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Weekly Appreciation.

MAY 16th, 1911.

I

Dear Sirs,-With reference to my subscription to "The Laws of England," I have much pleasure in assuring you that I have found those parts of the work which are already issued of the greatest possible assistance to me in my practice as a Chancery Barrister. have had occasion to consult the work almost every day, and I have never yet done so without finding an accurate statement of the law upon the subject which I am considering. Lord Halsbury's work has done a great deal to lighten the labours of those whose business it is to find out the law upon points which are not of every-day occurrence. You are welcome to make what use you like of this letter, provided you do not publish my name.-FROM A WELL-KNOWN BARRISTER IN

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Vol. CXXXI.-No. 3556.

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HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. KING'S BENCH DIVISION WAKE (app) V. DYER (resp.).Market-Protection of-Sale by agent-Unauthorised and contrary to instructions - Liability of principal................ 448

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (app.) v. WITKOWSKI (resp.).— Infant- Moneylending circularSend and cause to be sent-Knowledge.............................

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PROBATE, DIVORCE, AND ADMIBALTY DIVISION. DIVORCE BUSINESS. RUCK. RUCK AND CROFT.-Divorce PleasConnivance Conduct conducing to adultery-EvidenceCross-examination of respondent... 462 Lv. L-Divorce-Restitution of conjugal rights-Alimony---Subsequent petition for judicial separation-Decree-Permanent alimony -Conduct of wife

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PARLIAMENTARY SUMMARY.- Topics 84
FOREIGN LAW. - Women and

Children's Courts in France
CRIMINAL LAW AND THE JURISDIO-
TION OF MAGISTRATES.—Topics-
What Do Prisoners Read?
COUNTY COURTS.-Sittings of the
Cour.8........

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. — Anglo-
American Arbitration - Beirs-at-
Law and Next of Kin-App›int-
ments under the Joint Stock
Winding-up Acts-Creditors under
Estates in Chancery - Creditors
under 22 & 28 Vict. c. 35
PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS ......
LAW SOCIETIES.-Hardwicke Society:
Ladies' Night Debate; Women's
Suffrage Medico-Legal Society:
National Insurance Against Sick-
Dess-United Law Society-The
CORRESPONDENCE

87

91 92

92

NOTES AND QUERIES..................... 92
LAW STUDENTS' JOURNAL.-The Law
Society: Preliminary Examination,
May
THE COURTS AND COURT PAPERS.—
Bota of Registrars-Circuits of
the Judges: Summer Assizes......... 93
THE GAZETTES...................................................................000
23
BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND Dhatus ... 94

The Law and the Lawyers.

RECENT events have accentuated the fact that legislation with regard to aerial navigation is eminently desirable, and we are glad that the Government is introducing a short interim Bill for the purpose of preventing the use of flying machines over London during the Coronation processions. This measure, which will naturally only be of a temporary nature, and will only deal with one point out of many which must in the near future come under the attention of our legislators, will prevent what might give rise to danger of a very serious description. Of course there is always the risk of one of these machines causing serious and direct injury to life and limb, but in the case of densely packed erowds the danger also exists of crushing and panic arising, not merely from an accident, but from mere curiosity and excitement. More considered legislation on the whole subject will doubtless be introduced at no distant period, and it is to be hoped that the interim Bill will be treated as uncontroversial matter and speedily pass through both Houses.

SOMETHING will have to be done to frame a code of regulations alike for keeping, using, and identifying all forms of air machines, and a rule of the road for the air will be requisite to afford additional safety alike to aeronauts and to those below them who may be endangered by their proceedings. Two or three years ago

we drew attention to these evils, and now that we have it stated that there are something like 1500 certified airmen, and some 4000 pupiis preparing for certificates, the time is certainly approaching when legislation must settle questions of air rights of way and other legal principles formulated in days when aeroplanes were never conceived as possible. The time may shortly be expected when the opposition which greeted the railway, the bicycle, and the motor will be transferred to the aeronaut, and Parliament will be urged to throw legislative obstacles in the way of a new invention the effect of which may yet revolutionise all our present ideas of locomotion.

As the law at present exists, no doubt there is a wide distinction legally between gifts of money and kind widely distributed throughout . constituency for the purpose of relieving distress and the same acts done for the purpose of influencing voters in favour of the donor. In such cases the motive in the mind of the giver is the essential point and not the effect on the minds of the recipients, but, at the same time, the disclosures made at the hearing of some of the election petitions which have already been disposed of show that the law as it now exists is in considerable need of amendment. Of course one loyally accepts the finding of the two learned judges who heard the East Nottingham petition, which entirely exonerated Captain MORRISON from any attempt to corrupt his constituency, but it would certainly be a decided step forward towards obtaining electoral purity if extensive relief at the hands of members or candidates in their constituencies was absolutely prohibited, as well as relieving uch members and candidates from heavy and, in a sense, compulsory drains upon their purses.

