apso facto, on the declaration of the President of he fact of insurrection, it must have continued unlawful until the insurrection was by him, or Congress, declared ended; and that, therefore, he could not legalise free intercourse between the citizens of the two sections, without first declaring the rebellion suppressed. But this would be a very narrow and technical view to take of a great public question, relating to an anomalous condition of public affairs, and bearing upon interests of infinite diversity and great magnitude. The Act of July 13, 1861, by its express terms, was to be operative as an interdiction of intercourse, only through a proclamation of the President. Congress left it to his discretion to put the interdiction in force. I think, by fair implication, it left with him the power to withdraw it. There were reasons of the highest public import why this power should remain with him. The war had commenced during a recess of Congress. It was necessary for the President to act promptly, and he called for troops, and set on foot a blockade some time before Congress could assemble. Hostilities might cease, and the war be substantially terminated, also, during a recess of Congress, when prompt action by the Presideat might be of the highest importance both to our foreign and domestic commerce. This power of the Executive to restore pacific intercourse seems to have been practically conceded without dissent from any quarter. Neither Congress, nor the Executive, nor the people have acted upon the assumption that intercourse between the people of the two sections in private civil affairs has been unlawful since June 13, 1865. On the contrary, by the common consent of all departments of the Government, such intercourse was substantially free and unrestrained after that date as well as after the 2nd April 1866. Business began to seek its old channels; new contracts were made; old ones litigated and enforced in the courts of both sections, and money invested at the south in various enterprises. No doubt would ever have arisen as to the validity of the President's proclamation removing all restrictions upon ordinary pacific intercourse between the people, but for the subsequent struggle between Congress and the Executive department as to the political status of the Southern States. But that controversy has no relation to the question now under consideration. Congress has never; even by implication, declared commercial and pacific intercourse of any kind, unlawful since the President assumed to remove the restriction of June 13, 1865. On the contrary, its silence on this subject, when legislating on the purely political questions involved in what is called *Reconstruction, supports the inference that the ordinary civil pursuits of the people, and all the rights incident to them, including the right to free intercourse between the citizens of both sections, and the right to resort to legal civil remedies, were considered by Congress itself as no longer under the ban of war. I am, therefore, satisfied that the authority of the President to issue the proclamation of June 13, 1865, restoring free intercourse, was full and ample, and that its exercise has been acquiesced in by the national Legislature. "We are next to consider what was the legal effect of that proclamation. Its language has already been cited. Beyond all question, it embraces all contracts thereafter to be made, and delivers them from the invalidating effect of public law, as well as from the effect of the statute of July 13, 1861, and the proclamation made in pursuance thereof Aug. 16 following. Such contracts being valid, the right to enforce them in the courts necessarily followed. A citizen of one section could sue a citizen of the other on such a contract without having his suit defeated on the grouud that it was invalid either by the public or statute law; or abated under the plea of alien enemy. Both the right and the remedy on such a contract were complete. "The question then arises, in what condition were the numerous contracts existing when the war commenced, left by the proclamation of June 13, 1865? Were they still suspended, and the parties without any right to enforce them? Undoubtedly unpaid debts contracted before the war could have been lawfully paid by citizens of one section to those of the other, at any time after the date of this proclamation. This would be exercising one of the privileges of domestic intercourse,' restored in express terms by that proclamation. It would seem to follow that the right to enforce payment through ordinary legal remedies must have been restored also. It would be absurd to contend that the proclamation removed the prohibition to enter into new contracts, and left those entered into before, and existing at, the commencement of the war, suspended. Such a distinction would be unjust as well as absurd. It would be a distinction between rights of the same class, and could rest upon no principle of natural justice, good sense, or sound policy. No such construction should be given to a state paper like this proclamation. It was made in the interests of peace, and its ordinary beneficent pursuits, and in furtherance of the rigths of the people of both sections of a common country. No possible advantage in the way of convenience, interest, or security to the public or to individuals, consistent with justice, requires that its operation and legal effect should thus be contracted. It should, therefore, receive a liberal, rather than a