Held, that the legacies which would fall into residue, as being legacies of the interest in specific sums of money, ought not to be treated as settled legacies, and the legatees in class (b) ought to be treated as being in the position of annuitants whose annuities ought to be valued as if they were pecuniary legacies bearing interest at 4 per cent., and the deficiency would be borne between the two classes of legatees upon that basis: (Re Cottrell; Buckland v. Bedingfield, 102 L. T. Rep. 157; (1910) 1 Ch. 402).

[Re Richardson; Richardson v. Richardson. Ch. Div.: Eve, J. Dec. 10, 1914.-Counsel: E. Ackroyd; Courthope Wilson; John Rutherford; R. Baxter; Maugham, K.C. and Whitmore Richards. Solicitors: H. G. C. Day, Liverpool; Whitley and Co., Liverpool; Crowders, Vizard, Oldham, and Co., for C. H. Garrett, Caterham Valley ]

Will-Construction-Legacy-"Salaries or Wages"-Employee paid by Commission.

A testator, amongst other legacies, made the following bequest by his will: "I bequeath to each person in the employ of the firm A. J. Smith and Co. Limited who shall have been continuously in such employment for two years and upwards a sum equivalent to two months of their respective current salaries or wages at my decease.' The testator's firm carried on the business of wine merchants. Some of its employees were paid partly by fixed salaries and partly by commission. The question arose whether the commissions were to be included in calculating the amounts of such employees' legacies. [Re Earle's Shipbuilding Company; Barclay and Co. v. The Company (1901) W. N. 78), Re Klein; Ex parte Goodwin (121 L. T. Jour. 224; (1906) W. N. 148), and Jacob's Law Dictionary were referred to.]

66

Held, that the testator had used the words 'salaries or wages" with reference to a sum which could be easily calculated for a period prior to his death, and the employees were entitled only to two months' salary excluding commission.

[Re Smith; Phillips v. Smith. Ch. Div.: Eve, J. Dec. 2, 1914-Counsel: Lyttelton Chubb (for G. Phillips); C. Sanger; H. T. Methold; M. Beebee; C. E. Shebbeare. Solicitors: J. and S. Phillips; J. R. Spencer Young.]

LAW LIBRARY.

ANNUALS.

The Lawyer's Companion and Diary for 1915 (Stevens and Sons Limited and Shaw and Sons) is the sixty-ninth annual issue. It contains a calendar for 1915, lists of judges in the Supreme Court and other courts, London and provincial barristers and London and country solicitors, County Courts and registrars, and a diary (two days on a page) for 1915, with other useful information for the Profession, and is edited by Mr. E. Layman, B.A., barrister-at-law.

The Solicitor's Diary, Almanac, and Legal Directory for 1915 (Waterlow and Sons Limited), the seventy-first year of publication, contains a calendar for 1915, lists of judges in all the courts and of the members of both branches of the Profession, a diary for 1915 (two days on a page), and general legal information.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Godefroi on Trusts and Trustees. Fourth Edition. Stevens and Sons Limited, 119 and 120, Chancery-lane. Price 30s. Atkinson's Magistrate's General Practice 1915. Twelth Edition. Stevens and Sons Limited, 119 and 120, Chancery-lane; Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 3, Chancery-lane. Price 20s.

Scottish Law Directory for 1915. William Hodge and Co., Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. Price 6s. net.

American Journal of International Law, Vol. 8, No. 4 (with Supplement). Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 3, Chancery-lane, W.C.

Butterworths' Compensation Cases, Vol. 7 (New Series) Butterworth and Co., Bell-yard, Temple Bar. Price 12s. 6d. net. Lawyer's Remembrancer and Pocket Book for 1915. Butterworth and Co., Bell-yard, Temple Bar. Price 2s. 6d. net.

Annual County Courts Practice 1915. Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 3, Chancery-lane; Stevens and Sons Limited, 119 and 120, Chancery-lane. Price £1 5s.

COUNTY COURTS.

