con-
tinuation Acts, numbering together eight;
4. Legislative warrants, for appropriation of
moneys, arranging the public funds, or for
public works, in all eight; 5. True general laws
of England, fifty-five. So that, in fact, not one-
half of the Acts in the book for 1866 directly
concern the English public or the English
practitioner.

If we take our contemporary's estimate of the
relative bulk of the English and non-English
parts, we find the "genuine statutes" occupying
only 356 out of 1007 pages. Irish, Scotch, colo-
nial, and other Acts of partial application, a
great empire like the British Empire must have,
but why should the law of England (or rather
of the United Kingdom) be incumbered with
fragments of other systems? Why should laws
for England be jumbled up with laws which have
no operation except at the antipodes ?"
The first step recommended towards a reform
of the law is to separate English statutes from
the "half-foreign accretions." The next is, to
separate general laws from laws not general;
that Acts really private, annual Acts, and Acts
in the nature of legislative warrants, may not
be "for ever embalmed among the statutes of the
realm."

The grave cause of complaint arising out of
the second great fault of the statute-book, even
if the fifty-five true English laws were presented
to the reader disincumbered of the sixty-seven
other enactments, is made manifest by an
analysis of the fifty-five, which the Magazine
gives in an alphabetical list, an order, by the
way, not a whit less scientific, rather more so,
than the chronological arrangement in the
volume itself of the Acts. The heads are-
Armed Forces (sea and land), Bills of Sale,
Cattle, Charities, Church, Companies, Courts,
Crown, Customs and Revenue, Finance, Fish-
eries, Harbours and Tolls, Health, Libraries,
Loans, Local Government, Metropolis and
Thames, Offices (Public), Office, Parliament,
Poor, Prisons, Procedure, Safety (Public).
Schools (Industrial and Reformatory), and Trade.
All, as one knows, are strung together like trades-
men's bills on a file, as they happen to receive
the QUEEN's assent. From the Mutiny Acts at
the top to Hops at the bottom, there is no divi-
sion or discrimination of class of any kind.
However, in this respect, perhaps, the statute-
book is rather diverting and pleasant reading,
like the discursive Cornhill or Fortnightly.
Chance, the public Editor, is an all-powerful
genius, who modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis.

of every department of the profession but his own, and the difficulty experienced by the Legislature in rightly carrying out such changes in the matter of the laws as may be found to be necessary," Mr. WALPOLE knows one reason why.

Some movement towards a better state of things is pointed out by our brother critic. The system of short titles has been extensively applied in the past session. There has been an increase of Consolidation Acts, relating to Exchequer Bills, to the Conservancy of the Thames, to the Discipline of the Navy, and to Industrial and Reformatory Schools. This is favourable to a better arrangement. Yet the worse remains behind. To remedy it codification is urged"a word of awful import to old-fashioned lawyers, but which means nothing more than the exhibition of our old law in a rational instead of an irrational order." Codification, however, must, if it is done, 'be done later. The first thing needful is to secure some order in the current volume. When codification of the existing law shall have been accomplished, it may be adopted in the current years of future time. Meanwhile order for the current years of the present will be the best preparation of the way onwards for an approaching code.

A WREATH ON A GRAVE. A JUDGE's life, in an age of civil peace, is rarely of his calling. But sometimes a fertility of one of many incidents out of the ordinary course natural character produces much which it is pleasant to record, beyond the mere dates of birth, promotion, and death, and the general praise bestowed on dead men. So it has happened with the memory of the departed LORD JUSTICE. Judgments which he marked with his keen humour have been quoted by the public journals in their funeral orations, and his originality in the application of equitable principles has been lately celebrated. Now from the pen of one of his kinsmen some points of his careerhave been culled by our quarterly legal contemporary, which touch him more nearly. From his childhood Sir J. L. KNIGHT BRUCE showed a marvellous power of storing his mind. When he was only six or seven years old, we are told, according to an anecdote current in the family, that a wager was made one evening, that he, would continue any passage in the historical plays of SHAKESPEARE, of which any person present would give him the first words; the child was fetched from his bed and the bet won. This faculty ripened. A tradition exists that, while he was "serving" his seven years in Lincoln'sinn-fields with Mr. BIGOE CHARLES WILLIAMS, the founder of the firm of WALTERS, YOUNG, and WALTERS, he would recite whole chapters of Blackstone by heart. Later in life, when he was at the bar, this tenacity of mind showed itself in an extraordinary rapidity in making. himself master of the facts of a case, and an equally surprising memory in retaining what he had once mastered. It is related that he constantly argued cases on appeal, involving complicated dates and figures, merely on his recollection of the facts, as mastered by him on the original hearing, and that he did so after solong an interval as two years. In Hilton v. Lord Granville, where the statement of the case even in the report (Cr. & Ph. 284) occupies above five pages, and Lord COTTENHAM said the ques-tion was one of the most difficult as to the application of the jurisdiction that he had known, he opened the case on appeal two hours afterreceiving his brief with as thorough a know-ledge of the facts as any counsel present, although he had not been engaged in it in the court below."

