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The Month.

Printed Interlocutor Sheets.--The use of printed interlocutors in police courts has been attended with so few disadvantages and so many conveniences, that it is singular that no attempt has hitherto been made to extend the practice. The first step has now, however, been made in this direction in the Sheriff-Court of Forfarshire at Dundee, in which 'a printed sheet containing the usual interlocutors in the preparation of an ordinary cause, with the necessary blanks, has been in use during the past month. The interlocutors are printed on the first, third, fifth, and seventh pages of the sheets, and only on the right hand half of each page, the left hand half being left blank, except where there are given on the first and fifth pages, printed forms of consent to receive papers, and approval thereof by the Sheriff-Substitute, in terms of the 5th section of the Act, and the consent to close on summons and defences. The sheet begins with (1), the usual interlocutor adjourning the cause, which is followed by (2) the order for condescendence and defences in six and ten days; (3) a prorogation on special cause shewn; (4) interlocutors dismissing the action for default in lodging condescendence and defences respectively; (5) interlocutors allowing condescendence and defences respectively to be lodged on days specified on payment of expenses, the Sheriff-Substitute being satisfied that the failure to do so in due time arose from unavoidable or reasonable causes; (6) order for parties to meet the Sheriff-Substitute; (7) space for interlocutor closing the record, which the statute expressly requires to be in writing; (8) order to revise; (9) prorogation of period for lodging revised papers; (10) order for parties to meet Sheriff; (11) interlocutor appointing the record to be closed this day week; (12) space for interlocutor closing the record,—and interlocutor appointing debate; (13) two forms of order for proof. We believe the sheet has been drawn up on the footing that these are all the interlocutors which, in the ordinary case, can be properly pronounced in the preparation of a cause; and in the hope that two objects will be gained by its adoption, viz., that some trouble in writing will be saved to the Sheriff-Clerk, and more

especially that the interlocutor sheet will cease to be encumbered and deformed with absurd and unnecessary interlocutors, when both Sheriff and practitioners have before them a clear and simple form showing all that are really needed, and all that the statute contemplates or allows. We understand that the new system has been adopted under the best advice as to its legality. Proposed Law School at Dundee.--Suggestions for the increase of the means of Education seldom originate with the persons for whom that education is intended; and such suggestions, when they are made, indicate, among those from whom they come, aptitudes and acquirements already existing, of the highest promise for the future. This is especially true of a movement which has been commenced in Dundee, to provide means for the education of the numerous law clerks and apprentices of that populous and thriving community. We have learned with the greatest satisfaction that an association has been formed under the title of "the Society of Law Clerks of Dundee," for the purpose of "the advancement of its members in Legal and General Knowledge;" and that a course of lectures on legal subjects by members of the Edinburgh and the local bar has been begun. The course of lectures in the first year must necessarily be desultory and unsystematic; but it may still be a stimulus to individual study, and a useful preparation for the more methodical and sustained exertions which, as the society hopes, may be made next winter. The utility of such lectures to young men employed in office work, cannot be better stated than in the letter addressed by the able Vice-President and originator of the Society to the Sheriff of the County, asking for his countenance in the undertaking. "No doubt," he says, "when a person enters a lawyer's office, the master, by the indenture, becomes bound to see that his apprentice is taught his business to the best of his ability. But a lawyer's business cannot be learned in an office. The practice and routine of the business is learned there, but it lies with the apprentice himself to acquire a thorough knowledge of the law at home." And he suggests as a means of inciting the young lawyers of Dundee to study for their profession "with a keener relish and more determined resolution," a short course of lectures in a popular style. Measures were accordingly taken, under the sanction and with the encouragement of the Sheriff and SheriffSubstitute, for obtaining lecturers, and a considerable number of well qualified gentlemen both in Edinburgh and in Dundee, have

