LEGAL OBITUARY. W. P. P. RABY, ESQ. THE late William Parke Poole Raby, Esq., solicitor, of Cardiff, who died on the 10th ult., after a short illness, in the 31st year of his age, was the eldest son of the late Rev. William Raby, incumbent of Wetherby, Yorkshire, by Lydia, daughter of Samuel Parker, Esq., of Wetherby, in the same county. He was born in the year 1839, and was educated at St. Peter's School, York. He was admitted a solicitor in 1861, and shortly afterwards settled at Cardiff, where he soon took a position amongst his professional brethren. He was an able advocate in the county and police courts, and by his gentlemanly manners and address, gained the esteem of the community generally. He was first lieutenant in the 3rd Glamorganshire Volunteer Artillery Corps, by whom he was much respected. Mr. Raby married in 1860 Mary, daughter of Mr. T. Tindale, of York, by whom, who is deceased, he has left no issue. His remains were interred in the New Cemetery, Cardiff, with military honours. THE COURTS & COURT PAPERS CHANCERY NOTICES. During the Easter Vacation, until further notice, all applications which are necessary to be made at the Judges' Chambers are to be made at the chambers of the Vice-Chancellor James. Parties desiring to make any urgent special application to the court during the vacation are to apply at the said chambers for an appointment. During the Easter Vacation all application to the Court of Chancery which are of an urgent nature are to be made to or at the chambers of the Vice-Chancellor Sir William Milbourne James. All applications ex parte are to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor James, by book post or parcel, prepaid, accompanied with the brief of counsel, endorsed with the terms of the order applied for, and an envelope capable of receiving the papers to be returned, with sufficient stamps affixed thereon, and addressed as follows: "To the Registrar in Vacation, Chancery Registrar's office, Chancerylane, London, W.C." On applications for injunctions or writs of ne exeat regno, there must be sent, in addition to the above, a copy of the bill, a certificate of bill filed, and office copies of the affidavits in support of the application. The papers sent to the Vice-Chancellor with any order His Honour to make thereon will be returned direct to the registrar. All applications for leave to give notice of motion only may be made to the chief clerk at chambers. The Vice-Chancellor's address can be obtained on application at His Honour's chambers, 11, Newsquare, Lincoln's-inn. The chambers of the Vice-Chancellor James will be open on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in every week, from eleven till one o'clock. Dated 21st March, 1870. wise." Somebody once happily said that Jerry must have been the "certain lawyer" mentioned in Scripture. THE GAZETTES. Bankrupts. Gazette, March 18. To surrender at the Bankrupts' Court, Basinghall-street. UNDER BANKRUPTCY ACT 1869. BROWN, ALFRED, corndealer, Park-rd, Old Kent-rd. Pet. March 17. Reg. Murray. Sur. April 9 HOOPER, BENJAMIN, ATTENBOROUGH, GEORGE, jun., and HOOPER, HOWARD JOSEPH, leather factors, Saint Mary-axe. Pet. March 11. Reg. Spring-Rice. Sur. April 7 LANGDON, THOMAS ANTHONY, victualler, Salisbury-ct, Fleet-st. Pet. March 15. Reg. Pepys. Sur. Mar. 28 UNDER BANKRUPTCY ACT 1861. COCKELL, WILLIAM JAMES, builder, High-st, Battersea. Pet. Pet. Feb. 26. EDGAR, FREDERICK WILLIAM, and EDGAR, EDWARD JAMES, Cherry Orchard-rd, Croydon. Pet. March 17. Reg. Rowland. Sur. March 30 EDWARDS, THOMAS, and HODGES, SAMUEL HORATIA, boot manufacturers, Bristol. Pet. March 11. Reg. Harley. Sur. March 30 GRAHAM, ALLEN MARDEN, brickmaker, West Malling. Pet. March 14. Reg. Scudamore. Sur. March 29 HODGES, SAMUEL, boot manufacturer, Bristol. Pet. March 15. HOLLOWAY, JOSEPH JOSIAH, boatman, Birmingham. SMITH, ANDREW, innkeeper, Freemantle. Pet. March 16. Pet. Reg. WHITE, EDWIN JACOB, cabinet maker, Bristol. Pet. March 14. Reg. Harley. Sur. March 30 UNDER BANKRUPTCY ACT 1861. PRESTON, JOSEPH, boiler maker, Sedgley, Pet. Nov. 13. Reg. & O. A. Walker. Sur. March 29 Gazette, March 22. To surrender at the Bankrupts' Court, Basinghall-street. UNDER BANKRUPTCY ACT 1869. STARR, RICHARD BENJAMIN, commission agent, Finsbury-sq. Pet. March 16. Reg. Spring Rice. Sur. April 11 WYATT, JOHN, eating house keeper, Strand. Pet. March 21. Reg. Pepys. Sur. April 1 Pet. March 17. To surrender in the Country. UNDER BANKRUPTCY ACT 1869. BRISSENDEN, THOMAS, corndealer, Ticehurst. Reg. Walker. Sur. April 14 CRAVEN, JONATHAN, Worsted stuff manufacturer, Bradford. Pet. March 15. Reg. Robinson. Sur. April 5 FORBES, ELIZABETH, milliner, Manchester. Pet. March 19. Reg. Kay. Sur. April 12 RICCALTON, JAMES THOMAS, assistant paymaster in Her ROSE, ROBERT, innkeeper, Poole. Pet. March 16. Reg. Dickin- BANKRUPTCIES ANNULLED. Dibidends. BANKRUPTS' ESTATES. The Official Assignees are given, to whom apply for the Dividends. PROMOTIONS & APPOINTMENTS keeper, first, 16s. 8d. Parkyns, Basinghall-st.-Cheetham, Thornley, IN.B.--Announcements of appointments being in the nature of advertiseinents, are charged 2s. 6d, each, for which postage stamps should be inclosed.] The Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr. Thomas Henry Alderton, of 97, Edgware-road, W., solicitor, a London Commissioner to Administer Oaths in Chancery. James Watkins, Esq., solicitor, Bolton, has been appointed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, a Perpetual Commis sioner for Taking the Acknowledgments of Deeds to be executed by Married Women. LEGAL NEWS. On Tuesday Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands visited the Temple, attended by Baron de Pabst de Bingerden, Baron de Sledem, Baron Schimmelpinninck v. d'Oye, and Baron Gevaerts de Simonshaun. Her Majesty was received by the Rev. Dr. Vaughan (Master of the Temple), Mr. Thomas Webb Greene, Q. C., and Mr. Charles Shaw (under treasurer of the Middle Temple), by whom she was accompanied to the church and the various places of interest in the Temple. Her Majesty expressed great pleasure with her visit, especially admiring the old hall of the Middle Temple with its paintings and elaborately carved oak" screen. Jerry T. is one of those energetic, impulsive, steam-engine sort of men who have perfect confidence in their own abilities, and who are positive they are always right. Ask Jerry what the law is on a mooted point: It is so and so; have read it all up; no doubt of it; can't be other-I Augove, H. cordwainer, 6jd, Peter, Redruth.-Bennetts, W. grocer, 9d. Peter, Redruth.-Blomfield, H. bookseller, first, 5s, 6d. in lieu of 12s. 5d.) Parkyns, Basinghall-st.-Brown, H. K. doorand Ingle, hosiers, fourth, 64. (sep. of Thornley, 6d.) Harris, Nottingham.-Dulin, W. jeweller, first, 18. 34. Parkyns, Basinghall-st. -Eggleton, H. D. coal merchant, second, 11. 1d. Paget, Basinghall-st.-Hillary and Ashfold, builders, first, 98. 1d. Parkyns, Basinghall st.-Kirk, Wale, and Kirk, coal merchants, final, 1. ld. Harris, Nottingham.-Laws, R. clerk, second, 28. 7d. Paget, Basinghall-st.-Moore, R. C. farmer, second, 38. Harris, Nottingham.