21618 New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.A NEW STATUTES EFFECTING ALTE**DERATIONS IN THE LAW. REGISTRATION OF BILLS OF SALE. 1 17 & 18 VICT. c. 36. Bills of sale to be void, unless the same or a copy thereof be filed within 21 days, in like manner as warrants of attorney; s. 1. Defeasance or condition of every bill of sale to be written on the same paper or parchment; s. 2. Officer of Court to keep a book containing particulars of each bill of sale; s. 3. Officer entitled to a fee of 1s. for filing bill of sale, and to account for the same; s. 4. Office copies or extracts to be given on of attorney in any personal action given by a trader is now by law required to be filed), otherwise such bill of sale shall, as against all assignees of the estate and effects of the per son whose goods or any of them are comprised in such bill of sale under the laws relating to bankruptcy or insolvency, or under any assign ment for the benefit of the creditors of such person and as against all sheriff's officers and other persons seizing any property or effects comprised in such bill of sale in the execution of any process of any Court of Law or Equity authorising the seizure of the goods of the person by whom or of whose goods such hill of sale shall have been made, and against every person on whose behalf such process shall have been issued, be null and void to all in tents and purposes whatsoever, so far as res gards the property in or right to the possession of any personal chattels comprised in such bill of sale, which at or after the time of such bankruptcy, or of filing the insolvent's petition in such insolvency, or of the execution by the debtor of such assignment for the benefit of his creditors, or of executing such process (as The following are the Title and Sections the case may be), and after the expiration of of the Act : An Act for Preventing Frauds upon Creditors by secret Bills of Sale of Personal Chattels. [10th July, 1854.] Whereas frauds are frequently committed upon creditors by secret bills of sale of personal chattels, whereby persons are enabled to keep up the appearance of being in good circumstances and possessed of property, and the grantees or holders of such bills of sale have the power of taking possession of the property of such persons, to the exclusion of the rest of the creditors: for remedy whereof, be it therefore enacted as follows: the said period of 21 days, shall be in the possession or apparent possession of the person making such bill of sale, or of any person against whom the process shall have issued under or in the execution of which such bill of sale shall have been made or given, as the case may be. 2. If such bill of sale shall be made or given subject to any defeasance or condition or declaration of trust not contained in the body thereof, such defeasance or condition or declaration of trust shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken as part of such bill of sale, and shall be written on the same paper or parchment on which such bill of sale shall be written, before the time when the same or a copy thereof respectively shall be filed, otherwise such bill of sale shall be null and void to all intents and purposes, as against the same persons and as regards the same property and effects, as if such bill of sale or a copy thereof had not been filed according to the provisions of this Act. 1. Every bill of sale of personal chattels made, after the passing of this Act, either absolutely or conditionally, or subject or not subject to any trusts, and whereby the grantee or holder shall have power, either with or without notice, and either immediately after the making of such bill of sale or at any future time to seize or take possession of any property and effects comprised in or made subject 3. The said officer of the said Court of to such bill of sale, and every schedule or in- Queen's Bench shall cause every bill of sale, ventory which shall be thereto annexed or and every such schedule and inventory as therein referred to, or a true copy thereof, and aforesaid, and every such copy filed in his said of every attestation of the execution thereof, office under the provisions of this Act, to be shall, together with an affidavit of the time of numbered, and shall keep a book or books in such bill of sale being made or given, and a de- his said office, in which he shall cause to be scription of the residence and occupation of fairly entered an alphabetical list of every such the person making or giving the same, or, in bill of sale, containing therein the name, adcase the same shall be made or given by any dition, and description of the person making or person under or in the execution of any pro-giving the same, or in case the same shall be cess, then a description of the residence and occupation of the person against whom such process shall be issued, and of every attesting witness to such bill of sale je filed with the officer acting as clerk of the docquets and and judgments in the Court of Queer's Bench, within 21 days after the making or giving of uch bill of sale (in like manner as a warrant made or given by any person under or in the execution