insists most strongly in addressing the legislatures of the future, he ascribes to the malign influence of " the dominant middle class." "If some hardened ruffian has committed crime after crime, and has heaped conviction upon conviction, he thereby qualifies himself for the care of those cultivated judges, who form the High Court of Justiciary, and becomes entitled to gratuitous counsel, and to the protection of a jury of his countrymen. But if some little boy or girl, who scarcely knows what crime is, has incurred suspicion, and is for the first time charged with some disgraceful deed, what is the unhappy lot of the poor youthful victims? They are dragged before some petty court, often on the instant, and without advice or defence, and after a hurried proceeding, which is called a trial, are marked for ever with that brand of shame, which can never be effaced during the remainder of their lives. Many a workman's boy, many a workman's girl, who has never put forth its hand to steal, doubtless walks trembling from the bar, a convicted thief, and after a polluting immurement within a prison, comes forth into the world, the boy to become a plunderer of society, the girl to walk the streets a prostitute, daily and nightly, like the Nemesis of old, avenging upon Society the wrong which Society has committed. No one can tell the extent to which such iniquities exist, for care has been taken to invent a system by which all trace is destroyed of their perpetration. The victim can be seized at once, and immediately placed without warning in the dock; no defender is provided for him; no intimation is given to him, trembling and confused as he must necessarily be, that he may demand a short delay. This does not constitute oppression in the eye of the law, although more atrocious oppression it is impossible to conceive. No record of the evidence is permitted to be kept, although the pen of a short-hand writer could preserve every word without delaying the proceedings of the Court for an instant. The facts linger only in the memories of the police, and nothing remains of the abomination, except the formal sentence and a ruined life." Mr Scott expends a good deal of eloquence upon "the sham and mockery of an appeal" which now exists, and tells very well and (as appears from the parentheses of "profound sensation," &c., with which the pamphlet is copiously sprinkled) with great effect, the history of a terrible case of oppression which occurred in his own experience. It is too pathetic for our pages. The passage which follows contains much truth, although we must object to its unnecessary heat and its tone of demos-worship. "Why is it that these poor children,--why is it that humble individuals, accused of crime, are sacrificed with such ruthless and indecent haste? Why is it that they are branded with disgrace in such hurried form, and yet with such irretrievable result? Is it because Her Gracious Majesty so wishes? or that the Peers of the realm so desire? or that educated men approve of such proceedings? or that the People demand it? By no means. It is simply that the police may get quickly through their business, and the functionaries of the Local Courts perform their duties comfortably, without their digestion being disturbed, or their sleep broken, by appeals to the high officials of justice. You have all heard of a bureaucracy-one of the worst forms of oppression to which a people can be subjected—and I have no doubt you have supposed it was confined to such benighted countries as Austria or Russia. But here is a bureaucracy rampant at our own doors, swarming forth and besetting the members of the Legislature, whenever an attempt is made to introduce the light into their dark places. It is scandalous that those officials, who are but servants of the public, and paid from the funds of the nation to protect the lieges, should erect themselves into a hostile interest for the oppression of the public. It is impossible that the workmen of this country can tolerate such a system. It is upon them and their children that the heavy hand of this iniquity falls. I have seen, in my brief experience, stalwart and respectable apprentices, law-abiding young men, with hands hardened and faces bronzed with honest toil, dragged under the Master and Servant Act, from their beds, before daylight, and before the day was half done, condemned without redress to unnatural idleness, or to barren labour, within the degrading walls of a prison. The crowning iniquity of this bureaucratic tyranny, its most recent product, is what is called, and may well be called, the Summary Procedure Act, which positively denies all redress for every defect, whether in substance or in form, and which immediately on its introduction was applied to rivet and to strengthen the already rigorous fetters of the Master and Servant Act. The Supreme Court, to its credit be it said, has shown no favour to this atrocious specimen of class legislation, and special honour is due to the scholarly and accomplished Judge who now presides in that learned College. I cannot enter further into detail; but such a system cannot remain unaltered. The same care must be bestowed upon the unconvicted child or respectable workmen, as upon the seven-times convicted felon. It is absolutely monstrous to allow a petty court to destroy for ever characters which have previously been unblemished and possibly uncorrupted. Surely, gentlemen, it is reasonable to take as much trouble with such a matter, as with a mere question of some insignificant debt, which can demand the successive care of three or four separate tribunals. Let the Police Courts deal without review with such minor and befitting matters as chimneys on fire, throwing out of ashes, or beating of carpets, or even with assaults and breaches of the peace, which do not bring with them a