one there except what his wife has been pleased to allow him of her bounty and good pleasure. In such a case we could not quarrel with a strict interpretation of "having had means," but it is much to be feared that the administration of the Act in that way inflicts much injustice and suffering upon the working classes, to whom deprivation of work in consequence of imprisonment may mean utter ruin. These are the cases which make. the jurisdiction what a learned County Court judge calls "unpleasant," though, unfortunately, there are no returns discriminating between the committals where the debtors "have "had means" and where they "have means." Improvidence, thriftlessness, ignorance, and not deliberate intention to swindle with the ingenious artfulness of the better class debtor are responsible for most of the cases falling under the former description, and these are not faults to be punished by imprisonment, or by using the fear of imprisonment to extort payment from friend and relatives. This is one of the points upon which enquiry is necessary, and the opinion may be ventured that it will be found necessary to restrict the power of imprisonment to cases where debtors actually have means at the time of commitment. There certainly seems room for enquiry when the returns show, on the one hand, an increase of warrants of commitment issued from 63,836 in 1889, to 70,397 in 1890, and from the latter number to 74,108 in 1891; whilst all the time the number of debtors actually imprisoned is decreasing, the figures being 6554 in 1889, 6443 in 1890, and 5852 in 1891. The two chief points for consideration seem to be, first, the need for a limit below which there shall be no imprisonment; secondly, the desirability of making committal possible only where the debtor actually is shown to have means at the time the order is applied for. And it may be further suggested that the proof of means should not, as at present, depend on the creditor, but the proof of inability on the debtor. The difficulty in the former method leads the judge to accept evidence which would be rejected in other cases.

COCKIELEERIE-LAW.

In Full Court, 23rd December, 1892.

Six legal wigs, like well-plumed tappit hens,
Sat brooding o'er a pair of fighting cocks;
While lesser wigs, begowned, and brief in hand,
Declaimed in flowing periods, of the fray,
Like ancient bards, that wanted but their harps,
Their wallets, ballad verse, and song, to make
The very goose quills, sleeping on the bench,
Awake! take sides and spill each other's ink.

And as they spake, a legal fog dropt down
Upon the learned six, and each beheld,
In green mirage, born of the cloud of words,
Two cocks, Game cocks, crop-combed, erect, and slim,
With feathers dipped in crimson, gold, and blue,
Frill-necked, with trailing wings and spurs of steel,
That on each other flew and pecked and spurred,
And spurred and pecked again, until the Court
Reeled like a cock-pit, and the crowd of wigs,-
Of boyish idle wigs,-took bonnet shapes
That hooded scowling brows of cursing men,
Who laid their bets on this bird, and on that,
As, with quick panting breath and beaks agape,
They pranced, flew, fought, until the oaken bar
Seemed spattered o'er with feathers and cock blood.
At length one cock the other overthrew,

And struck quick spurs into his quivering breast
Until he died; then he, with croaking crow,
Fell, wounded, bleeding, dying by his side
Amid the applauding cheers of thirsty throats,
Soon to be slaked with liquid bets, and so
The battle ended, but the fog remained.

A rustling of silk plumes upon the bench,
Five wigs bent low, and thus great Solon spake—
""Twas in Kilbarchan that this fight was fought,
And straight the men who prompted it were ta'en,
And jailed, and tried, and sentenced for the same;
But now they seek release, and this their plea,
That in the gracious Act which says that men
Shall not treat brutes and beasts with cruelty,
The name of 'cock' is absent; therefore they
Claim full exemption for their brutish deeds,
And we, vicegerents of our gentle Queen,
With spectacle on nose, must well explore
This vital point in Cockieleerie-law.

"The illumined page of history reveals
Cock-fighting as an ancient royal sport.
The early Greeks and Romans in their day
Found pastime sweet in setting cock on cock;
The sage Themistocles took keen delight
In battling fowls; while glorious Cæsar, too,
Loved much to back his bird; and, furthermore,
Marc Antony's gamecocks did always lose
When pitted against Cæsar's fiercest breed.
King Henry VIII., of sainted memory,
At Whitehall had a special cock-pit built,
Wherein his royal birds made lively sport
For gentle dames and all his merry knights.

The most accomplished scholar of his day,
Squire Roger Ascham, tutor to Queen Bess,
Much as he loved his books, loved cocks the more,
And loved them most when victors in the fight.
And last of all, that great and noble duke,
The conqueror of Blenheim, in game birds
Found something that reminded him of self;
And thus we see the fighting instinct strong
In cocks, and other nobles of past time.

"Game cocks, we find, from earliest Cockereldom Delight in war, as dogs to bark and bite,

And raining blows upon each other's ribs
Do best fulfil their part of nature's plan,

Which built them slim and bade them love the fray;
And while we hope no preference here to show,
"Tis open question whether rearing fowls

To wring their necks, or match them in the pit,

Does more exalt the brute or sink the man.

"But here, the cocks were armed with spurs of steel,

And 'tis a subtle question, whether they

With iron shod, or spurred with native horn,
Do deal the deadliest blows in angry fray;
And, while we have our own opinion strong!
"Tis not within our province to pronounce.

