practice, would have been either excluded altogether, or their admission long delayed. In this age of free competition of all kinds, it may be questioned whether the popular branch of the legislature could be induced to prohibit every one from entering into articles of apprenticeship who had not received a classical education; and it is admitted that the proposition of a preliminary examination cannot be carried into full effect without an act of Parliament.

With regard, however, to the apprehended exclusion of persons who have not received a liberal education, it may be replied that the same amount of industry and talent which enables an attorney not only to pass his legal examination, but to establish himself in successful practice, would rapidly surmount the difficulty attendant upon the acquisition of classical or modern languages, and enable him to attain some mathematical knowledge, and some skill in English composition. His feeling of ambition would not be gratified by escaping from an examination which the great body of his profession had successfully passed.

PRIZES IN THE FACULTIES OF LAW IN FRANCE.

IN March, 1840, the late King Louis Philippe instituted annual prizes in the Faculties of Law, founded on the report of M. Cousin, which is quoted by Mr. Jones in his valuable history of the French Bar.* The report states that,

"The study of the law is one of the most important subjects which have been confided to the University, and every body admits that it demands a new impulse, to give it that elevated position at which it had arrived in France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Seconded by the Royal Council of Public Instruction and the Commission on Law Studies instituted by the Royal Decision of the 29th of June, 1838, I trust I shall be able successively to propose to your Majesty such measures as will ameliorate the study of the law in the nine Faculties of the kingdom. At present, I have the honour to submit to your Majesty a primary measure, the utility of which is incontestible, namely, the regular establishment of Prizes in the Faculties of Law.

"In the present state of things the students of the Faculties of Law undergo certain examinations for the degrees of Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctor; but these examinations are individual, and do not afford matter of comparison between the candidates. Hence the absence of that emulation, which certainly must not be too much developed, but which must not either be stifled in the heart of man, because it is the source of all noble works. The secondary branch of Public Instruction is perhaps overcharged with prizes, the superior branch has none whatever. I therefore purpose filling up this blank, beginning with the Faculties of Law.

"The Faculties of Poitiers and Aix have already taken an honourable initiate. I have asked the Faculty of Paris for a note on this subject; I have consulted the High Commission, which has been

*Published by Benning & Co.

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unanimous as to the utility of this institution; and the Royal Council of Public Instruction has no less favourably entertained it. It has been tried, and experience has confirmed it in two countries where legal studies are flourishing, in Holland and Ger

many. More than one dissertation, crowned in the German and Dutch Universities, has awakened a talent, created a vocation, decided a career. Sometimes even works have been produced by those competitions which have taken rank in science. Why should not the same institution produce the same result among us? I therefore propose with confidence to your Majesty the accompanying ordinance, which will be followed by a special regulation deliberated in the Royal Council of Public Instruction. The Ordinance lays down the principles, the Regulation will apply them; and here the principles

are extrémely simple.

"It has appeared to me useless to establish any competition or prizes in favour of students of the first and second year, whose studies are not as yet sufficiently advanced to merit any other recompense than the degree after the ordinary examinations. But we shall be greatly encouraging, although in an indirect manner, the labour of the students of the first and second year, by placing at the end of the third a competition, to which there shall be admitted such students only as have distinguished themselves in the examinations of the preceding years; at the same time the studies will then be sufficiently advanced to lead to results of some importance from this competition. There will be two subjects for the prizes, both taken from the matters which have been taught: the one from the French, the other from the Roman Law. I have been desirous, without ceasing to honour our National Law, to show a just solicitude for Roman Law, that law which has been called La Raison écrite, and which forms the foundation of the civil legislation of all Europe. Besides, the Roman Law, in order to be well understood, offers the advantage of requiring a patient and assiduous study of Roman Antiquity, the Jurisconsults, the Historians, the Orators, and almost all the monuments of ancient Rome; and your Majesty knows how necessary it is to encourage the love of labour in our lively and ingenious youth.

"But at the end of the fourth year, a competition of a different kind will be opened between the aspirants to the degree of Doctor and the Doctors of that and the preceding year. The competition of the third year is rather of a scholastic character; this one will be academic: it will treat upon matters proposed by the Faculty, and which the Minister himself, assisted by the High Commission of Studies and the Royal Council, shall select, and although confined to the studies of the schools, shall be destined to be useful to science. The matters, as in the case of all academic competitions, shall be published eight months in advance.

"We may therefore reasonably hope that these competitions will be productive of some truly remarkable dissertations, and that the laureates, by their very success, will contract such engagements with judicial science as will bind them to this important study, and induce them to adopt the career of teachers. Thus will be formed a nursery for the recruiting of Professors of Law.

