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New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.

warrant of commitment, with a memorandum as aforesaid, signed or purporting to be signed by the governor or keeper of the gaol or house of correction from which the young person in question was sent, as hereinbefore provided, accompanied by a statement signed, or purporting to be signed by the manager or superintendent or master or matron of any reformatory or industrial school or other similar institution, that the young person named in such warrant or copy was duly received into and is at the signing thereof detained in such school or institution, or has been otherwise disposed of according to law, shall in all proceedings whatsoever be sufficient evidence of the due conviction and imprisonment, and subsequent detention and identity, of the young person named in such warrant.

9. When any young person has been sentenced under the first-recited act to be detained in any reformatory school, duly certified by the Secretary of State, any person who shall directly or indirectly wilfully withdraw such young person from such school or institution, or induce him or her to abscond therefrom before he or she has been regularly discharged, shall be liable for every such offence to a penalty not exceeding five pounds, to be recovered on summary complaint before any justice of the peace, sheriff, or magistrate, at the instance of any officer of such school or institution, or other person authorised by the directors or managers thereof, and failing payment, the offender may be imprisoned for any period not exceeding sixty days, and such penalty shall be paid over to the treasurer of the institution in which such young person was placed for the general purposes thereof.

10. One of her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, shall, within one calendar month after the passing of this act, cause to be published in the London and Edinburgh Gazettes a list of all reformatory or industrial schools or other similar institutions which have been already certified under the provisions of either of the said recited acts; and whenever such Secretary of State shall at any time hereafter grant a certificate to any new school or institution, he shall, within one calendar month, cause a notice thereof to be published in the said Gazettes, and such publication shall be a sufficient evidence of the fact of such school or institution having been certified to justify any court, judge, sheriff, or magistrate to commit any young person thereto, subject to the provisions of the said recited acts and of this act, and of any other act or acts relating to such schools or institutions; and whenever the Secretary of State shall withdraw or cancel the certificate granted to any school or institution, he shall give notice of such withdrawal in the said Gazettes within one calendar month of the date thereof.

11. It shall be lawful for any justice or justices of the peace in England or Wales, proceeding under this act, or under the said first-recited act, or under the act passed in the last session of Parliament, chapter eighty-seven, for amending the same, to use the forms of conviction and commitment, complaints, summonses, orders, and warrants, set forth in the schedule to this act annexed, so far as the same are applicable to each case.

12. The said recited acts of the 17 and 18 of her present Majesty, and the said act of the 18 and 19 of her reign for amending the same, shall be read as part of this act.

13. The word "court" shall include all persons having authority under the said recited acts or

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7.

8.

Expenses of act how to be defrayed.

Accounts and copy of regulations to be laid before Parliament.

9. Mode of criminal proceeding,

The following are the title, preamble, and sections of the act:

An Act to make further Provision for the Establishment of Savings Banks for Seamen.

[7th July, 1856]. WHEREAS by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, certain powers were given to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt for the purpose of establishing savings banks for seamen: And whereas it has since been found to be expedient that the immediate management and control of such savings banks should be placed in the hands of the Board of Trade: Be it enacted

1. The Board of Trade may establish in London a central savings bank for seamen, together with branch savings banks at such ports and places in the United Kingdom as they may think expedient, and they may receive at such banks deposits from or on account of seamen, or the wives, widows, and children of seamen, so, however, that the aggregate amount of deposit standing at any one time in the name of any one depositor shall not exceed £200.

2. The Board of Trade may constitute any shipping office established under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, a branch savings bank for the purposes of this act, and may require any shipping master belonging to such office to act as agent of the said board in carrying this act into effect, and his duties as such agent shall thereupon be deemed to be part of his duties within the meaning of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854.

3. The Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt may from time to time, on the request of the Board of Trade signified by writing by one of the secretaries or assistant secretaries of such board, receive from her Majesty's Paymaster-General the monies received by the said board as deposits in savings banks established under this act; and may also from time to time, on the like request signified in like manner, repay to her Majesty's PaymasterGeneral to the account of the said board the monies so received by them as aforesaid; and the said

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New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.

commissioners shall invest all monies so received by them as aforesaid in the same manner in which monies received from trustees of savings banks are invested by them, and shall pay to her Majesty's Paymaster-General, to the ac.ount of the Board of Trade, interest upon the monies so received by them as aforesaid so long as the same continue in their hands, at the same rate at which they pay interest for the time being upon the monies received by them from the trustees of savings banks.

