learned at; that as mere equence to it if bat, the e within within For her others, Nov. 3. Procter. Liver ute of ient ge to The ed on o had was the nt 39 to been and dant n of paid nese at a nt. ice 10 he 0 evidence at the most only amounted to a common assault, [Bryant v. Bryant. P. Div.: Sir S. T. Evans, P. and Bargrave Petition for Judicial Separation by a Foreigner-Alleged Adultery Held, that the application was premature. If the wife's allegations were true, the ecclesiastical courts would have had the power to grant relief on account of the husband's adultery. The power to do so was inherited by the court. petition would be tried with the petition for judicial separation on oral evidence, and the husband must file an answer to the petition. : : The act on [Rie a v. Riera. P. Div.: Bargrave Deane, J. Nov. 3.Counsel for the wife, Bayford; for the husband, Grazebrook. Solicitors for the wife, Sharpe, Pritchard, and Co., for W. Boyle, Liverpool; for the husband, W. P. Ellen, for J. Peace, Liverpool.] Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act 1895 (58 & 59 Vict. 39)-Summons by Wife alleging persistent Cruelty-Withdrawal in Court-Second Summons for same Offence-Order made by Justices-Appeal by Husband-Res judicata-Allowed. On the 11th April 1914 A. C. H. summoned her husband, E. J. H., before the Highgate justices for persistent cruelty. The summons came on for hearing on the 20th May 1914 and was withdrawn by consent of both parties. On the 4th July 1914 A. C. H. issued a seco d summo is alleging the same complaint. On the 22nd July 1914 the summons was heard and determined, The Divisional Court held that the withdrawal of the first [Hopkins v. Hopkins. P. Div. Sir S. T. Evans, P. and Bargrave Deane, J. Oct. 27.-Counsel: for the husband, L. J. A. Pile; for the wife, C. L. Beddington. Solicitors: for the husband, J. B. Lander; for the wife, Forbes and Mc Lean.] COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL. Appeal against conviction for murder and sentence of death Held, that on the evidence the appellant was insane at the time of committing the act, and the court, acting upon the power given to them by sect. 5, sub-sect. 4, of the Criminal Appeal Act 1907 quashed the sentence of death, and ordered the appellant to be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic under the Trial of Lunatics At 1883 in the same manner as if a special verdict had been found by the jury under that Act. [Rex v. Gilbert. Ct. Crim. App.: Bankes, Horridge, and Criminal Law-Inciting Persons to Trade with the Enemy-Royal Appeal against a conviction of the Central Criminal Court Held, that on the evidence before them the jury were entitled to conclude that the appellant put his proposal before the English firms intending that they should accept it without considering the necessity for a licence, and that the appeal must be dismissed. [Rex v. Spencer. Ct. Crim. App: Lord Reading, C.J., Darling and Coleridge. JJ. Nov. 9.-Counsel: for the appellant, Eustace Fulton, instructed by the Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal; for the Crown, R. D. Mur and Travers Humphreys, instructed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.] LAW LIBRARY. The Council of Legal Education has issued its Calendar for the coming session 1914-1915. It contains all the usual useful information and can be obtained at the offices of the Council at 18 Old-square. The Incorporated Accountants' Year Book for the coming session 1914-15, has just been issued by the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors. It comprises a list of members, articles, bye-laws, and examination papers. The interesting lectures by Dr. Henri Rolin, An Introduction to the Study of Colonial Law, reported in our issues of the 23rd and 30th May this year, have now been prir ted by the University of London Press. Dr. Rolin is professor of Colonial Policy in the University of Brussels, and his lectures delivered at University College drew a distinguished audience. The Cambridge Pocket Diary for the 1914-1915 Session (Cambridge University Press) is specially prepared for the convenience of members of the university. Besides giving useful miscellaneous information, it provides room for jotting down engagements. Martial Law within the Realm of England (John Long Limited) is a little outline of the subject by Mr. James M. Lowry, who acknowledges his indebtedness to Sir A. Cockburn's researches. We have received from Messrs. Stevens and Haynes Part 10 of Vol. 10 of Mr. Herman