-Moyle, G of Fernsplat, 25. 10d. Peter, Redruth.-Shipley, F. E. jun. brickmaker, and F. E. sen. tanner, 8d. (sep. of F. E. Shipley, sen. Is, 3d.) Harris, Nottingham.-Souter, E. J. timber merchant, 18. Gel. Harris, Nottingham.-Tibbetts, T. china dealer first, 19s. 8d. Paget, Basinghall-st. INSOLVENTS' ESTATES. County-court, Basingstoke. BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS. BIRTHS. BADDELEY.-On the 17th inst., at 4, Palace-villas, Bromley, Kent, the wife of Frederick P. Baddeley, solicitor, of a daughter. GABB. On the 21st inst., at Balcarras, Chariton Kings, the wife of J. W. Gabb, Esq., of Cheltenham, solicitor, of a daughter. MILLS.-On the 21st inst., at 4, Sheffield-gardens, the wife of W. P. Mills, Esq., barrister-at law, of a son. STORY-MASKELYNE.-On the 22nd inst., at 5, Inverness-terrace, Kensington-gardens, W., the wife of E. Story-Maskelyne, Esq., barrister-at-law, of a daughter. DEATHS. BAKEWELL.-On the 25th Jan. last, at Adelaide, South Australia, aged 52, William Bakewell, Esq., Crown Solicitor of the Colony, greatly beloved and regretted. HINRICH. On the 6th inst., at 10, Bank-buildings, Bedford, aged 75, Sarah, relict of the late Mr. Andrew Hinrich, solicitor, of 9, John-street, Adelphi, London, and New Brompton. HUNT. On the 16th inst., at Eastbourne, Jane Elizabeth, aged 39, the beloved wife of Bristow Hunt, Esq., solicitor, of 1, Serlestreet, Lincoln's-inn, and 97, Hemingford-road, London." MANN. On the 14th inst., at Frimley, Surrey, aged 75, Caroline Mann, widow of James Henry Mann, Esq., solicitor, formerly of Charles-street, St. James's-square. Sales by Auction. and CO. are instructed by the Trustees of the late James Hunt, Esq., to offer for SALE, at the MART, on FRIDAY, APRIL 8, at Two o'clock, in Six Lots. the follow. ing very valuable FREEHOLD INVESTMENTS, viz.:Lot I. A Ground-rent of 727. per annum, arising out of a very superior detached family residence, with pleasure grounds, gardens, greenhouses, hot and forcing houses, paddock, stabling, and offices, situate upon Eliot-bank, leading from Sydenham to Forest-hill, in the occupation of John Willcocks, Esq. Lot 2. A Ground-rent of 721. per annum, arising out of two capital detached residences, situate adjoining Lot 1, with pleasure grounds, gardens, conservatories, stabling, offices, and a paddock in the rear. In the occupation of H. C. Chees wright, Esq., and J. Schofield, Esq. Lot 3. A Ground-rent of 257. per annum, arising out of a capital detached residence, with good garden, conservatory, stabling, and offices, situate adjoining Lot 2. In the occupation of J. Shand, Esq. Lot 4. A Ground-rent of 201. per annum, arising out of two convenient family residences, with good gardens, situate adjoining Lot 3. Lot 5. A Ground-rent of 301. per annum, arising out of four convenient family residences, with good gardens, situate adjoining Lot 4. Lot 6. A ground-rent of 37. per annum, arising out of six convenient residences, situate at Sydenham-hill, on the road to Sydenham and Lewisham. In the occupation of various tenants. The whole of the above are let upon lease for terms, of which about eighty-five years are now unexpired, and present to trustees and capitalists undeniably secure and first-rate freehold investments. Particulars with plans, may be had of Messrs. BISCHOFF, BOMPAS, and BISCHOFF, No. 4, Great Winchester-street-buildings, Great Winchester-street; and of the Auctioneers, 62, Old Broad-street, Royal Ex change. Botolph-lane, City, and Blackman-street, Borough.-Valu. able Freehold Investment of 807. per annum, and an Improved Leasehold Rental of 407. per annum. MESSES. TRIST, WATNEY, and CO. are instructed by the Executors of the late J. Hunt, Esq., to offer for SALE, at the MART, on FRIDAY, APRIL 8, the following PROPERTIES, viz. :Lot 1. Two FREEHOLD SHOPS and DWELLINGHOUSES, situate in Botolph-alley, between St. Botolphlane and Love-lane, Tower-street, in the City of London, and close to Billingsgate and in the centre of the fruit market, let together on lease at a moderate rent of 801. per annum. Lot 2. An IMPROVED LEASEHOLD RENTAL of per annum, secured upon two shops, dwelling houses, and premises, Nos. 10 and 11, Blackman-street, Borough, held from the Coopers' Company for an unexpired term of a years at 1657., and underset for the whole term at 36 per Clerkenwell.-Freehold Investments. MESSRS. NORTON, TRIST, WATNEY, and CO., are instructed to offer for SALE it the MART, on FRIDAY, APRIL 8, at Two o'clock a Tre Lots, a Valuable FREEHOLD PROPERTY, CODESting of two dwelling-houses, eligibly situate, Nos. 18 and 19, Great Warner-street, Clerkenwell, near Mount Pleasant, each o taining ten rooms, with yard; a'so Two Tenements adjoining, Nos. 8 and 9a, Baynes-court. The whole let to weekly tenants. May be viewed, and particulars had of Messrs. WHITE, BROUGHTON, and WHITE, Solici tors, 12, Great Marlborough-street; and of the Auctioneers, 62, Old Broad-street, Royal Exchange Rotherhithe.-Valuable and extensive Freehold Business Premises and Dwelling-house, with the advantage of imme diate possession, and a Freehold Public-house, known as the Acorn, facing the Commercial Docks. MESSRS. NORTON, TRIST, WATNEY, and CO. are instructed to offer for SALE, at the MART, on FRIDAY, APRIL 8, at Two o'clock, in TWO LOTS, as follows: Lot. 1. A valuable and important FREEHOLD PROPERTY, most commandingly situate. Nos. 385, 386, and $87, the Platform, facing the river, and near Cherry-garden-pier, Rotherhithe; comprising an extensive shop and warehouse, with private entrance and dwelling-house over, having a frontage of 44ft. 7in., and extending in depth 50ft. Lot. 2. A FREEHOLD PUBLIC-HOUSE, known as the Acorn, with dwelling-house and stores adjoining, situate in Trinity-street, facing the Commercial Docks, and within a few minutes' walk of the pier, in the occupation of Mr. Record, at the yearly rent of 1007. May be viewed, and particulars had of Messrs. WHITE, BROUGHTON, and WHITE, Solici tors, 12, Great Marlborough-street; and of the Auctioneers, 62, Old Broad-street, E.C. Freehold Ground-rents and Dwelling-houses in and near Victoria-street. S.W., with a perfect and inexpensive Parliamentary Title under the Westminster Improvement and Incumbered Estate Acts 1861 and 1865. R. PHILIP D. TUCKETT, is instructed SELL by AUCTION, at the MART, Tokenhouse-yard, E.C., on TUESDAY, APRIL 26, at One, TWO first-class FREEHOLD GROUND-RENTS, of 2507, and 1307. per annum, very amply secured upon those splendid commercial premises prominently placed in Victoria-street, Westminster, lately erected at vast expense, and occupied by Messrs. Hooper and Co., the eminent carriage builders, the rental value whereof is estimated at 15007. per annum. Also, in One Lot, THREE FREEHOLD HOUŜES, known as Nos. 6, 7, and 8, Dacre street, close to Victoria-street and the Westminster Palace Hotel, at present let to one tenant at 1017. a-year, but with early possession and capitally placed for any manufacturing business. Particulars with plans and conditions of sale of Messrs. MAYHEW, SALMON, and WHITING, Soli citors, 30, Great George-street; of Mr. C. W. JACQUES, 4, Victoria-street; or of Mr. PHILIP D. TUCKETT, Land Agent, Surveyor, &c., 10A, Old Broadstreet, E.C. MESSRS, DEBENHAM, TEWSON, and FARMER'S FEBRUARY LIST of ESTATES and HOUSES, including landed estates, town and country residences, hunting and shooting quarters, farms, ground rents, rentcharges, house property and investments generally may be obtained free of charge, at their offices, 80, Cheapside, E.C., or will be sent by post in return for two stamps. Par ticulars for insertion in the March List must be received by the 28th February at latest. Copyholds-Administrator.. 