THE STATUTE HEAP. A NEW session has begun. Raw materials are being collected for a fresh faggot to be thrown on the pile of written laws, and to be called the Public General Statutes for the year 1867. We are glad, then, that at this season our criticism of the 29th Dec., on the compilation of the book for 1866, is ably backed in the February number of the Law Magazine. On our examination of the annual volume issued ten years after the minds of Lord Chancellors and public men had "A statute-book for 1866, omitting the nonbeen seriously applied to the reduction into order English and non-general statutes, and arranged of the works of Parliament, and professions and upon almost any principle of natural grouping, promises had been made by them of what they would occupy a third of the bulk, cost a third were accomplishing, and would in a brief space of the price, and be of ten times the utility, of complete, to put these works into men's hands the volume which has actually appeared." In in a rational form, the results arrived at by us addition, the Legislature itself would be more were, that in this octavo volume for 1866 (series careful to confine each measure within the commenced-1830) 223 pages out of the whole 864 bounds of its proper subject-matter. The pracwere taken up with Acts comprising orders tical course recommended by us was that, as a made under the Local Government Act, or by gentle beginning of reform, the true English public bodies, relating to particular towns and Acts should be paged separately from the rest. places, besides ether Acts pointed out by us of the and that the same method should be applied for like limited kind. The financial Acts filled about the further purposes of classification. The thirty pages, and on the whole these Acts of a lowest step of the ladder might at least be local, personal, temporary, or other special cha- gained in the present session, after all that has racter, formed one-third of what were misnamed been said and attempted for twenty tedious the public gencral statutes. We did not object years past; how, we have previously shown. to such Acts being called public, but that no Let each Act be printed by the QUEEN's printers classification was made of them by separate separately in octavo form, as well as in folio, so The acuteness of intellect and genial wit of Mr. paging or otherwise. Now we have a fellow- that every one may have an opportunity of KNIGHT, when he was a young man, are still labourer in the field. Like our own, the com- buying in the usual convenient shape what he spoken of by his only surviving contemporary plaint of our contemporary is twofold; that wants, and neither more nor less than he wants.in the house in Lincoln's-inn-fields. On the "the statute-book exhibits two of the most Will no bold, ardent, and talented member of pernicious faults which can possibly affect a cither House venture to get up in his place and body of laws. First, it contains a mass of irre- move this little reform? Seriously, let a comlevant and alien matter, intermingled in well-mittee be appointed on a motion by Mr. WALnigh hopeless confusion with what is useful; secondly, the useful matter is arranged in a merely chronological, instead of a scientific

order."

The fivesmaller heaps added last year to the great heap of centuries are enumerated thus:-1. NonEnglish statutes, in number thirty-three, relating to the other parts of the kingdom, the colonies, dependencies, and foreign lands; 2. Local and personal Acts, eighteen, referring only to definite localities or definite individuals, in England,

POLE at once, before more mischief is done, to in-
quire into and report on some more convenient
mode of printing the statute volume which will
be the 30 & 31 Vict., and which, once printed,
must otherwise incumber thousands of shelves
already bending under masses of paper and mill-
board, shrinking in value as they spread in bulk.
MT. WALPOLE has been a practising lawyer, and
when mocking and censorious tongues are re-
proachful with "the obscurity and delay of all
legal proceedings, the ignorance of the lawyer

bench, “to a barrister who began by saying the case was not arguable by the other side, he said, satirically, Then I suppose we shall be im peached if we decide against you. To another, who asserted very decidedly some bad law, he replied by inquiring successively of each leading counsel in court whether he was aware of the doctrine, as it was new to him." When a solicitor, who on an occasion attempted to excuse himself for having brought an action by stating that he had done so under the advice of a learned gentleman, now one of the Vice-Chancellors, ViceChancellor KNIGHT BRUCE remarked, "That opinion must, I presume, have been given while the counsel was walking from Westminster-hall

"Thank you, Mr. LEE, thank you, I will hear you some other time. Well Mr. -"

COMPOSITION-DEED EXAMINATION. A deed having been executed, and a composition paid under it, certain creditors required the debtors to submit They refused, and were committed for contempt. On to an examination, under sect. 197 B. A. 1861. appeal to the Lords Justices, it was held that the examination was properly directed, and the appeal was dismissed: (Ex parte Fachiri, re Fachiri, Feb. 9.)