SITTINGS OF THE COURTS.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JAN. 16. Clerkenwell,

Aberayron, Tuesday

Abingdon, Wednesday (Reg.), at

FOR MENTAL

Monday, Tuesday

(J.S.), Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, at 10.30

Colne, Tuesday, at 9.45

Congleton, Tuesday, at 2

Coventry, Monday (R. By), at 2.30;

Tuesday and Wednesday, at 9.30

Crewkerne, Wednesday, at 10

Darlington, Wednesday, at 9

Dartford, Thursday, at 9.30
Deal, Friday, at 10.45

Dorchester, Friday, at 10
Downham, Thursday, at 10
Durham, Tuesday (R. By)
Dursley, Friday

Edmonton, Thursday and Friday,
at 10

Ely, Tuesday, at 10

Exeter, Monday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, at 10

Farnham, Wednesday, at 9.30 Gateshead, Tuesday (J.S. & A.O.) and Wednesday, at 10

Gloucester, Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday

Gravesend, Wednesday, at 10
Great Malvern, Friday, at 10
Greenwich, Friday, at 10.30
Guildford, Thursday

Hadleigh, Saturday
Hastings, Tuesday
Haverfordwest, Monday
Haverhill, Tuesday

Hereford. Tuesday, at 10
Honiton, Monday, at 10.30
Hull, Monday, Tuesday, Wednes
day. Thursday, and Friday
Hyde, Wednesday, at 10
Ipswich, Wednesday, Thursday (By
at 10.30), and Friday (J.S.), at 10
Kingston-on-Thames, Tuesday
Lambeth, Monday, and Tuesday
(Reg. at 9.30), at 10.30
Lampeter, Saturday
Lancaster, Friday, at 9.30
Langport, Thursday, at 10
Launceston, Wednesday, at 10

DEFECTIVES

Sweet and Maxwell's Diary for Lawyers 1915 is edited by F. A. Stringer and P. Clark, both of the Central Office of the Royal Courts of Justice. It contains memoranda for the current year, a calendar, diary (a page for each day of the year), gazetteers, plan of the Royal Courts of Justice and a table showing the position of each room in the building, tables of stamp, estate, legacy, and succession duties, &c.

The Scottish Law Directory for 1915 (William Hodge and Co.) contains a diary for every day of the year, complete list of judges and officers of all the courts in Scotland, list of burghs and County Courts and officials, tables of fees for conveyancing and general business and in the Court of Session and Sheriff Courts of Scotland, and other useful information.

(formerly the Earlswood Asylum). REDHILL, SURREY.

Patrons: HIS MAJESTY THE KING; HER MAJESTY QUEEN ALEXANDRA.

E. C. P. HULL, Esq., J.P., Treasurer and Chairman. For those requiring control with expert supervision, and needing Special Training in Useful Occupations.

SCHOOLS, FARMING, TRADE-WORKSHOPS. Trust Funds available for the Children of Barristers and Solicitors.

Selected Cases admitted on Reduced Inclusive Fees at the rate of One Guinea a Week. Those Unable to Pay admitted by votes of Subscribers, either free or with part-payment.

Life Maintenance of Patients can be purchased at less than Annuity Rates.

Legacies as Endowments, or towards Sustentation Fund create lasting benefits.

Full information of Mr. H. HOWARD, Secretary,

14-16, Ludgate-hill, E.C. Telephone: 5297 City.

Leeds, Monday (J.S. & A.O.), Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, at 10

Leicester. Friday (R. By), at 11
Leominster, Monday, at 10
Leyburn, Thursday, at 10.30
Lichfield, Tuesday (J.S.)
Lincoln, Tuesday, at 10
Liverpool, Monday (By at 11),
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday (B., A., & W.C.), at

10

Longton, Tuesday, at 9.30
Ludlow, Wednesday, at 10
Macclesfield, Thursday, at 10
Maidenhead, Thursday, at 10
Manchester, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Fri-
day, at 10

Margate, Thursday, at 10

Market Drayton, Friday, at 10
Market Harborough, Monday, at 10
Marylebone, Monday, Tuesday.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Fri-
day, at 10.30

Middlesbrough, Monday, at 9.30
Mold, Monday

Monmouth, Saturday, at 10
Neath, Wednesday and Thursday
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Thursday (R.
By) and Friday (J.S. & A.Ö.), at
10

New Mills, Monday, at 10.30
Newport (Mon.). Thursday and
Friday, at 10.30

Newton Abbot, Friday, at 10.30 Northallerton, Saturday, at 9.30 Northampton. Tuesday and Wednesday, at 10

North Shields, Thursday, at 10

Nottingham,

Wednesday,

and

Thursday (J.S.), at 10 Nuneaton, Friday, at 9 Oakham, Thursday, at 10.45 Okehampton, Tuesday, at 10 Oldham, Thursday, Friday (By at 11), and Saturday (J.S.). at 9.30

