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Joint-Stock Trust Companies.

7.

The learned counsel adverted to various | South Sea Company Bill, and report alto other points connected with the duties of gether against the Executor and Trustee trustees, and the difficulties which a board Bill. If they should not reject the prinof directors would have to encounter, in the ciple in toto of such projects, it may be proper management of the infinite variety presumed they will come to the conclusion of trusts which might come into their hands.

In opposition to the Bill, Mr. Henley, the member for Oxfordshire, late President of the Board of Trade, was examined. He stated he had been a trustee in numerous instances for many years. He rarely experienced any difficulty in carrying those trusts into effect; changes of trustees were seldom necessary; competent persons were readily found to undertake trusts, and the expense of new trustees was small. He thought a board of directors could not efficiently enter into all the details of private trusts, and that they were unfit to discharge the various duties required.

Mr. Kinderley, the President of the Incorporated Law Society, was next examined, and stated that he and his partners were chiefly engaged as solicitors in trust affairs. He had been in practice for 23 years, and was not aware of any difficulty in procuring competent persons of large property to undertake trusts. He believed that the cestui que trusts were fully as secure, under the present arrangements, as they would be by the proposed guarantee fund, in lieu of the unlimited responsibility of the existing

that the object should be effected by a public Bill, in which general rules for the constitution and management of such companies may be laid down for the security of the Public (and which are not provided in these Bills), and the Board of Trade authorised to examine into applications for charters of incorporation in conformity to such general regulations.

We understand that already several life insurance companies have declared their intention, if these Bills should be passed, to apply for similar powers; and no doubt the several insurance offices, whose boards of directors consist equally of barristers and solicitors, would be at least as competent as the South Sea Board to administer trusts and executorships; and most of them are already in possession of a capital of sufficient amount to constitute a guarantee fund. It appears that the Bank of England at one time contemplated accepting trusts, and the joint-stock banks and numerous other companies throughout the country might also compete for this new branch of business. But we insist that a numerous and fluctu ating board of directors are radically incompetent, effectually and properly, to discharge the duties applicable to private Mr. G. B. Gregory was also examined, trusts. The sound and sensible rule proand proved several instances of the failure posed by Sir John Patteson, that trustees of joint-stock banking and other companies, occasioned by the speculations and indiscretion of the several boards of directors, to an enormous amount. He also deposed to the management of trusts of large estates by private trustees who gave their personal attention to, and superintendence of, the various affairs of the trust.

trustees.

Mr. Arthur Morgan was also called, as one of the proprietors of the South Sea Company, who, on behalf of himself and many other proprietors, dissented from the company's undertaking trust business and delaying the winding up of their own affairs and the payment of the proprietors of the stock.

should personally transact the business, cannot be carried out. The directors, for the most part, will be uncertain in their attendance; and old members of the board will be retiring and new ones coming in; so that the theory of a continuous body of trustees is a practical fallacy.

Interested motives have been ascribed to the Law Society acting on the part of their brethren; but the probability is, that in many respects litigation would be increased, and at all events the joint-stock company's solicitor would only represent the trustees. The cestui que trusts, tenants for life, reversioners, remainder-men, legatees, annuitants, mortgagees, creditors, lessees, and all other persons having claims or interests in Thus the case stands upon the evidence the trust would be represented by their_repro and con, the substance and effect of spective solicitors. Moreover (as the Law which we have endeavoured fairly to state. Review held out), testators or grantors might We cannot conceive that the Committee direct that their own solicitors should be will report in favour of these alterations of employed whenever legal advice and assistthe Law in a private Bill. It is probable ance are required. Nor is it to be overthey will expunge the trust clauses in the looked that as wills and settlements are pre

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Joint-Stock Trust Companies.-Stamp Duties' Bill.

pared by the Profession, neither the Bar nor the Solicitors will be inclined, except in very rare cases, to advise their clients to nominate these joint-stock companies as their executors and trustees.