158 COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH. REG. v. GARLAND 160 MORIARTY AND WIFE . THE LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER RAILWAY COMPANY Evidence-Subornation of testimony 163 COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. Slander of title Privileged statement- - Evidence of malice 168 ALLEN (app.) v. TOWN CLERK OF WARRINGTON (resp.)Registration-Notice of objection- Sufficiency of descrip tion EXCHEQUER CHAMBER. STEWARD v. YOUNG FREND v. BUCKLEYVendor and purchaser-Leasehold property-Abstract of title. 169 177 Petition for adjudication-Non-attendance of petitioner at hearing-Dismissal of petition with costs.... 179 Bill of sale-Description of grantor in-Apparent ownership.... 179 To Readers and Correspondents. All anonymous communications are invariably rejected. All communications must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. 3s. 6d Os. 6d. part payment converted a moral obligation into a legal debt. As already mentioned, the Lord Justice refused the application. THE case of Dawkins v. Paulet will be fresh in the memory of our readers, being an action for libel by an officer in the army against his superior in respect of matters contained in official correspondence. The Court of Queen's Bench, the Chief dissenting, held that the action would not lie. We understand that Colonel DAWKINS intends to carry his case to the Exchequer CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. Four lines or thirty words... Every additional ten words Advertisements specially ordered for the first page are charged one-fourth more than the above scale. Advertisements must reach the office not later than Chamber in the ensuing term. five o'clock on Thursday afternoon. THE Law and the Lawyers. A MELANCHOLY event cast a gloom over the Middlesex Sessions on Tuesday. Mr. PAYNE, the Deputy-Assistant Judge, had presided as usual on Monday, in apparently perfect health. He was detained late by a locked-up jury. He 170 returned home, slept well, and sat down to his breakfast in seemingly perfect health. Soon 175 afterwards he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, but continued slightly conscious for nearly half an hour, when coma came on, and he died at twelve o'clock. The court had assembled in due course, and his arrival was expected when the news came that he was very ill. Fortunately Mr. Serjt. Cox had returned from Circuit, and being sent for was enabled to proceed with the business by eleven o'clock. The cause of the delay was soon noised about, and a general and strong sympathy was expressed, though the extent of the danger was not then known. About one o'clock a messenger arrived with the news that the Judge who had sat there only on the previous day, in the full enjoyment of health and life, was dead. Mr. Serjt. Cox immediately announced the melancholy tidings. Mr. ABRAM, on behalf of the Bar, expressed their common grief at the loss of the Judge whom they had so long known and so much respected, and passed a very warm 12 eulogium on the extraordinary benevolence and 428 charity of Mr. PAYNE, whose private life had been devoted to doing good. The audience showed their sympathy by applause. Mr. Serjt. Cox thanked the Bar for their testimony to the memory of his deceased friend, and said that he should have forthwith adjourned the court for the day, but that the state of the public business forbad that indulgence of their grief. The deceased Judge was seventy-two years of age. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in June 1825, having been previously a gentleman commoner at St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford. He obtained a very extensive practice at the Old Bailey and at Middlesex Sessions. He was the editor of the wellknown reports that bear his name, "Carrington and Payne," and which are still so 440 often cited in our criminal courts. He was unmarried, and he devoted the entire of his leisure and fortune to works of charity. He was the unwearied patron of all institutions that pro14moted the well-being of the poor. Temperance societies, ragged schools, home missions, refuges, 442 and such like found in him an enthusiastic advocate, and his skill in addressing himself to the sympathies and understandings of the poor was extraordinary, indeed, almost unique. His loss will be severely felt by those whom he befriended. Though his death was sudden, it was a happy end, for he was one 443 of those who lived, as all men should, prepared 443 to die, and he was spared, as all would wish to 444 be, the pangs of a lingering decay. 429 429 430 LORD PENZANCE has given notice that he will move in committee the following important amendment in the High Court of Justice Bill: The principles hitherto accepted and acted upon in courts of equity shall be deemed to be part of the common law of the land, and shall be enforced in all suits and proceedings in the High Court as such. The maxims and principles of the common law shall, where they conflict with such equitable principles, be in future held to be thereby restrained, modified, or wholly superseded to the extent of such conflict. In the rules and orders to be made under this Act, provision shall be made for enabling the parties in any suit or proceeding to assert or claim the benefit of such equitable principles, subject to this provision-that where, for want of adequate official machinery, or for other cause, any division of the High Court is not able efficiently to work out the equitable right of the parties, the suit shall be transferred by order of the court to some other division. THE thanks of the legal profession are due to the learned members of the House of Commons who combined to defeat the amendment of Sir JOHN TRELAWNY, moved in committee on the Attorneys' and Solicitors' Remuneration Bill, the object of which was to deprive solicitors of their lien for unpaid costs. We protest against this class legislation altogether, and we anticipate some very bad results from the operation of the Bill when it becomes law. It will be very much, however, in the hands of solicitors themselves to defeat its intended operation to a certain extent, but had Sir JOHN TRELAWNY succeeded in carrying his amendment a gross injustice would have been perpetrated. As explained by several hon. members, no solicitor can extort payment of unfair charges by means of a lien on papers, and to take away that lien from all the honest members of the Profession would be a crooked and