4. The Board of Trade may make and from time to time alter such regulations as they may think fit with respect to the persons entitled to become depositors, to the making and withdrawal of deposits, the amount of deposits, the rate and payment of interest, the rights, claims, and obligations of depositors, and with respect to all other matters incidental to carrying this act into execution; and all regulations so made shall be binding on the parties interested in the subject matter thereof to the same extent as if such regulations formed part of this act; and no legal proceeding shall be instituted against the Board of Trade, or against any shipping master or other public officer employed on or about such savings banks, on account of any such regulations, or on account of any act done or left undone in pursuance thereof, or on account of any refusal, neglect, or omission to pay any deposit or interest thereon, unless such refusal, neglect, or omission arise from fraud or wilful misbehaviour on the part of the person against whom proceedings are instituted.

5. All sums of money due from the Board of Trade to the estate of any deceased person entitled to any deposit in any savings bank established under this act shall be paid and applied by such board to the same persons to whom and in the same manner and subject to the same conditions on and subject to which the money and effects of a deceased seaman are payable and applicable under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854.

6. Every person who, for the purpose of obtaining, either for himself or for another, any money deposited in any savings bank established under this act, or any interest thereon, forges, assists in forging, or procures to be forged, or fraudulently alters, assists in fraudulently altering, or procures to be fraudulently altered, any document purporting to show or assist in showing a right to any such money or interest, and every person who for the purpose aforesaid makes use of any such forged or altered document as aforesaid, or who for the purpose aforesaid gives or makes, or procures to be given or made, or assists in giving or making or procuring to be given or made, any false evidence or representation, knowing the same to be false, shall on conviction be punishable with penal servitude for a term not exceeding four years, or with imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding two years, or, if summarily prosecuted and convicted, by imprisonment, with or without hard Jabour, for any period not exceeding six months.

7. The Board of Trade may, out of the interest paid by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt on the monies paid to them under this act, pay any expenses incurred in carrying this act into effect.

8. An annual account of all deposits received and repaid by the Board of Trade under the authority of this act, and of the interest thereon, shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament; and a copy of all regulations made by this board under the autho

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7. Payment of church rates not necessary as a qualification.

8. Rental to be determined by column headed "rateable value."

9. Regulation of meetings of vestries constituted by 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120.

10. Section 144, of 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, declared to extend to authorise applications to Parliament for providing parks, &c.

11. District boards and vestries empowered to take ground to be maintained as an open space or pleasure ground.

12. Recited act and this act to be as one.

The following are the title, preamble, and sections of this act :

An Act to amend the Act of the last Session of Parliament, Chapter One Hundred and Twenty, for the better Local Management of the Metropolis. [29th July 1856).

WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the act of the last session of Parliament, chapter 120, "For the better Local Management of the Metropolis," as herein-after mentioned: be it therefore enacted:

1. Where at the time of the passing of the said act the power of making church rates or rates in the nature of church rates in any parish was vested in any open vestry, or in any meeting in the nature of an open vestry meeting, or in any meeting of the parishioners, inhabitants, or ratepayers generally, or of such of the parishioners, inhabitants, or ratepayers as were rated at or above any specified amount or value (whether such vestry or meeting were holden for the parish at large or for any liberty or other district therein), such power shall not be deemed to have become vested in the vestry constituted in such parish under the said act, but shall be exercised as if the said act had not been passed: Provided always, that this act shall not

New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.

affect any such rate made before the passing thereof by any such vestry as last aforesaid.

2- Nothing in the said act or this act shall affect or be deemed to have affected any power of electing

or

appointing churchwardens or making church rates, or other power which, at the time of the passing of the said act, was vested in any such open vestry or meeting as aforesaid, or any elected or other vestry, where such vestry or meeting acts exclusively for any district (by whatever denomination distinguished) created for ecclesiastical purposes only.