"Finally, these different prizes, with the advantages attached to them, should be proclaimed at the meeting for the Annual Opening of the Faculties, and be the occasion of a solemnity like that for the

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This

distribution of prizes in our Colleges. solemnity would arouse more than one generous ambition, and the serious reports that would there be read, would mark successively, from year to year, the progress of the studies in each Faculty, and would keep up among all the Faculties of the kingdom a noble emulation, and that peaceful and regular movement which is the soul of everything.

"If your Majesty deigns to approve of these principles and these dispositions, your Majesty will be pleased to affix your signature to the accompanying Ordinance, &c.'

"The terms of the Royal Ordinance of the 17th March, 1840, establishing the different prizes in the Faculties of Law, are as follow:-

"Art. 1. Prizes and honourable mentions shall be distributed every year in all the Faculties of Law in the kingdom, according to the result of a competition which shall take place:-first, among the students of the third year; secondly, among those of the fourth year, aspiring to the degree of Doctor, and the Doctors received by each Faculty, whether in the course of that year or the preceding one.

"2. Two first and two second prizes shall be distributed among the students of the third year:— first, for a composition written on a subject of Roman Law; and secondly, a composition on a subject of French Law, chosen among the different matters taught in the Faculties of Law.

"3. Two gold medals shall be awarded to students of the fourth year, aspirants for the degree of Doctor, and the Doctors, for a written dissertation, the subject of which, chosen by the Minister of Public Instruction from a list of questions taken from the different matters of law which are taught, shall have been published eight months in advance.

"4. The students of the third year who shall have obtained a first or second prize, shall have no fees to pay for their inscriptions, examinations, and diploma of doctor.

"5. A regulation, settled by the Royal Council of Public Instruction, shall determine the conditions of admission to the competition, and the manner in which it shall be carried out.

"6. The distribution of prizes and medals shall take place every year at the solemn sitting of the opening of each Faculty."

It appears that there are other prizes, both of a public and private character, attached to the Faculties of Law, in favour of the successful competitors of the two classes above mentioned, but which it will not be necessary to notice more fully, sufficient having been said to show the nature of the annual prizes, and their value and importance

as incentives to studious exertion.

NEW STATUTES EFFECTING ALTERATIONS IN THE LAW.

THE MERCANTILE LAW AMENDMENT ACT, 1856. 19 & 20 Vic. c. 97.

1. Persons acquiring title to goods before they have been seized or attached under a writ against

the seller protected.

2. Specific delivery of goods sold.

4. Guarantee to or for a firm to cease upon a change in the firm, except in special cases.

5. A surety who discharges the liability to be entitled to assignment of all securities held by the creditor.

6. Acceptance of a bill inland or foreign to be in writing on it, and signed by the acceptor or his agent.

7. What are to be deemed "Inland Bills."

8. With reference to the repairs of ships, every port within the United Kingdom, &c., a home port.

9. Limitation of actions for "Merchants' Accounts." 10. Absence beyond seas or imprisonment of a creditor not to be a disability.

11. Period of limitation to run as to joint debtors in the kingdom, though some are beyond seas; judgment recovered against joint debtors in the kingdom to be no bar to proceeding against others beyond seas after their return. 12. Definition of "beyond seas," within 4 & 5 Anne, c. 16, and this act.

13. Provisions of 9 Geo. 4, c. 14, ss. 1 & 8, and 16 & 17 Vic. c. 113, ss. 24 & 27 extended to acknowledgments by agents.

14. Part payment by one contractor, &c., not to prevent bar by certain Statutes of Limitations in favour of another contractor, &c. Rules and regulations may be made and writs and proceedings framed for the purposes of this act..

15.

16. Short title.

17. Extent of act.

The following are the title, preamble, and sections of the act:

An Act to amend the Laws of England and Ireland

affecting Trade and Commerce. [29th July, 1856. WHEREAS inconvenience is felt by persons engaged in trade by reason of the laws of England and Ireland being in some particulars different from those of Scotland in matters of common occurrence in the course of such trade, and with a view to remedy such inconvenience it is expedient to amend the laws of England and Ireland as herein-after is mentioned: Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. No writ of fieri facias or other writ of execution, and no writ of attachment against the goods of a debtor, shall prejudice the title to such goods acquired by any person bonâ fide and for a valuable

consideration before the actual seizure or attachment thereof by virtue of such writ; provided such person had not, at the time when he acquired such title, notice that such writ, or any other writ by virtue of which the goods of such owner might be seized or attached, had been delivered to and remained unexecuted in the hands of the sheriff, under-sheriff, or

coroner.