"If it be wrong with steel to prick a fowl,
What of the spurs with which hard riders goad
The bleeding sides of horses in the race,
Or in the steeplechase, or country hunt?
And what of hares in coursing run to death?
Of quivering foxes torn by yelling hounds?
Of wheeling pigeons slaughtered for a prize?
We make no mention of the common use,
Of otter hunting, grouse and pheasant drives,
And of the sport termed noble, where the stag
Is forced upon the guns that lay him low.
No doubt, two blacks can never make one white,
Nor multiplying blacks turn black to grey;
But if to brutalise the man be thought amiss,
Then there are other ways than fighting cocks.

"Still that's beside our purpose, which is this

To scan the statute, microscope in hand,
And note if in its sweep humane we see
A roosting-place for crowing chanticleer.
And there we find, or rather fail to find,
The name of 'cock' among the saving list
Of nineteen beasts protected by the law,
Though thus the list concludes, and other kinds
Of animals domestic,' or like words.

Are we to find Game cocks, domestic fowls?
Are we to hold that birds are animals?
Our view is quite the contrary, or else
There's not a beast, bird, fish, or insect but
The term 'domestic' would to them apply,
And make it penal e'en to slay a louse.

"And while, in other parts of this same Act,
We find 'cock' followed by the general phrase,
'Or other kind of animal,' we hold

It bears not on the matter now in hand,

But only serves to show that Parliament,

When brooding, clucking, hen-like, o'er this Act,
Had cocks well in their eye, and plainly did,

Of purpose full, omit them from the list;

And while bear-fights, bull-fights, dog-fights, and all
Vile sports and brutish cruelty to beasts,
The spirit and the letter of the law
Do quite forbid, unanimous we hold
Cock-fighting is a lawful use of cocks,
And finding so, we liberate these men.

"It will be said, this statute has been read
Reversely in our sister England, where
It is the Charter of proud Chanticleer;
But what of that? It alters not our mind!
But only shows that they, of feebler clay,
Stick not at trifles, so the end be good,
And let the heart o'erbeat the legal mind;
While we, of sterner stuff, fail not to find
Motes in the sunshine of their simple wits,
And gnats to strain out of their cup of wine;
For, in the nice accomplishment and use
Of splitting hairs and weighing feathers small,
Of riddling wisdom from a peck of words,
We are more skilled, more subtle, more profound
Than are our legal brethren of the South."

Whereat five learned wigs again bowed down

In low obeisance to the greater sage,

And straight the Court was cleared of cocks and men.

By the Author of "Law Lyrics."

Literature.

London:

WHOSE FAULT? The Story of a Trial at Nisi Prius. By Ellis J.
Davis, of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law.
Digby, Long, & Co. 1892. (3s. 6d.)

This report of an imaginary case in the Court of Queen's Bench will give Scotch lawyers a good idea of the methods of

procedure in the Courts of England. It is amusingly written, and will help to wile away an idle half-hour.

TEINDS OR TITHES AND PROCEDURE IN THE COURT OF TEINDS IN SCOTLAND. By Nenion Elliot, S.S.C., Clerk and Extractor of the Court of Teinds. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. 1893. (8s. 6d.)

Writers on Scottish parochial ecclesiastical law have not of late years dealt too kindly by the subject of teinds. Mr. Duncan is very far from clear in his exposition; Mr. Black simply says teinds do not fall within the scope of his book; Dr. Mair is (of course, unintentionally) as amusing as he is scrappy. Mr. Elliot has, however, at last given lawyers a book on teinds of real value. As clerk of the Court of Teinds he is in an exceptionally wellqualified position to write upon the subject; but it might easily have been the case that, from his very knowledge, his exposition would be over the heads of the bulk of law agents, who, except in their pre-examination days, know little or nothing of ecclesiastical law. But such is not the case. The book before us is admirably arranged, and in its text is a model of clearness, which should be as useful to the heritor-layman as to the parish minister or his legal adviser. This book fills a real gap in the legal library of Scotland.

THE LAW OF STAMP DUTIES ON DEEDS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS.
Containing the Stamp Act, 1891; the Stamp Duties Manage-
ment Act, 1891; a Summary of Case Law; Notes of Practice
and Administration; Tables of Exemptions; the Probate,
Legacy and Succession, Account and Estate Duties; and the
Excise License Duties. By E. N. Alpe, of the Middle Temple,
Barrister-at-Law, and the Solicitors' Department, Inland
Revenue. Third Edition. London: Jordan & Sons, 120
Chancery Lane. 1893. (68. nett).

The

The consolidation of the Acts relating to stamp duties by the Stamp Act, 1891, and the Stamp Duties Management Act, 1891, was a desirable, if not absolutely necessary, piece of legislation; and a well-arranged and accurate digest of the consolidating statutes cannot fail to be of great use to those who have occasion to refer to them. Such a work is that now before us. arrangement is at once simple and satisfactory, and having put ourselves to the trouble of verifying some of the references, we are pleased to testify to the accuracy of the same, with few exceptions. There is a full annotation of Part I. of the Act, which treats of the regulations applicable to instruments generally, including the charge of duty on instruments; the use of adhesive stamps; denoting stamps; adjudication stamps; the production of instruments in evidence, and the stamping of instruments after execution. In Part II., which deals with the regulations applicable to particular instruments, the schedule of duties appended to the Act is given ad longum, interspersed with the different sections of the Act applicable to the particular instruments. There are also copious practical notes, forming an