Cohen's Criminal Appeal Cases, containing the index to cases reported from the 12th Jan. to the 29th July. A little book which has been prepared in consequence of the passing of the Criminal Justice Administration Act 1914 is Courts of Summary Jurisdiction, by Mr. H. Booth (Thos. Dornan Limited), who treats of some of their powers and duties, and gives copious extracts from the Act. obvious that as to the common law jurisdiction not much dispute can be raised as to whether or not a claim for debt or damages or the annual value of a hereditament exceeds £100. The equitable jurisdiction deals with such subjects as administration of estates, foreclosure of mortgages, and specific performance, amongst others, and in cases of this nature the £500 limit has not always been easy of determination. As an example of the inconsistent results obtained, it has been held that, in the case of specific performance of a contract of sale, the actual amount of the purchase money is the criterion, even where the property, being the subject of a mortgage, in fact exceeds £500 in value: (Rex v. Birmingham County Court Judge, 90 L. T. Rep. 514; (1904) 1 K. B. 827). On the other hand, an action for the cancellation of a lease of property exceeding £500 in value is not within the County Court jurisdiction, although the actual interest granted by the lease does not exceed that amount in value: (Angel v. Jay, 104 L. T. Rep. 642; (1911) 1 K. B. 666). In the case of Sunderland v. Glover (noted ante, p. 12), the Divisional Court laid down some useful rules for the guidance of County Court judges when these questions arise. The dispute in that case arose over a sum of £350, and as to whether that sum did or did not form part of a testator's estate which in fact exceeded £500 in value. On objection by the defendant that the action was in effect one for partial administration of an estate exceeding in value the limit of jurisdiction, the judge dismissed the action. In taking this course the judge applied sect. 114 of the County Courts Act 1888, which enables the court to strike out with costs an action "commenced over which the court has no jurisdiction." The Divisional Court, in reversing this decision, ruled that this course should only be taken where the want of jurisdiction is manifest on the face of the proceedings apart from the evidence given. Apart from that, and where the value is disputed, the judge must come Edited by Alexander to a judicial determination of the matter upon the evidence, and, should his conclusion be that the subject-matter exceeds £500, he is to transfer the proceedings to the High Court y virtue of sect. 68 of the Act. That section contemplates the excess over the limit being made to appear during the progress of the action. The two sections are to a certain extent contradictory, since sect. 114, although it contains the words "action commenced," would not in practice be invoked until the trial, and, moreover, its terms are peremptory. Sect. 68 does not indicate at what stage in "the progress" of the action the appearance of the objection justifies a transfer. The Divisional Court have, in effect, laid down a useful rule of practice in this respect. It should be mentioned that where the judge, on inquiry, determines that the limit is not exceeded, he should go on and hear the action, presumably leaving a right of appeal to the party dissatisfied with his ruling in this respect. It would seem likely that the draftsman of the Act in relation to sect. 114 only contemplated common law actions, or at least such actions in which in respect of amount or subject-matter it was obvious that the court could not have jurisdiction. Messrs. Gee and Co. Limited have published, in quarto boards, The Bankruptcy Act 1914 and the Deeds of Arrangement Act 1914, with an index of ten pages. It contains the King's printer's copies of the Acts. BOOKS RECEIVED. Manual of Emergency Legislation. Pulling, C.B., King's Printer of Acts of Parliament. Wyman and Sons Limited, 29, Bream's-buildings, E.C. Price, with supplement, 3s. 6d. Gore-Browne on the Effect of the War on Commercial Engagements. Jordan and Sons Limited, 116 and 117, Chancery-lane, W.C. Price 2s. 6d. net. Ball and Mills on Bankruptcy and Bills of Sale. Third Edition. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Limited, 1, Amen-corner, E.C. Price 5s. net. Turner on the Bankruptcy Act 1914 and the Deeds of Arrangement Act 1914. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society Limited, 22, Chancery-lane, W.C. Price 3s. net. COUNTY COURTS. Equitable Jurisdiction. THE limitation of the equitable jurisdiction of the County Court to property not exceeding in value £500 has on more than one occasion given rise to questions of difficulty. It is The Perfected System of Life Assurance. LEGAL & GENERAL Life Assurance Society. SITTINGS OF THE COURTS. FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, Nov. 21. Aberdare, Monday 10 Axbridge, Wednesday, at 10 Banbury, Wednesday (R. By) and Barnsley, Wednesday, Thursday, Barrow in Furness, Wednesday Birmingham, Wednesday, Thurs- Bloomsbury, Monday, Tuesday, Bournemouth, Tuesday and Wed- Friday Wednesday, and Bradford (Yorks), Tuesday, and Braintree, Thursday, at 11 Brighton, Wednesday (R. By), at Bromsgrove, Monday, at 10 Darlington, Wednesday, at 9 Dewsbury, Thursday Durham, Monday and Tuesday, at 10 East Grinstead, Wednesday Edmonton, Thursday and Friday. at 10 Ely, Tuesday, at 10 Evesham, Saturday, at 10 Gainsborough, Wednesday at 10 Grays Thurrock, Wednesday, at 11 Halifax, Monday and Tuesday, at 9.30 Hanley, Wednesday and Thursday. at 9.30 Haslingden. Thursday, at 9.30 Hedon. Monday Holbeach. Monday, at 11 Holmfirth, Friday Horncastle. Monday, at 10 Ilkeston. Tuesday, at 10; Friday Llanelly. Tuesday Louth, Friday, at 10 Madeley, Wednesday, at 10 Maldon. Friday, at 11 Malmesbury, Tuesday Manchester. Monday. Tuesday, Thursday. and Friday, at 10 Mansfield Monday at 10 Melton Mowbray Friday, t 10 Merthyr Tydfil. Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday Middlesbrough, Monday, at 9.30 Monmouth Saturday, at 10 at 9.30 Tuesday, Newmarket Thursday, at 11 Newnham, Wednesday Northallerton, Saturday, at 9.30 Nottingham, Wednesday at 10; Thursday (A.O. at 10, By at 12) Oldham, Thursday, and Satur day (J.S.), at 9.30 Otley, Wednesday, at 9.45 Thursday at 10 Truro, Tuesday, at 10.30 Walsingham, Friday, at 11 Wellington (Salop),* Tuesday, at Wellington (Somerset), at 11 Wells. Tuesday, at 10 Wem. Thursday, at 10 Monday. Westbromwich, Tuesday (J.S.) West London (Brompton), Mon- Weston-super-Mare, Monday, at 10 Williton, Thursday, at 11 Winchester, Monday (R. By), at Other sittings are specially fixed if necessary. JOHN JACOB LICHTERS v. BROWN. A German subject is under a personal disability to maintain an action in a County Court in England during the war. AT the County Court Holt, (Norfolk), on the 4th inst., this action came before His Honour Judge Mulligan, KC. It was an action for damages for breach of contract to take lodgings in Lichters' house at Sheringham. The defendant had, when war was declared, refused to go to or to pay for his lodgings. Rolfe solicitor) for Lichters. Edmund Reeve (solicitor) for the defendant. At the outset it was objected that Lichters was a German subject and could not, therefore, sue, and that it was against public policy to enforce a contract to live in the house of an enemy or to award damages for breach of it. Lichters was sworn, and said that he was born in Germany in 1876, that his parents were Germans, and that he had not been could not point out any passage anywhere stating that subjects of His HONOUR.-In this case Lichters was born in Germany and of German parents. He was born German and German he remains. He owes allegiance to the Kaiser and not to the King. His claim depends upon his nationality and not upon his domicil or upon the legality of the contract. He claims damages for breach of a contract entered into before, but broken after and in consequence of, the declaration of war. Is Lichters under a personal disability in respect of his suit? That is the question. In Janson's case the defendant waived the incapacity and treated the matter as if the war was at an end. In Robinson's case it was the defendant who was under disability, and he was held to be entitled to be heard under the rule audi alteram partem. Those cases do not assist. And, in my opinion, the question of the personal disability of Lichters to sue is not touched by the proclamations. Their gist is not to confer a status or right to sue in a civil court upon subjects of the Kaiser, but to enable subjects of the King to make and enforce contracts of the nature prescribed and to take away from defendants the right to plead that such contracts are void for illegality-that the trading was illegal. The proclamations have not, in my opinion, removed the personal disability of Lichters to sue. In that respect the old rule of the common law must be regarded. Under that rule when war was declared the