THERE are two other matters to which we desire to refer. In the first place, the Public Prosecutor is represented at the hearing of all election petitions, but the only tangible result of the presence of his representative seems to be that his costs are asked for, successfully or otherwise. The disclosures at at least two of the petitions that have been heard this year show that immediate action to place the criminal law in motion was eminently desirable, and it ought to be the duty of the Public Prosecutor to intervene immediately in those matters, for it can hardly be expected that the petitioners or respondents should put their hands in their pockets for the purpose of vindicating the law. It certainly looks as if the troops of liars who have filed in and out of the witness-hox during the past few months and have obtained money for their mendacious stories were to go unpunished, and, unless serious notice is taken of cases of this kind and prosecutions instituted, there is little doubt that this form of earning a living will thrive extensively. The other matter to which we desire to refer is the advisability of appointing three judges to try these petitions. Notwithstanding a very few isolated cases, everyone will agree that our judges have proved the best possible tribunal for trying these political issues, and have discharged their duties satisfactorily and impartially. At the same time, it is only right that there should be a definite determination by a majority, and that the parties should not have to accept the decision of one judge where the tribunal is equally divided.

CONSIDERABLE discussion has taken place, at any rate in the North of England, with reference to the sale of milk regulations and the presumptive standard therein set up. It has been put forward, and that with a considerable amount of proof, that the liability of milk, as taken from the cow, to fall below the presumptive 3 per cent. of butter fat is well known in some districts and occurs even although the cows have been liberally fed. It is suggested that the presumptive standard should be lowered to 2 75 of fat, and that other steps should

be taken to protect the farmer where the milk is sold as it comes from the cow. It must not be forgotten, however, that the present presumption only deals with the onus of proof, but as against this, as a correspondent of the Times recently pointed out, "the onus of proof that is thrown on the on the milk producer when the analyst's certificate is against him can be satisfied in no other way than by the unsupported testimony of himself and his employés; and in practice magistrates have been suspicious of such evidence." Although in matters of this kind it is clearly necessary that the public must have the fullest possible protection, a public inquiry instituted by the Board of Agriculture would do much to allay the sense of injustice that is felt by a large number of the farmers in the North.

THE aeroplane fatality which resulted in the death of M. BERTEAUX, the French Minister for War, and incapacitated the Prime Minister, M. MONIS, raises a constitutional question which, we believe, is without precedent in France. From appearances it would seem that M. MONIS will not be able to attend to State affairs for some time, but whether President FALLIÈRES will name a successor is a matter more for the consideration of the political than the legal writer. There have been occasions when the Premier of France for the time being has had to abandon for a short time his duties. The case of the President of the Republic, M. FALLIÈRES, may be cited. In the beginning of 1883, when Président du Conseil des Ministres (Premier) and Minister of Public Instruction, he was taken ill at the tribune of the Chamber, and was laid aside for some little time, his place being taken temporarily by M. PAUL DEVÈS, the garde des sceaux, but there has never happened an occasion when the first Minister has been laid aside, entailing a prolonged absence, simultaneously with so important an office as that of Minister of War being vacant. At the present moment the Department of War especially demands a head, in view of the important operations now being carried on in Morocco. It may be added that M. ANTOINE EMMANUEL ERNEST MONIS is a lawyer, an avocat of the Court of Appeal at Bordeaux. He is a native of Chateauneauf-sur-Charente, and was born sixty-five years ago. He first made his mark as Minister of Justice in the WaldeckRousseau Cabinet in 1889 to 1902, when he was also VicePresident of the Senate. He became Premier in February last after the downfall of M. BRIAND'S Cabinet. The death of M. BERTEAUX does not affect the representation of law in the Cabinet of twelve, eight members of which belong to the Legal Profession.

TENANTS' REPAIRS TO ANCIENT HOUSES. THE meaning to be attached to lessees' covenants to repair is no easy task to define, and the difficulty is greatly augmented when it is necessary to consider the circumstances of old age and natural decay in connection with the premises concerned. It has always been the natural course to turn to Gutteridge v. Munyard for the law as to the operation and effect of repairing covenants where ancient buildinge are concerned, but, even at this initial step, warnings of complexities are to be found, for the reports in 1 Moo. & R. 334 and 7 C. & P. 129 contain remarkable discrepancies. The dictum of Chief Justice Tindal, if rightly reported, to the effect that "what the natural operation of time flowing on effects, and all that the elements bring about in diminishing the value, constitute a loss, which, so far as it results from time and nature, falls upon the landlord," is one upon which much doubt has been thrown by a long catena of subsequent cases, and it must now be regarded, after the decision in Lurcott v. Wakeley and Wheeler (104 L. T. Rep. 290; (1911) 1 K. B. 905) as an expression of judicial opinion upon which no future reliance can be placed. It goes too far as it stands, but it may be narrowed down to this: that given an old house which becomes during a tenancy worse by lapse of time and the attrition of the elements, though still habitable, the resultant loss falls on the landlord. Thus attenuated it is clear from the observations of Cozens-Hardy, M.R. that the Court of Appeal would accept the statement as binding. They would not, however, support the view that the tenant is liable for nothing due to time and weather. In the event of an cld chimney-stack collapsing under the pressure of a

