Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association—Annual Report. an intimation that the matter should receive his lordship's attention; but, up to the present time, they believe that no regulation upon the subject has been made. Legal Education.-Since the issuing of last year's report, the Committee have had the pleasure of receiving a communication from the Wolverhampton Law Society, approving the suggestions which had been circulated by the Committee, for "improving the educational test of Attorneys and Solicitors." This resolution, which was the ninth to a similar effect received from the Provincial Law Societies, the Committee also communicated to the Council of the Incorporated Law Society. They believe that the Council are still giving the subject their anxious attention, but they regret they have not yet seen their way to the actual adoption of some of the improvements suggested. 143 1 establishment, and the Committee, therefore, have submitted to the Lord Chancellor a sug gestion that the amount of any Chancery Fee Fund stamp, upon a document which had not been used, should be allowed, upon the written application of the solicitor, accompanied by a certificate written upon the document itself, declaring that it has been spoiled or become useless, and has been paid for by, and belongs to him. A solicitor making a fraudulent cer tificate would, of course, be punishable for so doing; but, as an additional protection to the Fee Fund, it might be required that the document should be marked as spoiled, by the officer to whose department the fee belongs. In reply to this communication, the Committee received a letter from the Lord Chan cellor's secretary, stating that it should be attended to. Aggregate Meeting. In the Circular issued by the Committee in November last, it was announced that an aggregate meeting of the Profession was intended to be held at Leeds in the month of October next, to which all the Law Societies should be invited to send delegates. The Committee have now the pleasure of announcing that they have received a letter from the Secretary of the Leeds Law Society, stating that the Committee gladly acquiesce in the proposal, and will exert themselves to make the meeting as successful as possible. Annual Certificate Duty.-When the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year announced his intention of making a partial reduction at once in the Annual Certificate Duty and in the Stamp on Articles of Clerkship, the Committee, anxiously considered what course they ought to adopt in the interests of the Profession with regard to that proposal. They received communications upon the subject from a large number of their correspondents, and the almost unanimous opinion appeared to be, that the Profession should in no way accept the pro- The results of the meeting which took place posal. It was not what had been asked for; it two years ago at Derby, show that very great was not that which was considered by those good may be effected by such gatherings of the most interested in the case at all to meet the scattered members of the Profession; and the requirements of the Profession; and, while it Committee earnestly hope that upon this ocadmitted the injustice of the tax, it left that in-casion, not only every existing Law Society justice entirely unaltered in principle. The will send delegates, but that, wherever it is Committee, therefore, were prepared to renew practicable, the members of the Profession_rethe agitation this year with undiminished activity. When, however, the commencement of the present Session approached, the altered state of European politics made it clear that no further revision of taxation was at present to be hoped for; and, therefore, after again consulting the whole of their provincial members, they have contented themselves with presenting a petition to the House of Commons, in which they state that the Profession has not accepted, and cannot accept, the Act of last Session as any settlement of the question; that, in the present aspect of public affairs, they refrain from urging their claims upon the attention of the House; but that they are prepared to renew those claims as soon as the exigencies of the public service will admit of any further remission of taxation. Spoiled Stamps.-It is a frequent subject of complaint in the Profession, that a great deal of unnecessary trouble is imposed upon solicitors before they can obtain the allowance of spoiled stamps. The great increase in the use of stamps for the payment of Court fees appeared to the Committee likely to give rise to a considerable addition to this inconvenience. Spoiled stamps on powers of attorney at the Bank of England are allowed to that body upon a certificate of one of the officers of the siding in a town or neighbourhood, will select one or more of their number to attend the meeting as a representative of the body. The constant activity of the lawyers of Leeds is an ample guarantee that everything will be done there to prepare for a satisfactory meeting; and it only remains for the general body of the Profession to avail themselves of those arrangements. Due notice will, of course, be given as soon as further details have been determined upon. Circular No. 4.