iniquitous mode of punishing the dishonest. Measures which are designed to punish extortion in trades and professions must be framed with excessive caution. Sir JOHN TRELAWNY would appear to have been of a different opinion, and the lesson which he learned on Wednesday may be useful to him and his supporters, whose names we append :-R. S. AYTOUN, Sir P. BURRELL, J. CANDLISH, J. COWEN, W. D. FORDYCE, A. ILLINGWORTH, A. JOHNSTON (S. Essex), J. MILLER, P. H. MUNTZ, and H. RICHARD (Merthyr Tydfil). MEMORIAL TO LORD BROUGHAM. A MOVEMENT has been set on foot for the purpose of erecting a suitable memorial to the memory of the late Lord Brougham. From a paper sent to us we learn that the representatives of several societies in London having for their object the promotion of the social, industrial, and the services of the late distinguished orator, educational welfare of the people, propose that lawyer, and statesman should be recognised by the erection of a national memorial, taking the shape of a Central Hall and Free Library, to be erected and established in his honour. threefold-(1) "to facilitate the work of existThe object of erecting the Hall is stated to be ing associations which have been established for such objects as the reform of the law, the pro446 MR. SERJEANT Cox has been appointed Deputy-motion of education, the advancement of knowAssistant Judge of Middlesex, in the place of ledge, and the general welfare of the people;" 446 Mr. JOSEPH PAYNE, deceased. 445 446 446 446 £ s. d. 2 13 0 179 446 MR. BARRY, whose application to Lord Justice GIFFARD to recover certain fees due to him from the late Lord MOSTYN we noticed last week, draws our attention to a letter which he has addressed to the Times, in which he explains that the inference which we drew from the report in that journal to the effect that his fees had already been paid to the solicitor is incorrect. His application, therefore, reduced tself to this-that it might be declared that 011 010 0 17 016 (2) "to facilitate social intercourse between those who, while labouring in common for the welfare of their country, are practically separated by class distinctions ;" and (3) with a view to the great object of national unity "to establish intimate social relations between the individual members of the different sections of society." "Such a building as is suggested," says the memorandum, "if owned and administered by the foremost workers for humanity, would provide facilities for social intercourse between the best men of all classes. Men of wealth might 'here lend their treasures to benefit and please those who so much need such help. In this building men of the highest attainments in science, art, literature, and philosophy may give of their abundance. Such a building would be -not only a hall for public meetings and conferences on measures of national importancebut a centre where men working for a common object would have opportunity of meeting and cooperating, while at present too often working and apart, therefore in ignorance of each other's efforts. They would then work with far greater results, because in greater union, and with greater economy of time, means, and effort." It appears that about four years ago an attempt was made to procure funds for a central institution which should accomplish some of the above objects, and that a small sum of money was raised by "The Working Men's Club and Institute Union," which they are willing to devote to the erection of the projected memorial. The names of a good many distinguished noblemen and gentlemen are annexed to the memorandum as approving of its object, and intending to assist in carrying it out. Of the excellence of the object there can be no doubt, and we have much pleasure in bringing it to the knowledge of the legal world. Communications should be addressed to the Honorary Secretaries of the Working Men's Club and Institute, 150, Strand. THE LAND TRANSFER BILL. ing the process of Land Transfer is not likely THIS latest project for cheapening by simplifyto fare better than its many predecessors. As long as we can remember, reformers have condemned the costliness of conveyancing, and abused the lawyers as being the cause of it, and successive zealots have proclaimed the discovery of a complete cure for all the mischiefs complained of; but when they were tried they were found to be no better than other theories. At one time the cry was that the lawyers for their own proper profit introduced needless words, and, being paid by the folio, deliberately multiplied folios, using a hundred words to express what might be as effectually declared in ten. So a law was passed, with much pomp and laudation, to abbreviate the language of deeds by a kind of model statutory conveyance, and by declaring that certain terms shall bear the meaning then customarily expressed in a very long sentence. But this law remained a dead letter. It did not remove the grievance, because it was directed to the wrong cause. Then there arose a cry for registration and indefeasible title. "Give us that," said the reformers, "and land will be transferred as easily and cheaply as cotton; the lawyers will be starved, but the public will profit, and, above all, land will be free; every man who wants it will be able to get it, and get rid of it, too, without expense." This panacea was then tried. A registration office was established, at a cost to the public of we know not how many thousands a year. But again there was disappointment. There was the registry, but nobody would register. All the benefits (promised by the reformers were offered to landowners, but none would avail themselves of the boon. That dream of visionaries, an indefeasible title, was placed within the reach of those who were said to be so eager for the prize, and yet, strange to say, little more than fifty persons per annum were willing to accept it. The Registration Act, in its turn, proved a ridiculous failure. Wherefore? "The lawyers have done it all," said its discomfited promoters. "They persistently oppose every reform that curtails their fees, and they have persuaded their clients that registration and an indefeasible title are rather an injury than otherwise." But the fact is, that there could not be a more profitable business for a lawyer than registering a title. The proofs required for a sale or mortgage were as nothing compared with the evidence demanded-and rightly so-by the registrar, and advised by the conveyancing counsel, before he would grant a certificate of indefea sible title. Nor could it be otherwise. Such a title means a title good against all the world, or it is worthless; and it would have been an infamous law that would enable any of one's neighbours to go to an office and register as his a field, or a right of way, or a right to a stream, and, having thus stolen it to secure it to himself indefeasibly. It was absolutely essential to the sa-ety of every man's property that a person registering land, and asking for a certificate of title, should prove the ownership, and the parcels and the rights attached to it, beyond all possible