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winter gale, a tenant cannot say that repairing covenants of the ordinary type would not involve him in an obligation to repair, if the same were susceptible of repair, and to replace it by a new erection. were no such reinstatement feasible. Again, an old floor worn out by age, must, under a tenant's repairing covenant, be repaired or renewed, and in this case there is direct authority in Proudfoot v. Mart (63 L. T. Rep. 171; 25 Q. B. Div. 42).

The principles above mentioned were much discussed in Lurcott v. Wakeley and Wheeler (ubi sup.), and the facts there turned on the covenant by a tenant to substantially repair and keep in thorough repair and condition" and so deliver up a London house some 200 years old. It was one of a row, and upon the quondam garden there had been erected a workshop, the walls of which were bonded into those of the house. The plaintiff, as assignee of the reversion expectant on the lease, sued the defendants, assignees of the lease, claiming to recover the sum of £256 which they had expended in demolishing a certain piece of wall in accordance with a notice under the London Building Acts 1894 and 1898. The defendants urged, as already intimated, that the condition of danger was not due to any default of theirs, but was occasioned by the natural effect of time and original defects in construction.

In this special case it must be noted that the facts showed that the work to be done did not amount to a rebuilding of the whole house. This question of degree is highly important, for it differentiates the decision against the tenant in Lurcott v. Wakeley and Wheeler (ubi sup) from cases such as Wright v. Lawson (68 J. P. 34), where the landlord was virtually asking for a new bay window of 8 pattern vastly improved on that criginally demised.

Torrens v. Walker (95 L. T. Rep. 409; (1906) 2 Ch. 166) was an instance where the lessor was subjected to the repairing covenant, and, in that case, the premises had been allowed to fall by ignorance into such a condition that repair was impossible. The building was again some two centuries old, and was subject to a demolition order under the London Building Act 1894. Mr. Justice Warrington held that the lessor was not compelled to rebuild under a covenant to repair. This case turned largely on a wall, and was naturally much debated in Lurcott v. Wakely and Wheeler (ubi_sup.), and the distinction between the two cases seems to be one of degree. The earlier case was one in which upon the facts the wall concerned formed practically the whole external skin of the structure, the house being situated at the corner of two streets forming an acute angle. In the more recent case the facts showed that the wall was a subsidiary and fractional part of the whole, and it was treated on much the same lines as though the complaint had turned on a foor or chimney stack.

Lister v. Lane and Nesham (69 L. T. Rep. 176; (1893) 2 Q. B. 212) was again a distinguishable case, for the house in question was built on obsolete lines on a timber cill and virtually had no foundations at all. The timber rested on 17ft. of mud and in course of time perished, and no repairs were practical. The question arose whether a covenant to repair covered the necessity to underpin to a depth of 17ft. and build eome permanent brick structure from a more solid basis to the house. The Court of Appeal determined that this was a change of circumstances so complete that the parties could not have contemplated such works as coming within the ambit of a repairing covenant. The mere statement of facts differentiates so curious a case as this from the more usual facts brought to light in Lurcott v. Wakeley and Wheeler (ubi sup.).

What happened in this latter case did not bring about so complete a revolution in the character of the subject-matter of the lease. It was in effect a restoration of some 24ft. in the front of a building which wet back (taking into calculation the more modern workshop) some 100ft., and it could not be validly claimed that the character or nature of the building underwent material change. In one sense the decision comes as a direct help in construing these difficult covenants to repair, but in another sense it only throws more light on the spot where the difficulties lie, for it shows us that questions of repairs are questions of degree in every instance, and the test is whether the act to be done is substantially the renewal or the replacement of a part or the renewal or the replacement of the whole. As buildings do not usually collapse as a whole, and rarely fail to need some attention in a part, there is still room for a long line of useful decisions to delimit this vague boundary of degree between the two. One thing is certain, and that is that though age and the special faots of a building mey qualify to some extent a tenant's heavy responsibilities under covenants to repair, they are not going under the present legislative conditions to relieve him to any very material extent. If a man chooses to take an old house and enter into these obligations, he has undertaken a heavy burden, and it is a matter of considerable good luck if it does not in the end gall his shoulders.

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Second Sheet.

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IRISH NOTES.