3. Save as herein-before otherwise provided, all the duties, powers, and privileges (including such as relate to the affairs of the church, or the management or relief of the poor, or the administration of any money or other property applicable to the relief of the poor), which might have been performed or exercised by any open or elected or other vestry or any such meeting as aforesaid in any parish, under any local act or otherwise, at the time of the passing of the said act of the last session, shall be deemed to have become transferred to and vested in the vestry constituted by such last-mentioned act; except so far as any such duties, powers, or privileges may in the case of a parish included in any district mentioned in schedule (B.) to the said act be vested by section ninety thereof in the Board of Works of such district: provided that all duties and powers relating to the affairs of the church, or the management or relief of the poor, or the administration of any money or other property applicable to the relief of the poor, which at the time of the passing of the said act were vested in or might be exercised by any guardians, governors, trustees, or commissioners, or any body other than any open or elected or other vestry, or any such meeting as herein-before mentioned, shall continue vested in and be exercised by such guardians, governors, trustees, or commissioners or other body as aforesaid.

4. It shall be lawful for any person occupying any tenement within any parish to claim to be rated to the relief of the poor in respect thereof in the rate for the time being, and in all rates to be thereafter made in respect of such tenement, whether the landlord be or be not liable to be rated to the relief of the poor in respect thereof; and upon such occupier so claiming, by notice in writing left at the office or place of residence of the overseers of the poor of the parish, or one of them, and actually paying or tendering at such office or place of residence the full amount of the last made rate then payable in respect of such premises, such overseers are hereby required to put the name of such occupier on the rate for the time being, and also, without further claim, to put his name upon every subsequent rate made during the time such occupier continues in the occupation of the same premises; and in case the said overseers neglect or refuse so to do, such occupier shall nevertheless, for the purposes of the said act, be deemed to have been rated to the said rate in respect of such premises, from the period at which the rate for the time being in respect of which he so claimed to be rated as aforesaid was made, and thenceforth so long as he continues in the occupation of the same premises: provided always, that every person so claiming as aforesaid shall in respect of every rate for the relief of the poor made after such claim as aforesaid, while he continues to occupy the same premises,

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be liable to the same extent and in the same manner as if his name had been put on such rate.

5. Provided also, that in cases where, by any composition with the landlord, a less sum is payable than the full amount of rate which, except for such composition, would be due in respect of the same premises, the occupier claiming to be rated shall not be bound to pay or tender more than the amount then payable under such composition: provided also, that where, by virtue of any Act of Parliament, the landlord is liable to the payment of the rate for the relief of the poor in respect of any premises occupied by his tenant, nothing herein contained shall be deemed to vary or discharge the liability of such landlord; but in case the tenant who has been rated for such premises in consequence of any such claim as aforesaid make default in the payment of the rate for the relief of the poor payable in respect thereof, such landlord shall be and remain liable for the payment thereof, in the same manner as if he alone had been rated in respect of the premises so occupied by his tenant.

6. Any occupier who under this act is rated or deemed to be rated to the relief of the poor in any parish, and has been so rated or deemed to be rated for one year next before any election of vestrymen or auditors under the said act, shall be entitled to vote in such election, and shall for the purposes of the said act be deemed a ratepayer of such parish, and be entitled to act as such, provided all parochial rates, taxes, and assessments, save and except church rates, due in respect of the same premises at the time of his so voting or acting, except such as have been made or become due within six months immediately preceeding such voting or acting, have been paid; but such occupier shall not be deemed to be a ratepayer so as to gain a settlement where he would not have gained a settlement if this act had not been passed.

7. The provision in section sixteen of the said act requiring all parochial rates, taxes, and assessments (except as therein excepted) to have been paid shall not be taken to include church rates.

8. And whereas by the 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 96 "To Regulate Parochial Assessments," it is required that every rate for the relief of the poor shall, in addition to any other particular which the form of making out such rate shall require to be set forth, contain an account of every particular set forth at the head of the respective columns in the form given in the schedule to that act annexed, so far as the same can be ascertained, and in the form in the said schedule are two columns headed respectively "Gross estimated Rental" and "Rateable Value :" and whereas by the said act it is required that in order to qualify a person to be elected a vestryman or auditor he should be rated to the relief of the poor upon a rental of such amount as therein mentioned; and whereas doubts are entertained which of the amounts speciûed in the said two columns is to be deemed the "Rental" for the purposes of the last-mentioned act:

The amount specified in the said column headed "Rateable Value" shall be deemed the "Rental" for the purposes of the last-mentioned act.

