PART II.

Section 23 provides general rules to be observed in every mine as to ventilation, the use of gunpowder, signals and manholes on underground planes, places of refuge on roads wherever the produce of the mine in transit exceeds ten tons an hour, and a variety of other necessary percautions for safety. Sec. 24 requires every owner or agent to transmit to the district inspector for approval by the Secretary of State special rules for the guidance of the persons managing or employed in his mine. These rules are to be established, if not objected to by the Secretary of State, within 40 days after their receipt by the inspector. Sec. 26 relates to the modification of the proposed special rules by the Secretary of State, and s. 27 for their amendment from time to time as required after being established.

An abstract of the Act and entire copy of the special rules are to be posted up at or near each mine, and renewed as often as obliterated: and the abstract and special rules are to be given gratis by the mine-owner to each person therein employed who shall apply for it.

PART III.

is supplemental and relates to penalties. It is identical with Part III. of the preceding Act.

CAP. 78. "PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS."

The Wild Birds for the protection of which this Act was passed are enumerated in a schedule, and range from the Bittern and Swan to the Robin Redbreast and the Wren. Any one intentionally wounding, killing, or offering for sale (when recently killed), any such bird between March 15th and August 1st, is liable to be reprimanded and discharged on payment of costs for the first offence, and to be fined not more than 5s., including costs, for each subsequent offence (s. 2). The other clauses of the Act are executive.

CAP. 81. "THE ATTORNEY AND SOLICITORS ACT (1860)
AMENDMENT ACT, 1872."

We paid close attention to a certain clause in the Law Agents Bill introduced last Session, which created considerable amusement and speculation among legal circles, and which purported to facilitate the passage of briefless Advocates in Scotland into the more lucrative though less illustrious rank of English Solicitors. We did not know, or if we once knew had forgotten till the other day, that while the more generally important portions of the Bill-those clauses which it was every one's concern to get passed-had been consigned to the tender mercies of a future Session, this particular provision had, for the benefit of a very select few, possibly of a solitary member of the Faculty, been made law. It simply enacts

that every member of the Faculty of Advocates who has BEFORE OR after the passing of this Act, served under articles of clerkship to a practising attorney in England or Wales for three years, and has been examined and sworn as prescribed by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, and amending Acts, may be admitted and enrolled as an attorney and solicitor in England and Wales.

CAP. 93. "THE PAWNBROKERS' ACT, 1872."

The Pawnbrokers' Act was nearly the last, but not the least important passed during the last Session. In simplicity of language and procedure it contrasts favourably with its predecessor. It brings into one compact and not very long enactment provisions which have hitherto been scattered up and down among a series of Acts passed at widely different times; and it leaves the essential conditions of the industry to which it relates unaltered, though it makes important improvements in matters of detail. The operation of the new, as of the old Act, is limited to transactions not exceeding £10 (sec. 10), above which pawner and pawnee have long been free to deal any way they liked, and on any terms upon which they might agree.

On and after January 1, 1873 (sec. 3), this freedom of contract may however, at the borrower's option, be extended to transactions between £2 and £10. The statutory rules and rates will apply if nothing be said or done to the contrary (s. 10). But if from the nature of the thing pledged, or for any other reason, the parties choose to make a special bargain, they may (s. 24) do so in a prescribed form, which is specially exempted from agreement or other stamp duty, but which is still governed by the Act, except where qualified as to rate of profit, period of redemption, or other specified particulars. The profit chargeable upon statutory pledges has hitherto not only varied with the amount advanced, but has been so defined that every payment on redemption of pledges involved an exercise of mental arithmetic that would have puzzled a first-class candidate at a competitive examination. Henceforth the charge will be (s. 15, schedule 4), one halfpenny per month for every florin or fraction of a florin advanced upon any pledge up to 40s. From 40s. to £10 the charge is one halfpenny per month for each half-crown.

The Bill when introduced contained a clause, founded on the recommendation of the Select Committee, restricting the statutory period for redeeming pledges from twelve to six months. This proposal, however, met with so little favour that the promoters of the Bill fell back on the old rule of a year and a day, with seven days of grace added (s. 16), instead of several distinct periods formerly prescribed. At the end of seven days' grace the pledge may be sold by auction in manner presented by the Act (ss. 19, 20). Unredeemed pledges for 10s. or under become (s. 17) the absolute property of the pawnbroker, but those of larger amount continue (s. 16) re

deemable until actual sale. A pawnbroker may bid (s. 19) at sale by auction for any article purchased by him, but he is bound to keep an account of the produce of all such sales, and to pay the surplus produce over to the pawner (ss. 21, 22) if demanded at any time within three years, subject, however, to his right to set off any deficiency arising within twelve months on the sale of other articles belonging to the same person.

So far the provisions of the Act are favourable to the pawnbroker. But the other sections impose upon him some corresponding liabilities. He is responsible (s. 8) for things done or omitted by his servants in the course of business, though he may be entirely innocent of them. He must keep books (s. 12), issue tickets describing the property pledged (s. 14), and do various other acts of business detail, in specially appointed ways (s. 13), under pain of £10 penalties. If he takes profits or makes charges beyond those authorized by the Act, if he fails to sell forfeited pledges bona fide, if he cooks his accounts in fraud of their owners, or withholds books which his customers are entitled to inspect, or if he refuses to pay over realized surplus, he becomes liable to a penalty on conviction in a court of summary procedure.