agreed to give their services in this way during the spring months. Lectures of course cannot communicate a complete knowledge even of the principles of law, but they are valuable in providing for the student guidance and encouragement. These benefits of course can only be obtained to the full extent where there is a regular course with examinations,-where, as was observed by a learned gentleman who is now lecturing “on the principles of Conveyancing," there is the incentive of emulation. But if there is to be "a permanent law school in Dundee," we must be allowed to express a hope that the Society of Procurators there will do much more than present a few prizes to be competed for at the end of the course of lectures. We venture to hope that that Society will follow up the beginning which has been successfully made by establishing, in co-operation with the Society of Law Clerks, a permanent lectureship. The principal law chairs in Scotland have sprung from the public spirit of such societies. In Edinburgh University, for example, the Chair of Scots Law grew out of a lectureship established by the Faculty of Advocates, and the Chair of Conveyancing from a lectureship maintained first by the Juridical Society, and afterwards by the Society of Writers to the Signet. We believe that it has been in the minds of influential persons in Dundee to endeavour to effect the removal to that city of a part at least of the University of St Andrews, at least of the Medical School, which suffers at present from the want of hospitals and of "subjects," and of adding a Faculty of Law which is now wanting in that University. Such a scheme may probably be realized, and it will materially contribute to this result, if a law school should already be in successful operation in Dundee, originated and supported by the voluntary efforts of the legal profession there. One more suggestion may be permitted. It will be impossible for a single lecturer to include within any reasonable number of lectures the whole law of Scotland, and the legitimate object of lectures would seem to be fulfilled if each year a tolerably extensive department of jurisprudence is treated of: e. g., Commercial Law, Succession, Conveyancing, the Law of Property, the Law of Contracts, the Law of the Family, the Law relating to Actions, Pleading, and Process, &c. Let the lecturer, whether he is appointed for a single course, or for a longer period, not attempt too much, but thoroughly treat of a single subject, and he will confer greater enefit on his pupils and gain more credit himself.

Colonial Appointments for the Scotch Bar.-David Peter Chalmers, Esq., advocate, has been appointed chief magistrate on the Gambia River, Africa. Mr. Chalmers passed advocate in 1860. The salary is L.600 a-year.

Patrick Blair, Esq., advocate, has been appointed to a District Judgeship in Jamaica. There can be but one opinion as to the judiciousness of the Lord Advocate selecting Mr Blair for this responsible situation. Mr. Blair passed as advocate in 1856. While his departure to so distant a colony is a source of great regret to the numerous friends whom he leaves behind him, it is some satisfaction to them that the appointment which he has received may be only a step to a more important office.

Mr Charles Rampini, advocate, who passed in 1865, has also been appointed to a District Judgeship in Jamaica.

Since the preceding paragraphs were in type, Mr Harry Davidson, Advocate, has also been appointed to a District Judgeship in Jamaica. Mr Davidson is a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and passed advocate in Dec. 1860. This also is an excellent appointment. To the conductors of this Journal it involves the loss of a valued fellow-labourer.

These appointments in Jamaica are worth L.800 a-year at present, with the prospect of an early advance to L.1000, and of the Chief Justiceship of the island as a possible prize in the distance. The Lord Advocate is entitled to the gratitude of his brethren of the Scotch Bar for obtaining for them some share of the professional prizes from which they have too long been excluded. The injustice under which Scotland has suffered in this respect was exposed by this Journal exactly ten years ago (Feb. 1857), and contrasted with the state of matters about a generation earlier. Since that article appeared, the only Colonial appointment given to a Scotch advocate has been the Chief Justiceship of Mauritius conferred on Mr C. F. Shand. The rights and interests of the Scotch Bar have been altogether disregarded by the Colonial Office, till Lord Advocate Patton generously and disinterestedly came forward to protect them. This matter cannot but be regarded with considerable interest; and there may be two or three different ways of looking at it. One view is presented in a letter which we give in another place. Our valued cortespondent, however, has not noticed the difficulty which may exist, at times when the bar has not so redundant a supply of talent as at present, in finding suitable men willing to take appointments

abroad. Men generally enter this profession with the hope of obtaining distinction in their native country, and if their expectations have become less exalted after a few years of waiting in the Parliament House, they have probably by that time entered into relations which prevent them from willingly emigrating to Sierra Leone or Honduras.