Oxford, Monday, at 10; Wednesday (R. By), at 10.30

Pershore. Thursday, at 10

Petworth, Monday

Pontefract, Tuesday and Wednesday, at 10

Pontypridd,

Wednesday,

Porth, Monday

day, and Saturday

Thurs

Portsmouth. Thursday (By at 12),

Romford, Monday and Tuesday, at

11

POOLING INSURANCE.-The Licenses Insurance Corporation and Guarantee Fund Limited has established an entirely new scheme of Insurance for Fire, Burglary, Workmen's Compensation, &c., by which the profits accrue to the insured. (See p. 244)-[ADVT.] FIXED INCOMES.-Houses and Residential Flats can now be Furnished on a new system of Deferred Payments especially adapted for those with fixed incomes who do not wish to disturb investments. Selection from the largest stock in the world. Everything legibly marked in plain figures. Maple and Co. Ltd., Tottenham Courtroad, London, W.-[ADVT.]

SANITARY ASSURANCE.-Before renting or purchasing a house it is advisable to obtain an independent report on the condition of the Drains, Sanitary Fittings, and Water Supply. Moderate fees for Sanitary Inspections on application to the Sanitary Engineering Company, 115, Victoria-street, Westminster. 'Phone 4316 Victoria. Telegrams: Sanitation," London. [ADVT.]

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

There will be no sitting of the Probate and Divorce Divisional Court during the present sittings.

Undefended divorce cases will be taken in Court I. (and in Court II. if Admiralty work permits) on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday next. These cases will also be taken in either court every Monday during the sittings, other business permitting.

Mr. Justice Avory will leave London on Monday next for Reading, on the Oxford Circuit, and will open the commission on the following day.

Mr. Justice Scrutton will leave London on Monday next for Dorchester, on the Western Circuit, and will open the commis sion on the following day. He will go the circuit alone until Exeter is reached on Monday, the 25th inst., when he will be joined by Mr. Justice Darling.

Mr. Justice Shearman will leave London on Monday next for Aylesbury, on the Midland Circuit, and will open the commission on the following day.

Mr. Justice Lush will leave London for Welshpool, on the North Wales Circuit, on Monday next, and will open the commission on the following day. On Tuesday Mr. Justice Atkin will leave London for Haverfordwest, on the South Wales Circuit, and on the next day will open the commission.

Mr. Justice Horridge will leave London on Tuesday next for Huntingdon, on the first part of the South-Eastern Circuit, and will open the commision on the following day. He will not return to London until after the business at Chelmsford is finished, the commission day for such town being fixed for Tuesday, the 2nd prox.

Mr. Justice Sankey will leave London on Wednesday next for Appleby, on the Northern Circuit, and will open the commission on the following day.

The January Sessions at the Central Criminal Court wil commence on Tuesday next, at the Old Bailey, at 10.30. Mr Justice Lush, Mr. Justice Rowlatt, and Mr. Justice Bailhache are on the rota to attend.

The Epiphany Quarter Sessions for cases arising in the county of Middlesex will commence to-day (Saturday), at the Guildball, Westminster, at 10.30.

The annual meeting of the Bar will be held in the Inner Temple Hall on Monday, the 18th inst., at 4.15 p.m.

Mr. J. Herbert Cunliffe, K.C., has taken a seat in Mr. Justice Astbury's court.

Mr. Edward Chalinder, aged sixty-eight, of 64, Cambridge-road, Hastings, solicitor, left estate of the value of £37,264.

Mr. Louis Edward Raphael, of Connaught-place, Hyde Park, barrister-at-law, who died on the 4th Dec. last, aged fifty-seven, left estate provisionally valued at £1,000,000.

Mr. Edward Moberly, aged seventy-four, of Broadleaze, Eastbourne, Sussex, solicitor, late of Messrs. Tylee and Co., left estate of the value of £31,599.

Mr. Clive Fleetwood Pritchard, aged fifty, of 17, Maresfieldgardens, Hampstead, N.W., and of the Inner Temple, barristerat-law, left estate of the value of £58,473.

Mr. Edgar John Elgood, aged sixty-three, of 73, Queen's-gate, S.W., and of Lincoln's inn, W.C., and of Orange Court, Downe, Kent, barrister-at-law, chairman of the West Kent Quarter Sessions, left estate of the value of £25,822.

Mr. Adolphus Grimwood Taylor, M.A., of 36, St. Mary's-gate, Derby, solicitor, of the firm of Messrs. Taylor, Simpson, and Mosley, who died on the 2nd Aug. last, aged sixty-six years, left estate of the gross value of £18,941 12s. 9d., of which £12,071 12s. 11d. is net personalty.