LETTERS OF CREDIT.-The Lords Justices are of opinion that whatever may be the effect at law of a letter of credit, in equity the court, at the instance of any person who negotiated bills drawn in pursuance of such letter, would compel the company giving such letter to accept and pay them. It was held not open to the company to say to the persons negotiating the bills on the faith of the letter of debt was due to it from the persons to whom the credit that it would not pay the bills because a larger letter of credit was given: (Re The Agra Bank, ex parte The Asiatic Banking Corporation, Feb. 11.) COMPOSITION-DEED-EXECUTION.-The Court of Exchequer has divided on the question whether a composition-deed not pleaded in bar can be made available to prevent execution: (See our leading columns. Emmott v. The Staffordshire Bank, Feb. 12.) THE LAW Of Cheques.

for a partner to draw cheques. He gave a post-dated PARTNERSHIP.-There was evidence of authority bill, and it was held that, as a post-dated bill amounted for all practical purposes to a bill of exchange, he had exceeded the scope of his authority: (Foster v. Mackreth, Ex., Feb. 12.)

SUMMARY OF IRISH DECISIONS.
(From the Irish Law Times)

COURT OF CHANCERY. JURISDICTION.-The Lord Justice of Appeal, sitting for the Lord Chancellor, refused to entertain motions or petitions in lunacy, the Lord Chancellor exercising that authority not by virtue of his office but by warrant from the Crown under the sign

Certain lessees of a mine agreed to sell their interest JOINT-STOCK LAW-PAID-UP SHAREHOLDERS.to a projected company for 2000 shares each, which were to be considered as paid-up shares, and 400% in cash. The company was afterwards wound-up, and the lessees sought to be put upon the list of contributories (the liquidator having omitted their lease was at an undervalue, and praying that calls names), their petition charging that the sale of the might be made on other shareholders, so that the paid-up shareholders might be recouped the excess of capital which they had subscribed. The Master of the Rolls simply directed the names of the petitioners to be placed on the list, and expressed no opinion upon the residue of the petition: (The Holyhead Mining Company's case.)

RAILWAY-MONEY LODGED.-A sum of 1717. was

lodged in court by the Belfast Railway Company under sect. 2 of the Railways (Ireland) Amendment Act 1862, to enable the company to enter into certain his final award, fixing the price at 1714, which the lands in B. in the county of D. The arbitrator made owner accepted, and conveyed the land to the company. The company presented a petition praying that the sum lodged might be paid to the owner, founded on a consent signed by him, and by an incumbrancer. The M. R. directed it to be paid back to the company, they undertaking that it should be applied according to the consent: (Belfast Central Railway Company's Case, Jan 23.)

For instance, he might want to plead it to another

The following are the latest prices of some of juryman received a fee of two guiness for his attendance and the view of the site.

action for the same cause. Motion refused: (Holmes the principal companies : v. Waterford and Passage Railway Company.)

COURT OF PROBATE.

ISSUES CODIcil-AllegeD MISTAKE IN REFERENCE TO WILL-AMENDMENT.-A codicil referred to a will of Nov. 1863, which was propounded by the plaintiff. Some defendants pleaded a will of Jan. 1864, as the last will which had revoked the former, and averred that the codicil was intended to be a codicil to it, and that the testator did not intend by the codicil to declare an intention to confirm and revive the first will. Other defendants, in addition to a similar plea, pleaded undue execution of the codicil and undue influence as to it. Held that the proper issue was whether the will of Nov. 1863 was revived by the codicil, and also that the special plea should be amended by omitting the latter branch of it: (Grogan v. M'Connell, Jan. 26.)

BANKRUPTCY.

ARRANGEMENT CLAUSES OF THE BANKRUPTCY ACT-DISCRETIONARY POWER OF THE COURT.-An arranging trader has an overwhelming majority of creditors to sanction the proposal for a composition offered by him, but it turns out that property to a very large amount, in the shape of machinery, which was erected by a particular creditor, had been mortgaged by the trader at the very time that such machinery was in process of erection without giving the slightest intimation to that creditor. The Court will, notwithstanding that majority, and without speculating whether more or less will be had in bankruptcy, adjudicate the trader bankrupt, and adjourn the proceedings into the open court, and give the creditor opposing his costs: (Re Beck, an arranging Trader, Feb. 1867.)