-The Committee are glad to find that the circular which they issued at the commencement of Michaelmas Term, giving a general account of the changes which were effected in the Law during the last Session of Parliament, was considered to be valuable by the members. The Press. All the experience of the Committee convinces them more and more that the great want of the Profession is a regular voice in the public press of the country. By means of their reports and circulars, the Committee maintain themselves to a certain extent, in communication with their subscribers, but even these documents would very much more ef fectually perform their functions, if they formed only a portion of some regularly-established periodical; while, for the equally important 144 Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association-Summer Circuits of the Judges. If the Committee may judge of all the labours of the Commissiouers from that part which has transpired, they certainly seem to be determined to make their inquiry a thorough and complete one. The Committee have received from them two papers of questions, which go through the subjects of the jurisdiction, offices, practice, and fees of the Court, including both their amount, and the mode in which they are levied. The Committee have returned a paper of replies to the first series of questions, and are prepar ing replies to the second series. object of informing the mind of the general shape until next Session; and as the costs of public of the real views and claims of the Pro-proceedings forms one of the subjects into fession, the Committee are at present with- which they are to inquire, it is to be hoped out any means of action whatever. This that they will report in favour of a scale not subject has been so frequently and so much less satisfactory than that already prepared. dwelt upon by the Committee, that they are really unable to add anything to what they have already said; but they think it right to lose no opportunity of declaring their conviction that to obtain a voice in the recognised periodical press of the country, would be of far greater importance than any other object they have ever had in view; and they have no hesitation also in saying that it is an object perfectly within the power of the Profession, and which the Committee could at once ensure, if they were furnished with sufficient funds to enable them to make the necessary business The Committee have availed themselves of arrangements for the supply of materials. They this opportunity of restating their conviction, are also convinced that until a step of this kind that, in order to make these Courts satisfachas been taken, the work of all law societies tory, the suitors ought not to be compelled to will fail to produce its legitimate effect, in rais- entrust to salaried officers of the Court, who ing the general character and status of the Pro- are practically irresponsible to them, the perfession in the eyes of the public. And until formance of any of those duties, such as issuing that is done, its claims to fair and liberal treat- and serving the various processes of the Court, ment in regard to the general public on the which in the Superior Courts are performed by one hand, and the other branches of the Pro- the attorneys, who are both selected by, and refession on the other, will never receive satisfac-sponsible to, the suitors. They have also tion, or even due attention. pointed out the want in the County Courts of some mode of obtaining judgment by default, as convenient as the Judge's order in the Superior Courts; and they have also insisted on the great injustice alluded to above, of not allowing to the successful party, as the ordinary rule, the full costs of all the proccedings, when taken by his professional adviser. [To be continued.] County Courts. It is now nearly two years since Parliament resolved that the County Courts should no longer be distinguished from all the other civil tribunals of the kingdom by throwing upon the suitor who resorts to them for justice, the alternative of risking his cause by dispensing with all professional assistance, or of paying for it himself. Last year the Committee repeated that the scale had been long settled by the County Court Judges, and laid before the Lord Chancellor, by whom it SUMMER CIRCUITS OF THE JUDGES. had been, according to the provisions of the Act, referred to the Common Law Judges. Before