Me. Henri-Robert, bâtonnier of the Ordre des Avocats in Paris, last week inaugurated a black marble tablet, surmounted by the national flag, in the vestibule of the library of the Order. It will contain the names of members of the Bar who have fallen during the war. The tablet already bears the names of forty avocats.

Sir John Macdonell, Quain Professor in Comparative Law University of London, will deliver a course of three public lectures upon "Comparative Law, its Methods and Future," at University College, Gower-street, W.C., on Wednesdays, at 5.30 p.m., commencing on the 27th inst. These will be followed by a course of two public lectures upon "Some Recent Changes in the Laws of Neutrality and War," which will be delivered at the London School of Economics, Portugal-street, W.C., on Thursdays, at 530 p.m., commencing on the 4th March. Admission is free and tickets are not required.

Sir John R. Paget (standing counsel to the Institute of Bankers) will deliver a course of four lectures upon "Banking Law," at King's College, on Mondays, at 6.30 p.m., beginning on the 18th inst. The lectures will be repeated on each Thursday following, at 6.30 p.m. They are free to bank clerks. An amount, varying from £40 to £120 (being donations from banks) is given in prizes of books, the number of prizes being from forty to 100.

IN the long list of New Year honours, none, we imagine, has created so much general satisfaction as the knighthood conferred on Mr. Henry Newbolt. Although most widely known by his contributions to literature, notably by his stirring ballads of naval daring-verses which when first collected under the title of "Admirals All" obtained a recognition not often accorded to the work of a young poet-Sir Henry, like so many others who have achieved fame in letters, can be claimed as a member of the Legal Profession. Called to the Bar at Lincoln's-inn in 1887, he devoted some years to legal work. For a time he was connected with the short-lived series of law reports known as "The Reports," and he also took part in the preparation of the Digest of English Case Law which was published in 1898 by Messrs. Sweet and Maxwell and Messrs. Stevens and Sons. But literature proved more alluring than the practice of the law, and Sir Henry has for some years devoted himself almost exclusively to the work which has won for him an ever-widening circle of admirers. It may be added that Sir Henry married a granddaughter of Lord Chancellor Campbell.

The Bill to amend the present laws in force in France as to naturalisation, the text of which appeared in the LAW TIMES of last week, p. 211, is not warmly welcomed by the Temps. In a leading article our contemporary doubts whether the remedy proposed to combat the evil is good. In the first article the withdrawal of naturalisation from subjects of a Power "which has become an enemy of France is dealt with. Why wait for a state of war to take these measures? The four sub-sections of art. 1, specifying cases in which naturalisation shall be revoked, the Temps says can be dealt with by the existing penal laws. Why does not the Bill make naturalisation impossible to those who wish to conserve the nationality of their place of origin? Further, it must be recognised that the withdrawal of naturalisation is a mediocre punishment for those who have menaced the safety of their adopted country. Finally, the Temps recommends the entering into of international treaties, similar to the Bancroft Conventions of 1868, between the United States and the existing German States, like conventions existing between the United States and several other countries, which render impossible a double nationality. This last suggestion is to be found in a recent letter which the Temps published from "Un de nos lecteurs, un Anglais des plus distingués, du barreau de Londres," whose communication was received" with pleasure since it showed a new and very interesting manifestation of the entente cordiale." The Bancroft Treaties provide that a German naturalised in the United States shall be considered as an American in Germany and reciprocally. The distinguished member of the English Bar doubts whether the new English law which came into force on the 1st Jan. goes far enough, for the arrière pensée of remaining German would not fall under the category of false representation or fraud.

IRISH NOTES.

ON Monday next Hilary Term opens. The prospects for a good term are not very bright, but then Hilary never was a term in which much business was listed. It is a short one, and its interruption by the circuits going out on the 1st March always injured it a good deal. Indeed, the circuits could not have been more inconveniently fixed than they are for the months of March and July, and the reasons which existed for selecting these periods, very excellent a hundred years ago, do not really exist in 1915.

THE Limerick County Council got into a peculiar difficulty in reference to a resolution which it passed increasing the salaries of its county surveyors. At a finance committee meeting a resolution was carried providing for an increased salary, and the council formally adopted the minute made by its committee. But under sect. 83 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 a county surveyor cannot be appointed or removed, nor shall his salary be fixed or altered without the concurrence of the Local Government Board." Before the latter body, however, had the question submitted to it, the retrenchment party in the county council had been stirred up, notice was duly given to have the resolution to increase the salaries rescinded, and this was carried by a majority of fourteen votes to eleven. But the standing orders provide that rescinding resolutions must be

carried by a two-thirds majority, and so this action can have no material effect upon the result of the controversy. But in the course of the discussion which took place some industrious councillor discovered that the resolution should not have been commenced in the finance meeting, but in the general purposes committee, and so the Local Government Board must decide whether the resolution has been under all these circumstances lawfully adopted or not, and, if that body holds that it was, there does not appear to be any remedy open to the objectors.