THE ENGLISH REPORTS.-The English Jurist has been discontinued, being driven from the field by the new Law Reports. There have been rumours of a similar fate impending over the Law Journal, but its end is at least not likely to be immediate. The Law Times suggests that the Council of Law Reporting should purchase the Law Journal at a liberal price, both in justice to an enterprise "which is to be ousted not for its own defaults, but because the convenience of the profession was thought to require a publication possessing such advantages of shape, typography, and authority as to secure for it the unhesitating preference, and yet so like it in other respects that to take both would be a waste of money;" and also because the acquisition would transfer probably two thousand new subscribers to the Law Reports, and immensely increase their profits. We should be sorry if the Law Journal were indeed to be ousted, both because we believe that competition is wholesome where there is so large a field for it as in England; and because the Law Journal has hitherto been a most valuable reporter, and has been conducted in all respects at least as ably as the Law Reports.

LEGAL CHANGES IN ENGLAND. The change of Ministry has been followed during the latter half of the year that has closed by an unusual number of legal changes. When Lord Derby took office Lord Cranworth was Chancellor, Sir R. Palmer Attorney-General, and Sir R. P. Collier Solicitor-General. These offices were filled by Lord Chelmsford, Sir Hugh Cairns, and Mr Bovill. These changes, and the similar appointments in Ireland and Scotland, were matters of course at the change of Ministry, but Lord Derby has had a "run of luck" in regard to judicial appointments as well as other kinds of patronage The Spectator writes :

"Lord Derby's legal appointments for the past six months are very nearly equal with those of Lord Palmerston during his six years' administration from 1859 to 1865. What the new Conservative Judges lack with respect to number is counterbalanced by the high positions which most of them have taken. In England Sir Fitzroy Kelly has been appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer; Sir W. Bovill, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; Sir Hugh Cairns, a Lord Justice of Appeal in Chancery; and a Vice Chancellorship has been given to Mr Malins. In Ireland, Mr Whiteside has been appointed Lord Chief-Justice; Mr John George, a Judge in the Court of Queen's Bench; Mr. Brewster, a Lord Justice of Appeal in Chancery; Mr Walsh, Master of the Rolls; Mr Lynch, a Judge in the Landed Estates Court; and Mr Miller, a Judge in Bankruptcy. Here, then, are ten judgeships in six months. Lord Palmerston, in six years, appointed thirteen judges, two chiefs and eleven puisne justices; Lord Derby, in six months, has had the nomination of a Chief Baron, two Chief Justices, two Judges of Chancery Appeal, a Master of the Rolls, a Vice-Chancellor, a Puisne Justice in a superior Court, and two Judges of the minor Courts. To effect these changes six judges have been placed upon the pension list-namely, Sir W. Erle, Sir F. Pollock, and Sir R. T. Kindersley, in England; and Mr Lefroy, Mr Hayes, and Mr Longfield, in Ireland. Two of the vacancies arose through the deaths of Lord-Justice Knight Bruce in England, and Mr Cusack Smith, the Master of the Rolls, in Ireland. The remaining two were caused by the promotion of Lord-Justice Blackburne to the Irish Chancellorship, and of Mr Lynch from the Bankruptcy to the Landed Estates' Court, in the same kingdom. The elevation of the new judges has caused the distribution of practice worth at least L.40,000 a-year amongst the members of the bar at Westminster Hall and Lincoln's Inn, and of from L.15,000 to L.18,000 a.year amongst the Common Law and Equity barristers of the Courts in Dublin.

"In connection with Lord Derby's unprecedented amount of legal patronage, it may be stated that the harvest is as yet by no means past. A bill is to be introduced into Parliament in the ensuing session, for the creation of three additional common-law judges; Lord-Justice Turner and Mr. Baron Martin have served the

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