2. In all actions and suits in any of the superior courts of common law at Westminster or Dublin, or

writing.

for breach of contract to deliver specific goods for a

price in money, on the application of the plaintiff, and by leave of the judge before whom the cause is tried, the jury shall, if they find the plaintiff entitled to recover, find by their verdict what are the goods in respect of the non-delivery of which the plaintiff is entitled to recover and which remain undelivered; what (if any) is the sum the plaintiff would have been liable to pay for the delivery thereof; what damages (if any) the plaintiff would have sustained if the goods should be delivered under execution, as herein-after mentioned, and what damages if not so delivered; and thereupon, if judgment shall be given for the plaintiff, the court or any judge thereof, at their or his discretion, on the application of the plaintiff, shall have power to order execution to issue for the delivery, on payment of such sum (if any) as shall have been found to be payable by the plaintiff as aforesaid, of the said goods, without giving the defendant the option of retaining the same upon paying the damages assessed; and such writ of execution may be for the delivery of such goods; and if such goods so ordered to be delivered, or any part thereof, cannot be found, and unless the court, or such judge or baron as aforesaid, shall otherwise order, the sheriff, or other officer of such court of record, shall distrain the defendant by all his lands and chattels in the said sheriff's bailiwick, or within the jurisdiction of such other court of record, till the defendant deliver such goods, or, at the option of the plaintiff, cause to be made of the defendant's goods the assessed value or damages, or a due proportion thereof; provided that the plaintiff shall, either by the same or a separate writ of execution, be entitled to have made of the defendant's goods the damages, costs, and interest in such action or suit.

3. No special promise to be made by any person after the passing of this act to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person, being in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith or some other person by him thereunto lawfully authorised, shall be deemed invalid to support an action, suit, or other proceeding to charge the person by whom such promise shall have been made, by reason only that the consideration for such promise does not appear in writing, or by necessary inference from a written document.

4. No promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another made to a firm consisting of two or more persons, or to a single person trading under the name of a firm, and no promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of a firm consisting of two or more persons, or of a single person trading under the name of a firm, shall be binding on the person making such promise in respect of anything done or omitted to be done after a change shall have taken place in any one or more of the persons constituting the firm, or in the person trading under the name of a firm, unless the intention of the parties, that such promise shall continue to be binding notwithstanding such change, shall appear either by express stipulation or by necessary implication from the nature of the firm or otherwise.

5. Every person who, being surety for the debt or duty of another, or being liable with another for any debt or duty, shall pay such debt or perform such duty, shall be entitled to have assigned to him, or to a trustee for him, every judgment, specialty, or other security which shall be held by the creditor in respect of such debt or duty, whether such judgment, specialty, or other security shall or shall not be deemed at law to have been satisfied by

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the payment of the debt or performance of the duty, and such person shall be entitled to stand in the place of the creditor, and to use all the remedies, and, if need be, and upon a proper indemnity, to use the name of the creditor, in any action or other proceeding, at law or in equity, in order to obtain from the principal debtor, or any co-surety, co-contractor, or co-debtor, as the case may be, indemnification for the advances made and loss sustained by the person who shall have so paid such debt or performed such duty, and such payment or performance so made by such surety shall not be pleadable in bar of any such action or other proceeding by him: Provided always, that no co-surety, co-contractor, or co-debtor shall be entitled to recover from any other co-surety, co-coutractor, or co-debtor by the means aforesaid, more than the just proportion to which, as between those parties themselves, such last-mentioned person shall be justly liable.

6. No acceptance of any bill of exchange, whether inland or foreign, made after the thirty-first day of December one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, shall be sufficient to bind or charge any person, unless the same be in writing on such bill, or, if there be more than one part of such bill, on one of the said parts, and signed by the acceptor or some person duly authorised by him.

7. Every bill of exchange or promissory note drawn or made in any part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the islands of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and the islands adjacent to any of them, being part of the dominions of her Majesty, and made payable in or drawn upon any person resident in any part of the said United Kingdom or islands, shall be deemed to be an Inland bill; but nothing herein contained shall alter or affect the stamp duty, if any, which, but for this enactment, would be payable in respect any such bill or note.

of

8. In relation to the rights and remedies of persons having claims for repairs done to, or supplies furnished to or for, ships, every port within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the islands of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and the islands adjacent to any of them, being part of the dominions of her Majesty, shall be deemed a home port.

9. All actions of account or for not accounting, and suits for such accounts, as concern the trade of merchandise between merchant and merchant, their factors or servants, shall be commenced and sued within six years after the cause of such actions or suits, or when such cause has already arisen then within six years after the passing of this act; and no claim in respect of a matter which arose more than six years before the commencement of such action or suit shall be enforceable by action or suit by reason only of some other matter of claim comprised in the same account having arisen within six years next before the commencement of such action or suit.