permanent disgrace. But wherever there is an accusation for the first time of infamous or disgraceful crimes, such as theft, reset, or offences against decency, which are kept up against a man for ever,-as well as in all cases which involve the disputes of master with servant, or of one class with another, there should be an undoubted right of appeal to the highest tribunal, as well upon the facts as upon the law." Mr Scott stands high in the counsels of his party, he is a "coming man," and we therefore rejoice in his indignant denunciation of the Summary Procedure Act. For is not the iniquity of that measure entirely due to the Duke of Buccleuch, the recognised chief in Scotland of the Tory party, acting in concert with, or prompted by, the clerks of the peace throughout Scotland, and the secretaries of certain Maine-Law and Teetotal Societies? And was not the attempt in 1866 to cure the evil by restoring the ten lost sections frustrated by the same unholy alliance? The Attorney's Certificate Duty.-Mr Denman's bill for abolishing this impost has unfortunately been rejected by a majority of 21 in a house of 153 members. This result, which can, we believe, only temporarily delay the repeal of the duty, was chiefly due to the strenuous opposition of the Government. Some members, and notably Mr Fawcett, for want of better reasons, attributed their opposition to the bill to the fact that some attorneys among their constituents had requested them to support it; but it cannot be imagined that more than one or two could be influenced by so whimsical a reason. Combination Laws-Intimidation.-The other day a trial took place at Hamilton, before Sheriff Veitch, for contravention of the Act 6, Geo. IV., c. 129. The panels were the Secretary and the President of the Hamilton Amalgamated Shoemakers' Society, and the offence charged was using threats or intimidation "towards Michael Keenan while employed at his trade of a shoemaker, for the purpose of forcing him to contribute to the common fund of the club or association of which they were members, by threatening him that unless he paid the sum of 5s. 8d. to this fund, they would cause him to be dismissed from the shop where he obtained his work, and to lose his employment; and the said Michael Keenan having declined to comply with the demand, the accused, on 11th June, did further molest and obstruct Keenan by intimating to his employers that unless he contributed to the fund he must be dismissed, otherwise the rest of the workmen, members of the association, would leave their employment." Objections stated to the relevancy of the complaint were repelled, and after evidence had been led, the prisoners were convicted and sentenced to seven days' imprisonment. This judgment is borne out by the recent decision of the Court of Q. B. in England upon a case stated by the Justices of Somersetshire, who had sentenced a man to a month's imprisonment for a precisely similar threat. Skinner v. Kitch, 16 L. T. N. S. 413. Both cases are instances of a mere use of undue influence being held a threat within the Act. Upon the English decision the Law Times (May 18) pertinently remarked: "This law applies equally to masters and men. Undue influences used by the masters to induce other masters to act with them may be punished in like manner. But still more important is another question that seems to be raised by this view of the statute. Is a lock-out legal? Have the masters a right to agree together to close their doors against all workmen for the purpose of compelling other workmen, by the pressure thus put upon them, to accept the terms offered by the masters? Perhaps the point may be worth consideration by both parties, and suggest the propriety of a compromise.' Obituary-Sheriff Trotter.-We have to record the death of John Pitcairn Trotter, Esq., Advocate (1826), Sheriff-Substitute of Dumfries-shire, at Oakfield, near Dumfries, on 5th July. Mr Trotter was a native of Berwickshire. After acting for a short time as SheriffSubstitute at Dunblane, he was transferred to Dumfries in 1837, and he has since discharged the duties of his office with great fidelity and satisfaction to the profession and the public. During his long residence in the county he formed a large circle of friends, and his hospitable home was freely open to every tourist and literary stranger who made his acquaintance while visiting Nithsdale. On the judicial bench, in criminal cases, he was stern and somewhat severe. Το the conduct of civil business, he brought an extensive and accurate knowledge of law, a ready memory, and strong common sense. He was well read in general literature, much of his leisure being spent in reading and translating from the German. He delighted to hold friendly and brotherly intercourse with such men as Thomas Aird, Sheriff Glassford Bell, Professor Blackie, Robert Chambers, and the late Mr Macdonald of Rammerscales. In private life he was amiable, but somewhat eccentric and changeable in his humours; he had strong likings and dislikings, but withal his heart was manly, and generous, and full of love and sympathy for human suffering and wrong. He had a great fund of anecdote, and few who have heard him will forget the amusing and graphic way in which he told a story or repeated some old border ballad. Occasionally, like Oliver Goldsmith, for the amusement of children, he became the lord of misrule for a night, and gave way to all sorts of drollery and bur lesque. But his mirth and gaiety were always innocent, and a sort of recreation and unbending of the faculties after the sterner daily duties of his profession had been duly and conscientiously performed. Appointments.