dates of the orders following on the bill are given by the European Magazine and by Evans; but although the search of the latter in the Record Office did not result in the discovery of the originals, these have now been found by Mr. Hall, and are substantially in the terms published in 1787. The orders being accurate, it is no more than a fair inference that the terms of the bill itself are those given by the European Magazine. For the details of the case we must refer our readers to Evans as above cited, or to the current Law Quarterly Review (vol. xxxv. 197). The following brief summary will, however, be of some interest:It appears that in 1725 one Joseph Everet, of the parish of St. James's, Clerkenwell, sued Joseph Williams in the equity side of the Exchequer Court. The bill recites an oral partnership between the defendant and the plaintiff, who was "skilled in dealing in several sorts of commodities," and that the parties had "proceeded jointly in the said dealings with good success on "Hounslow Heath, Finchley, Blackheath, and other places,' where they had dealt with several gentlemen for "divers "watches, rings, swords, canes, hats, cloaks, horses, bridles, "saddles, and other things," which were had for little or no money after some small discourse" with the owners. The rest of the bill is in the ordinary form of a partnership account, the bill itself being signed by one Jonathan Collins as counsel. The Court seems to have considered itself the victim, along with the defendant, of a practical joke, for on 30th October, 1725, upon the motion of the defendant's counsel, the matter was referred to the Deputy Remembrancer "for scandal and impertinence," with instructions to him to report with all convenient speed. On 13th November, 1725, the bill was dismissed, with full costs to the defendant. But the matter did not end here. On 29th November it was ordered "that a messenger or tipstaff of this "Court do forthwith go and attach the bodies of Mr. William "White and Mr. William Wreathock, the plaintiff's solicitors, "and bring them into Court to answer the contempt of this Court." In the end White and Wreathock were each fined £50, and committed to the custody of the Warden of the Fleet until their fines were paid. Collins, the plaintiff's counsel, was ordered to pay the defendant such costs as the deputy should tax. The defendant, although absolved from any connection with this hoax, does not appear to have been a spotless character, for, according to the European Magazine, he was hanged at Maidstone in 1727. The plaintiff was hanged at Tyburn in 1730; while Wreathock, one of the plaintiff's solicitors, was in 1735 convicted of robbing Dr. Lancaster, but was reprieved and transported. Current Notes. "FACULTY" OR "SOCIETY."-Is it by inadvertence or by design that the Glasgow Herald and the Scots Law Times have rechristened the Glasgow Faculty of Procurators? In the Officer and Lang case the Faculty is called "the Society of Glasgow Procurators." Opinions may differ as to whether the new name has anything beyond novelty to recommend it, but it may be pointed out that it is in contravention of the Royal charter of 1796, which bears that the incorporation "shall be "called by the name and stile of the Faculty of Procurators in "Glasgow." THE SALE OF GOODS BILL.-In spite of the pressure of party politics, there is now a prospect of this valuable measure being added to the statute book before the close of the present session. It has passed the Lords for the third time, and is in the course of its initial venture in the stormy waters of the Commons. Lord Herschell, who, for several successive years, has conducted the Bill through the Lords, having become Lord Chancellor, the measure is now practically a Government one. Hence it is that, having passed the second reading in the Commons, it has been referred to a select committee appointed on the motion of the Government whip. This committee is composed of six English barristers, an Irish solicitor, a Manchester manufacturer, and a Glasgow merchant. There is no legal representative of Scotland on the committee, and a grave responsibility therefore rests upon Mr. Alexander Cross of Glasgow, who is the sole representative of Scottish interests. It is true that Mr. J. Shiress Will, Q.C., sits for a Scotch constituency, but as an English lawyer, he cannot be expected to enter fully into the Scottish aspect of the question. It is to be hoped that the Scottish clauses, some of which were criticised in our pages by Professor Brown of Glasgow (vol. viii. 149), will be carefully revised by the select committee, and that, as finally adjusted, they will leave nothing to be afterwards regretted. It must be remembered that, so far as England is concerned, the Bill is mainly a reproduction of the existing law; but that in the case of Scotland, many of its provisions are entirely novel, and subvert the principles and practice which for centuries have ruled our legal decisions. PROXIES BY TELEGRAPH.-It is a novelty to find a meeting in London voting upon proxies telegraphed from Australia. Yet this course has now been judicially sanctioned by the Court of Appeal in Re the English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered Bank, 13th July, 1893. These proxies were necessary to obtain the statutory majority requisite to support a scheme of reconstruction, and time did not permit of the actual proxies being forwarded to England for use at the meeting. The Act provides that the meeting "shall be summoned in such manner as the "Court shall direct," and this was held to include an inherent power to the Court to say how the meeting should be held and the proxies evidenced and produced. The merely technical view of the question has been discarded, but it is possible to imagine very awkward questions arising if the proxies so telegraphed should, after all, prove defective on some legal ground. Literature. A HANDBOOK OF SCOTTISH PAROCHIAL LAW OTHER THAN ECCLESIASTICAL. By William George Black, Member of the Faculty of Procurators, Glasgow. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. 