THE provisions of the Town Tenants (Ireland) Act have not been extended to England. The Irish Act was passed for the purpose of mitigating the hardship of the common law, which was felt to be barsh upon tenants as regards improvements to house property and shops. The Aot enables compensation for improvements and for loss of goodwill to be awarded in certain cases. In a recent case (Cassidy v. McMahon) which came before the Lord Chief Baron, he discussed a number of points under the Act, and he seemed to suggest that in certain particulars the Act was rather oppressive as regards landlords. A tenant had been called upon by a sanitary authority to make certain sanitary improvements on the premises. These improvements were executed by the tenant. Subsequently the landlord asked him to pay an increased rent, and, on his refusal, evicted him. The tenant claimed compensation for the improvements that he had made; and it was held that as the improvements were made after the passing of the Act, and as the statutory notice calling upon the landlord to make the improvements himself had not been served, the tenant was not entitled to any compensation. It was held, however, further that the making of the improvements could be taken into consideration in the assessment of damages for loss of goodwill. In the particular case a sum of £150 was awarded in respect of the latter class of improvement.

WHAT is a "common gaming-house" within the meaning of sect. 4 of the Gaming Act 1815? That section imposes a penalty upon the owner or keeper of any common gaming-house, and sect. 1 provides that it shall be sufficient to prove that such house is kept for playing therein at any unlawful game when the chances of any game played therein are not alike favourable to all the players, including among the players the banker or other players by whom the game is managed. These sections came before the court recently in the case of Monroe v. Kelly. The defendant kept an "American Bazaar" in which there was a "wheel of fortune." This consisted of a large wooden wheel rotating freely on an axis when set in motion, and its circumference was divided into forty-eight equal-sized compartments, each numbered from one to forty eight respectively, and from the centre of the wheel a pointer extended revolving in the opposite direction to that of the wheel. When both came to rest, after having been rotated, the pointer pointed to one of the forty-eight numbers. The defendant disposed of various miscellaneous articles, such as cheap watches, plated mugs, bowls, and the like, by means of this "wheel of fortune." He sold, at the price of 1d. apiece, twenty-four tickets, each bearing upon it two different numbers between one and forty-eight, and he gave one of the aforementioned articles as a prize to the holder of the ticket which bore the number at which the pointer stopped. When one article had thus been disposed of, he proceeded with other articles. It was held by the court that the person who was carrying on business in this way was the owner or keeper of a common gaming-house, and the justices were directed to convict.

THE jurors of Belfast, who are called upon to serve very often, complain very bitterly as to the system that at present exists as to the striking of the panel. Sect. 19 of the Act of 1871 provides that the sheriff in selecting the jurors must take the names from the general jurors' book in a regular alphabetical series, by returning one name for each letter, beginning with the first letter, and so proceeding regularly through all the letters of the alphabet from first to last as often as might be necessary, and so far as the number of names in each letter would admit, until a sufficient number of names had been placed on the panel. In preparing any subsequent panel the sheriff must commence with the letter next following that from which the last name in the preceding panel was taken, and must proceed in like manner from the list, taking the names of the persons not already summoned during the current year or two preceding years. The effect of this section is said to be that the sheriff has to come back upon the list of jurors as alphabetically arranged in the jurors' book. and to summon practically the same persons for three years, with the result that a great many names at the end of the popular letters escape. It is said that, for example, almost seven hundred persons whose names commence with "M" were never reached, and never could be reached, while this section remains in its present form on the statute-book. A committee which has been appointed in Belfast recommends such a change in sect. 19 as will render liable for service within the statutory period every qualified juror in the jury list irrespective of the initial letter of his surname. It is also recommended that there should be a provision compelling husbands who have the necessary qualifications to serve notwithstanding that their wives are the rated occupiers. It has been arranged to submit these proposals to the various judges of assize.

THE King's Bench Division had under consideration recently seet. 9 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1908 in Rex (Blackrock Urban District Council) v. Macinerney. This section corresponds more or less with sect. 8 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1903, and it provides that where proceedings are taken by a local authority under sect. 32 of the Act of 1890 for the purpose of causing a dwelling-house to be closed, the court, in addition to or instead of making an order under that section, may order euch dwel ing house to be demolished unless it can be rendered fit for human habitation. In the Blackrock case a person had been summoned under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts 1890 to 1908, and an order was

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made prohibiting the using of the premises in question for the purpose of human habitation until they should be rendered fit for that purpose. Nothing was done by the owner in pursuance of that order, and accordingly he was served with another summons calling upon him to show cause why an order should not be made ordering the premises to be demolished unless they should be rendered fit for human habitation. This summons came on before Mr. Macinerney, one of the divisional justices, and he decided that the proceeding was identical with that heard and adjudicated upon previously. Accordingly the magistrate declined jurisdiction on the ground that the matter was res judicata. On an application by the urban district council for a writ of mandamus, it was argued that the magistrate on the first occasion had declined to make a demolition order, and that Mr. Macinerney had no jurisdiction to make a second order based in reality upon the first proceeding. The court decided that there was no reason why the two orders-namely, the order declaring the houses unfit for human habitation and the demolition order-should be made at the same time. The first order merely declared the houses unfit for human habitation. The order that was asked for on the second occasion was an order for the demolition of the houses.