legal question. Manifestly this must be a costly process. Notice must be given to all surrounding owners to come in and see that the party registering did not filch anything from them, and if there were holes in the title it was necessary that they should be effectually stopped. Now the result of all this unavoidable difficulty was that they who had good titles would not incur the cost and trouble of proving them; and they who had bad, or doubtful, or imperfect titles would not expose the blots in them; for if it should be known that the Registrar had rejected a title for any cause, a suspicion would be sure to attach to it which would tell severely upon its marketable value. Still the cry went up for cheap conveyancing and free land; and, in spite of the repeated failures, another attempt was made. A commission was appointed to inquire into the causes of these mishaps in legislation, and to suggest, if possible, some new and more promising remedies. The Land Transfer Bill, introduced by the LORD CHANCELLOR, embodies the results of its deliberations. We are not prophesying too venturously when we affirm that the new scheme will fail almost, if not quite, as egregiously as have its predecessors. The public will have nothing more to do with it than they can help, and again, as of course, the failure will be set to the account of the lawyers. But it will fail for the same reason that all have failed. have been attempted or proposed appear to have gone to their work in the wrong direction. The first inquiry to which attention should have been devoted was into the causes of the cost of conveyancing, or, to use a more popular phrase, of land transfer. If they had borrowed from as many solicitors a hundred bills of costs of purchases and mortgages, and analysed them with care, they would have discovered precisely where it was that the grievance lay. Such an analysis would have been more instructive than any amount cise nature of the defect, they would have been of mere opinion; and having before them the prebetter able to devise the appropriate remedy. And what would they have found? That the costs caused by the conveyance itself, but by the of a sale or mortgage are not investigation of title. In these times of rapid change, property changes hands more often than formerly; and, above all, the facilities of locomotion scatter men abroad over the whole face of The constructors of the various reforms that the globe, and it is daily more difficult to trace the whereabouts of those who have rights in property of which even they themselves may be ignorant. Thus we discover at starting two serious difficulties growing yearly; First, the length of time allowed to claimants. Secondly, the recognition of claims unaccompanied by possession. These are, we assert, the two causes of the greater portion of the costs of conveyancing. Every lawyer is daily reminded of them by the difficulties they throw around the smallest as well as the largest transactions; for the peculiarity of the case is this, that the cost bears no proportion to the value, the same investigation being necessary for a cottage of 100%, and an estate of 100,000l. Indeed, the former is usually the more costly, because it is not so easy to trace the whereabouts of claimants in the family of a cottier as of those in a county family. What, then, is the remedy for these evils? It is threefold. First, the Statute of Limitations must be further limited. Secondly, some restriction must be placed upon the power of charging. Thirdly, a power to discharge must be given to the person entitled to the possession in fee. We propose next week to show how this may be done without wrong to any, and with immense advantage to the community. Then we will examine the provisions of the Land Transfer Bill to see how far they effect their object, and if the plan we propose might not be combined with it. THE BRIBERY PROSECUTIONS. THE first batch of these prosecutions has been completed. The result is not satisfactory. The principals have escaped, the agents have been convicted. There was no proof whatever that Mr. VANDERBYL knew what his partner did, nor that Mr. ALEXANDER KINGLAKE sanc tioned the production of the required funds by his brother, and it is most probable that they were ignorant in fact. They might have had their suspicions and surmises, but they had no knowledge, the practice in such cases being to take the utmost precaution to keep such inconvenient information from the principal, relying upon his honour that nothing shall be lost by it in the end. The agent holds his tongue, and pays the necessary price, and when all is over he is repaid. That is the regular course of business in such places as Bridgewater, and therefore it must always be difficult to bring home a charge of bribery to the candidate personally. He is purposely kept in the dark, and even if he were to protest against bribery ever so firmly, it would still be done, and, being done, he could not, as a gentlemen, permit his friends to suffer for his sake. The jury felt the difficulty when they recommended Mr. FENELLY, the partner of Mr. VANDERBYL, to the favourable consideration of the court by reason of the great pressure put upon him. Dr. KINGLAKE has the further fact to urge in mitigation of punishment, that, after having made the fatal arrangement with LOVIBOND, he repented and left the town, believing that the scheme of the morning, based on the assumption that VANDERBYL would not produce his share of the expenditure, was not to be carried out and the election bought. This should weigh much in his favour in the sentence which will be pronounced by the Queen's Bench in the next term. The trials were conducted with great ability on both sides. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL alike in his opening and reply, was firm, dignified, and powerful, conscious that he was performing a duty, painful indeed, but incumbent upon his office, and to be discharged with courage and a stern resolve that it should not fail from any default of his. The speech of Mr. HENRY JAMES for Mr. VANDERBYL was a masterpiece of professional skill and subtlety; for he was surrounded with difficulties and dangers which it needed more than common sagacity to avoid. advocate's duties to make a speech, where the He had to perform that most anxious of an prudent course, did custom permit it, would be to say nothing at all, all his anxiety being to them-in fact to steer his course through a path approach the points of the case without touching beset by pitfalls. Mr. LOPES had the easier duty of a perfectly hopeless case, and he perThe SOLICITORformed it extremely well. GENERAL was far more lenient to his defendant than was the ATTORNEY-GENERAL; indeed, he opened with so many compliments and apologies that he might have been mistaken by a stranger for the counsel for defendant. But this was only at the beginning. He speedily threw himself into the work, and carried it through with his wonted eloquence. Sir JOHN KARSLAKE exerted himself most zealously for his client; his speech was powerful, and impressive; but the facts