Middlesex Magistrates, Meeting of, 484 Middlesex Sessions and its Disputes, 283, Middlesex Sessions, A Scene, 237 National Association for the Promotion NOTES AND QUERIES, 7, 18, 32, 44, 57, 67, 81, 92, 115, 117, 128, 140, 152, 163, 175, 188, 200, 212, 224, 234, 243, 257, 267, 275, 286, 299, 310, 330, 342, 352, 363, 372, 384, 394, 429, 441, 451, 463, 470, 477, 486, 495, 504, 511, 524, 535, 542, Notes by Private Banks, 97 Notices of Motion, House of Commons, Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (Ireland), 208, 220, 241 Burials Registration Bill, 359 Costs of Barnstaple Election, 283 Concentration of the Law Courts, 183, Court of Queen's Bench (Ireland), County Courts (Ireland) Bill, 283 County Franchise, 171, 183, 221 Court of Chancery, Dispatch of Busi- Court of Chancery (Ireland), 296, 318 Court of Justiciary (Scotland), 196, Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Ecclesiastical Courts and Registries Factory Acts Extension Bill, 274 Fees on the Transfer of Land, 387 Titles to Land (Ireland), 381, 437 Union Assessments, 171, 296, 359 Parochial Assessment Act, The, 181 Parliamentary Counsel, Fees for, 206, Parliamentary Session, The, 421 Pampero Case, The, 191, 214, 344 Penal Servitude Act, Amendment Act, Police Magistrates and Coroners, 515 Police, Statistics of Crime, 438 (Concluded from vol. 38, p. 625.) Press, The, and the Judges, 347, 357 Joint Stock Companies Voting Papers, Prison Discipline, 123 Joint Stock Companies, Foreign Prison Ministers' Act, The, and the Middlesex Magistrates, 281, 293 Probate and Succession Duty, 557 Shee, Mr. Justice, Dinner to, 157 Select Committee and Law Costs, 422 Selection of a Hundred Leading Maxims Settled Estates Act Amendment Act, The, Re Hoyle's Settled Estates, 466 Solicitors' Act 1860, The, 263 Solicitors, Admission of, 28, 294 Solicitors appointed Mayors, 15, 28, 39, Solicitors' Benevolent Association, 109, Notes on New Decisions, 3, 15, 28, 39, 64, 76, 88, 99, 112, 125, 148, 159, 171, 183, 221, 231, 241, 253, THE THE LAW TIMES, JOURNAL OF THE LAW AND THE FROM NOVEMBER 1863 TO OCTOBER 1864. LAWYERS. VOLUME XXXIX. THE case of the Alexandra has assumed a new phase. The CHIEF BARON has refused to sign the and address of the writer, not necessarily for publica- tions to the jury were misunderstood; that he did bill of exceptions tendered, alleging that his direc tion, but as a guarantee for good faith. not instruct them that ships intended for equipment were within the Act, but that he read to DIARY OF SALES BY AUCTION DURING them the words of the statute and asked them in these words: "Was there any intention in the port of Liverpool, or any other port, that the ship should be equipped, fitted out, or armed, with the Ab olute reversion to one-fifth of an income from property object of taking part in any contest? If you think THE NEXT WEEK. TUESDAY, NOV. 10. of 214 and oue-fifth of 22134. Bank Annuities, by Mr. First-class family mansion at South Kensington, by Cad Oct. 31. that the object was to equip, furnish, fit out, or The CHIEF BARON intimated that there was no chance of a bill of exceptions being so framed as to meet his difficulty, because he said he did not Valuable freehold and leasehold estates at Stepney, Rat- tainly the language cited looks very like a judicial put a construction upon the Act at all. But cer THURSDAY, NOV. 12. eliff and Woodford, by Messrs. C. C. and T. Mooore, at the Mart. Advertised this day. Lesse of a large house at Charing-cross, by Messrs. Moore, at the Mart Advertised this day. 3s. 6d. Four lines or thirty words Advertisements must reach the office not later than five reading of the statute. The latter part of the tions. Should this fail, however, there is the alternative of a motion for a new trial, and the Court intimated that this would be granted. But unfortunately a new trial will not determine the disputed points of law, which are of more moment just now than the opinion of a second jury upon the facts. A judgment adverse to the Alexandra would settle the question of the steam-rams. A favourable judgment would still leave the questions of the steam-rams to be fought, for there are additional facts in their cases which materially extend the arguments for the Crown. Their armour-plates may be held to be an "equipping" or "arming," and so they may be trapped, though the Alexandra should escape. We would impress upon our readers that, in the very interesting discussions that will arise upon the questions thus raised, they must steadily bear Law that forbids the subjects of neutral states to in mind that there is no rule of International sell either ships of war or ammunition to belligerents. If the Foreign Enlistment Act had not been passed, the question could not have arisen; forbidden English subjects to do that which the it turns wholly upon our own law, which has law of nations permits them to do. There is no obligation, moral or otherwise, to prohibit our shipbuilders from building a fleet for either or THE NEW CRIMINAL STATUTES and whether our own law for certain political purposes both of the belligerents; the only argument is, of 1883. 