-By an oversight we omitted to notice last month the appointment of Mr WILLIAM WALKER JOHNSTON to be a Depute-Clerk of Session, in room of Mr Thomas Potts, deceased. MR DAVID BOYLE HOPE, Advocate, (1859), has been appointed Sheriff-Substitute of Dumfries-shire, in room of Mr Trotter, advocate, deceased. Mr Hope leaves the Parliament House with the good wishes and esteem of all his brethren. His departure leaves the Supreme Courts, we believe, for the first time almost for two centuries, without a single representative on the bench or at the bar of the eminent name and family to which he belongs. John H. A. MACDONALD, Esq., Advocate (1859), has been appointed Counsel for the Admiralty, in the room of Mr W. E. Gloag, recently appointed Advocate-Depute in the Sheriff Courts. Appointments-England.-Sir John Rolt succeeds the late Sir G. Turner as Lord Justice of Appeal. Sir J. B. Karslake becomes Attorney-General, and is succeeded as Solicitor-General by Mr Selwyn Q.C. PRECEDENCE AT THE BAR-PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF QUEEN'S COUNSEL.-A meeting of the Faculty of Advocates was held on Friday, June 28, in the corridor of the Advocates' Library, for the purpose of considering a resolution proposed by the Dean, and in his absence supported by the Vice-Dean, that, in the opinion of the Faculty, it is expedient that its members should be placed on the same footing in regard to the appointment of Queen's Counsel as the bars of England and of Ireland; and that the Dean and his Council be directed to communicate this resolution to her Majesty's Government. It was moved by Mr Watson, as an amendment, that the Government should be requested to confer patents of precedence on the Lord-Advocate, Dean of Faculty, Solicitor-General, ex-Lord Advocate, and ex-Solicitor-General for the time being, entitling them to precedence in all courts in England in which they have right to appear as members of Faculty, i.e. in the House of Lords, judicial committees of the Privy Council, and before committees of Parliament. The amendment being put as against the original resolution, was lost by a majority of twelve. Afterwards the resolution was put and carried by a considerable majority. About seventy members attended the meeting. A protest has been signed and lodged by thirty-two dissentients, including many who were not at the meeting, on the ground that it is ultra vires of the Faculty by a mere majority to make a fundamental change on the conditions agreed to by each advocate at his admission to the Faculty, and on various other grounds. Notice was also given of a motion for next meeting of Faculty, that, in respect of the small majority by which the resolution was carried, the Faculty is of opinion that it should not be acted upon. It was stated at the meeting, by one of the most important supporters of the proposed change, that they would not wish to carry out the wider resolution unless there was substantial unanimity in the Faculty; and it is generally supposed that, in consideration of the small attendance at the meeting, the importance of the subject, and the large minority voting against it, no action will at present be taken on the resolution.-Scotsman. LINCOLN'S INN.-At an adjourned council of the benchers, 10th July 1867, Sir W. P. Wood, V.C., in the chair, it was ordered, on the motion of Mr J. F. Macqueen, Q.C., that with reference to the exemption of students from making a deposit of L.100, and the return of such deposit when made, a certificate produced by a student from the Universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, or Edinburgh respectively, shall have the same effect as a similar certificate from any of the Universities in England or Ireland." Lincoln's Inn, it may be added, was for upwards of a century the chief resort of Scotchmen going to the English bar-indeed, its greatest names are Scotch, as Lord Mansfield, Lord Loughborough, Lord Erskine, Sir William Grant, Lord Campbell, and Lord Brougham.-Scotsman. CALLS TO THE BAR.-Mr James Henry Gibson-Craig, B.A., Cantab.; Mr Arthur Makgill, B.A., Oxon; Mr James Patrick Bannerman Robertson, M.A.; Mr John M.Kie Lees, M.A., and Mr Moir Reid Stormonth Darling, M.A., have been admitted as members of the Faculty of Advocates. SOLICITORS IN THE SUPREME COURTS.-Mr William G. Roy, formerly of Dundee, Mr James Campbell Irons, and Mr George Andrew, have been admitted Solicitors before the Supreme Courts. VACATION ARRANGEMENTS. Box-DAYS.-Thursday, 29th August, and Thursday, 10th October. BILL CHAMBER Rotation of Judges. Monday, 22d July, to Saturday, 3d August,.........Lord Curriehill. AUTUMN CIRCUIT, 1867. WEST.-Lords Justice-Clerk and Cowan-Stirling-Monday, 23d Sept., at twelve o'clock noon; Inverary-Thursday, 26th Sept.; Glasgow-Tuesday, 1st Oct., at 12 o'clock noon. Roger Montgomerie, Esq., Advocate-Depute; W. Hamilton Bell, Clerk. NORTH.-Lords Deas and Neaves-Dundee—Thursday, 12th Sept.; Perth-Monday, 16th Sept.; Aberdeen-Wednesday, 18th Sept.; Inverness, Tuesday, 24th Sept. Robert Lee, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Eneas Macbean, Clerk. SOUTH.-Lords Ardmillan and Jerviswoode-Jedburgh, Tuesday, 10th Sept.; Dumfries-Friday, 13th Sept.; Ayr-Tuesday, 17th Sept. James Adam, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Robert L. Stuart, Clerk. Notes of Cases. COURT OF SESSION. (Reported by William Guthrie and Donald Crawford, Esquires, Advocates.) FIRST DIVISION. MORRISON & MILNE V, BARTOLOMEO & MASSA.-June 8. Insurance-Collision-Reparation-Verdict. Motion to apply verdict in counter actions between owners of the Ghilino and the Scotia, for damages by collision. Verdict for Scotia, damages £566. The jury also found, by direction of the Court, that the owners of the Scotia had recovered from underwriters £350. The owners of the Scotia moved to apply the verdict, and produced at the bar an assignation by the underwriters of all right they might have to damages or otherwise against the Ghilino. Defrs. maintained that Morrison & Milne, having recovered |