17 Geo. 3, c. 30, so far as it extends to drafts on bankers repealed; s. 7.

Receipts.-By the Act of last Session, c. 59, a stamp duty of 1d. was granted and imposed upon any receipt or discharge given for or upon the payment of money amounting to 21. or upwards, and doubts are entertained as to the receipts to which the said duty extends: it is therefore proposed to enact, that the said lastmentioned duty shall be deemed to extend to and be payable upon every receipt or acknowledgment given for any sum of money of the of any debt or legal obligation or other claim be paid or received in discharge or on account or demand, or as a voluntary or gratuitous gift, or under any other circumstance whatever, subject, nevertheless, to the exemptions from the said duty expressly contained in the several Acts in force; s. 8.

Another meeting of the Select Committee took place on Thursday, the 1st June, when the following witnesses were examined :— Mr. Bell, of the Imperial Insurance Company, who approved of the measure; three merchants from Cape Town who de-amount aforesaid, whether such money shall scribed a trust society there with five directors; Mr. Bellenden Ker, who prepared the South Sea Bill and approved of its principle, but admitted that several clauses were defective; and Mr. Headlam, who deposed in favour of the plan.

Mr. Selwyn addressed the Committee on the further evidence, and in opposition to the Executor and Trustee Bill; Mr. Hope Scott replied on both Bills; and their Lordships intimated their intention of taking both cases into their consideration, on Saturday the 3rd instant.

STAMP DUTIES BILL.

Bills and notes.-It is intended by this Bill to alter the amount of the stamp on inland bills and notes, and to extend the enactment to foreign bills.

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Under certain Acts relating to stamp duties, safe arrival of any bills of exchange, promissory letters by the general post acknowledging the notes, or other securities for money are exempted from the stamp duty granted and imposed on receipts or discharges given for or upon the payment of money: it is now proposed that this exemption shall be repealed;

s. 9.

Receipts for money paid to the Crown exempted from stamp duty; s. 10.

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Conveyances.-By the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97, reduced rates of stamp duty were granted and made payable under the respective heads or titles of "Conveyance, Duplicate, or CounterForeign bills. Adhesive stamps. Progressive Duty" in the ScheThe part" and duties by this Act granted in respect of dule to that Act; and by the 16 & 17 Vict. c. bills of exchange drawn out of the United 63, stamp duties were granted and made payKingdom shall attach and be payable upon all upon conveyances, charters, dispositions, such bills as shall be paid, indorsed, trans- and contracts described under the head or ferred, or otherwise negotiated within the title of "Conveyance" in the Schedule, but no United Kingdom wheresoever the same may be provision is made for charging the said conpayable, and the said duties shall be denoted veyances, charters, dispositions, and contracts by adhesive stamps, to be provided by the with the said progressive duties, or for chargCommissioners of Inland Revenue for that ing the duplicates or counterparts thereof with purpose, and to be affixed to such bills as here- the said reduced duties. It is now proposed, inafter directed; s. 3. that the respective stamp duties granted and made payable under the several heads or titles of "Duplicate or Counterpart" and "Progressive Duty," in the Schedule to the 13 & 14 Vict., and the provisions and regulations hereby respectively, made payable upon and in relating thereto, shall be, and the same are respect of, and deemed to apply to, the several conveyances, charters, dispositions, and contracts described under the head or title of "Conin the Schedule to the Act of last Session, cap. 63, which shall be made after the passing of this Act, and any duplicate or counterpart thereof; s. 11.

person

The holder of any bill of exchange drawn out of the United Kingdom, and not having a proper adhesive stamp affixed thereon as herein directed, shall, before he shall present the same for payment, or indorse, transfer, or in any manner negotiate such bill, affix thereon a proper adhesive stamp for denoting the duty by this Act charged on such bill; and the who shall indorse, transfer, or negotiate such bill shall, before he shall deliver the same out of his hands, custody, or power, cancel the stamp so affixed by writing thereon his name or the name of his firm and the date of the day and year on which he shall so write the same, to the end that such stamp may not be again used for any other purpose. Penalty of 50%. for negotiating such a bill without a stamp affixed or neglecting to cancel such stamp; s. 4. Bankers' drafts.-Unstamped drafts on bankers not to be circulated beyond 15 miles of the

banker on whom drawn, under a penalty of

50%.

veyance

of such conveyances before the passing of this Relief to persons who have made duplicates Act; s. 12.

The duty on conveyances for annual sums payable for lives to be calculated on the gross value; s. 13.