property of Lichters became liable to confiscation and his person to detention as a prisoner of war. In modern practice that rule has been softened, but I am not aware of any instance in which it has been so far departed from as to allow a subject of a warring Sovereign to sue a subject of the King. To allow Lichters to maintain his action in this court during the war would, in my opinion, be unjust and unwarranted by law. I hold that he cannot sue during the war. must be struck out with costs. Other similar actions were struck out or withdrawn. The Special Paper will be taken on Monday next. Defended divorce causes before the court itself will be taken on Tuesday next, and will be continued until the end of the sittings (Saturdays and Mondays excepted). Mr. Justice Darling and Mr. Justice Sankey will leave London on Monday next for Manchester, on the Northern Circuit, and will open the commission on the foll wing day. When the business at this town is finished they will return to London and remain until the end of the present sittings. Mr. Justice A. T. Lawrence will leave London on Thursday next for Hertford, on the second part of the South-Eastern Circuit, and will open the commission on the following day. The November adjourned quarter and general sessions for cases arising on the north and south sides of the Thames will commence on Tuesday next, at the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell, at 10.30. The November Sittings at the Mayor's Court will commence on Thursday next at 10:30. Tuesday next will be the "call night" of the Michaelmas Term at the four Inns of Court. Lord Mersey of Toxteth will deliver an address at the Founder's Day celebrations of the Birkbeck Institution, Bream'sbuildings, E.C., on Wednesday, the 9th prox. The Rev. Henry Reginald Gamble will be the preacher at Lincoln's-inn Chapel on Sunday morning next. Service will commence at eleven o'clock. Mr. Henry Edwin Garrod, aged eighty four, of Diss, Norfolk, senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Garrod and Burne, solicitors, of Diss, left estate of the gross value of £29,147. Mr. William Maurice Williams, of Ellerslie, Knighton Parkroad, Leicester, and formerly of Carmarthen, solicitor, who died on the 17th Sept. last, aged sixty-eight, left estate of the gross value of £7704 14s. 11d, with net personalty nil. The second of the course of lectures by Mr. A. D. McNair, the Law Society's Lecturer in Commercial Law, on "The Effect of War on Contracts and Trade," will be delivered at the society's hall, on Wednesday next, at 5.30 pm. The weekly meeting of the Union Society of London was held on Wednesday, at 3, Plowden-buildings, Temple, the president, Mr. Harry Geen, in the chair. Mr. Coram proposed: "That international peace is impossible." Mr. Morden opposed, and there also spoke Messrs. Cape, Willson, Baker, Burleigh, and Kingham. The motion was carried. The remainder of the Rhodes Lectures for the present term on "Laws of the Empire," which were to have been delivered on Wednesday, at University College, Gower-street, W.C., have been postponed, as Mr. J. H. Morgan, the lecturer, has been given leave of absence in order to enable him to undertake a confidential mission for His Majesty's Government. According to the Deutsche Juristen Zeitung. 529 lawyers and higher officials employed in German administration have up to now been killed on the battlefields, among them being three professors, two Privy Councillors, a hundred and twenty judges, administration officials, and public prosecutors, eighty-five solicitors, 137 assistant judges, and 173 referendaries. Sir John Macdonell, Quain Professor of Comparative Law, University of London, will give the first of a course of lectures in International Law upon "The Interpretation and Annulment of Treaties," at the London School of Economics, Cla.e Market, W.C., on Thursday next, at 5.30 pm. The lectures are open to the public without fee or ticket. They are intended not only for lawyers, but for students of political economy, political science, and sociology, and for journalists. The Gray's-inn Moot Society will hold a moot in the Gray's inn Hall on Monday, the 23rd inst., at 8.15 p.m., before Sir Albert Bosanquet, K.C. Any member of an Inn of Court wishing to argue should communicate as early as possible with the Under-Treasurer, Gray's-inn, from whom full particulars can be obtained. The partnership hitherto subsisting between Mr. Frederick Romer and Mr. Alfred H. Skan, of 4, Copthall-chambers, has been