of process as aforesaid, then the name, addition, and description of the person against whom such process shall have issued, and also o the per-on to whom or in whose favour the same shall have been given, together with the number, and the dates of the execution and filing of the same, and the sum for which the New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law. the same has been given, and the time or times (if any) when the same is thereby made pay able according to the form contained in the Schedule to this Act, which said book or books, and every bill of sale or copy thereof filed in the said office, may be searched and viewed by all persons at all reasonable times, paying to the officer for every search against one person the sum of 6d. and no more; and that, in addition to the last-mentioned book, the said officer of the said Court of Queen's Bench shall keep another book or index, in which he shall cause to be fairly inserted, as and when such bills of sale are filed in manner aforesaid, the name, addition, and description of the per son making or giving the same, or of the person against whom such process shall have issued, as the case may be, and also of the persons to whom or in whose favour the same shall have been given, but containing no further particulars thereof; which last-mentioned book or index all persons shall be permitted to search for themselves, paying to the officer for such last-mentioned search the sum of 1s. 4. The said officer shall be entitled to receive, for his trouble in filing and entering every such bill of sale or a copy thereof as aforesaid, the sum of 1s. and no more; and such officer shall render a like account to the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, and the said Commissioners shall have the like powers in every particular with respect to such account, and the amount of remuneration of such officer, and with respect to any surplus of the fees received by him, as is provided by the 75th chapter of the Statute passed in the 13th and 14th years of the reign of her present Majesty with respect to the officers of the Court of Common Pleas therein-mentioned. 5. Any person shall be entitled to have an office copy or an extract of every bill of sale, or of the copy thereof filed as aforesaid, upon paying for the same at the like rate as for office copies of judgments in the said Court of Queen's Bench. 6. It shall be lawful for any Judge of the said Court of Queen's Bench to order a memorandum of satisfaction to be written upon any bill of sale or copy thereof respectively as aforesaid, if it shall appear to him that the debt (if any) for which such bill of sale is given as security shall have been satisfied or discharged. 7. In construing this Act the following 21769 words and expressions shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such constructions; (that is to say,) TOTO The expression "bill of sale" shall include bills of sale, assignments, transfers, declarations of trust without transfer, and other assurances of personal chattels, and also powers of attorney, authorities, or licences to take. possession of personal chattels as security for any debt, but shall not include the following documents: that is to say, assignments for the benefit of the creditors of the person making or giving the same; marriage settlements; transters or assignments of any ship or vessel or any share thereof; transfers of goods in the ordinary course of business of any trade or calling; bills of sale of goods in foreign parts or at sea; bills of lading; India warrants; warehouse keep, ers certificates; warrants or orders for the delivery of goods, or any other documents used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control of goods, or authorising or purporting to authorise, either by endorsement or by delivery, the possessor of such document to transfer or receive goods thereby represented: The expression "personal chattels" shall mean goods, furniture, fixtures, and other articles capable of complete transfer by delivery, and shall not include chattel interests in real estate, nor shares or interests in the stock, funds, or securities of any government, or in the capital or property of any incorporated or joint-stock company, nor choses in action, nor any stock or produce upon any farm or lands which by virtue of any covenant or agreement, or of the custom of the country, ought not to be removed from any farm where the same shall be at the time of the making or giving of such bill of sale. Personal chattels shall be deemed to be in the "apparent possession" of the person making or giving the bill of sale, so long as they shall remain or be in or upon any house, mill, warehouse, building, works, yard, land, or other premises occupied by him, or as they shall be used and enjoyed by him in any place whatsoever, notwithstanding that formal possession thereof may have been taken by or given to any other person. 8. This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland. 218 New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.-Legal Observer Edition of New Stats. WARWICK ASSIZES. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 35. The preamble recites the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 110. Recited enactments repealed, and as sizes to be held in Warwick; s. 1. Venue in future proceedings to be "Warwickshire" alone, and parties under recognizance to appear at Warwick; s. 2. Proceedings commenced in Coventry division to be transferred to Warwick to be disposed of; s. 3. Offences committed and causes of action accrued in Coventry division before the passing of this Act to be dealt with at Warwick; s. 4. juries at the said assizes, in like manner as the other inhabitants of the said county. 2. From and after the passing of this Act, the venue in all matters whatsoever to come before the Judges of Assize and Nisi Prius, in the said County of Warwick, shall be oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, "Warwickshire," and the venues "Warwickshire Warwick Division" and "Warwickshire Coventry Division" shall be abolished, and all recognizances entered into by any person or person for appearance at the Coventry assizes, whether to prosecute or give evidence, or to answer or to receive judgment or otherwise, shall be obligatory on the parties bound wick assizes for the same purpose, and all by such recognizances to appear at the Warproceedings requisite and proper to be taken relating thereto shall and may be had and taken in like manner as if such recognizance The following are the Title and Sections had been originally entered into and such proof the Act: An Act to repeal certain Provisions of an Act of the Fifth and Sixth Years of her present Majesty, concerning the holding of Assizes for the County of Warwick. [10th July, 1854.] Whereas by an Act passed in the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 110, intituled "An Act to annex the County of the City of Coventry to Warwickshire, and to define the boundary of the City of Coventry," it was enacted and provided that the inhabitants of the city of Coventry should not be liable to be summoned or to serve on any inquest or jury for the county of Warwick elsewhere than within the city of Coventry; and it was thereby also enacted, that the Judges of Assize and Nisi Prius, and others named in her Majesty's Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery, should hold their sittings at Nisi Prius, Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery within the said city of Coventry for the said city, and for such other parts of the said county of Warwick as her Majesty, with the advice of her Privy Council, from time to time should order, and at Warwick for so much of the rest of the said county as should not be included in any such order, and that the sheriff of the county of Warwick should give his attendance upon the said Judges and Commissioners, and should cause to be summoned to Warwick and Coventry such grand and petty jurors of the county of Warwick as should be needed for the execution of the said several Commissions: And whereas the division of the said county of Warwick into two assize districts, and the holding of assizes at Coventry, under the said recited enactments, have been found inconvenient: Be it therefore enacted, as follows: ceedings taken with reference to the assizes held at Warwick. 3. All indictments, records, and other proceedings preferred, entered, and taken in the Coventry division of the county of Warwick on the day of the passing of this Act, filed and remaining with the Clerk of the Crown and the Associate for the said division, shall be returned to be filed and remain with the Clerk of the Crown and the Associate respectively for the said county of Warwick, and all proceedings and process requisite and proper to be awarded and taken thereon shall and may be awarded and taken as if such indictments, records, and other proceedings had been originally preferred, entered, and taken in the county of Warwick at large. 4. All offences which shall have been committed and all causes of action which shall have accrued in the said Coventry division of the said county before the passing of this Act shall, so far as relates to the Courts of Assize and Nisi Prius, Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, be inquired of, heard, and dealt with as if the same had been committed or had accrued in the county of Warwick at large. LEGAL OBSERVER EDITION OF 17 VICT., 1854. THE Acts of the present Session have been printed, with an Analysis of each, as follow. The remainder will be given as speedily as possible : Assessed Taxes Amendment, cap. 1, 47. L. O., p. 331. oldu – 14 1. From and after the passing of this Act the said recited enactments shall be repealed. and the assizes for the whole county of WarIncome Tax, cap. 17, 48 L. O., p. 46, ante. wick, including the said city of Coventry, shall Commons' Inclosure, cap. 9, p. 64, cnte, beholden at Warwick, and the inhabitants of the said city of Coventry shail be liable to be County Court Extension Act, cap. 16, paz summoned and serve upon all inquests and 121, antel wood sit en gune de sp Court of Chancery Bin, Acknowledgment of Derds by Married Women..12 M 210 Income Tax (No. 2), cap. 24, p. 134, ante Uros a suit in which any proceeding may be depending before a