ESTATE AND INVESTMENT
JOURNAL.

ORDINARY SHARES AND STOCKS.

No.

2,214,808

STOCKS.

Canadian Gov. 6 p. c. Jan. and
July 1877-84.......

Canadian Gov. 5 p. c. Jan, and
July.........

585,808 Canadian Gov. 5 p. c. Inscribed
Stock
1,135,800 N. S. Wales Gov. 5 p. c. 1871-76
Jan. and July

STOCK AND SHARE MARKETS. THE narrow escape of Chester from the Fenian raid, showing an extensive organisation of traitors in England as well as in Ireland, has caused a slight depression in the money-market, in which all bonds and securities have shared, and which has more than counteracted the reduction in the Bank rate of interest. Consols declined per cent., and were last quoted at 904. Discount at the Stock Exchange was at 2 to 23,671,800 N. S. Wales 5 p. c. 1883 to 1893, per cent. In foreign stocks there was nothing new. United States Bonds have advanced 1 per cent. Mexican and Spanish are lower. The subscription to the 300,000l. loan to the provinces of Canterbury, New Zealand, was very partial.

The committee of shareholders in Overend, Gurney and Co., announce their intention to appeal from the judgment of V. C. MALINS. Their hope, of course, is not to reverse the decision, but to compel by protraction a compromise with the creditors. But so long as there is a solvent shareholder, there is no reason whatever why any creditor should abate a farthing of his claim. If, instead of a failure, the speculation had been the success that was anticipated by the shareholders, they would not have given a sixpence of their gains to their creditors. The following are the fluctuations of the week:

....

93

100 91
Jan and July
100 85 86
150,000 New Zealand 6 per cent. ......... 100 100 102
1,000,000 Ditto 5 per cent.
100 844 85
751,660 S. Australian Gov. 6 p. c. 1878
7,000,000 Victoria Gov. 6 p. c. April and
and upwards
100 105 107
October
100 107 108

THE ESTATE MARKET.

THERE are signs already of the coming sale
season, and that it will be a busy one. The
Times on one day last week contained an entire
page of advertisements of estates, almost every
auctioneer of note having a strong list. As yet
we have to record only the following:

An eligible wine and beer house at Fulham,
and some short leaseholds at Somers-town, will
be offered for sale at the Mart, by Messrs.
SCOBELL and JENKINSON, on the 25th inst.

Messrs. DANIEL SMITH and Co. will sell on the 26th, at the same place, a valuable freehold estate in Hertfordshire, comprising upwards of 1200 acres.

Messrs. NORTON, TRIST, and Co. will offer, on
the 15th March, at the Mart, the reversion to
one-third share of a freehold residence at
Streatham. The same auctioneers announce for

sale in April some valuable freehold property in
Leadenhall-street, and also in Wapping.
Particulars of all the above will be found in
our advertisements.

COURT OF COMPENSATION.

Wednesday, Feb. 13.

The pro

FAIRFAX V. THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS. This was another compensation case. perty was freehold, 242, Strand, near Temple-bar. Lloyd and J. O. Griffits were for the claimant ; Hawkins, Q. C. and M Mahon for the commissioners. Mr. Fox (Fox and Bousfield), Mr. Driver of Whitehall, and other witnesses were called. The property, although only let temporarily at 851. ayear, was worth from 2007. to 2107. a-year.

No witnesses were called on the other side. Hawkins wanted the jury to arrive at the conclusion that 20007. was sufficient.

The jury, however, gave a verdict for 36581.

NOTE The Reports of the Stock Exchange are officially supplied in the following list. Auctioneers whose names are registered there will oblige by reports of their own sales.

Wednesday, Feb. 6.

By Messrs. DENT and SON, at the Mart. Leasehold residence, No. 58, Oakley-square, let on lease at 651. per annum; term 99 years from 1854 at 77. per annumsold for 7501.

Tuesday, Feb. 12.

By Mr. F. J. SHARP, at the Mart. Leasehold residence, No 13, Sutherland-square South, Walworth, let at 301. per annuin; terin 78 years at 41. per annum -sold for 3001.