dissolved by mutual consent, and all debts due to the late firm have been assigned to, and are therefore receivable by, Mr. Skan, who will conduct the business under the same style as heretofore. That there should be some Belgian courts-martial in France may be assumed as a matter of course, but that the prisoners should be defended by members of the Bar of their own country approaches nearer the domain of things unexpected. Sixty prisoners appeared before a court-martial empanelled at Calais last week, charged with minor offences-desertion, failure to join the colours, and insubordination. The president of the court was Major Merchie, of the Belgian Headquarters Staff, who was wounded in the Battle of the Yser, and whose head was, we read, complètement enveloppée de bandes de pansement. Among counsel who defended were Me. Lousberg, of the Bar of Liége, and Me. Godtler, of the Brussels Bar, both serving with the colours. The sentences passed were of periods less than six months, avec sursis. This means that the offenders go back to the front, where they have the opportunity of retrieving their characters and escaping imprisonment. The rebellion headed by Generals De Wet and Beyers in the Union of South Africa will direct attention to the fact that attacks upon the State itself cease, if they succeed, to be within Under happier circumstances it might have been possible to arrange some commemoration of the jubilee on the 8th Nov. of the famous dinner given by the Bar of England to M Berryer. Few can now remember the occasion, but it left a remarkable impression upon those who took part. Lord Selborne, who presided, described the festival as unique of its kind and altogether memorable." The central figure had had a remarkable career as an advocate. Early in life he had been engaged with his father in defending Marshal Ney-nearly one hundred years ago. For forty years he maintained, as was said at the time in the LAW TIMES," through difficulties and dangers which in this country we cannot conceive, amid revolutions unknown to us, defiant alike of the power of kings and emperors, and the more terrible despotism of democracy, the right of free speech, which is the advocate's privilege, living which liber y can never quite perish, wi hout which it cannot exist." An excellent portrait in the Middle Temple Library of M. Berryer seated with Lord Brougham, who was primarily responsible for the organisation of the dinner, preserves the memory of one of the greatest of legal international courtesies. M. Berryer's successors at the Paris Bar have recently given a token of their desire to maintain cordial relations by presenting from their library a u eful collection of some fifty volumes of French and international law to the library of the Middle Temple, thus adding to its value for those of their Belgian, confrères who avail themselves of the invitation of the Masters of the Bench to use the library during their enforced stay in our midst. It has frequently been said-and there is certainly some justification for the statement-that had it not been for the fact that Sir Walter Scott was early initiated into all the mysteries of the feudal system as it survived in the law of Scotland, we might never have had the long series of the Waverley novels. Certainly in those volumes he utilised to the full his intimate knowledge of the Scottish system of conveyancing, with its quaint and picturesque terminology carrying one back in thought to the very early days of the system. By Scott's time, indeed, some of the older incidents of tenure had been abolished, but there was still retained sufficient to make the feudal law interesting, at all events in theory, whatever it may have been in actual practice. Since his day, however, notable inroads have been made upon the system; the draftsman of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1874 laid ruthless hands upon it, and now, by the Feudal Casualties (Scotland) Act 1914 which comes into operation on the 1st Jan. 1915, more radical changes sti l have been effected-ramely, by the elaborate provisions for the redemption and ultimate extinction of those payments of "relief" and "composition" due at irregular intervals, known collectively as "casualties," although to the English lawyer the definition of "casualties" 66 as duplicands and other multiples of feu duties and grassums and other sums paya le at intervals of more than one year in connection with any feu" may not elucidate the subject very much. The Act follows the