ANOTHER County council had last week what appeared to them to be a greater legal crux, and which they wisely referred to their law adviser. The coroner for one of the county districts died, and sect. 14 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 enacts that: "On a vacancy in the office of a coroner for a county, the county council shall, within one month after the vacancy, or such further time not exceeding three months after the vacancy as the Lord Chancellor may allow, appoint a qualified person to the office." The three months had expired, and the Lord Chancellor's power had not been invoked within the time mentioned, or indeed at all. Some of the councillors felt that the office had lapsed. But this view is quite erroneous, and it has been so decided since the statute was passed. In Reg (McClintock) v. Donegal County Council (5 N. I. J. Rep. 77) the King's Bench Division (Palle, C.B., Andrews and Johnson, JJ.) issued a mandamus to the council to elect four months after the vacancy had arisen. The Lord Chancellor had extended the time. The Lord Chief Baron held that the words fixing the time in the section were directory and not mandatory. At the same time his Lordship said it was the clear duty of the chairman of the county council to call a special meeting of the council to elect a coroner when a vacancy arose, and carry out the election within one month, as required by the statute.

BUT the question involved had really been decided by previous decisions. Where statutes impose duties, and fix a limit of time within which they are to be carried out, if the public body or official fail to carry out the duty within the specified time, the failure does not usually operate to make the performance of the duty unnecessary or impossible. One of the best authorities on this principle of law is Caldow v. Pixell (36 L. T. Rep. 469). There the question arose under sect. 29 of 34 & 35 Vict. c. 43, which provided that "within three months after the avoidance of any benefice the bishop shall direct the surveyor, who shall inspect the buildings of such benefice, and report to the bishop what sum, if any, is required to make good the dilapidations." The bishop omitted to give any directions within the time, and it was sought to be argued that as the statute had not been complied with the order was bad, and that the dilapidations could not be sued for by the new incumbent. The court did not yield to this contention. Mr. Justice Denman pointed out that statutes imposing duties generally speaking were directory, but the rule is not of universal application. "In the absence of an express provision, the intention of the Legislature is to be ascertained by weighing the consequences of holding a statute to be directory or imperative." In the previous year, in Gleaves v. Marriner (34 L. T. Rep. 496) the three months mentioned in this action were held to refer to the bishop's direction to the surveyor, and not to the date of the inspection and report of that official. Hence it appears to be quite clear that the county council in question is in no real difficulty, though, all the same, as the Lord Chief Baron stated in McClintock's 's case (sup.), the appointment should be made, unless there is lawful excuse, within the month mentioned in the section.

THE Recollections of an Irish Judge, by Judge Bodkin, K.C recently published, has been much discussed and reviewed during the holiday season. All the anecdotes told in it are not new, but some of them are unquestionably authentic. One of the latter is the late Judge Webb's famous application for a publican's licence for Peter Mulligan before the Recorder of Dublin. "He is a very young man for so responsible a position," said the recorder. Dr. Webb replied: "My Lord, Alexander the Great at twenty-two years of age had-had crushed the Illyrians, and razed the city of Thebes to the ground; had crossed the Hellespont at the head of his army; had conquered Darius with a force of a million in the defiles of Issus, and brought the great Persian Empire under his sway. At twenty-three René Descartes evolved a new system of philosophy. At twenty-four Pitt was Prime Minister of the British Empire on whose dominions the sun never sets. At twenty-four Napoleon overthrew the enemies of the Republic, and is it now to be judicially decided that at twenty-five my client, Peter Mulligan, is too young to manage a public-house in Capelstreet?" The application was at once granted.