12mo. Price 10s. 6d. THE NEW LAW and PRACTICE in BANKRUPTCY. By DORIA and MACRAE. This is healy formal treatise on the new law. The Index alone apwards of two hundred pages. In 2 thick vols., price 423 On Thursday the ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection; and before he had concluded his argument the Court unanimously granted a rule nisi. It is no longer a matter of mere gossip-it is on the record, that our greatest Statesman is the co-respondent in a divorce case. The injured husband hails from the neighbourhood of the Commercialported early in the week that the matter had been road. The damages are laid at 20,0007. It was recompromised. This, however, is not true, and could not be true, for to compromise such a case would be to plead guilty, and such a plea would compel retirement from office, with all its grave consequences. The solicitor for the petitioner has, indeed, addressed to the Star the following letter, contradicting the rumour:— SI-I beg to inform you that there is no foundation whatever for the statement made in your paper of the 31st ult., viz.-"that an arrangement had been entered important suit now instituted in the Divorce Court, and into between the petitioner and the respondent in a certain that the terms of such arrangement had been agreed to," -I am, Sir, your obedient servant, THOS. WELLS, Solicitor for the Petitioner. 47, Moorgate-street, London, E.C., Nov. 2. There is, then, to be numbered among the events of the legal year just opened, a cause which will surpass in interest anything that the parties concerned than any that has come before Divorce Court has yet witnessed-indeed, greater in its importance to the public as well as to the Lord MELBOURNE. And all men, of whatever our tribunals since the memorable action against party, will hope ardently that it may end in an fendant has political opponents, but not a single equally triumphant acquittal. The noble depersonal enemy, unless it may URQUHART, of Russo-phobian fame. be Mr. DAVID following letter from the respondent's solicitor, This morning (Thursday) the papers publish the WELLS, the petitioner's solicitor, is a name very which throws a new light upon the case. Mr. well known to our readers : To the Editor of the Standard. evening edition of to-day, and in the Evening Star of yesSIR,-Having just read the "sensation" leaders in your terday, under the above heading, I am compelled to break silence by declaring, as the solicitor for the respondent, be untrue, as my client solemnly declares them to be. As that I believe the whole of the statements in the petition to hands, who are quite able to take care of their client's to the noble co-respondent, he is in highly respectable honour; and I should not have thought it necessary to say a word on behalf of the respondent but for the manner in which the case has been most unjustifiably canvassed on the faith of the more filling of a petition, of which not one word has been or (as I believe) can be proved to be true. I have been always taught that common justice demanded an absence of comment on a case until after the trial. How has it been observed in this instance? Now, Sir, in reference to your leader of to-day, I would beg to ask you whether you can in any way justify your reference to the co-respondent as "the hoary defendant ? The very words seem to assume guilt on his part. the pending suit in the Divorce Court will under no cirThen you say “a respectable firm of solicitors vouch that spectable firm of solicitors? Are you awase, Sir, that the cumstances be compromised." Now, first, who are the re"firm," otherwise the attorney to the petitioner, is the Mr. Wells who daily advertises relief "To the embarrassed" by means of the court, in connection with a Mr. Weston, who I believe is an accountant at the same address? Mr. payable by instalments," and "without publicity! Also, Wells advertises that he will obtain "protection from 51, present case seems "confidentially", known to the whole that "divorce cases are confidentially conducted." The world, as Mr. Wells at once rushed into print to inform the dod Statutes to this date, and a Digest of the Decisions liberty of the subject, it is to be construed strictly / public that no compromise had been made in the case. The last twelve years. CROCKFORD, 10, Wellington-street. in his favour. Now, I should be glad to know who set the report of a compromise afloat at all? Most assuredly not the respon VOL. XXXIX.