9. Every meeting of any vestry constituted by the said act of the last session, of which and of the special purpose whereof notice is now by law required to be affixed on or near the principal doors of the churches and chapels within the parish, may be convened by transmitting through the post or

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otherwise notice, signed by the clerk to the vestry, to each vestryman, at his usual or last known place of abode in England, of the place and hour of holding the same, and the special purposes thereof, three days before the day appointed for such meeting and also by affixing at the same time notice thereof on or near the door of any building where the said meeting is to be holden, and it shall not be necessary that notice of any such meeting shall be further or otherwise signed or published.

10. And whereas doubts are entertained whether the provision in section 144 of the said act of the last session, authorising the Metropolitan Board of Works, where it appears to them that further powers are required for the purpose of any work for the improvement of the metropolis or public benefit of the inhabitants thereof, to make applications to Parliament for that purpose, and providing that the expenses of such application may be defrayed as other expenses of the said board, extends to authorise applications to Parliament by such board for powers for providing parks, pleasure grounds, places of recreation, and open spaces, and it is expedient to remove such doubts: the powers given to the said board to make applications to Parliament, and the provision for the expenses of such application, extend respectively to applications to Parliament for the purpose of providing parks, pleasure grounds, places of recreation, and, open spaces for the improvement of the metropolis or the public benefit of the inhabitants thereof, and to the expenses of all such applications.

11. Any district board or vestry may take, by agreement or gift, any land or any right or easement in or over land, for any estate or interest therein, and on such terms and conditions as they may think fit, for the purpose of such land being either kept as an open space or being kept and maintained as a pleasure ground for the public benefit of the inhabitants of the district or parish; but this enactment shall not authorise any expenditure to be defrayed by rates, except for the purpose of enclosing, maintaining, planting, and otherwise improving the same.

12. The said act of the last session and this act shall be construed together as one act.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS,

A Treatise on the Principles of Equity. By JOHN SIDNEY SMITH, Esq., Barrister-at-law. Maxwell; Sweet; and Stevens and Norton, 1856. THE practitioners of the Courts of Chancery are in possession of various books of practice, more or less full and complete, published within the last few years; but a work on the principles of equity was required both by the practitioner and the student. This desideratum has been ably supplied by Mr. Sidney Smith, who, it will be recollected, was an eminent sworn clerk of the Court of Chancery, and in 1845, a few years after the abolition of the six clerks' office, was called to the bar. The learned gentleman has arranged the materials of his valuable volume in the following order :

The first book comprises.

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7. Tenants for Life, and Others as to Apportionment, Income, Incumbrances, and Renewals. 8. Performance and Satisfaction of Covenants. The Third Book relates to

1. Intestacy, Donatio Mortis Causa, Domicil, Statute of Distributions.

2. As to Testamentary Dispositions.

3. Partial Intestacy, and the Doctrine of Lapse, 4. Conversion and Election.

5. Administration of Assets, Debts. 6, Ditto.

Legacies,

7. Administration of Assets. Interest on Debts and Legacies, Marshalling Assets and Refunding. In the Fourth Book, the following subjects are considered:

1. Equities between Persons in a Fiduciary Character, or arising from their Relationship.

2. Rights of, and Equities between, Persons who have entered into Contracts or Agreements. Mortgagor and Mortgagee.

3. Rights of, and Equities between, Persons who have entered into Contracts or Agreements. Vendor and Purchaser.

4. Rights of, and Equities between, Persons who have entered into Contracts or Agreements. Partners, and Partners and Third Parties, 5. Contribution.

6. Rights of, and Equities between, Husband and Wife.

All these topics of Equity Doctrine and Jurisdiction have been comprehensively treated, and we doubt not that the work will be peculiarly useful to the students of both branches of the profession.

The following is an extract from Mr. Smith's

1. The Nature of Equity and the Early History Preface, describing his object in thus presenting a

of the Court of Chancery.

2. Discovery.

summary of the Principles of Equity as now administered in the Court of Chancery :

Notices of New Books-Law Amendment Society.

"Although the title of the work is 'Principles of Equity,' the object proposed by the author is an elucidation of the working of the system as applicable to the every-day practice of the barrister's chambers and the solicitor's office. His aim has been, while adapting his treatise to the requirements of the student, by giving him an outline of the system in a concise and readable shape, at the same time to afford to the man in practice the means of ascertaining at a glance the present state of equity jurisprudence as altered by recent statutes and the latest decisions of the court."