THE publication of Bernadotte: The First Phase, a brilliant historical and biographical study dealing with the career of one of the most famous personalities of the Napoleonic era during his first six-and-thirty years, from the pen of the Hon. Dunbar Plunkett Barton, one of the justices of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, may recall the great contributions to literature, as historians alone, of members of the Irish Judiciary and of the Irish Bar. Sir John Davis, who, at the time of his death in 1626, had been appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, and had been Attorney-General for Ireland, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and one of the serjeants-at-law in Ireland, was not merely the author of Nosce Te ipsum and The Orchestra, but of two most valuable treatises on Irish history An address delivered as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons to Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy, which is a concise narrative of the history of the Irish Parliament up to the date of its delivery, and The Discoverie, which was written to show that until the reign of James I. Ireland was never ertirely subdued. Lord Campbell wrote as an ex-Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the forties of the last century his monumental historical work, The Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Dr. Ball, the author of Irish Legislative Systems, was an ex-Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Lord Ashbourne wrote, when Lord Chancellor of Ireland, A Chapter in the Life of Pitt, one of the most interesting historical works in the language. Chapters of Irish History, a standard treatise, is from the pen of the late Mr. A. G. Richey, Q.C., a Deputy Professor of Feudal Law in the University of Dublin. Sir Jonah Barrington, K.C., judge of the Court of Admiralty in Ireland, is still remembered, after the lapse of a century, by his historical work, The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation. Mr. Whiteside, a Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, is the author of two historical works, Rome and its Vicissitudes and the Life and Death of the Irish Parliament; while Mr. Butt, Q.C., the leader of the Irish Bar and of the Irish Parliamentary Party of his time, was the writer of a history of modern Italy. Mr. Justice Barton is not the only contributor to historical literature at the present time on the Irish Bench. His colleague, the Right Hon. Mr. Justice Madden, is the author of The Diary of Master Silence, which is perhaps the best picture of social life in England in the Elizabethan period. O'Connell himself cherished the ambition of writing a history of Ireland, which the incessant distractions of Irish political life compelled him to abandon after the issue of the first volume. Sixty Years Ago, a book published in 1844, and written by Mr. John Edward Walsh, a Master of the Rolls in Ireland, dealing with historical matters, has passed through many editions, and is still in circulation.

Ireland

INTERNATIONAL, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL LAW.

Nationality.

THE subject of acquiring and of losing nationality and of naturalisation has an enhanced interest by reason of the state of war between this country and other Powers, especially Germany, and the distinctions and differences in German and English municipal law dealing with the matter are very striking and important. Thus some States, such as Germany and Austria, have, in respect to the acquisition of nationality by birth, adopted the rule that descent alone is a decisive factor, so that a child born of their subjects becomes ipso facto by birth their subject, be the child born at home or abroad; whereas other States, as Great Britain and the United States, have adopted a mixed principle, since according to their municipal law, not only children of their subjects born at home or abroad become their subjects, but also such children of foreign parents as are born on their territory Germany gives its citizens the right to ask to be released from their nationality. Such release, if granted, denationalises the released individual. A German, moreover, ceases to be a German subject through the mere fact that he has emigrated and stayed abroad for ten years without having undertaken the necessary step for the purpose of retaining his nationality; while Great Britain, in contradistinction to Germany, lets the nationality of her subjects be extinguished ipso facto by their naturalisation abroad. States which act otherwise do not object to their citizens acquiring another nationality besides that which they already possess. Great Britain, likewise, which declares a child born on its territory of foreign subjects to be its natural-born subject, although it becomes at the same time, according to the municipal

law of the home State of the parents, a subject of such State gives the right to such child to make, after coming of age, a declaration that it desires to cease to be a citizen. Such declaration of alienage creates ipso facto the loss of nationality. Every child born in Great Britain of German parents acquires at the same time British and German nationality, for such child is British according to British, and German according to German municipal law.

America and Contraband.

THE American note, which is couched in the most friendly terms, dealing with the inevitable difficulties which beset the problem of contraband, has not created any apprehension of strain between the relations of the United States and Great Britain, or the slightest fear that there will not be an amicable solution of the controversy. The vexed question of a subject of Great Britain's ability or inability to divest himself of the nationality of his birth by becoming an American citizen, was settled by diplomacy, of which the outcome is the celebrated Naturalisation Act of 1870. The submission of the case of the Alabama to the arbitral tribunal of Geneva, and, above all, the concession by the Government of Great Britain of the right of arbitration asserted by the United States, by virtue of its over lordship of the New World, in the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela, have laid, in the words of a great American jurist, "enduring foundations for that close moral alliance since developed between the two broad dominions of the English-speaking peoples."

NEUTRAL VESSELS UNDER CONVOY OF SHIPS OF WAR.

