book and ledger, in place of passing them over with the mere statement that they are in the usual forms. The chapters on trust estates, forms of trust accounts, and apportionment between capital and revenue will be found of great service not only to lawyers and accountants, but to trustees and others who are in any way interested in the management of trust estates. TRUSTS, TRUSTEES, AND THE TRUSTS ACTS IN SCOTLAND, with a Advocate. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1893. (15s. net.) Mr. Howden has essayed with some success to write an altogether new work on Trusts, which it is impossible for the practising lawyer to peruse without learning from. Though he declines to consider questions of vesting and succession, or bankruptcy trustees, the subject of the rights and liabilities of gratuitous trustees under the Trusts Act is sufficiently large and important to deserve separate treatment, although Lord M'Laren and other writers have already to some extent occupied Mr. Howden's field. Mr. Howden's book, however, can very well. stand on its own merits. We are glad to see that Mr. Howden discusses the clause (should he not have said "section"?) in the Judicial Factors Act of 1889 by which testamentary trustees are enabled to apply to the Court for an order upon the Accountant of Court to superintend the investment and distribution of the trust estate. Where such a superintendence order has been granted Mr. Howden thinks the approval by the Accountant of Court of a proposed investment would be sufficient to protect the trustee from all liability in making the investment. There has been only one case on the subject, and it is not creditable to our law reporters that it is unreported. Mr. Howden, however, gives the gist of it in a footnote, and states that the fees charged by the Accountant of Court for auditing trustees' accounts under the section are at the rate of £1 1s. for an estate with an income of £200 per annum, £2 2s. for £500 per annum, The provisions of the Judicial Factors Act of 1889 relative to such superintendence and audit have hitherto been supposed to be inoperative, and it is pleasant to find an attempt being made by Mr. Howden in a page or two of practical suggestions (pp. 297-299) to show how the Act might be made useful. Discharge of trustees by anticipation, which we discussed in our last volume, p. 218, is carefully treated by Mr. Howden, although we may note that one of the leading cases is Roberton, not Robertson, 1846. Mr. Howden's careful work cannot fail to be and so on. of use. AN OUTLINE OF LEGAL PHILOSOPHY. By W. A. Watt, M.A., LL.B., The appearance of such a book as this is a healthy sign of the growth of historical and philosophical studies in Scotland. We are only too familiar with the class of lawyers who handle dicta as if they were pounds of cheese, and trade in samples of jurisprudence as if they were shopkeepers. It is refreshing to meet a young lawyer who faces the fact that laws as they exist must have a reason, and who seeks to inquire what the philosophic basis of our laws is. He is, of course, right in his lament that "people" (by which he probably means his fellow-citizens generally) "do not sufficiently understand that these principles are of interest to them. The principles of morality they "recognise as important; the principles of economics they are eager to discuss; but the principles of jurisprudence they leave "to their lawyer. They forget the fact that their lawyer can "no more make them intelligent legal citizens than their clergyman can send them to heaven, or a lecturer on commerce can make them rich." All this is doubtless true, but we fear Mr. Watt must make up his mind that very few but lawyers will study the principles of jurisprudence, charm he never so wisely. The scientific lawyer must be content to have members of his own profession as readers, and, indeed, most of them require instruction in the principles of jurisprudence very badly. Mr. Watt discusses tersely, first, the nature and external development of law in chapters treating of rights and laws, legal facts, primitive society, and the significance of Roman law; then he passes to the contents of modern law, and thence to the fundamental legal notions and their expression in a code, with chapters on the person, property, contract penalty, natural right, justice, and codification. To follow him through those matters in detail would require a book. Suffice it to say that his arguments are interesting, his conclusions are suggestive, and his opinions are expressed both with modesty and clearness when they differ from those of elder writers. We should sometimes have preferred if Mr. Watt had been a little more liberal with reference to his authorities. Perhaps he was afraid of the fascination of footnotes; still, the paragraph on page 40 as to the effect of the Norman Conquest requires some historical backingup. What authority has Mr. Watt for saying, or inferring, that the relations of Scotland were always more intimate with the Continent than were those of England? Certainly not before the Conquest. It was England which was in constant communication with the reforms of the Carlovingian Empire from 800 to 1066, not Scotland. From the dawn of the Wars of the Succession, however, Scotland was always closely in touch with foreign rather than English jurisprudence. Again, Mr. Watt may be reminded that his illustration of when a person may legally take the law into his own hands, viz., when he pushes a trespasser back when he is coming through a fence of his field, is unfortunate. If the person so acted he would be perilously near committing an assault. His only remedy in Scots law is to apply for an interdict, so that the illustration is faulty. The book is an interesting one. We trust Mr. Watt will follow up his subject on some other occasion. Obituary. At Aberdeen, on 8th June, Mr. Alexander Cochran, advocate. At Duns, on 12th June, Mr. Charles Watson, solicitor. Mr. Watson was at one time a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and in 1880 was president of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. He and his father collected a valuable assortment of documentary and other antiquities, most of them relating to the town of Duns and neighbourhood. He for many years held the office of town clerk. He was 62 years of age. At Glasgow, on 15th June, Mr. John Thomson, writer, of the firm of Thomson & Campbell. Mr. Thomson was educated at the Madras College, St. Andrews, and at the University of Glasgow, and his legal training was obtained first in the office of Messrs. Hodge & Stewart, writers, Glasgow, where he served his apprenticeship, and subsequently in Edinburgh, where he spent a year or two before passing his examination. Returning to Glasgow in 1879, he shortly afterwards started business with Mr. Archibald Campbell-a partnership that continued up till the time of his death. Mr. Thomson was in his 41st year. At Edinburgh, on 25th June, Mr. John Hope, W.S., in his 87th year. Mr. Hope was the son of Mr. James Hope, W.S., and passed as W.S. in 1829. On the death of his father, he went into partnership with his younger brother Mr. James Hope of