abolish the burgh registers altogether. It would have been much better had this been done by the Land Registers Act of 1868. Such a step would no doubt meet with the opposition of the various town clerks throughout Scotland, but would be to the advantage of all others.

Current Notes.

THE BURGH POLICE ACT, 1892.-The leading event of the month has been the coming into operation of the Burgh Police Act of 1892, which took place on the 15th of May. An Act of this size and complexity, containing upwards of 500 clauses, must necessarily give rise to many questions on which there will be differences of opinion, and that has been the result in this instance. A meeting of the Burgh Officials' Association was held in the early part of the month for the purpose of considering the measure, and we make no apology for giving an unusually large amount of space this month to a report of its proceedings. As the Act comes gradually into full operation, and its effect in its different branches is noted, other questions no doubt will be cropping up on which it will be an advantage for those administering it to consult together, and we shall be happy to be the medium on such points so far as we can afford the space without encroaching too much on what is required for other matters. The Burgh Officials' Association in this case is doing good work, and its efforts to clear up doubts and difficulties connected with what is admittedly in some respects a defective piece of legislation will no doubt be much appreciated.

INQUIRIES INTO FATAL ACCIDENTS.-The agitation to introduce public inquiries into cases of fatal accident in Scotland is likely to result in the practice here being assimilated to that in England in this matter. A Bill has been introduced for that purpose, and there is every likelihood of it being passed. Whether the new form of inquiry will be of public advantage is open to question. No doubt the public, through the newspapers, will be regaled with horrors whenever a big accident occurs, but that the effect will be to lessen the risk of such accidents in the future is another matter. The present system of inquiry by the Fiscals in the first instance, and then having a public investigation or trial where there has been palpable misconduct or neglect, has worked well in the past. The best evidence of that is the absence of any serious complaint against those who have been entrusted with the carrying out of this very delicate part of criminal work. However, if we are to have a new system and additional publicity, the proposal to place it in the hands of the Sheriffs is a guarantee that such inquiries will be carried out with efficiency.

LEGAL PEDANTRY.-Fashionable legal society in Scotland detests the word "Scotch." The lawyer who uses it is as essen

tially vulgar as the proverbial person who eats peas with a knife. To be sure, a dispensation is granted to their Lordships of the Supreme Appellate Court, who, being mostly English, cannot be expected to know better. An occasional breach of legal etiquette may even be pardoned in the more homely of our Court of Session judges, but for any lawyer under the rank of a judge to speak of "Scotch law," or a "Scotch appeal," or a "Scotch Act," is enough to ostracise him from any well-organised legal circle. And the fashion is extending. Here is a rubric from Rettie:"A domiciled Englishman infeft in Scots land, "under a bond and disposition in security, is subject to the juris'diction of the Scots Courts in all matters relating to the lands. "A trustee administering a Scots trust which includes Scots heri"table estate is subject to the jurisdiction of the Scots Courts." (20 Ret. 187). Is this not a reductio ad absurdum? Scots "law" is all very well, but "Scots land," "Scots mountains," and "Scots mists are justified neither by usage nor common sense.

THE LAW REPORTS.-The Juridical Review, in its last issue, has for a "current topic" a lively criticism of the present system of law reporting in Scotland. Rettie is too expanded, and contrasts unfavourably with the Shaw of 1829. Here, according to the reviewer, is a model report:-" Magistrates of Kirkwall v. “Lerwick.—This was a question of property depending on the "titles of the parties and a proof, on which the Lord Ordinary "pronounced a special judgment, and the Court adhered." This, "with the accompanying reference to the Session papers," is said to be amply sufficient. But what of those who have not access to the Session papers? Oh, nothing! They are outside the learned circle of Parliament House. We quote the editor's words:"The suggestion that Rettie's Reports are intended "for people who have not access to the Session papers is pre"cisely opposed to fact, as these Reports have little circulation "in the provinces." It would be positively dangerous for the lawyers of Glasgow, Dundee, or Aberdeen to form their legal opinions at first hand. They must have the imprimatur of the budding advocate who, for an adequate fee, will search the Session papers and digest for the benefit of the provincial those matters of" high interest" which are to be expunged from the reports. Unfortunately for the scheme, the community at large do not rise to the Edinburgh charm, and there is now a flowing tide of public opinion in favour of a scheme of decentralisation such as that shadowed forth by Sheriff Guthrie.