Topics of Jurisprudence connected with Conditions of Freedom and Bondage. By JOHN C. HURD, Counsellor of Law, U. S. New York: Van Nostrand. HAVING received this and other works from our American brethren, we are bound to give a brief notice of their contents, especially on a subject which, at the present time, peculiarly agitates the United States, and the progress of which must also be highly interesting in our own country. Mr. Hurd observes in his introduction to the work that—

"It is not probable that readers will be found for these pages unless among two classes of persons. One being those who, by constitution of mind and previous studies, are inclined to that branch of speculation which Chancellor D'Aguesseau, in the first uolume of his works (p. 449), calls the metaphysics of jurisprudence, and recommends as a preliminary study for the practical lawyer. There cannot in any country be many whose studies have taken this direction. Such persons are not numerous even in the ranks of the professors and practitioners of legal science. And it would only be in accordance with the prevailing assertions of the tendency of the minds of Americans to subjects of immediately practical use, to say that such persons are more rarely to be found in this than in some other countries of a corresponding degree of intellectual culture. However, whether this is so or not, there are some reasons for believing that the systematic exposition of the elementary principles of legal science is likely to receive increased attention in England and America. It is hoped that some of those whose inquiries have been directed to this subject, may find an interest in the attempt made in these two chapters to state in a consistent form some of the most elementary and abstract principles of jurisprudence, and that the citations given may serve to make more known the works of some European authors, which will be found valuable aids in pursuing this branch of study.

"The other class of persons, among whom it is hoped some will be found to take an interest in the subject of these chapters, is certainly far more numerous:those who wish to examine those legal questions arising out of the existence of domestic slavery in some of the States of the American Union, which may affect the rights and obligations of the inhabitants of the other States. The importance of these questions at the present time it is unnecessary to enlarge upon. In the following pages it is attempted to state only the most elementary and abstract principles necessary to be established in making a legal examination of the questions, so far as it is possible to do so without making any reference to the fundamental principles of law peculiar to this country. The attempt thus to state, by themselves, and apart from any illustration by actual cases, a connected

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system of abstract principles of law applicable to a subject of practical importance, is certainly attended with some difficulty. A discussion, however, which should not be based on some principles admitted by all who may take part in it, would be a logical absurdity; and whatever may be the success of the effort here made in that direction, it cannot but be admitted to be a reasonable endeavour.

"Some of the practical questions whose solution is connected with the accurate determination of the principles indicated in these chapters, will suggest themselves to every reader. And although it is herein intended only to state principles, and ascertain some general rules, without applying them to any of the questions now before the American public, it may give an interest to such abstract discussion to suggest some of those questions to whose examination these inquiries are supposed to be preliminary. The two chapters here offered being intended to be introductory to the consideration of such questions in a treatise, which may be entitled, A View of the Laws of Freedom and Bondage in the United States, the contents of the chapters under which the subject will be distributed will, therefore, be here briefly described. It being premised that the view taken will be a purely legal one, that is, entirely distinct from all ethical and political considerations. The two chapters here given will constitute an Elementary or General Part."

The work is ably written, and displays great research into all the authorities bearing on the subjects under consideration.

LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.

ANNUAL REPORT.

WE consider it expedient that our readers should be made acquainted with the further projects of law reform, suggested by this society. The following is extracted from the report of the council made at a general meeting held on the 3rd instant.

"The council, in meeting the society on the first occasion which has brought them together for the present session, are anxious to make a few remarks on the subjects likely to occupy the attention of law reformers for the next few months. They are not to be understood, in the ensuing paragraphs, as in any way binding down or anticipating the opinion of the society; they have merely endeavoured to sketch the probable operations of the session, and where they have expressed themselves more positively they have done so in the full confidence that their opinions have already received the assent of those whom they represent here.

"Minister of Justice. The subject which must first and most prominently command attention is that of the necessity that exists, and is now felt more and more every year, for establishing a separate department of justice, charged not only with the due administration of our law, but with its constant revision and amendment. The society has frequently called attention to the urgent need for establishing such a department, and to the best mode of meeting the exigency; the council trust that they will continue to press the subject on government, the legislature, and the public at large, and that above all every effort will be made to support Mr. Napier, when he renews his motion in the House of Commons, for the appointment of a

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