Belmont, which partnership lasted until 1864. Being accounted good feudal lawyers, the firm became the advisers and legal agents of several leading families in Scotland. It was, however, as an active propagator of total abstinence and anti-Popish principles, as an educationist, as a Volunteer, and as a Town Councillor that Mr. Hope came into public view, and for a quarter of a century was one of the best known men in Edinburgh. With abundance of means, and remaining a bachelor all his life, Mr. Hope was able to put into practice ideas which he had formed in connection with these subjects. Notes from Edinburgh. PARLIAMENT HOUSE, 29th June, 1893. THE contest in Linlithgowshire eclipsed all other incidents in the amount of interest which it excited. One of our rising men was the Gladstonian candidate. Oceans of oratory contributed by a variety of politicians-professional and otherwise-flooded the district. The number of Parliament House men on the stump was quite unprecedented. Loyalty to the profession might have been expected to produce some disappointment in the breast of Parliament House when the result became known. This was not so, for an enthusiastic cheer greeted the announcement of Captain Hope's victory. But the memory of the fight has almost faded away already; and at present the only question being circulated is, what ought a candidate to do to show his gratitude to his colleagues who talked themselves hoarse for him? As for the Parliamentary contingent, one does not know how such things are managed, but evidently the whips at Westminster had been squared. M.P.-ship has this session been no desirable office, at least for lawyers. At no previous period have there been such prolonged absences of the prominent lawyers who have taken fate into their own hands and gone into Parliament. Speaking of legislators reminds one of the opposite sides which have been taken in the inquiry with reference to accidents and sudden deaths. Mr. Shaw, who as yet has had no Crown Office experience, was naturally expected to favour a radical measure of the kind proposed. It was not expected, however, that he would assert, ex cathedra as it were, certain things which could only be stated with authority by an official or ex-official. Accordingly, when Mr. Shaw came down for the electioneering interlude in which Mr. Ure played so prominent a part, he was a good deal chaffed about his tone and the accuracy of some of his statements, being warned at the same time that the exSolicitor General meant to put him right on an early date. Accordingly Mr. Murray did turn up at the enquiry a little later and expressed very distinct dissent from some of the views maintained by Mr. Shaw. Of course, the subject is one on which different minds may naturally take diverse views. On the one hand, it may be said that private inquiries by responsible officials like Fiscals are, in the interests of decency and order, preferable to any other, and afford no encouragement to the class of speculative litigant, at whom Mr. Murray aimed some well-meant and no doubt in some cases well-merited shafts. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that, under the existing system, negligence frequently escapes deserved punishment. The whole subject of sudden death and its causes requires revision so far as Scotland is concerned. It is notorious in the medical profession that, through the absence of certification, or the supervision of certification, crime frequently goes unpunished. I do not suggest that wholesale murder is practised, or even that murder escapes the authorities when it should not. But the existing system fosters other species of crime than homicide. Insurance Companies are defrauded to an enormous extent. As for accidents there is much diversity of opinion. It is admitted that in a large number of cases public inquiries would do good. The committee of the Faculty who considered this subject, and of whom Mr. Mackay, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Comrie Thomson, Mr. Vary Campbell, and Mr. Strachan were the prominent members, put this part of the subject thus:-"There is a "class of accidents the cause of which is unexplained or liable "to be misunderstood, as in large work-factories or mines, or on "railways or ships, or in places of public amusement, as well as "in some other instances. In such cases it would be satisfactory "to relatives and to the public that the cause of the accident "shall be, so far as may be, fully ascertained. It is not possible to "define or describe all such cases beforehand, and this appears to "be an additional reason for leaving the determination of the "proper cases for public inquiry to a responsible official, such as "the Lord Advocate." There is also difference of opinion as to the tribunal. Are the Sheriffs to be burdened with the work? Any one who knows what Sheriffs have to do for insufficient remuneration will be reluctant to put more upon their shoulders. It is a serious objection to their officiating that administrative would or might conflict with judicial duties. The number of Sheriffs would certainly have to be increased. It is notorious that the country is undermanned. These objections would seem to point conclusively to the appointment for the particular occasion of some lawyer of reasonable experience going to the spot and holding an independent inquiry, and making his report to the Scotch office. A subject which has been canvassed widely is the transference of the licensing powers under the Local Government Act. The Lord Advocate has set the country by the ears with an opinion which, to say the least of it, is open to question. In point of fact, it has been questioned by a variety of authorities, which includes the town-clerk of Inverness, the town-clerk of Lochgilphead, and Mr. J. B. Nicolson of Glenbervie, a former Lord Advocate's secretary and an able draftsman. These gentlemen may be taken to represent three different quarters of the country, and they are unanimous in their dissent from the opinion of the Lord Advocate. Of course, the question cannot be determined except by judicial opinion or a supplementary Act. Meanwhile, it is interesting to note, amidst a great deal that is insipid in legal affairs, the ingenuity of Lochgilphead on this occasion. The gentleman I have named, foreseeing the difficulty of interpretation, took care to summon a composite team of judges to transfer licenses at the licensing Court, so that, if the transferees ever should be challenged, they will be able to produce certificates signed both by justices and by burgh magistrates. People some times find salvation in the wilderness. On the present Occasion Lochgilphead stands well to the front. Coming to Parliament House affairs pure and simple, one notices how in the midst of a great variety of general litigation jury trials have suffered an unaccountable relapse. This perhaps is due to an adverse fate which for some time has beset pursuers. Jury trials have become conspicuously few and unimportant in this short summer session. Not so proofs and debates, and cases of infringement of patents. Fluctuation in classes of work is always noticeable. At one time accident cases, at another |