Master becoming abated by death, marriage, or otherwise, or becoming defective by reason of some change or trans mission of interest or liability, it shall be lawful for the Master to summon the parties, or their solicitors, and to require such information as may seem necessary respecting persons by and against whom the suit and proceedings ought to be revived, with liberty to proceed in the absence of any of the parties or solicitors; (s. 1). The Master may certify as to the abatement, &c.; (s. 2). Order of revivor, &c., shall be drawn up on Master's certificate; (s. 3). Upon Master's certificate of abatement, &c., Court may order prosecution or disposal of suit; (s. 4). shall, with the approbation of the Lords' Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury order, but shall not be entitled to or receive any compensation upon or by reason of the Master being released from his duties, or removed by resignation, death, or otherwise; (s. 8). Appointment of Clerks of Receivers' Accounts. It shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor to constitute and appoint an officer, or if it shall seem to him necessary or expedient two officers, of the Court of Chancery, to be styled "the Clerk" or "the Clerks of Receivers' Accounts," and to fill up from time to time such vacancies as may occur in that office; (s. 9). fications,' removal from office, striking off the The several provisions respecting the qualirolls, tenure of office, prohibitions, prosecu clerks attached to the Master of the Rolls and tions, penalties, ond punishments of the chief the Vice-Chancellors respectively, contained in the sections 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, of the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 80, are extended to the clerks of receivers' accounts; (s. 10). may appoint, with the approbation of the Lord sist him in the discharge of his duties, and to Chancellor, a junior clerk to act under and asbe removeable by him; (s. 11). Each of the clerks of receivers' accounts It shall be the duty of the clerks of receivers' accounts to examine and settle under the direc In the event of the parties or their solicitors tion and control of the Court, all such acrefusing or neglecting, within a time to be fixed others as the Lord Chancellor, with the advice counts of receivers, consignees, managers, and by the Master, to file or to bring before the and assistance of the Vice-Chancellors, or any Court any such certificate, or to serve any order when drawn up, then by direction of the Mas-two of the same Judges, may, by general ter the certificate may be filed or brought be- order, or as any special orders of the Court or fore the Court, or the order may be served, by of the Judges thereof may direct; (s. 12). the solicitor for the time being to the Suitors' Fund; and the Court is empowered to order payment of the costs and expenses of the solicitor to the Suitors' Fund out of such of the fands in the suit or by such parties as to the Court shall seem just; and in case payment thereof cannot be obtained by any of the means aforesaid, the same, by the direction of the Court, may be paid out of the Suitors' Fund; (s. 5). In any cause, matter, or thing which may from time to time be depending before or have been referred to a Master, it shall be lawful for him, in such way as he may think fit, to obtain the assistance of an accountant the better to enable him to make any report or certificate, and to act upon the certificate of such accountant; and the allowances in respect of fees to the accountant shall be regulated by the Taxing Master of the Court; (s. 6). Their proceedings to be regulated by general order; (s. 13). The clerks of receivers' accounts shall have power to issue advertisements, to summon parties and witnesses, to administer oaths, to take directed by the Court or a Judge thereof, to affidavits, to receive affirmations, and, when so examine parties and witnesses, either upon inJudge shall direct; (s. 14). terrogatories or vivá voce, as the Court or Attendance before them may be enforced, &c.; (s. 15), Recognizances of receivers, &c., not hereby affected; (s. 16). Salaries to be fixed by the Lord Chancellor; (s. 17). Salaries to be paid out of the Fee Fund'; (s. 18). Master may certify specially to obtain opi- ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DEEDS BY nion of the Court; (s. 7). MARRIED WOMEN... BILL TO REMOVE DOUBTS. It shall be lawful for the Lord Chancellor to appoint a fit person to act in the office of any Master as an additional temporary clerk, and in assistance to the Master's ordinary clerks, in every manner as, the Master may direct; and every such temporary may removed +baut wubului, da w by the Lord Chancellor as he may think fit, The persons qualified are the chief clerksd and shall receive, so long as he shall be em of the Masters, and solicitors or attorneys of ployed, such salary as the Lord Chancellors 10 years' practices nogu 192 has becom It being apprehended that deeds executed by married women may be liable to be invalidated by the circumstance that the Judge, or Master's ན J 3 220 Bribery Prevention Bill.