-No. 1075. dent nor her solicitor! She emphatically denies all the allegations in the petition; and Mr. Wells, in his letter of denial, might and ought to have added that no compromise, or suggestion of a compromise, had come to him from the respondent or her advisers; she will quietly await the petitioner's exposure of himself when the case comes into I have only to state in conclusion that the petitioner neither is a clergyman, as stated, nor (to use your words) does he wear the robes "of the Christian ministry;' court. form the slightest conception of the labour of to pay the costs of the person against whom he has thus made a speculative objection. By this plan the County Register would be kept in a very clean condition, for no person could get upon it without proof given, and the removal would be more readily of disqualified names undertaken when it could be done at any time. One other reform is much wanted. The revising barristers should not be sont even twice but, if I am not misinformed, he is now in the service of the Weston alluded to in Mr. Wells's daily advertising of the appearance of the reports of the same cases following to the same places. Indeed, it would be programme.-I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, CHARLES HORSLEY, Solicitor to the Respondent, 2, Staple-inn, Nov. 4. The comments we felt ourselves constrained to make have THE question that has so strangely arisen under [We publish Mr. Horsley's letter with unfeigned satisfaction. So long as the mystery remained unsolved, and no refutation or explanation was given of reports which were in course of circulation to the grave prejudice of many innocent persons, a real public injury was done. at least served to place the matter in its true light, and to mitigate what was really becoming a national scandal. None will rejoice more than ourselves at the investigation of the affair to its primary source, and the confusion and punishment of the parties to the diabolical conspiracy, if the petition be found to be of the character intituled "The Statutes of the Realm, printed by IN the case of Alfred Leigh, an Attorney, the ascribed to it by the respondent's solicitor.] MR. DANIEL then addresses himself to the question of "compensation" to those whom the purposed monopoly would ruin. He repudiates it utterly. He says: And as an honest and sincere law reformer, keeping the to calculate upon your fearless advocacy in denouncing all public interest alone in view, I am sure I should be able attempts to prey upon the public and the Profession by a demand for compensation on the part of those who have, for too many years, been enriching themselves at the expense of the Profession and the public, upon the profits of an abuse. When it becomes necessary to cut away the mistletoe that is sapping the vitals of the oak, the poor parasite, beautiful though it be, will urge in vain the plea of a vested interest! When, to clean the ship's bottom, it becomes necessary to clear away the barnacles, their removal becomes an act of duty, and an outery on their part for compensation would be laughed at! The cool assumption that the existing Reports had no right to exist-that they have flourished at the expense of the Profession and the public--is certainly inimitable. To pursue the illustration already adduced, we ask whether the same might not be said of Mr. DANIEL has he not enriched himself at the expense of the public? He will say that the public have sought his services, and paid for them because they liked them. So we say of the existing Reports-they would not have found buyers if buyers had not derived some advantage from them. Again, Mr. DANIEL will not deny that to give exclusive audience to two favoured leaders in his court would be to create a practical monopoly. If he were one of the two he would doubtless be well pleased; but, if he were not to be chosen, would he not protest against the wrong done to him; and if it was retorted upon him that it was for the advantage of the Profession to create a monopoly, would he not demand compensation? Would he be satisfied to be told, "Mr. DANIEL, you have been enriching yourself for fifteen years at the expense of the public upon the profits of an abuse?" And would he not reply: "You have compensated the Proctors, and several pages in the Blue-books record the compensations to persons who have been deprived of the profits of abuses, and I claim only to be treated with the same equity." And that which Mr. DANIEL would ask for himself in such a case, is that which we claim on behalf of ourselves and