10. No person or persons who shall be entitled to any action or suit with respect to which the period of limitation within which the same shall be brought is fixed by the act of the twenty-first year of the reign of King James the First, chapter sixteen, section three, or by the act of the fourth year of the reign of Queen Anne, chapter sixteen, section seventeen, or by the act of the fifty-third year of the reign of King George the Third, chapter one hundred and twenty-seven, section five, or by the acts of the third and fourth years of the reign of King

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William the Fourth, chapter twenty-seven, sections forty, forty-one, and forty-two, and chapter fortytwo, section three, or by the act of the sixteenth and seventeenth years of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and thirteen, section twenty, shall be entitled to any time within which to commence and sue such action or suit beyond the period so fixed for the same by the enactments aforesaid, by reason only of such person, or some one or more of such persons, being at the time of such cause of action or suit accrued beyond the seas, or in the cases in which by virtue of any of the aforesaid enactments imprisonment is now a disability, by reason of such person or some one or more of such persons being imprisoned at the time of such cause of action or suit accrued.

11. Where such cause of action or suit with respect to which the period of limitation is fixed by the enactments aforesaid or any of them lies against two or more joint debtors, the person or persons who shall be entitled to the same shall not be entitled to any time within which to commence and sue any such action or suit against any one or more of such joint debtors who shall not be beyond the seas at the time such cause of action or suit accrued, by reason only that some other one or more of such joint debtors was or were at the time such cause of action accrued beyond the seas, and such person or persons so entitled as aforesaid shall not be barred from commencing and suing any action or suit against the joint debtor or joint debtors who was or were beyond seas at the time the cause of action or suit accrued after his or their return from beyond seas, by reason only that judgment was already recovered against any one or more of such joint debtors who was not or were not beyond seas at the time aforesaid.

12. No part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, nor the islands of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, nor any islands adjacent to them, being part of thedominions of her Majesty, shall be deemed to be beyond seas within the meaning of the act of the fourth and fifth years of the reign of Queen Anne, chapter sixteen, or of this act.

13 In reference to the provisions of the acts of the ninth year of the reign of King George the Fourth, chapter fourteen, sections one and eight, and the sixteenth and seventeenth years of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter 113, sections twentyfour and twenty-seven, an acknowledgment or promise made or contained by or in a writing signed by an agent of the party chargeable thereby, duly authorised to make such acknowledgment or promise, shall have the same effect as if such writing had been signed by such party himself.

14 In reference to the provisions of the acts of the twenty-first year of the reign of King James the First, chapter sixteen, section three, and of the act of the third and fourth years of the reign of King William the fourth, chapter forty-two, section three, and of the act of the sixteenth and seventeenth years of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter 113, section twenty, where there shall be two or more co-contractors or co-debtors, whether bound or liable jointly only or jointly and severally, or executors or administrators of any contractor, no such co-contractor or co-debtor, executor, or administrator shall lose the benefit of the said enactments or any of them, so as to be chargeable in respect or by reason only of payment of any principal, interest, or other money, by any other or

others of such co-contractors or co-debtors, executors, or administrators.

15. In order to enable the superior courts of common law at Westminster and Dublin, and the judges thereof respectively, to make rules and regulations, and to frame writs and proceedings, for the purpose of giving effect to this act, the 223rd and 224th sections of "the Common Law Procedure Act, 1852," shall, so far as this act is to take effect in England, and the 233rd and 240th sections of "the Common Law Procedure Amendment Act (Ireland), 1853," shall, so far as this act is to take effect in Ireland, be incorporated with this act, as if those provisions had been severally herein repeated and made to apply to this act.

16. In citing this act it shall be sufficient to use the expression "the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856."

17. Nothing in this act shall extend to Scotland.

5. Persons to have right of refusal to answer questions and to produce documents.

6. Certain courts and judges to have authority under this act; Lord Chancellor, &c. to frame rules, &c.

The following are the title, preamble, and sections of the act:

An Act to provide for taking Evidence in her
Majesty's dominions in relation to Civil and
Commercial matters pending before Foreign
Tribunals.
[29th July, 1856.

WHEREAS it is expedient that facilities be afforded for taking evidence in her Majesty's dominions in relation to civil and commercial matters pending before foreign tribunals: be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. Where, upon an application for this purpose, it is made to appear to any court or judge having authority under this act that any court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction in a foreign country, before which any civil or commercial matter is pending, is desirous of obtaining the testimony in relation to such matter of any witness or witnesses within the jurisdiction of such first-mentioned court, or of the court to which such judge belongs, or of such judge, it shall be lawful for such court or judge to order the examination upon oath, upon interrogatories or otherwise, before any person or