-Summary Execution on Bills of Exchange Bill. in Chancery, or one or both of the Commission- person who shall sue for the same, together ers, taking the acknowledgment, may be inter- with full costs of suit." ested or concerned, either as a party or otherwise, in the transaction giving occasion for such acknowledgment, it is proposed to enact that The attorneys who are engaged in contested. elections will, of course, omit to register their names as electors. SUMMARY EXECUTION ON BILLS No deed which has been acknowledged, or which shall hereafter be acknowledged by a married woman before a Judge of one of the Superior Courts of Westminster, or a Master in Chancery, or before two of the perpetual Commissioners or two special Commissioners to be respectively appointed as by the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, It will be observed by the following statec. 74, is required, shall be impeached or im- ment and reasons against this Bill, that the peachable at any time after the certificate of such grounds of opposition rest mainly on the side acknowledgment has been filed of record in of the public; and that the professional obthe Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, jection is urged only in reference to the diffiby reason only that such Judge or Master in Chancery, or such Commissioners, or either of culty or impracticability of carrying the prothem, was or were interested or concerned, visions of the Act into effect. either as a party or parties or otherwise, in the transaction giving occasion for such acknowledgment; (s. 1). If any proceeding instituted before July 13, 1854, in the Court of Common Pleas, for the purpose of quashing or taking off the file of records of the Court any certificate of an acknowledgment of a deed by a married woman, on the ground that such Judge or Master in Chancery, or either of such Commissioners, was interested or concerned as aforesaid, shall be pending at the passing of this Act, the Court, at the instance of either party, may stay all proceedings therein, and make such orders for payment of the costs of such proceeding or any part thereof, and such other orders, as the justice of the case may require; (s. 2). BRIBERY PREVENTION BILL. This is a judicious course of argument. It is at present hopeless to address the Legislature in opposition to any measure (supposed to be generally beneficial), on the sole ground that it will injure the attorneys. The members of the Profession, however, need not hesitate in stating their objections to any alteration of the law, provided the public interests are involved in the measure. Their objections may, indeed, be viewed with suspicion, and not be admitted unless they are well-founded; but as the practical working of a proposed new law, or the alteration of an old law, can best be appreciated by the practitioners, they are able to confer incalculable benefit on the community by applying their experience and acuteness in detecting and exposing the fallacy of objectionable projects. The interests of the public are inseparably connected with the THE 10th clause of the amended Bill re-interests of the Profession. The administraquires the attention of solicitors engaged in the election of members of Parliament. The effect of it seems to be, that if the solicitor has a vote for the place for which his client is a candidate, he cannot recover for his services, and any pay-which have been submitted to most of the We trust that the following objections ment for them is illegal : ·- "No person acting as counsel, attorney, agent, poll clerk, or in any other capacity whatsoever for any candidate, for the purposes of any election, and who shall himself be an elector entitled to vote at such election, shall be entitled to any consideration, reward, or payment for any personal services rendered by him to or on behalf of such candidate in any such capacity; and any consideration, reward, or payment, knowingly made or given by any candidate or his agent, to any elector for any services in any such capacity, shall, as regards any such candidate, be deemed and taken to be an illegal payment; and any elector knowingly receiving or taking the same shall be deemed incapable of voting at such election, and in case he shall vote at such election, he shall be liable to forfeit the sum of 50l. to any tion of justice on reasonable terms, and with all practicable speed, is not only beneficial to the suitor, but ultimately to the attorney. Delay and expense drive away clients. lawyers in Parliament will prevail against REASONS AGAINST THE BILL, SUGGESTED This Bill proposes to establish a new proceeding to enforce payment of unpaid inland bills of exchange by means of a notarial protest, to be recorded in a new register office, and of a Judges' order for payment founded upon it, which proceeding is to be adopted at the option of the holder instead of the present mode of proceeding in the Superior Courts. The Bill proceeds on the assumption that = protest by a notary is evidence of the requisites which at present entitle the holder to recove in an action against the drawer or indorsers but, in fact, it affords no such evidence. Ist The notary knows nothing as to the handwrit |