COMMENTS ON CASES.

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By sect. 61, No. VI., of the Income Tax Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 35), allowances are to be made in respect of the duties in sched. A to that Aot "on the rents and profits of lands, tenements, bereditaments, or heritages belonging to any hospital, public school, or almshouse, or vested in trustees for charitable purposes, so far as the same are applied to charitable purposes.' The important question raised in the recent case of Rex v. Special Commissioners of Income Tax; Ex parte Essex Hall (noted post, p. 79) was whether a corporation whose objects were admitted to be charitable, and in whom, therefore, land was vested as trustees for charitable purposes, was entitled to the allowances in respect of property not let, but in its own occupation, and consequently not productive of rent. It was decided by the Divisional Court (Lord Alverstone, C.J. and Mr. Justice Hamilton, Mr. Justice Avory dissentiente) that whether such trustees are in occupation or not of such property they are entitled to the allowances. But the Court of Appeal, adopting the view taken by the dissentient judge, came to the conclusion that the allowances could only be claimed in a case where trustees for charitable purposes let their property to a tenant and received rents and profits in respect of such letting, which rents and profits were applied to charitable purposes. This decision is in accordance with that of Court of Session in the Scotch case of Maughan v. Trustees of the Free Church of Scotland (30 Sc. L. Rep. 666; 20 Rettie, 759; 3 Tax Cas. 207), where it was held that the Assembly Hall, Mound-place, Edinburgh, of the Free Church of Scotland, was not entitled to exemption from income tax, not because its purposes were not charitable, but because the property was unlet and the exemption only applied to income. The contention urged on behalf of the charitable corporation in the present case was that the meaning of "profits was something more than rente," and included beneficial occupation of property, that being a profit in itself. As was said by Mr. Justice Farwell (as he then was) in the case of Bond v. Barrow Haematite Steel Company Limited (86 L. T. Rep. 10; (1902) 1 Ch. 353), there is no single definition of the word 'profits' which will fit all cases." But whether or not beneficial occupation of property may in certain circumstances be regarded in the same light as " profits," it would be reading it as equivalent to annual value" when used in the clause in question-an impossible result. It is noticeable that, in the court of first instance, both Lord Alverstone, C.J. and Mr. Justice Hamilton, while agreeing that Maughan v. Trustees of the Free Church of Scotland (ubi sup.) was technically indistinguishable from the case before them, treated it as having to be considered in the light of the more recent decision of the House of Lords in London County Council v. Attorney-General (83 L. T. Rep. 605; (1911) A. C. 26). So treated, their Lordships were of opinion that the Scotch case could not now be supported if it was supposed to lay down that the beneficial occupation of property for charitable purposes did not entitle the occupiers to the allowances under sect. 61, No. VI., of the Act of 1842. The Court of Appeal, on the other hand, did not think that the decision of the House had in any way affected the decision in the Sootch case. "There is no inference to be drawn," said Lord Justice Kennedy, "from the reasoning or the decision of the House of Lords which detracts from or modifies the value of the authority of the Scotch case." Although the conclusion thus arrived at by the Court of Appeal was adverse to the claim of the charitable corporation, it was come to with "extreme reluctance," in the words of Lord Justice Buckley, leading, as it does, to results which seemed to his Lordship to be "incongruous and improbable." The learned judge gave this as an illustration: "Suppose that trustees for charitable purposes, being the owners of Blackacre, demise it for a term of years to a lessee who pays a rent, and that the trustees prove that the rent is applied to charitable purposes, they will be entitled to allowance. Suppose that upon the expiration of that lease the trustees cannot find a new tenant; that they go into occupation of the land themselves, and farm it for the time being, and use the proceeds" for charitable purposes, they " will be assessable on the annual value and can claim no allowance." Such a conclusion, as his Lordship remarked, "is repugnant to common sense." It seems, therefore, to call for legislative intervention.

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OCCASIONAL NOTES.

To-day (Saturday) being appointed for the celebration of the King's Birthday, the courts will not sit.

Short causes and petitions in Mr. Justice (Warrington's list returnable for to-day (Saturday) will be in the list on Tuesday next.

Judgment will be given in Conservators of Mitcham Common v. Cox and Same v. Cole (Crown Paper) on Tuesday next.

Mr. Justice Phillimore will give judgment in Seal v. Hunt on Monday next, at eleven o'clock.