trend of recent legi-lation in the endeavour to free land from all payments to " superiors," save those which are definite in amount and exigible at ascertained times. Our obituary notice of the career of the late Right Hon. Arthur Cohen, K.C., mentions the well-known fact that Mr Cohen was offered, but declined, a puisne judgeship. Puisne judgeships in this country cannot be regarded as Ministerial appointments. These offices are in the exclusive gift of the Lord Chancellor of the day, on whose sole recommendation to the Crown the scope of the criminal law. They put an end, if not to all The ROYAL EARLSWOOD INSTITUTION existing law, at least to all the existing sanctions of law, and constitute a new point of departure for a fresh set of political institutions. Sir Fitzjames Stephen thinks the well-known epigram Treason can never prosper-what's the reason? a good instance of the way in which small riot is deprived of its point by the growth of knowledge. "All such sarcasms," he writes, "derive what point they have from the tacit assumption that moral and political institutions are eternal and unchangeable. Take, for instance, the well known passage in Pascal's Pensées which treats as a monstrous absurdity that what is right on one side of a river can be wrong on the other. In these days, at least, to many people there seems nothing extraordinary in this. There are many forms of morality and they may be bounded by local frontiers as well as by any others. When English law prevailed within the Indian residency towns and not in other parts of India, it would have been true to say that suttee was or was not murder according as it was or was not carried on within the Mahrattan ditch. In the same way it was morally right according to Hindoo views and morally wrong according to English views." 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. they are filled. In his discretion in the recommendation of gentle- IRISH NOTES. MR. MARTIN J. BURKE, solicitor, Belfast, has been appointed THE application by the military authorities to have the public- THERE is much indignation at the Four Courts on account of the refusal of the Treasury to pay the staff of revising barristers who acted during last revision sessions. It appears that in August last there was some controversy between the Irish Office and the Lords of the Treasury as to the number of assistants that should be appointed, but the statute unquestionably enabled the former authority to decide that issue, which it did, though the total number was not increased. The Treasury retorted by threatening to reduce the salary by nearly one-half. The barristers appointed then threatened to "down tools," as one of the daily papers put it at the time. Now it appears the Treasury want guarantees for the future, and, pending their receipt, refuse payment for work and labour actually done. The position taken up by the Treasury is illogical, foolish, and absurd. It would be no answer to a petition of right by an aggrieved barrister-a course which is now spoken of as probable. electorate. THE Cork County Council had a discussion on the 6th inst., on receipt of the order of the Election Commissioner voiding an election, as to whether the vacancy should be filled by a new election or by co-option. The commissioner voided the election, but no person was held entitled to the seat. The law upon the subject is not clear. The 103rd section of the Municipal Corporations Act 1882 is applied to the Irish code without alteration, and the reference there to the duties to be performed by local government officials plainly point to an election by the But sect. 66 of the same Act, which directs such elections to be held within fourteen days after notice of the vacancy has been received from two burgesses, is not applied, but sect. 94 (4) of the Local Government (Ireland) Act directs that casual vacancies shall be filled by the council. Under these circumstances the county solicitor held that co-option was the proper course, and it was adopted. This would point to the fact that sect. 103, above referred to, should have been, in accordance with the power conferred altered and adapted when being applied to Ireland by the Privy Council. At present there is undoubted confusion, but it appears probable that the advice given in the Cork case was sound and accurate in the circumstances. THE King's Bench Division (Justices Gibson, Kenny, and Dodd) INTERNATIONAL, FOREIGN, AND Right of Search. THE announcement made by the Assistant Secretary of |