were too clear; he could not answer them, and his ingenious endeavours to explain them away were necessarily unsuccessful. been justly the subject of universal admiration. The summings up of Mr. Justice HANNEN have There was but one opinion of them at the Barthat they would have added reputation to the greatest of our Judges. They were masterpieces of judicial oratory, if such a term may be applied to a wonderfully calm, impartial, and well arranged review of the case, delivered in the choicest and most precise language, rising occasionally to eloquence, and expressed with becoming dignity. It is manifest that in Mr. Justice HANNEN we have a Judge who can rise to the occasion. Some of the newspapers are pointing to these trials as proofs of the necessity for the ballot. But that is a very wide leap from the premiss. They assume that the ballot will be a cure for bribery; but that is just the one abuse of elections for which it is the least likely to prove a remedy. It has other virtues, indeed, but not this one, at least if we can trust the reports from all countries where it is employed. The ballot will make elections more quiet, perhaps, abolish canvassing and the abuses of conveying voters to the poll and other evils which it would be desirable to banish, but its tendency will certainly be to increase bribery by the comparative impunity it will provide. There is a numerous class of electors who now are so tied to party or sect that they could not vote for the opposing candidate without suspicion, who, if they could give the vote in secret, would gladly sell it; and, notoriously in America, the practice is to buy wholesale, that is to say, one man speaks for a club, or a factory, or a political association, and the bargain is that if the candidate is returned the society through their organ will receive an agreed sum for the common will take a bribe will cheat the briber. Thouuse. It is a mistake to suppose that a man who sands deem it no moral wrong to sell the vote that is their own, and which the ballot will declare to be their own, and not a trust as now, who would deem it very wicked to cheat the person who buys them. The ballot will leave things much as they are with respect to bribery. The prosecutions will do something to deter respectable men from a practice fraught with so much personal danger, but then this fear will not deter other men who care less for reputation, and so the result may be to let in the worse and keep out the better. If all the best men in the House of Commons would resolve to adopt perfect purity at elections, the certain consequence would be that inferior men not so scrupulous would take their places. Would the country gain by the exchange? There are two sides to this as to every other question. We may chance to lose more than we gain by endeavours to deter men from giving instead of deterring them from asking. THE TRIAL AT TOURS. ADVOCATES for the importation into this country of the French practice of examining the defendant in a criminal trial must surely find their opinion much disturbed, if not changed, by the narratives that have been sent to the newspapers from eye-witnesses of the proceedings in that memorable inquest. The scene was sufficiently dramatic and sensational; but we doubt its efficacy in the promotion of that discovery of the very truth which is the object of all judicial investigation. The favourite argument-that if the accused be permitted to tender himself as a witness innocence will be more easily shown, guilt more readily detected-is founded on the fallacy that every man can tell a straightforward story if he pleases, and explain dubious facts by the natural rhetoric of truth. As a matter of fact, ignorant innocence is incapable of that clear and consistent explanation of circumstances, having a double aspect, which would be necessary to convince a sceptical jury. Moreover, it seems to be forgotten that if the accused is examined he must be cross-examined, and to say that innocence will come out only the more clearly from this ordeal, is to ignore the experience of all who have practised in criminal courts, and who receive daily proof how clever cross-examination will confound the most honest and truthful witness, much more one whose mind is confused by anxiety and terror, and who will always be sorely tempted by the instinct of self-preservation to endeavour to explain away suspicious circumstances by falsehood. The foundation of our present practice is the old and wholesome principle of the presumption of innocence and the consequent requirement that the prosecution shall prove the guilt of the accused, and that it is not for him to prove his innocence. Admit him as a witness as in France, and this wholesome principle is abandoned. Practically he will be required to prove innocence. The prosecution will make out a prima facie case, and call on the prisoner to answer it. If he does not volunteer to do so, the jury will be told that he does not because he cannot. Even if this argument be prohibited to counsel, it will present itself to the mind of the jury, and cannot fail to influence their judgment. If the accused is to be examined for any pur pose, he must be examined for all purposes; by counsel on both sides and by the court, and the scene at Tours will soon come to be enacted here. Further, experience shows how little credit can be given to the evidence of the parties in a cause not merely through wilful perjury, but from the unconscious tendency of the mind to see everything through the distorting medium of its own interests and passions. If in civil cases the testimony of the parties is of such little worth, how much less reliable would it be in criminal cases, where liberty, reputation, even life itself, are involved. No man in such circumstances could be expected to tell the truth; and what advantage would justice derive from unreliable evidence? But it is said by the advocates for the examination of the accused in criminal cases that we might avoid the defects of the French system, PETITIONS FOR LIQUIDATION. Now with the highest respect for the opinion JUDICIAL CONSERVATISM. A GREAT deal of error underlies the comments of the press which are freely made upon the proposition of the LORD CHANCELLOR to relegate the question of procedure in the new courts to the Judges. An exception to the strictures who are allowed to be of a broader cast of mind upon judicial legislation has certainly been made to some extent in favour of our present Judges, than their predecessors of twenty years ago; but be entrusted with the formation of a code of we are told that even now the Judges should not procedure, and for these amongst other reasons, to quote the Pall Mall Gazette:-"They are mostly men of advanced years, and they are all professional men." And it is added, "Legislation by such a body is sure to exhibit some characteristic defects; and if there is to be very much of it in future, it seems to us clear that some systematic check on it should be provided through the agency of a functionary distinctly charged with watching over the public interests." We