LEGISLATION AND JURIS-
PRUDENCE.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

COURTS OF CONCILIATION,

Lord ST. LEONARDS, in laying upon their Lordships' table a Bill for the regulation of the law of master and servant, said that the measure was similar to that which he had prepared last year and presented to Parliament, but which, owing to the pressure of public business, had to be withdrawn. The object of this Bill, which was only permissive, was to provide a ready mode of settling disputes between masters and workmen by the establishment of courts of conciliation after the manner of those in operation in France. He believed that the establishment of such institutions here would tend to the prevention of strikes.The Bill was then read a first time.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

THE CRIMINAL LAW.

Mr. RUSSELL GURNEY, in moving for leave to introduce a Bill to remove some defects in the administration of the criminal law said the measure was not one of an extensive nature, and was entirely directed to the removal of evils which had come under his own observation in the court in which he

had the honour to sit. The House was aware that
at present ample means were taken to secure the
attendance and provide for the remuneration of
winesses whose evidence was necessary to establish
the guilt of the prisoner. He proposed by that Bill
to extend that power, so that it should not be con-
fined to the witnesses who were required to estab-
lish the prisoner's guilt, but should also apply to
witnesses who might establish his innocence. That
was a matter of great importance to the due adminis-
tration of justice. When prisoners made statements
in their own defence, he had not unfrequently felt
ashamed in asking them whether they had any wit-
nesses to call, knowing, as he did, that they had no
means of compelling the attendance of witnesses
who might or might not prove their innocence.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said he would offer no
opposition to the introduction of the Bill, the
Government, of course, reserving to themselves the
power to consider the clauses at a future stage.-
Leave was then given to bring in the Bill, which

was read a first time.

THE LAW OF FORFEITURE.

(Before H. ScorT TURNER, Esq., High Bailiff of of the House in the last session.
Westminster, and a Jury.)

RIDGWAY V. THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS.
This was a compensation claim for the freehold
houses 7 and 8, Lower Serle's-place, Temple- bar, the
site of which was required for the New Law Courts.
The claim, as presented, was 20007.

Montagu Chambers, Q. C. and Butt appeared for the
claimant.

Hawkins, Q. C. (with whom was M'Mahon) repre-
sented the Royal Commissioners.
The jury, on assembling at the old Insolvent
Debtors' Court where Mr. Commissioner Phillips
was wont to preside, went to view the property, and
on their return it soon became evident that a settle-
ment was about to be made between the parties.
After some delay, Mr. Hawkins announced that a
verdict would be taken for 13501.

The verdict was accordingly entered, and each

Mr. C. FORSTER asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it was his intention to introduce a measure for the abolition of the law of forfeiture on convictions of felony, founded on the provisions of the Bill which obtained the assent. -Mr. WALPOLE.— I will consult with the Attorney-General respecting this matter, and probably after that consultation I shall bring in a Bill on the subject, though the provisions may not be altogether the same as those contained in the previous measure- -The motion was then agreed to.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.

In answer to questions put by Mr. KNATCHBULLHUGESSEN, the HOME SECRETARY said it will be in the recollection of the House that a vast number of turnpike trusts-many more than usual-were ineluded in the Bill of last session, and inasmuch as several persons were affected by that Act, they were promised at the time of the discussion that they should have an opportunity of stating their caso before the Home Secretary. Accordingly, in the course of the autumn, a circular was issued, inviting, in fact, any observations which they might have to

destitution that the respondent be ordered to pay her a small sum of money pending its hearing. The Court declined to entertain the application: (Forde v. Forde, 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 595. Div.)

ARBITRATOR APPOINTMENT OF.-It is not illegal to choose an umpire by lot, and where the appointment of an umpire is signed by two arbitrators at different times and places the appointment is good: (Wrightson v. Hopper, 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 566. Q. B.).

COMPULSORY Reference-FRAUD.-Although a question of fraud may incidentally arise in the settlement of an account, the judge yet has discretionary power to order a reference: (Imhof v. Sutton, 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 578. C. P.)

AWARD-MATTERS UNNOTICED.-The silence of an arbitrator in his award upon some of the minor matters referred is no evidence that they were disregarded, and such an award was held good: (Jewell v. Christie, 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 580. C. P.)

INTERROGATORIES.-The plaintiff in an action for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment had been tried and acquitted on a charge of stealing books from the defendants. Evidence was given at the trial that certain books with the defendant's mark upon them were found in the plaintiff's house: Held, that an interrogatory desiring the plaintiff to state the time when, and the places where, and the persons from whom, he obtained these books, was within the Mr. LEEMAN gave notice of his intention on Wed-rule laid down in Zychliaski v. Maltby, 10 C. B., resday to move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the law relating to the sale and purchase of shares in banking companies.