1893. (8s.) In this volume Mr. Black aims at providing a concise handbook of the law relating to the affairs of a parish other than ecclesiastical affairs, which have been already treated in his "Parochial Ecclesiastical Law." The main subjects treated of are Education, the care of the Poor, and the assistance given to the indigent to prosecute cases in the civil Courts by the aid of the poor's roll. While not professing to give a full and exhaustive treatise, the author succeeds in furnishing a concise and clear statement of the leading provisions of the law applicable to the different branches of the subject, and adds some references to other sources of information, which might with advantage have been extended. By all in any way charged with the administering of the Education and Poor Law Acts, whether as members of School and Parochial Boards or as officials, the volume will be found a useful and reliable handbook. It should also be stated that a chapter is added dealing with a subject hitherto untouched by writers on parish law, viz., the relations of a parish to the county authority, which the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, has brought into greater prominence than formerly. A well-arranged and complete table of contents and general index are provided, and also an index of cases. THE JUDICIAL PRACTICE OF THE COLONY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD The author of this treatise is an attorney-at-law, notary public, and conveyancer, and is law lecturer at the South African College, Capetown; the publishers are South African also. The work is dedicated to Sir John Henry de Villiers, Chief Justice of the Cape Colony; and it is printed in London by Messrs. William Clowes & Son, Limited. Mr. Van Zyl was induced to issue in book form notes on the practice of the Courts in South Africa which he had made in the course of his professional duties. A part of them has already appeared in print, but in a shape which could not attain so large a circulation as the handsome and comprehensive volume before us, which, having been carefully revised, bears few marks of its origin. The want of it was felt, as the Dutch books on the subject were old and in a foreign tongue, and of course they could be of no assistance with regard to the variations which the British occupation and other circumstances had introduced into South Africa. Limited as the title is to practice, the author has not confined himself to matters forensic, but in describing remedies he has not hesitated to include in his exposition so much of the substantive law as helps to elucidate his subject. This is the case particularly when the actions relative to the contract of marriage are being considered, and thus here, as well as elsewhere, the interest is heightened for the reader who is not familiar with the Roman-Dutch law, which, with aid from the Roman and English systems, obtains in these colonies. Besides the chapters on summonses, execution of judgment, review and special actions, with their incidents, which one expects in a book of this kind, there are other chapters on marriage, hypothecations, and sequestrations, taking up nearly one-third of the 650 pages; and each chapter is garnished with forms, which, as Mr. Van Zyl rightly insists, are very useful to the practitioner and invaluable to the student. The similarity between this law and that of which we Scots are so proud is striking in more than the substance; even the technical names have a familiar ring about them. Anyone interested about the judicial remedies of the citizen in the great African colonies, where so many Scotsmen now seek their fortunes, cannot do better than read this wellwritten essay. It claims to be quite up to date, and, looking to its thoroughness and comprehensiveness, one cannot doubt that it will hold the field for years. We have looked in vain for a chapter on costs mentioned in the preface. LEGAL FORMS FOR COMMON USE, being 300 Precedents, with This book of forms is intended for the use of lawyers and non-lawyers. The precedents arranged under such headings as Securities, Partnership, Master and Servant, Landlord and Tenant, County Court Forms, &c., are entirely English, and while some of them may be of use at times to Scotch practitioners, we should say that they would be dangerous in the hands of a layman. The book altogether smacks too much of the idea, "Every man his own lawyer." Obituary. At Elie, on 24th July, Mr. Edmond Baird Paterson, late collector of the Trades House of Glasgow. Mr. Paterson was a "son of the Rock," having been born in Stirling about 64 S years ago. He was well known in Glasgow legal circles, having charge of the financial department of the business of the firm of Messrs. Roberton, Low, Roberton, & Cross. He was a man of genial temperament and a kind heart, and his loss will be felt by many friends, more especially amongst the poor connected with the crafts with which Mr. Paterson was himself associated. Notes from Edinburgh. PARLIAMENT HOUSE, 29th July, 1893. THE summer session is a short but, in the general case, a lively one. The only exception within my memory was the session of 1892. The general election of that year disorganised business to such a degree that for nearly a month a half only of the usual amount of business was done. The session just closed will be remarkable for the volume of the business done, and for several noteworthy cases. The Officer-Lang case, and a double reversal by the House of Lords of First Division judgments, signalised the close of a really important session. A noticeable feature of the close was the number of jury trials at the sittings. During the summer it was frequently complained that this form of process had lapsed into disfavour. It was only a temporary eclipse, however, that it suffered. About the beginning of July a series began which has only now been terminated. The trials presented no special feature except that of number. The value of the verdicts was low, in only three or four cases exceeding £200-this fact again emphasising the parsimony of Scotch as compared with English juries. The two best verdicts went to the credit of one Glasgow firm. One of these cases, Deas v. Christie, is interesting to the profession because it affords an example of a new, or at least unusual, species of wrong-abuse of civil process, not in the shape of wrongous use of diligence, but in the taking out of summonses against a debtor without authority from the creditor. The profession would also be interested in the action from St. Andrews in which a well-known brother figured, but the slanders complained of were of a very trifling character, and could not be said to be worth more money than was put upon them by a discriminating twelve. For the rest, injury cases alternated with slander. Assuming the Employers' Liability Bill to pass, we shall probably see few of these cases in the Court of Session in the future. Sheriff Court practitioners will have an opportunity to shine in a new sphere, and doubtless the situation will develop Borlands and Spenses, Ruxtons and Scotts, Macandrews and MacCallums, to dispute in their local forums the jury palm with our Thomsons and Jamesons and Strachans. You would observe that in the Second Division, some three weeks ago, Lord Rutherfurd Clark gave draftsmen some counsel about the framing of defences. His lordship said the disposition |