will readily admit that, as stated by Lord WESTBURY in the House of Lords, it is to be regretted that Judges are allowed to remain on the bench to any age; but it may fairly be said that there is not one, or if one, only one, Judge who it might be assumed could retire on the score of age with advantage to the administration of the law, and so keen is the intellect of the Judge to whom we refer, so strong is his sense of the responsibility attaching to his position, that he succeeds in discharging his duties far more ably than his younger colleagues. But if some of the judges have nearly attained three score years and ten, there is an array of men in the full vigour of life still on the Bench, ex. gr., in the Common Pleas, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and Justices WILLES, SMITH, and BRETT, in the Exchequer Barons BRAMWELL, PIGOTT, and CLEASBY; whilst in the Queen's Bench all the Judges are in vigorous intellectual health, notwithstanding the Chief is in his sixtyninth year. So far as regards age. Then it is said "they are all professional men." We must confess ourselves unable to understand upon what ground this can be an objection where the work which they are called upon to perform relates solely to professional matters. But here we arrive at the fallacies which underlie the press comments. It is not, and it cannot, be contended that we can do without a code of procedure. We cannot do without a system of pleading. That is to say, we must have either a system of pleading as at common law, or a method of proceeding by bill or petition as in equity, or the Court of Admiralty; and if the Judges are not to frame the rules, we shudder to think of the unutterable confusion into which legal business will be thrown. By taking this task out of the hands of the Judges it is thought that which is called the Conservatism of the Bench will be got rid of, and as this seems to be the principal count in the indictment, we will see upon what this reputation for Conservatism is based. We believe it may be stated, without the slightest fear of contradiction, that there is no member of any profession less tolerant of the abuse of technicalities than Lord Chief Justice COCKBURN. And it is a matter of common information in the Profession that no Judge hesitates to exercise liberally the power of amending the pleadings so as to raise the merits of a case. And as to proceedings in equity the courts are, without exception, strongly disposed to give complete relief wherever it is possible to do so without infringing any statute or welldefined rule of practice. The Act of 1862 has afforded more than one instance of this. By that Act power was conferred on courts of equity to try disputed questions of law and fact, on which the right of any party to any equitable relief or remedy depends; at the same time, providing that where convenient issues might be directed to be tried at the assizes or at the Metropolitan sittings at Nisi Prius. The disposition of courts of equity under this Act was clearly stated by Lord Chancellor WESTBURY in the well known case of Young v. Fernie, 1 De G. J. and Sm. 353, which involved the question of the validity of a patent. There his Lordship said, "I construe the statute as laying down the rule for the future, that these things shall be heard and determined in this court. The proviso operates by way of exception only to the rule: and in order to bring a case within the proviso, the court must be satisfied that the administration of justice in the particular suit may be more conveniently exercised and promoted by directing issues to be tried by a jury at the assizes, or at any sitting in London or Middlesex for the trial of issues in the common law courts, than by completing the hearing and the inquiry before itself. In a patent case particularly, and in this case, having regard to the nature of the questions raised, I do not think that anything more inconvenient can be suggested than that, where there are mixed questions of law and fact -the one bound up with the other and scarcely capable of being separated-an attempt should be made to cut the cause in halves, and to send one half of it to be tried by a jury in a court of common law, reserving the other half for determination in this court. It is impossible that any satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at by that mode of dividing an investigation, which should be one and entire. Such a division often renders necessary a great number of proceedings, a great number of shiftings to and fro, and very frequently much expense arising from misapprehension, which might have been avoided had the court where the matter originated-the Court of Chancery-kept the whole proceedings in its own hands." self. And we That view was fully endorsed, and of course adopted, by Vice-Chancellor STUART in Bareham v. Hall, 22 L. T. Rep. N. S. 116, where it was sought to restrain a nuisance. There indeed the Vice-Chancellor did not even put the parties to the expense of summoning a jury in his own court, but determined the question himWe need not cite cases to any greater extent to prove to the outer world what is perfectly well known to the Profession-that the Judges, without exception, desire to see business facilitated and the suitor saved expense. are perfectly confident that if rules were framed by the Judges personally, this end would be promoted. It is not the age for the obtrusion of crotchets, and the majority of the judges have as much common sense as members of either House of Parliament. We must add, most emphatically, that to our mind nothing could be more inexpedient than that the Judges should be controlled in drawing rules and framing a code of procedure by a "functionary distinctly charged with watching over the public interests." A proposition more flagrantly absurd was never put forward by any journal, and it is not necessary that we should further discuss it to ensure its rejection. PRESUMPTIONS OF LIFE AND DEATH. Now we may say at once that none of the many recent cases on this subject go the length of impugning the above decisions as to the presumption of law that, unheard of, after the lapse of seven years a person is dead. The question which has been discussed is whether any presumption is to be made as to the time of death within the seven years. The equity Judges have not agreed on this point. Vice-Chancellor Kindersley, in three cases, which will be found fully referred to in the judgment of Lord Justice Giffard, in Re Phene's Trusts, 22 L. T. Rep. N. S. 112, was of opinion that in the absence of special circumstances the law draws no presumption from the fact of seven years having elapsed as to the period of death. Vice-Chancellor Malins introduced a new presumption in Benham's Trust, 16 L. T. Rep. N. S. 349, where he said, "If you cannot presume death at any particular period during the seven years, then at the end or expiration of the seven years you must presume for the first time that the person was dead, and you must also presume that within that time he was alive." It is hardly necessary for us to