our contemporaries in the like case. Mr. DANIEL, in conclusion, enters into a somewhat long inquiry as to the seniority of the reports. This has no bearing upon the point at issue, and it is therefore necessary only to correct one misstatement. Mr. DANIEL says, that when the LAW TIMES introduced the plan of rapid reporting, it was not a novelty, for it was done by the Jurist and by the Legal Observer. As for the latter, it did not profess to report. It consisted only of twenty-four octavo pages of large print, and never gave more than three or four practice cases. The Jurist, though published weekly, did not attempt nor profess to report rapidly. It was little, if at all, in advance of the Law Journal. So impossible was a rapid report then deemed, that, as Mr. DANIEL cites from the introductory address, the LAW TIMES was commenced with no purpose to attempt it; the practicability of a systematic report of all the courts, giving verbatim every written judgment of the common law courts, was an afterthought, and it was brought to completion by slow degrees; indeed, it has been steadily advancing throughout the eighteen years that it has been pursued, experience constantly suggesting improvements, some of which have been introduced within six months, and others are still in progress. Only those who have conducted the experiment from its birth to its maturity can a vast improvement of the present arrangement if they were forbidden to act as such in any place within the circuit to which they belong. It would prevent a great many complaints of favouritism now rife, and which, though doubtless without foundation, are almost as evil in their effects as if they were real. Judges should be beyond susThe Act of last session enacts, that "this sche-picion; if possible, they should not be placed in a dule is to be read as referring to the edition pre- position that lays them open to it. pared under the direction of the Record Commission, command of His Majesty King George the Third, in pursuance of an address of the House of Commons of Great Britain. From original records and authentic manuscripts." The schedule to that Act repeals the Act 21 But the section in "the Statutes of the Realm" If, therefore, the text of the schedule alone is to But the schedule to the Statute Law Revision Act is accompanied by foot-notes which refer to Ruffhead's Edition of the Statutes, and a note to the exception cited states that the excepted sections are sects. 3 and 4 in Ruffhead. The question is, therefore, does this explanation in the note correct the error in the text? Are the notes part of the Act? If they are, the penalty on being found drunk is not repealed; but if the explanatory note is to be cast aside and the text is to be read alone, the section is repealed. Thus then it stands. We are informed that the opinion of the legal advisers of the Home-office is that the section is not repealed. Court of Exchequer has very properly resolved not to sanction a compromise of a matter which affects the Profession. The complainant did not appear to prosecute his complaint. It does not appear what are the charges against him, but they involve "great misconduct," and should either be answered or punished. The proceedings are thus reported : This case stood in the peremptory paper, and when called on no one appeared on either side. The LORD CHIEF BARON said, this is an application against an attorney, an officer of this court. The applica tion is grounded upon great misconduct, disclosed in certain affidavits, which have been most oarefully perused byone of my learned brothers. Very grave charges are made against the attorney which ought to be answered, and, if not answered, ought to be punished. If the charges are not explained, the attorney is a fit subject for a prosecution of some sort. The court will therefore not discharge the rule which has been obtained, neither will it be struck out. If the persons whose duty it is to be here and go on forget their duty, the court will not forget its duty, but take care that such steps are taken as will prevent a private settlement of the proceedings by smothering it, and so getting rid of the matter. A rule like the present shall not be disWe hope posed of at the will of the parties themselves. these remarks will be conveyed to the persons concerned in the rule. We observe that the complainant appeared on the following day, and that a rule was granted. MR. JAMES, the able and energetic manager of MR. T. W. SAUNDERS, the Recorder of Bath, in his the registration for the Liberal party in Middle-charge to the grand jury at the recent Quarter sex, has answered the complaints so loudly made Sessions, submitted to them a very interesting of wholesale