In the Railway and Canal Commission Court judgment in Nationa Telephone Company Limited v. His Majesty's Postmaster-General will be delivered on Monday next, at eleven o'clock.

Mr. Justice Avory left London last Monday for Huntingdon, on the South-Eastern Circuit, and cpened the commission on the following day. He will not be able to return to London until after the business at Chelmsford is finished, the commission for such town being fixed for Monday, the 12th prox.

Mr. Justice Coleridge left London on Tuesday last for Dorchester, on the Western Circuit, and opened the commission on the following day. He will go the circuit alone until Exeter is reached on Thursday, the 15th prox., when he will be joined by Mr. Justice Channell. Mr. Justice Coleridge will not be able to return to town until after the business at Bristol is finished, the commission day being fixed for Saturday, the 1st July, next.

Mr. Justice Bankes left London on Wednesday last for Newtown, on the North Wales Circuit, and opened the commission on the following day. At the conclusion of the business at Mold (the commission day being fixed for Friday, the 9th prox.) he will return to London, afterwards going back for the second half of the circuit at Chester, being joined by Mr. Justice Bray, but the commission day for this town has not yet been fixed.

Mr. Justice Bray left London on Thursday last for Haverfordwest, on the South Wales Circuit, and opened the commission on the following day. At the conclusion of the business at Presteign (the commission day being fixed for Thursday, the 8th prox.) Mr. Justice Bray will return to London, afterwards going back to the circuit at Chester, being joined by Mr. Justice Bankes. The commission for this town has not yet been fixed.

Mr. Justice Pickford leaves London for Aylesbury, on the Midland Circuit, on Monday next, and will open the commission on the following day.

Mr. Justice Lawrance will leave London on Wednesday next, the 31st inst., for Reading, on the Oxford Circuit, and will open the commission on the following day.

There is now only one election petition left for the judges to tryviz., North-West Ham. This petition is fixed to be heard before Mr. Justice Ridley and Mr. Justice Buck nill on Tuesday, the 13th prox., and if a proper affidavit is made the hearing will take place in London and not at West Ham, where the accommodation is not convenient.

Mr. Loveland Loveland, K.C., who has been the deputy chairman of the County of London sessions for the last fifteen years, will retire after the adjourned quarter and general sessions to be held on Tuesday, the 25th July next. Mr. Loveland Loveland has been a member of the Bar for forty-six years, having been called by the Inner Temple on the 17th Nov. 1865, and he is in his seventieth year, having been born on the 18th July 1841.

The May session at the Central Criminal Court was opened on Tuesday last before Sir Forrest Fulton, K.C. (Recorder), Sir Albert Bosanquet, K.C. (Common Serjeant), the Lord Mayor, and Sheriffs. The calendar contains the names of eighty-one persons oharged with offences.

The May adjourned general sessions were opened on Tuesday last at the Sessions-house, Newington, before Mr. Robert Wallace, K.C. (chairman), Mr. Loveland Loveland, K.C. (deputy chairman), and other justices. The calendar contains the names of 119 persons charged with offences, sixty-nine having been committed from the north side and fifty from the south side of the Thames.

An intermediate session for cases arising in the county of Middlesex will commence on Wednesday next, the 31st inst., at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, at ten o'clock.

Lord Gorell is still suffering from laryngitis following influenza, and has been ordered to the seaside.

Mr. Hastings Rhodes has assumed the duties of Legal Adviser, Federated Malay States.

Mr. G. E. Fletcher, Deputy Town Clerk, has been appointed Town Clerk of Bethnal Green.

Sir Thomas Crossley Rayner, Attorney-General of British Guiana, has arrived in England, having travelled via the United States. Mr. C. G. Alabaster is acting as Attorney-General of Hong Kong during the absence on leave of Mr. W. Rees Davies.

The Bar Golfing Society was beaten by the Engineering Golfing Society at Woking on the 20th inst. by 7 points to 64.

The Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance will be held at Stockholm from the 11th to the 18th June.

During the rebuilding of the Guildhall at Westminster, the sessions for cases arising in the county of Middlesex will be held in the Caxton Hall, Westminster.

Mr. Justice Bankes was presented by the tenantry on his Soughton Hall estate on Tuesday with a silver salver to celebrate his elevation to the Bench.

His Honour Walter S. Shaw, Chief Justice of St. Vincent, will take over the duties of Administrator of the Government and Colonial Secretary during the absence on leave of the Hon. C. Gideon Murray. The London Solicitors' Golfing Society was beaten by the London Press Golfing Society at Walton Heath on the 20th inst. by six matches to five.

The list of successful applicants in the ballot for seats at the Law Courts on the occasion of the Royal Coronation Procession on Friday, the 23rd June, may now be seen at the offices of the Bar Council, 2, Hare-court, Temple.