point out to our readers that a presumption that a person not heard of for seven years was alive until the expiration of that period would be a presump tion of very great importance in many cases, expected. The third paragraph of sect. 159 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1861, as our readers will remember, is to the following effect :-" If the bankrupt shall not be accused of acts amounting to misdemeanor, or if he shall have been accused and acquitted, but in either case there shall be made, or shall appear to the court to exist, objection to the granting of an immediate discharge, the court shall proceed to consider the conduct of the bankrupt before and after adjudication, and the manner and circumstances in and under which his debts have been contracted; and if the court shall be of opinion that the bankrupt has carried on trade by means of fictitious capital, or that he could not have had at the time when any of his debts were contracted any reasonable or probable ground of expectation of being able to pay the same, or that, if a trader, he has, with intent to conceal the true state of his affairs, wilfully omitted to keep proper books of account, or, whether trader or not, that his insolvency is attributable to rash and hazardous speculation, or unjustifiable extravagance in living, or that he has put any of his creditors to unnecessary expenses by frivolous or vexatious defence to any action or suit to recover any debt or money due from him, the court may either refuse an order of discharge, or may suspend the same from taking effect for The judgment of Lord Justice Giffard so fully such time as the court may think fit, or may and fairly grasps the cases, that we perforce grant an order of discharge subject to any conmust quote from it. "It is," he said, "adition or conditions, touching any salary, pay, general well-founded rule that a person seeking emoluments, profits, wages, earnings, or income to recover property must establish his title by which may afterwards become due to the bankaffirmative proof. This was one of the grounds rupt, and touching after acquired property of the of decision in Nepean v. Doe, and to assert, as an bankrupt, or may sentence the bankrupt to be exception to the rule, that the onus of proving imprisoned for any period of time not exceeding death at any particular period, either within the one year from the date of such sentence." seven years or otherwise, should be with the party alleging death at such particular period, and not with the person to whose title that fact is essential, is not consistent with the judgment of the present Lord Chancellor when Vice-Chancellor, in Re Greenwood, or with the dictum of Lord Justice Rolt, when he said, in Re Benham's Trusts, that the question was one not of presumption, but of proof; or with the real substance of the actual decisions, or the sound parts of the reasoning in Nepean v. Doe, or with the judgments in Rex v. The Inhabitants of Harborne, and Reg. v. Lumley, or with the principles to be deduced from the judgment in Underwood v. Wing. The true proposition is, that those who found a right upon a person having survived a particular period, must establish that fact affirmatively by evidence. The evidence will necessarily differ in different cases, but sufficient evidence there must be, or the person asserting title will fail." Then bringing the principles down to the case before him, his Lordship added, "This case happens to be one of an alleged number of a class of legatees. A legatee's survivorship of a testator is requisite to clothe him with that character, is a tacit condition annexed by law to every ordinary immediate gift by will, and it follows that the representatives of a person alleged to be a legatee must prove, as against the other members of the class who prove their survivorship, that he survived the testator; otherwise he was not a legatee at all. For these reasons, and upon a review of the authorities and the judgments on which they rest, I am of opinion that there is no presumption of law as to the particular period at which Nicholas Phené Mill died-that it is a matter of fact to be proved by evidence, and that the onus of proof rests on his representative." In Crawcour's case, before the Chief Judge, in which this question incidentally arose, his Lordship refused an order of discharge, the debtor having been adjudicated a bankrupt in July 1869, and it appearing that he had vexatiously defended actions at the suits of his creditors. But what will be the position of matters where the petition was presented at the close of the year, and no adjudication took place? The Act of 1869 makes special provisions for granting discharge, and arms the court with power to withhold it in certain cases. By sect. 48 the discharge will not be granted unless it is proved to the court either that a dividend of 10s. in the pound has been paid or might have been paid except through the fraud or negligence of the trustee; or that a special resolution of creditors bankruptcy or the failure to pay 10s. in the has been passed to the effect that the debtor's pound has, in their opinion, arisen from circumstances for which the bankrupt cannot justly be held responsible, and that they desire that an order of discharge should be granted to him. Then the court may suspend or withhold altogether the order of discharge where it appears on the representation of the creditors, made by special resolution, of the truth of which repre sentation the court is satisfied, or by other sufficient evidence, that the bankrupt has made default in giving up to his creditors the property which he is required by the Act to give up. The procedure is therefore altogether different in this respect under the old Act and under the new. It would appear that under the latter the payment of a dividend of 10s. in the pound will absolutely entitle a bankrupt to his discharge unless he has made default in giving up property, or a prosecution has been commenced against him. Then comes the question whether the court can consider the circumstances preceding the presenting of a petition before the close of the year 1869, the bankrupt having done everything to There would appear to be two arguments, the entitle him to a discharge under the Act of 1869. one that the petition being part of the procedure which, if followed out, would have terminated in the refusal of the order of discharge if the bankrupt had sinned against the 3rd clause of sect. 159 of the Act of 1861, must affect all the proceedings of which it forms a part, although the adjudication takes place under a new law. On the other hand, it may be said that the discharge is regulated by a new law, more stringent conditions are imposed, and the position of the debtor entirely altered. It appears to us, but of course we venture the opinion with diffidence, that this latter argument must prevail, and that the court cannot refuse an order of discharge where the adjudication took place in the present year, although the petition was filed last year, except upon one of the grounds mentioned in |