Deeds made for several valuable considera

tions to be chargeable in respect of each; s. 14.

Testamentary Jurisdiction Bill.-Mortmain Bill.

The Commissioners, before assessing the duty upon any deed, may require proof that the facts upon which the duty depends are truly stated; s. 15.

The affidavit not to be used for any other purpose; s. 16.

Contracts to serve as artificers, servants, and labourers in the colonies exempted from stamp duty; s. 18.

Allowance of 74 per cent. on the purchase of stamps not exceeding the rate of is. duty for drafts, bills, and notes amounting to 57.; s. 19. No charge to be made for paper on sale of bill or note stamps where the rate of duty does not exceed 18.; s. 20.

The alterations in the amount of stamps on bills and notes are stated in the Schedule to the Bill.

TESTAMENTARY JURISDICTION

BILL.

PETITION OF THE ATTORNEYS AND SOLI

CITORS OF CHESTER.

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form, and the true interests of the public consulted.

"The petitioners view the proposed measure with considerable fear of the injurious effects likely to be produced to the country at large by the withdrawal from the provinces of so large a portion of the capital at present circulated therein by the local practitioners, for the sole benefit of the London practitioners, which must, as they conceive, be the result of the limitation in all cases of the local jurisdiction to grants where the effects are under 1,500l.; and that, inasmuch as the grants in all cases must be perfected in London, and the course of proceeding does not vary in the slighest degree with the amount of effects, there does not appear any reason for the restriction but that of abstracting the most valuable portion of the business of the provinces for the benefit of the metropolis.

"That it should also be borne in mind that the cases above 1,500l. are likely to be attended with far less trouble and difficulty, as the parties where property is large almost always have recourse to professional assistance, and THIS petition states, that the petitioners universal experience will attest the fact, that view with alarm the provision in the Testa- those cases in which the nicest points arise as mentary Jurisdiction Bill, now before the to the validity of a will, or any portion of it, House of Commons for transferring the whole the appointment of executors and residuary of the original wills, wherever proved, to London.

"That in the event of a fire, or public disturbance, the whole of the wills forming the title-deeds to a great part of the whole property of the country, would be liable to be involved in common destruction, which while deposited in different registries could never be the case.

legatees, &c., are those in which the property concerned is small.

"The petitioners therefore pray that the House will provide for the retention of all original wills within the district in which they are proved, and that executors and administrators may in all cases have the option of resorting to the local Court without reference to the amount of effects.

MORTMAIN BILL.

AGAINST THE RESTRICTION BEQUESTS OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.

"That by the periodical transmission to London of copies of all wills and notes of the administration, proved and granted to the local Courts, together with copies of the local indexes, all uncertainty as to the Court in which REASONS a grant had been made would be removed, and every information respecting it would be obtained with the same facility (or greater, as the indexes would be classified according to the residence of the deceased) as if the grant itself had been made in London.

"The petitioners submit that the original wills forming title-deeds to so large a proportion of the property of the country, ought to remain in the custody of the local registrars, for the more easy inspection of those interested under them who are generally speaking the only persons likely to require a personal inspection, and are usually resident in their immediate neighbourhood.

OF

It is proposed by the Bill to forbid bequests of personal property of any sort to charitable purposes except under the restriction—

1st. That the will is made three months before death.

2nd. That in a month after the making of the will the testator gives full notice of the bequest and its nature.

These provisions will prevent legacies to various valuable charities.

Up to the present time such legacies have been frequent, and open to no reasonable objection.

"That if the peculiar jurisdictions through- Bequests for religious purposes may be out the country be abolished, and the other brought about by religious influence, and if jurisdictions consolidated so as to leave in each they are esteemed pernicious may be restrained. diocese a district attached thereto one Testa- But there is no reason for confounding with mentary Court, and if the law of bona nota- them bequests of mere charity, whose only bilia, which alone causes the present incon- advocates are the testators own charitable imvenience, be abolished, all doubts of the vali-pulses, and which neither in their origin nor dity of the grants of probate or administration their effect can be deemed pernicious. would be removed, great expense saved, the Protection against undue influence is the course to be adopted rendered simple and uni- object of the Bill: its effect will be to destro

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bequests unconnected with influence of any

Mortmain Bill.-Taxes on the Administration of Justice.

sort.