Literature.

WHAT ARE TEINDS? An Account of the History of Tithes in Scotland. By William George Black, Writer, Glasgow, author of "The Parochial Ecclesiastical Law of Scotland." Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. 1893. (2s. 6d.)

As in the Roman law there were said to be seven cruces, so it

may be said there is at least one in our own law, that relating to the law of teinds. To the average lawyer who, from professional necessity, has never been compelled to go below the surface of the subject, it is full of mystery. This is no doubt largely due, as Forbes says in his Treatise on Church Lands and Tithes, to this, "that the Canon law, though we never burned it as "Luther did, hath, since the suppression of Popery, been little "studied in Scotland"; but it is also in no small measure owing to the absence from our legal literature of just such an excellent book on the subject as Mr. Black has now provided. In answering the question he puts to himself, What are Teinds? Mr. Black treats of the historical development of the law of tithes in Scotland, and, in order the more clearly to do so, traces the law of tithe-paying from its first civic enactment under Charlemagne, through English practice, down to the time of its introduction into Scotland by King David. Mr. Black has wisely refrained from too frequent or prolonged excursions into the many bye-paths of the kindred subjects of Church history and ecclesiastical law with which the subject is beset, and which to him must have had attractions. He has written the book concisely and popularly, avoiding, as far as possible, the use of the technical expressions in which the subject abounds. The book has a distinct value to laymen having an interest in this branch of the law relating to the Church of Scotland as well as to lawyers. It is divided into five chapters, the first treating of "The Civil Institution of Tithes in Europe," the second with "Tithes in England-970 to 1066," the third with "Tithes in Scotland before the Reformation-1058 to 1560," the fourth with "Tithes in Scotland during the Reformation period and "subsequently-1560 to 1628," and the fifth with "Teinds in the Present Day." An interesting chapter, entitled "The Sur"vival of the Old Church," is added, in which the writer deals with the history of the different forms taken by the Reformed Church in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Mr. Black set himself a difficult task in undertaking to write this book, and his successful treatment of the subject goes to show that he has not spared himself in the minute and painstaking research which the work demanded. The volume is well printed, and is singularly free from errors. We notice, however, that on page 52 the year 1661 is printed in place of 1561, and that on page 104 the date of the Scotch Education Act is given as 1871 instead of 1872.

Obituary.

The

At Edinburgh, on 13th May, Mr. George Andrew, S.S.C. son of a Banffshire farmer, Mr. Andrew in early life became apprenticed to Mr. James Coutts, solicitor, Banff. Thereafter he proceeded to Edinburgh to attend the law classes, and in 1867 was admitted a member of the S.S.C. Society. For many years he enjoyed a large practice, due in large measure to his connection with the north. He also acted as agent of the Royal Bank

of Scotland at their west-end branch in Edinburgh from its opening in 1870 till 1890. Prior to the amalgamation of the Provincial Governments in New Zealand, he acted as agent for the Provincial Government of Otago, an agency which merged in one agent-general located in London after the union of the separate Governments.

At Glasgow, on 17th May, Mr. Alexander Young, writer, aged 78 years. Mr. Young joined his father in business in 1840, under the firm of G. & A. Young. This firm continued till October, 1892, when it was altered to A. & G. Young. Mr. Young was appointed assistant to his father in the clerkship to the Incorporation of Masons in 1862, and, on his father's death in 1864, succeeded to the clerkship. He was an assessor to the magistrates in the Police Courts of Glasgow from 1846 till 1890. In 1858, in succession to Dr. Davie, he was appointed clerk to the Lanarkshire Prison Board (afterwards the North Lanarkshire Prison Board), and he held this office till 1877, when the prisons were taken over by the Government.