them, apparently, it still remains, and, for some unexplained reason, the suitors have not yet been allowed to derive any benefit from the Act which was passed in 1852, to remedy an acknowledged and crying evil. In the meantime, however, on the 20th of August last year a new commission was appointed to inquire into the state of the County Courts, the course of practice, the amount and nature of the fees levied, the costs of proceedings, whether any and what alteration and amendments can be made in the Courts for the better administration of justice, and whether any and what business can be usefully and properly transferred to them in addition to that which they now perform. The Commissioners are Sir John Romilly, M. R., Mr. Justice Erle, Mr. Justice Crompton, Mr. Fitzroy, M. P., Mr. H. S. Keating, Q. C., and Mr. J. R. Mullings, M. P., and Mr. H. Koe, Q. C., Mr. Serjeant Dowling, and Mr. J. Pitt Taylor, three of the County Court Judges. Of these Commissioners four are to be a quorum, and they are to report within a year of their appointment. We presume, therefore, that the result of their labours is not likely to assume a legislative (Lord Campbell, C. J., will remain in Town.) NORFOLK. Jervis, L. C. J., and Cresswell, J. HOME. Pollock, L. C. B., and Erle, J. MIDLAND. Parke, B., and Maule, J. Summer Cireuite of the Fudges-Barristers Called.-Correspondence. Saturday, July 22, Lincoln and City. Wednesday, July 26, Derby. Tuesday, Aug. 1, Warwick. NORTH WALES. Wednesday, July 19, Newtown. Ruthin. Friday, July 28, Beaumaris. BARRISTERS CALLED. Trinity Term, 1854. LINCOLN'S INN.-June 9. 145 Edward George Augustus Harcourt Moores Esq., B.A. Alfred Bailey, Esq., M.A.' William Alexander Dobie, Esq., B.A. INNER TEMPLE.-June 9. Charles Godfrey Price, Esq., M.A. Hon. Thomas Charles Bruce, M.A. Thomas Oliver, Esq. Thomas Baker, Esq. William Francis Kemp, Esq., M.A. George Crampton Leech, Esq., B.A. George Hunter Cary, Esq. MIDDLE TEMPLE.-June 9. William Brownrigg Elliot, Esq. Henry Cary Dangar, Esq., B.A. John Francis Kellett Dillon, Esq., B.A. James Henry James, Esq. James Charles Mander, Esq. GRAY'S INN.-June 9. Kenneth Leith Sutherland, Esq. June 14. Charles Wray Lewis, Esq. SELECTIONS FROM CORRE- BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE. A. engages to marry the illegitimate daughter of B., on condition that in the settlement, to be made before their marriage, there should be contained a covenant on the part of the reputed father, tenant in tail in possession of real estate, to bar the entail and re-settle it to his own use during his life, with remainder to his daughter in fee. Deeds are prepared and engrossed in accordance with this stipulation, and ready for Jonathan George Norton Darby, Esq., B.A. signature, when the father suddenly died hav William Wykes Ladell, Esq. ing only executed the marriage settlement. A. 146 Correspondence.-London Commissioners.-Professional Lists. refuses in consequence to perform his engagement. Can the daughter, agreeably to the legal maxim "Lex neminem cogit ad impossibilia," the act of God having prevented the performance of the condition, bring an action against A. successfully to recover damages for breach of promise? IGNOTUS. Bonner, John George, 15, London Street," Fenchurch Street. Boodle, John, 16, Upper Montague Street. Cole, Charles Nicholas, 4, Adelphi Terrace. ACKOWLEDGMENTS OF DEEDS BY MARRIED City. WOMEN.-LEASES. It is commonly said, emphatically, that, since the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 74, and as the result of the clauses therein relating to married women, every deed (with the one exception of that of protector) must be acknowledged by the wife. Quære is this so in the case of a lease made in conformity with the Statute 32 Hen. 8, c. 27? Does not section 78 of the former Act reserve to the wife her power of concurring in such lease by sealing same, without more? I fear it arises from a degree of confusion in my own mind, but I cannot clearly gather the exact import of the concluding clause of sect. 3 (32 Hen. 8), taken in connexion with the reservation of rent to husband and wife required by the former part of this section. I have looked into Tomlin's Law Dictionary, Bacon's Abridgment, Newman's Conveyancing, and Woodfall's Landlord and Tenant, but cannot satisfy myself, on authority, as to the mode of taking a surrender of such a lease, whether it may be done at all, and if so, whether to wife or husband and wife? I should feel obliged if some of your readers would enlighten me by their remarks. LEGALIS. A defendant having alleged his inability to pay the plaintiff's demand the plaintiff admitted it, but maintained that though the defendant himself could not pay, he had an aunt who could; and the Judge being of this opinion, made an order against the aunt. This is said to be a leading County Court authority, and is commonly cited as My Aunt's Case."Crosgate's case (8 Rep. 66), a Dialogue in ye Shades on Special Pleading Reform, p. v., printed by Bult, 25, New Quebec Street, Portman Square. 