objections, by unanswerable argument. comparison of the state of crime in 1861 and 1862. The county franchise consisting in ownership As it explodes some popular fallacies on this sub(with one exception), and not in occupation, cannot ject, we make no apology for giving it entire :be ascertained by mere inspection or inquiry. Any man may claim ownership, and would do so, but for the vigilance exercised by the professional agents in calling upon every new claimant to prove his right to be an elector, and by giving a notice of objection to every doubtful claimant, but withdrawing the objection on reasonable assurance that the claim is valid. The effect of yielding to the demand of the newspapers, that costs should be given whenever an objection fails, would simply be to swamp the register with unqualified elec tors. "There still prevails, I am sorry to say, a strong feeling through the country that we are in a very bad condition as to crime, and that our system of secondary punishments is not effecting its desired object. It is matter for great regret that such an opinion should be entertained, inasmuch as I believe it to be unfounded in fact. For my own part I am satisfied that the state of crime in the country is of the most satisfactory kind, that we are annually getting better off in this respect, that crime is diminishing, and that the area in which crime prevails-the classes among which we find our criminals-is gradually becoming more narrowed and circumAdmitting the necessity of the present trouble-scribed, and that in the last year there were fewer some process so long as the machinery of regis- criminals than ever before. In January last I drew tration remains as it is, we cannot approve Mr. attention to the fact that for a series of years ending JAMES'S scheme for the reform of it. A better one with 1860 there had been a diminution of criminals, presents itself to us, and we should like to have and that that year (1860) presented a smaller amount of crime than any year of which we had any record. the opinion of some of our practical readers upon I also alluded to the fact that in 1861 there was in its fitness to meet the difficulty. It is designed reality no increase of crime when compared with the for the County Registration alone that regis- increase of population. There was something like ter being more permanent than the borough an increase of 1 per cent., but that was in no way registry. equivalent to the increase which took place in the population. I also drew attention to the panic which had seized the public mind as to the increase of the crime of garotting, and expressed my belief that that class of crime would shortly cease. I then, at the beginning of 1863, spoke what I then said, it was not unreasonably anof crime as it presented itself up to 1861. swered, that, though 1861 presented a diminution of crime, 1862 would not do so. We are now in possession of some statistics for the latter year; and from these I gather most satisfactory results. It is true that there has been an increase of crimes committed to the number of 2416 in 1862 over 1861. According to the returns, the number of indictable offences committed in 1860 was 50,809 and in 1862 53,225, showing the increase I have stated. It is of very great importance that we should resort to figures in dealing with this matter, because if persons allow their imagination to range over it without facts to base their consideration on, they are likely to run into all sorts of errors. But if we take the trouble to examine how this increase of crimes is made up, we shall find that half of them were committed in one county alone, viz., in Lancashire, We suggest, then, that the county registration be conducted through the medium of the County Courts. Let it not be done altogether, as now; but let it be perpetually in progress. Permit the elector claiming to be qualified, after notice of his claim posted on the church door, as now, to apply to the County Court judge in open court to be placed upon the register, first proving his qualification. Let none once placed upon the register be removed from it without a notice of objection, stating the grounds of objection, given to him in the same manner as now, to be heard at the County Court of the district within which the qualifying property is situate. Then let the objection be heard, and if proved, let the judge expunge the name. There should be a twofold manner of objecting. It should be open to the objector to prove his objection, failing which, he should not be liable for costs; but he should be permitted also to call upon the registered elector to prove his qualification, as now; but in this case, if he should fail, he should be compelled Το |