The Act makes him (s. 27) an insurer of all pledges to the extent of 25 per cent. above the amount advanced upon them, in addition to his ordinary liability for their full value if damaged by negligence while in his custody. If he fails to deliver a pledge on demand and tender of money due by the persons entitled, the onus of proving reasonable excuse lies upon him (s. 31). Abuses of the facilities which pawnbroking affords for embezzlement are guarded against by s. 35, which punishes a pawnbroker who takes in pledge unfinished materials in course of manufacture, or goods sent to wash, &c., with a fine of double the amount of his loan, in addition to the forfeiture of the goods. His premises may (s. 36) be searched by constables under a warrant, which is obtainable on reasonable ground of suspicion that such goods or materials have been unlawfully pawned, and resistance to an officer under such circumstances is punishable by a fine of £10, as an offence against the Act, in addition to other penalties for such offences.

The new Act substitutes (s. 37) a uniform duty of £7, 10s. on pawnbrokers' licenses, thus putting all who pursue the same trade on the same level. At present the duty in London is £15, and £7, 10s. in the country. Unlicensed trading exposes the offender to an Excise penalty of £50 (ss. 6, 37). The license may, by direction of a competent Court, be forfeited on conviction for fraud or for knowing receipt of stolen goods (s. 38).

Those already engaged in the business, their executors, administrators, assigns or successors, will be entitled to renewed licenses as of right (s. 39). New comers to the trade must obtain certificates, to be granted (s. 40) by justices and burgh magistrates at their ordinary meetings for granting and renewing certificates for the sale

of excisable liquors, or other meetings specially convened. The certificate can only be granted after giving certain public notices (s. 42), and will be refused if (s. 43) the applicant fail to produce satisfactory evidence of good character, or if it be shown that the shop he proposes to open, or some adjacent premises owned by him, are the resort of reputed theives or bad characters. Forgery of a certificate is punishable by £20 fine, and perpetual disqualification from license-holding (s. 44). Half of any penalty may be given to the party aggrieved under the direction of the Court, and such proportion as it shall think fit may be awarded to the common informer, subject to provisions for repressing vexatious and frivolous informations.

ANALYSIS OF THE BALLOT ACT AS APPLICABLE TO SCOTLAND.

BY DAVID CRICHTON, Esq., ADVOCATE.

THE form of this Act is unusual. Its provisions are contained partly in the clauses of the Act, which lay down the principles of the new procedure, partly in a series of rules in the First Schedule, and partly in the forms, notes, and directions in the Second Schedule. The 28th section enacts that "the schedules to this Act, and the notes thereto and directions therein, shall be construed and have effect as part of this Act." But these parts of the Act are not all of the same importance; for the 13th section enacts that "no election shall be declared invalid by reason of a non-compliance with the rules contained in the First Schedule to this Act, or any mistake in the use of the forms in the Second Schedule to this Act, if it appears to the tribunal having cognizance of the question that the election was conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the body of this Act, and that such non-compliance or mistake did not affect the result of the election."

I. PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION.

The Act applies to Parliamentary Elections for counties and boroughs, but not (with the exception of Part III., which relates to personation) to elections for universities.

PUBLICATION OF THE WRIT.

The returning officer, in the case of a county election, within two days after he receives the writ, and in the case of a borough election on the day he receives it or the following day, gives public notice (ie. by advertisement, placards, handbills, or such other means as he deems best calculated to afford information to the electors, Rule 46) of the time and place of nomination, of the polling day, and of the time and place at which forms of nomination papers may be

had. In county elections, notices are to be sent to and published at the principal post-office of each polling place (Rule 1).

NOMINATION.

The day of election (i.e. nomination) in the case of a county or district of boroughs must be not later than the ninth day after the receipt of the writ, with an interval of not less than three clear days between the day of giving notice and the day of election; and in the case of a borough not later than the fourth day after the receipt of the writ, with an interval of not less than two clear days between the day of giving notice and the election day (Rule 2).

Public nominations are abolished. The nomination is made in a convenient room in the town in which the election would have been proclaimed had the Act not been passed (R. 3, 58). Each candidate is nominated in writing, subscribed by two electors of the constituency, as proposer and seconder, and eight more as assenting to the nomination (s. 1). A separate nomination paper is required for each candidate, but an elector may subscribe as many nomination papers as there are vacancies (R. 5). The nomination paper, in the form prescribed by the Act, is delivered to the returning officer by the candidate, or his proposer or seconder, during the time appointed for the election, i.e. two hours between 10 and 3 o'clock (R. 4, 7, 8). A candidate will be held duly nominated unless objection to the nomination paper is taken by the returning officer or other person within an hour after the expiry of the two hours (R. 6, 12). The returning officer's decision, if disallowing the objection, is final; if allowing it, is subject to reversal on petition questioning the election or return (R. 13). In order to make the proceedings as quiet as possible, and at the same time to afford due information to the electors, no person except the returning officer and his assistants, the candidates, their proposers and seconders, and one other person selected by each candidate, is entitled to attend the proceedings; but on the nomination paper being delivered, the names of the candidate, his proposer and seconder are forthwith placarded outside the building (R. 8, 11). A candidate, or in his absence from the United Kingdom his proposer, may, during the time appointed for the election, but not afterwards, withdraw the candidature (s. 1). Public notice is given of the name of such candidate, and the names of the persons subscribing the nomination paper, as well as of the candidates nominated or elected (R. 10). This is in addition to the notice given by placarding the candidate's name when the nomination paper is delivered. If, at the expiration of one hour after the time appointed for election, no more candidates stand nominated than there are vacancies, the returning officer forthwith declares them elected; if there are more candidates than vacancies he adjourns the election in order to take a poll (s. 1).