A REPORT which reached London from Helsingfors viâ Petrograd on the 31st ult. has attracted much attention in diplomatic circles and among students of the development of the principles of international morality. It is stated that the Kings of Norway Sweden, and Denmark at the recent conference at Malmoë decided that Scandinavian warships should in future convoy merchant vessels sailing under the flags of their nations to prevent the detention of neutrals by ships of belligerent Powers.

The Baltic Powers, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy have given emphasis to the principle that merchant vessels under convoy are exempt from the right of search by providing in their naval regulations that the declaration of the convoying officer shall be accepted as final. The Continental jurists, with but few dissentient voices, have united in the conclusion that the practice thus settled by a large group of nations has resulted in the establishment of the exemption from search of merchant vessels under convoy as a canon of international law. While the Continental nations have been thus united in support of an expedient which certainly curtails the advantage of a belligerent State armed with a great sea power, Great Britain has firmly main tained the right to resort to the ancient practice upon which she has always acted, and which is now embodied in the Admiralty Manuof Prize Law. So far as the judge-made law of the United States is concerned, English and American jurists and text-writers are in perfect accord. 'A merchant vessel," says Kent, "has no right to say for itself, and an armed vessel has no right to say for it, that it will not submit to visitation and search or to be carried into aproximate court for judicial inquiry" : (Commentaries, i., p. 154). The text of the American Note issued by the Press Bureau, in agreement with the American Embassy, for publication on the 1st inst. admits in its fullest extent the right of visitation and search by belligerents of neutral vessels. "The Government of the United States," the note declares, "admit the full responsibility of the belligerent to visit and search on the high seas the vessels of American citizens or neutral vessels carrying American goods and to detain them when there is sufficient evidence to justify belief that contraband articles are in their cargoes." In the American Naval War Code, however, issued in 1900 a very close approach to Continental practice has been made in art. 30, which declares that "convoys of neutral merchant vessels under escort of ships of war of their own State are exempt from the right of

search upon proper assurances based on thorough examination from the commander of the convoy."

The controversy as to whether convoyed vessels can be visited is of long standing. So far back as 1653 the question was first mooted as to whether neutral merchant vessels are bound to suffer a visit while sailing under convoy of ships of their own nation. In that year Queen Christina of Sweden issued, during the war between England and the United Provinces, a declaration in which, after reciting that the goods of her subjects were plundered by pirates, she gave orders to her ships of war convoying such vessels as desired protection "in all possible ways to decline that they or any of those that belong to them should be searched." In the next year, when some Dutch merchant vessels under convoy of a man-of-war were searched by the English, the States-General, while declining to make complaint, declared that they were "persuaded that such visitation and search tended to an inconvenience of trade." Not, however, until the American War of Independence was the right of neutral States to protect their carrying trade by convoy seriously urged. Then it was that the Dutch and the Baltic Powers became the protagonists of this principle. The opposition of Great Britain really induced Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Prussia to unite in the Second Armed Neutrality of 1800, which, after repeating the four principles embodied in the First Armed Neutrality of 1780-(1) freedom of the coasting trade of States at war; (2) that the neutral flag should cover all goods not contraband; (3) that contraband should be limited to essentially warlike stores; and (4) that a blockade to be effective must be one dangerous to pass-added a fifth, declaring in effect that the statement of an officer in command of a neutral ship of war that there is nothing contraband on board the vessels convoyed by him should cut off further inquiry by the belligerent. The temporary concession made by Great Britain in the treaties concluded with Russia, Sweden, and Denmark in 1801 and 1802, whereby she agreed that the right to search merchant vessels under convoy should be subjected to certain limitations, was so far withdrawn by the treaties concluded between the same parties in 1812 and 1814 as to leave Great Britain on the one hand and the Baltic Powers on the other free to maintain their original contentions.

The Declaration of London of the 26th Feb. 1909, which, though signed, is not yet ratified, created rules, among other matters, concerning convoy and resistance to search. Great Britain, though denying in the memorandum the right of exemption from search to neutral vessels under convoy, expressed herself as prepared to accept the French view, which was finally adopted by arts. 61 and 62, which are as follows: "Neutral vessels under national convoy are exempt from search. The commander of a convoy gives in writing at the request of the commander of a belligerent warship all information as to the character of the vessels and their cargoes which could be obtained by search: (art. 61). If the commander of a belligerent warship has reason to suspect that the confidence of the commander of the convoy has been abused he communicates his suspicions to him. In such a case it is for the commander of the convoy alone to investigate the matter. He must record the result of such investigation in a report, a copy of which is handed to the officer of the warship. If in the opinion of the commander of the convoy the facts shown in the report justify the capture of one or more vessels, the protection of the convoy must be withdrawn from such vessels: (art. 62)." The change in the British attitude was defended by a desire to arrive at a unanimous conclusion and to abandon position. The Declaration of London, as we have said, has not been ratified. A Naval Prize Bill embodying that declaration was passed as a Government measure through the House of Commons, but was rejected by the House of Lords. On the 20th Aug. 1914 a Royal Proclamation was issued ordering that during present hostilities the Declaration of London should, subject to certain modifications and variations, be put in force by His Majesty's Government as if it had been ratified by His Majesty. The view, however, prevails that the convoy of neutral merchantmen by ships of war, even if such merchant ships be thereby exempted from visitation and search, will not generally obtain, having regard to the very different