The impediments created by the Bill are such as charitable impulse is rarely active enough to overcome.

First, the will is to be made three months before death.

All those who postpone their wills-a very numerous class-until their last illness will be lost as benefactors to charity.

Those also who make their wills in health will be similarly lost as benefactors, if death should intervene within three months after they have made them.

No foresight can prevent this, and here there will be a testamentary intention defeated as well as a charity deprived.

A still greater evil, if possible, is the publicity imposed on the testator.

It will place the testator in the difficulty of having his object and intentions criticised.

And it may here bring about, in the form of importunity by those who have formed expectations at variance with the bequest, an influence which will be as undue as that which is sought to be corrected.

Again, a legacy once given, and the gift published, and perhaps gratefully acknowledged in the testator's lifetime, will be practically irre

vocable.

At present, the alteration of such bequests in their amount, according to the varying of family circumstances, is very frequent; under the proposed publicity, a diminution of the bequest by subsequent will would be ungracious.

Few charitably inclined testators will like to come under such obligations as these.

Another evil is to be apprehended in the ignorance of testators that there is any restriction by law in disposing of their personal property, which has hitherto been understood to be the free right of every one, and the wishes of the testator may thus be seriously defeated. There is nothing in the Report of the Committee of the Commons on the Law of Mortmain to justify this new system of publicity.

The Bill prescribes a notice, signed by the testator, declaring the bequest and the nature of it to the Charity Commissioners.

It is not too much to say, that a loss of ninetenths of the bequests which have hitherto been received from those who in their lifetime have been connected with the most useful and import charities, is to he expected under such restrictions and conditions.

The loss will be deeply felt. For a very considerable portion of the funds, by means of which many important and useful charities have dispensed their aid to the sick poor and destitute, has hitherto been derived from legacies.

Nor did the Committee take any evidence, or express any opinion against the propriety of such bequests, which, as they are wholly spontaneous, should be wholly unfettered.

By confounding religious uses with what are purely charitable purposes, the Bill has sur

rounded bequests for the latter with safeguards apparently intended to control the former.

And the stringency which may probably not suffice to hold the one in check will more than suffice to extinguish the other.

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THE following were the resolutions proposed by Lord Brougham, embodying the principal statements made in the debate which took place on the 16th instant.

"1. That the number of suits brought in the County Courts during the years 1852 and 1853, was 959,095, or about 479,000 yearly, for sums amounting to above 1,494,000l. yearly, whereof above 859,000l. was recovered by judgments or paid into Court, besides the sums paid without any proceedings being had further than service of the plaint.

"2. That the fees or law taxes levied upon the suitors in the County Courts in the years 1852 and 1853, amounted to the sum of 523,3031., or about 261,000 yearly, being 37 per cent upon the sums sued for, and 30 per cent. upon the sums recorded by judgmer.ts or paid into Court; but as these are the average proportions, while in many cases the per centage is less, so in many cases it is greater, and thus sometimes the tax amounts to even more than the sums in dispute.

"3. That these taxes are applied to paying the salaries of the Judges and other officers of the Courts, the providing of Court-houses in the different parts of the country, and defraying the travelling expenses of the Judges and officers.

"4. That by the several Acts passed in the years 1825 and 1852 (6 Geo. 4, cc. 82, 83, and 84, and 15 & 16 Vict. cc. 73 and 87), the salaries of all the Judges and other officers' in the Superior Courts of Law and Equity were made payable out of the Consolidated Fund, and the fees or law taxes levied from the suitors in the said Superior Courts of Law were so far reduced in amount as little, if at all, to exceed 50,000l. since the last of these Acts passed, and no fees or taxes whatever are levied on the suitor to pay for the Court-houses, or Judges' lodgings, or other expenses of the Judges.

5. That the fees or law taxes exacted in an undefended action in the County Courts,—that is, where the parties agree, and an order is made, or where the defendant does not appear -are the same as in a defended action; and those fees or taxes in an action for the sum of 20l. amount to 31. 11s. 8d.; whereas, in an action brought in the Superior Courts for the like

1 The Judges only, not the officers, are so paid.-ED.

Law of Attorneys and Solicitors.-Causes of the Unpopularity of Attorneys.

sum, where judgment is entered by default, the fees or taxes amount to 17s. only.