1854. For private circulation only. L. Lindo, Nethaneel, 17, King's Arms Yard, Rackham, Willoughby Breare Still, 46, Sismey, Thomas, 11, Serjeants' Inn. ney Walls, William Albert, 6, Bloomsbury Square. Wedlake, Henry Brayley, 10, King's Bench Jenkyn, James and Osborn Augustus Jenkyn, John Street and Buckingham Street, Adelphi, and 3, Sherborne Lane, City, Solicitors, Attorneys, and Conveyancers. June 9. Lothian, Maurice, and James Finlay, Edinburgh, Solicitors. June 2. Newsam, Thomas, and Arthur Griffin, Mid LIST OF LONDON COMMISSIONERS dlesborough, Attorneys and Solicitors. May TO ADMINISTER OATHS IN CHANCERY. Appleby, Saml, 6, Harpur Street, Red Lion Square. Allen, Chas. Pettitt, 17, Carlisle Street, Soho Square. Blake, Charles, 22, College Hill. 26. Truwhitt, Charles, and Henry Morton Ody, 51, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Attorneys and Solicitors. May 26. Watson, James Otley, and George Webster, Liverpool, Attorneys and Solicitors. June 6. Wilding, Richard, and John Fisher, Blackburn, Attorneys and Solicitors. June 6. Wordsworth, Henry, and Thomas Dunn," Burton, Edwd. Frederick, 7, Chancery Lane. 32, Threadneedle Street, and the South Sea Professional Lists.-Notes of the Week.-Superior Courts: Court of Chancery. House, Threadneedle Street, Attorneys, Solicitors, and Conveyancers. June 9. COUNTRY COMMISSIONERS TO ADMINISTER Appointed under the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 78, with Burt, William Curtis, Reigate. May 30. 147 Winterbotham, John Brend, jun., Chelten-" ham. June 16. RECENT DECISIONS IN THE SUPERIOR COURTS. Court of Chancery. (Coram Lord Chancellor and Lords Justices.) WILL.CONSTRUCTION.-ANNUITY.- The testator, by his will, gave to Mrs. M. an annuity to such issue of the body of Mr Mealy according to the will. Mr. Mealy 1808 his widow married Mr. Naylor, and died died in 1805 without leaving any issue, and in in 1851, having survived Mr. Naylor, and leaving two children issue of such marriage, and also grandchildren. It further appeared that by a deed dated in March, 1812, Mrs. Naylor had for the considerations therein mentioned (which included a compromise of the matters in dispute between her and the executors, and that she should have an annuity of 600l. for her life, and her husband if he should survive, 300l. for his life) assigned all her interest under the testator's will to Mr. George Winch, the surviving executor, and that a bill to set aside this deed had been dismissed-the decision on appeal being affirmed. The fund was paid into Court under the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 96, and Mr. George Winch's representative now presented a petition for a transfer of the stock under the deed of March, 1812. The Vice-Chancellor Stuart held, that the annuity was in the nature of personalty, and that the word "issue" was a word of purchase, and that Mrs. Naylor took an equitable interest for life only to her separate use, with a gift of the legal estate to her trustees during her life, and that on her death her children were entitled as a class in equal shares as joint tenants. THE testator, John Winch, by his will, dated in March, 1796, gave and bequeathed to Mrs. Anna M. Mealy an annuity of 600l. sterling, to commence six months after his decease, for her life, and the issue from her body lawfully begotten; on failure of which to revert to his heirs; and he requested his friends Mr. Kindersley and Mr. Cockburn to act as trusSolicitor-General, Lee, and Archibald Smith tees, so that the annuity might be secured for in support; Rolt and G. M. Giffard for Mrs. Mrs. Mealy's sole use and benefit, and be paid Naylor's children; C. P. Stewart for her grandto her quarterly or half-yearly, as they might children; Malins and C. Forster for the exedeem proper. On the testator's death in June cutors; W. Hislop Clarke for the trustees. 1797, his executors, Messrs. George and James Winch, by indenture dated in May, 1798, assigned part of the assets upon trust to pay the annuity to Mrs. Mealy's trustees for her sole use and benefit during her natural life, and from and after her decease then to transfer the fund to Messrs. George and James Winch, their heirs, executors, or administrators, who thereby declared they would thereupon pay the Cur. ad. vult. The Court said, that in accordance with the decision of Lord Chancellor Thurlow in Knight v. Ellis, 2 Bro. C. C. 569, the annuity must be considered as personalty, and the interest therein of Mrs. Naylor limited to her life. Such being the case, and the word "issue" being treated as a word of purchase and not of limitation, the children and grandchildren |