an isolated

rates of speed of such vessels and the obligations placed on the commander of the man-of-war to guarantee that the ships under convoy are not convoying cargoes contraband of war.

OUR LITERARY COLUMN.

CRABB ROBINSON AND THE LAW. ALL students of the personal side of English and German literary history during the first half of the nineteenth century have long recognised the value and interest of Crabb Robinson's Diary, which was published a year or two after the diarist's death, which occurred in 1867. Scarcely a prominent man of letters, English or German, but finds mention in his pages, and with them all-Goethe, Schiller, and Tieck in Germany; Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, and Hazlitt in England-Robinson was on intimate terms, which fact gives to his reminiscences a singular charm. But while the Diary is thus an invaluable record from the standpoint of the literary chronicler, it is worth bearing in mind that it was written by one who spent a number of years as an active member of the Bar, and, as will be seen, his legal as well as his literary recollections have a real value and interest.

Born in 1775, Henry Crabb Robinson was articled to a Colchester solicitor in 1790, and in the following year he had the supreme satisfaction of hearing Erskine make a powerful speech in a case at the spring assizes. The grace of the great advocate's style and the skill with which he took the jury captive remained as indelible impressions on the young clerk's memory. "I remarked," he writes," his great artifice, if I may call it so, and in a small way I afterwards practised it. It lay in his frequent repetitions. He had one or two leading arguments and main facts on which he was constantly dwelling. But then he had marvellous skill in varying his phraseology so that no one was sensible of tautology in the expressions. Like the doubling of a hare, he was perpetually coming to his old place. Other great advocates I have remarked were ambitious of a great variety of arguments." A year or two later Robinson entertained the idea of going to the Bar, but was dissuaded by several of his friends from taking this step at the time, and, after spending a short period in London offices, he proceeded on an extensive tour through Germany, and eventually he settled down for the purpose of study at the university of Jena. Among the notabilities in the legal world he met in the course of his travels was Savigny, who at that date (1802) was a lecturer in the university of Marburg. With that distinguished jurist Robinson became very friendly, but of his conversation he only recollected one thing that was characteristic-namely, the remark by Savigny that an English lawyer might render great service to legal science by studying the Roman law and showing the obligations of English law to it, which, he said, were more numerous than was generally supposed. Since that conversation took place, it is scarcely necessary to add that this special corner of the legal field has been assiduously cultivated by numerous English

writers.

He very But

After returning from Jena, Robinson became associated for some time with the Times as a war correspondent, first at Altona, and later in Spain, and then in 1808 he joined the Middle Temple, although it was not till the following year that he began to keep his terms. His début as a Bar student he describes thus in a letter to one "I entered the of his correspondents: beautiful hall with an oppressive sense of shame, and wished to hide myself as if I were an intruder. I was conscious of being too old to commence the study of law with any probability of success. My feelings, however, were much relieved by seeing William Quayle in the hall. good-naturedly found a place for me at his mess. this dining at mess was so unpleasant that, in keeping the twelve terms required, I doubt whether I took a single superfluous dinner, although these would only have cost sixpence each." In 1812 he became a pupil of Littledale (afterwards the judge), who had beautiful chambers and an excellent library in Gray's-inn. In the following year his Bar examination is thus disposed of: "This day [the 23rd Feb. 1813] I underwent a sort of examination by Mr. Hollis, the Treasurer of the Middle Temple. He inquired at what university I had been educated, and this caused me to state that I was a Dissenter, and had studied at Jena. This form being ended, all impediments to my being called to the Bar are cleared away.' In May following he thus describes Call Night in a letter to his brother: "At four o'clock precisely I entered the Middle Temple Hall in pontificalibus, where the oaths of allegiance and abjuration were administered to me. I then dined, dressed as I was, at a table apart. I had five friends with me. My friends and