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other time as should be necessary to complete "6. That the number of suits brought in the and that on the completion of such service the the three years' service pursuant to the Statute, County Courts has been increasing since their establishment; that 32,506 more were brought present Examiners should be at liberty to issue in 1852 than in 1851, but that in 1853 it was their certificate of the fitness of the applicant only 10,000 more than in 1852, and the actions to be admitted, upon his examination already for sums above 201. fell from 13,006 (the had, without his being examined again,-the average of 1851 and 1852) to 9,207 in 1853, owing, as appears, to the lowering of the fees usual notices of admission being given. Exor taxes in the Superior Courts, as well as the parte Earle, 1 Lowndes & Maxwell, 180. rules made for allowing more costs than are allowed in the County Court.

"7. That all taxes upon law proceedings are contrary to every sound principle, and of necessity work injustice and oppression, but that those which are imposed upon the suitors in County Courts are in an especial manner to be reprobated as falling upon the classes of the community the least able to bear the burden, and as obstructing the access to those Courts where alone the great majority of causes can be tried."

We shall take an early opportunity of further discussing this subject. It appears to be overlooked that the "Small Debts" Act, under which the new County Courts were established, superseded many hundred local Courts, including the Courts of Request, where small debts and demands were recovered at a very moderate expense; and the annual number of which was, we believe, not inferior to the plaints "tried " (as alleged) in the New County Courts.

Although the resolutions were withdrawn, on the Lord Chancellor's suggestion, it will be material to consider such part of them as relate to the County Courts, with reference to the inquiry now in progress before the County Court Commissioners.

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LAW OF ATTORNEYS AND SO-
LICITORS.

SERVICE OF GRADUATE ARTICLED CLERK
WITH SPECIAL PLEADER.

AN articled clerk took his B.A. degree at Oxford, on Jan. 14, 1850, and was articled for three years on Jan. 19 to his father, with whom he served for two years. He then came up to London and served eight months with his father's town agents, and then went to a special pleader for four months.

The Examiners had examined the applicant conditionally, but refused the certificate on the ground that the service to the special pleader was not good under the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, s. 7. On an application, a rule was made for liberty to the applicant to enter into further articles for a further term of four months, or such

CAUSES OF THE UNPOPULARITY
OF ATTORNEYS.

peal made by an influential Member of the WE lately had occasion to notice the apHouse of Commons-no less than the Chairman of the House when sitting in Committee to the vulgar prejudice which long ago existed against lawyers, and which, not ceased. So long as lawyers are the though of late years abated, has evidently instruments by which vice and crime are punished, and so long as folly must seek protection against fraud and oppression, the attorneys must endure the abuse of those whom they bring to justice, whether in disgorging their fraudulent gains, or defeating their nefarious projects.

Year," thus describes the grounds of the Mr. Warren, in his "Ten Thousand a unpopularity of attorneys :

those who will join in abusing and ridiculing "There will probably never be wanting attorneys and solicitors. Why? In almost every action at law, or suit in equity, or proceeding which may, or may not, lead to one, each client conceives a natural dislike for his opponent's attorney or solicitor. If the plaintiff succeeds, he hates the defendant's attorney for putting him (the said plaintiff) to so much expense. and causing him so much vexation and danger; and when he comes to settle with his own attorney, there is not a little heartburning in looking at his bill of costs, howcourse it is through the ignorance and unskilever reasonable. If the plaintiff fails, of fulness of his own attorney or solicitor! and he hates almost equally his own and his opsuccessful or unsuccessful defendant. In fact, ponent's attorney! Precisely so it is with a an attorney or solicitor is almost always obliged to be acting adversely to some one of whom he at once makes an enemy; for an almost invariably at our pockets! He is neattorney's weapons must necessarily be pointed cessarily, also, called into action in cases when all the worse passions of our nature-our hatred or revenge, and our self-interest are set in motion.

done on a grand scale in society, if the vast "Consider the mischief which might be majority of attorneys and solicitors were not

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