In Dublin on the 18th inst. the Lord Chancellor of Ireland formally called Mr. Serjeant O'Brien, K.C., as His Majesty's second Serjeant-at-law, and Mr. T. F. Moloney, K.C, as His Majesty's third Serjeant-at-law.

The following potice was displayed at Bow-street Police-court_on the 18th inst.: "Photographing in court is strictly forbidden. The officers have instructions to eject from the court anyone taking or attempting to take photographs."

An Australian High Court judgment leaves Victoria in possession of a territory two and a quarter miles wide on the South Australian border, which has been the subject of dispute for nearly half a century. Mr. Justice Higgins dissented.

Deputy Judge Layman on taking his seat at Southwark County Court on the 22nd inst. announced that Judge Willis, who has been unwell for several weeks, had been granted leave of absence by the Lord Chancellor, and would not attend the court for some time. In his absence the duties of the court will be discharged by Mr. Layman.

In the report in last week's issue of the anniversary festival of the Solicitors' Benevolent Association, an omission was made in not including the following name and amount among the donations: Mr. A. Wightman (Sheffield), £73 15s., of which £58 was his own personal gift.

His Honour Judge Smyly, K.C., who is, it is well known, a good linguist, gave an example of his knowledge on the 18th inst, at the Shoreditch County Court, when he tried a case in German. For some little time an interpreter had been acting, but ultimately His Honour questioned the translation. and finished the case himself. The judge speaks German, Yiddish, French, and Spanish.

By the orders of the Home Secretary the first military band concert to convicts in Parkhurst Prison was given on Monday by the band of the 1st Worcestershire Regiment at Parkhurst, under the direction of Bandmaster Banbury. The concert, which lasted for an hour, was given in the prison chapel, which was crowded with prisoners, who repeatedly #howed their keen appreciation of the music.

The City of London Year Book and Civic Directory for 1911 comes from the City Press Office (Messrs. W. H. and L. Collingridge). It includes a livery companies guide, list of liverymen voters, a Corporation directory, the names of those who have received the freedom of the City. a London County Council directory, and Lloyd's, Baltic, and Stock Exchange directories.

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In the current issue of the Outlook Mr. Roosevelt criticises the proposal to conclude general arbitration treaties without excepting questions of vital interest and national honour. To assume obligation to submit such questions to arbitration would render the United States liable to the charge of cowardice if they acted up to it, and of hypocrisy and bad faith if they failed to do so.

Messrs. M. S. Parry and E. M. Muraour have brought out a second edition of their A.B.C. to Rubber Planting Companies in Malaya, Sumatra, and British North Borneo (Frederic C. Mathieson and Sons). Though it is scarcely a year since the first edition appeared, it is obvious that the changes that have taken place in these months necessitated a revision.

The French Senate took the second reading of the Bill for the trial of youthful offenders under the age of thirteen on the 19th inst., says the Paris correspondent of the Times. The clause which makes the bench en chambre du conseil the tribunal for such cases having been passed, the question was raised whether women might be chosen for the duty of holding the usual preliminary inquiry and reporting to the tribunal. An amendment making women eligible was proposed by M. Berger, Senator for Belfort, and carried almost unanimously.

Besides the ball in Gray's-inn Hall on the 20th June, the Treasurer (Mr. E. Clayton, K.C.) and Masters of the Bench will give a garden party in the gardens of the Inn on the 29th June. It is expected that on both occasions the guests will include a number of the distinguished Colonial visitors who will be in England at the time of the Coronation. For the ball the interior of the Elizabethan hall, which is noteworthy for its old oak screen and panelling, will be decorated with masses of red and white roses. The garden party will take place on the day of the visit of the King and Queen to the City, and on their return journey from the Guildhall Their Majesties will pass along Theobalde-road, which adjoins the north side of the gardens. At this point a stand will be erected, from which the guests will be able to see the Royal Procession. On Saturday, the 1st July, the Benchers will give an entertainment to 1000 children drawn from the elementary schools of the district. Tea will be provided, together with presents for the little visitors, and there will be games, races, and a "minstrel performance' " for their

amusement.

The Earl of Halsbury, occupying the chair on Monday afternoon at the annual meeting of the City and Guilds of London Institute in the Mercers Hall, said that the most important event of the past year was the granting of the supplementary charter, which enabled the institute to co-operate more effe tully with the Imperial College of Science and the London County Council. The design for the New Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland had been placed in the hands of a former student of the College, Mr. Gilbert Bayes, who had for some time also been a teacher of modelling there. Tho number of students attending the college continued to increase and was this year 475 against 459 for the preceding year.