At Rothesay, on 25th May, Mr. George Thomson, writer, after a lengthened and trying illness. Mr. Thomson, who at the time of his death was thirty-five years of age and unmarried, settled in Rothesay about eleven years ago on account of his health, and started business on his own account, gradually acquiring a popular and pretty extensive practice. In early life he served his apprenticeship in Glasgow under Mr. Thomas Weir, clerk to the Trades' House, and the late Mr. Douglas, procurator-fiscal. He was a ready public speaker, and served a period of three years in the town council before the burgh was divided into wards.

At Lenzie, on 29th May, Mr. Alexander Marquis Sinclair, writer, Glasgow. Mr. Sinclair, who was a native of Cullen, Banffshire, was trained in the office of Mr. Alexander Sim, solicitor there. He was afterwards in the office of the late Mr. George Andrew, S.S.C., Edinburgh, and in that of Mr. Holmes, writer, Johnstone. He commenced business in Glasgow on his own account about 1879.

Notes from Edinburgh.

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, May 29, 1893. IT is now time to resume these notes. April is usually so slow that nothing occurs worth mentioning, even in a chatty, irresponsible letter, and I therefore abstained from troubling the readers of your last issue. The spring was exceptionally brilliant in point of weather. Day after day came from the east in Hardly a Parliament House man was to only summer months which we shall You need not think that the spirit of

unparalleled splendour. be found in town in the probably enjoy this year. prophecy is on me. In this climate there is a certain prepon

derance of moisture which must descend upon the earth, and if it don't come at one season it will inevitably fall in another. The summer session began with a flourish of trumpets. The newspapers had announced, in an unusually cheerful way, that litigation promised well, and the spirits of the legal world rose with the prospect. The rolls showed a hundred up to begin with -the causes numbering 400 in all-and as yet there has not been a transfer except in the Outer House. 400 is, of course, a poor show compared with 1500 in the English Courts. But that number is far above an average at this time. So far as outward appearances went, therefore, legal machinery was set agoing again amid considerable hilarity.

The spring cleaning, from which this august habitation is not exempt, was taken advantage of by the Faculty Committee whose duty it is to minister to the comfort of the members. Hitherto the members have lunched in a darksome chamber, musty with dust and erudition, fit only for unobservant bibliophiles like Dominie Sampson. The books which formerly furnished this catacomb have been translated to other shelves. The chamber has been divested of its other library furniture, and its walls fittingly decorated in blue and yellow, a compliment devised, the knowing ones tell me, by a great heraldic authority for the two great parties in the State. A slow-combustion grate, placed against tiles of an artistically uncertain hue, is surmounted by an amorphous addition to the carved oak work for which the Faculty is famous. Last of all, chairs are dispersed over the room a la cafe chantant. These chairs remove the risk which members used constantly to run of having legs broken in the athletic exercise which formed the necessary preliminary to securing a seat. They also promote a more general conversation, which it is said was apt to be monopolised by the more noisy men, the heirs presumptuous of Sandy Logan and the like, who are believed to have a mental twist towards humour. A muchneeded improvement undoubtedly.

The

It would be well if the authorities next considered the needs of agents and witnesses and the public generally. room about which I have been dilating is reserved for wigs and gowns. No stranger was ever known to be in it except a London brother named Cripps, Q.C., to whom the pervasive suavity of the Lord Advocate conceded this courtesy when Cripps came down a little time ago to teach the City how arbitration pleading ought to be done. But agents and the public require to replenish the inner man quite as much as hard-worked counsel. What provision is made for them? An improvised bar, always crowded after 12.30, where you have to punch a rib or two before the waiter can be got to attend to the hungry growl. Agents can't run over to John's coffee-house. That looks bibulous in these days. In days of yore it was part of the lawyer's daily tread to ascend John's stair at least six times. There's no time for once a day now. A Lord Ordinary may rise for half-an-hour at one, but the chances are that he