At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen on the 18th inst., at which the Lord Mayor presided, a report was submitted from the General Purposes Committee with reference to the regulations made by the court a year ago under the City of London Street Traffic Act 1909. It stated that the Home Secretary was willing to approve the regula tions, subject to certain amendments relating to the traffic on Blackfriars Bridge, and to the omission of the regulations in regard to costermongers, &c. It was explained that the latter could only be dealt with by definite legislation, and must be included in one of the General Powers Bills of the Corporation on some future occasion. The report was carried.

At the concluding sittings of the London Diocesan Conference a the Church House on the 18th inst., the Bishop of London presiding over a large attendance, on the motion of the Rev. E. Gordon Savile. Eecretary of the Church of England Men's Society, the conference unanimously adopted a resolution urging that drastic measures should be devised to check the circulation of pernicious literature, and asking that a committee be appointed to report to the bishop as o the most effective means. He mentioned that a list of 150 books had been compiled, none of which was fit for circulation. Mr. Douglas Eyre said that a censorship had to some extent been brought about by the trade, but it must be supplemented by a further censorship conducted by voluntary organisation. The Bishop of London pointed out that there were many agencies already at work on the lines suggested by the resolution. He understood that it was not intended to overlap any of those efforts, but to work in harmony with them.

A pleasant little function tork place in the Middle Temple Hall last Monday night, the 22nd inst., when Mr. G. W. Gough bade fare. well to the historic building with which he has been closely connected for more than half a century. Mr. Gough, who was at one time the senior clerk of the late Mr. McIntyre, KC, has been associated with the Temple for upwards of sixty years, and since 1860 he has acted as one of the waiters in the Middle Temple Hall at dinner. When the "Ancients' table was established in 1877, he was specially at sched to this table, and for thirty-four years he has been one of the most familiar figures at dinner time. His period of service ended last Monday, and after dinner Mr. J. F. Popham, in a very neatly turned speech, expressed the thanks of the Ancients" for Mr. Gough's services in the past, and presented him with a cheque which had been subscribed for by the more regular attendants at the table. The recipient was evidently much affected in returning thanks, and referred to several episodes in his long career. Needless to say. Mr. Gough was loudly applauded by all those who were presert, and it is certain that the heartiest good wishes of all the regular habitués of the Middle Temple follow him in his well-earned retirement.

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The Treasurer (Mr. H. D. Greene, K.C.) and the Masters of the Bench of the Middle Temple entertained the following guests at dinner on the 18th inst., the Grand Day of the Easter Term The American_Ambassador, the Minister for Norway, the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Clarendon, Viscount St. Aldwyn, Lord Hugh Cecil, M.P, Lord Southwark, the Master ct the Rolls, Lord Justice Kennedy, Sir K. Muir Mackenzie, K.C, Sir Squire Bancroft, Sir Victor Horsley, Sir Joseph Larmor, M.P., the Rev. the Master, the Rev. the Reader, and the Under-Treasurer. The Masters of the Bench present were : Sir R. B. Finlay, K.C., M.P., Lord Mersey of Toxteth, Mr. Justice Phillimore, Mr. Digby, Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton, Mr. Justice A. T. Lawrence, Mr. Milvain, K.C, Mr. McCall, K.C, Mr. Loyd, K.C., Lord Coleridge, Mr. Muir Mackenzie, Judge Atkinson, Mr. Erskine Pollock, K.C., Mr. Scott, K.C., Mr. Abel Thomas, K.C., M.P., Mr. Blake Odgers, K.C., Mr. Brogden, Mr. Macmorran, K.C., Mr. Strachan, K.C., Chancellor Scott Fox, K.C., Mr. Hume Williams. K.C., M.P., Mr. Lindsay, K.C., Mr. Abraham, Mr. Laing, _K.C., Mr. Clay, Mr. Hamilton, K.C., Mr. Ingpen, K.C., Sir S. T. Evans, Mr. Justice Scrutton, Mr. Powell, K.C., Mr. Stewart Smith, K.C., and Sir F. Low, K.C., M.P.

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An interesting contribution to the daylight saving question is sent to the Times by Prof. H. H. Turner of Oxford University Observatory. He writes: Our friend the sundial is crying out, like some other people, before Mr. Willett has hurt him. He never did show the correct time, though it would have been easy enough for him to do so; and if even now he is ready to mend his ways, it is just as easy to show Mr. Willett's time as any other. His failure to show the correct time is due to his insisting (quite needlessly) on using the same graduated hour circle all the year round, instead of having different habits in winter and summer, as the sun has, and as Mr. Willett wants us to have. Let the sundial give up its clumsy long bar and substitute a tiny sphere, which would be a more complimentary representation of the sun, his master. The shadow of this tiny sphere will trace out a new path each day, as does the sun in the heavens; and that path can be graduated for that day, and that day alone, in any way desired. I trust that so much is clear, without entering into details that would be out of place here. The graduations for any

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