narrow and technical interpretation. "It follows from these principles, that the contract upon which this suit is founded, though suspended during the war, while intercourse between the citizens of the belligerent sections was unlawful, revived on the 13th June 1865, and from that date was in full force." THE FIRST DAY OF TERM IN THE THE Atheneum publishes a curious paper on this subject, from which we extract some of the most interesting passages. legal system of the metropolis, and had they been nothing more than a flourishing university for gentle youth, old London, like Oxford or Cambridge at the present time, would have been greatly affected by the presence or absence of the students, and would have been found, in its western quarters, brisk and noisy during termtranquil and drowsy during vacation. But the school, notwithstanding its importance, was only a subordinate feature of the system, which comprised the courts where cases were tried, the homes of the judicial chiefs, and the numerous population of working or "ornamental" barristers who plied the forensic vocation in Westminster Hall or lived in sumptuous idleness within their respective colleges. Alike in Henry the Eighth's, Elizabethan, and Stuart London, the Inns-of-Court men were the rulers of society. Having no less intimate relations with the Royal circle than with the commercial magnates of the town, and comprising a strong proportion of the men most eminent in the State for wealth, learning, rank and wit, they were a connecting link between court and city, and gave laws to each on questions of politics, dress, taste, art. The fashions of masculine attire and equestrian equipage changed at the will of the Brummells and D'Orsays of the four Inns, whose humours were obeyed by poets and musicians no less servilely than by tailors and bootmakers. Theatrical managers and actors received from the Inns the patronage which brought them full houses, or the derision which gave them empty benches. “And whilst the legal population was thus omnipotent over the diversions of the town, the SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF THE LAWYERS. law courts were scarcely less notable as sources "How far the law courts influenced the life of social diversion than as places of religious of the capital so long as they were held in Her contention. To understand the amusement and Majesty's Tower, history is no less silent than mental stimulus which they afforded our ancesshe was until the other day concerning their tors, the reader must realise the conditions of Occupancy of quarters in the old feudal strong- social existence when the printing press was hold; but it is certain that from the date of their either unborn or only in its infancy, and when first establishment in Westminster Hall they Parliament sate only for short periods and after were an important element in the life of old irregular intervals of dispersion, and when its London, and that they grew in power and influ- debates were circumscribed by vigilant authority ence with the growth of ages until the town and jealously withheld from publication. Just might have been said to go to sleep when the as our forefathers in the days before free jourtemple of justice was closed, and to wake up nalism and Parliamentary government, went to again on each reopening of its gates. Scarcely Paul's-cross for religious instruction qualified had the law colleges been planted in the western with political news, they went to Westminstersuburb, when they became fashionable semi- hall for gossip as well as justice, for public intelnaries for the education of the youth of our ligence no less than for legal decisions. Alike nobility and gentry; and before the later de- in feudal days and throughout the seventeenth cades of the fifteenth century, when the under- and eighteenth centuries, the Hall during Term graduates of Oxford and Cambridge were for the was the daily lounging ground of quidnuncs and most part the sons of small yeomen, tenant idlers, people of fashion and men of business, farmers, and artisans, the boys of our gentle who entered its great north door to see and hear families, when they received any learned educa- the world more often than to stare at the Judges tion at all, acquired it in the Inns of Chancery, of the three tribunals, who sat-not in chambers which were appropriated to junior and in some built out from the hall, but-in open courts, cases almost infantile scholars, and in those four where they were perched aloft on elevated superior colleges which, in consideration of the benches, conspicuous to each other and the courtly arts taught in them and the character-crowd, even as they may be still seen in Ned istic courtliness of its aristocratic members, came Ward's London Spy, and Gravelot's familiar to be designated Inns of Court. And to speake drawing of the interior of the grand chamber upryghtlye,' says Sir John Fortescue, circ. 1463, on the first day of Term. The Chancery and innes, yea, and in the lesser to, beside the of the place, opposite the great door, near which in the De Laudibus, there is in those greater King's Bench were stationed at the extreme end studies of the lawes, as it were an university or in the north-western corner, the serjeants schoole of commendable qualities requisite for wrangled and caught bronchitis before the Jusnoble men. There they learn to sing, and to tices of the Common Pleas. Sempstresses, exercise themselves in all kinds of harmonye. booksellers, fruiterers, sold their wares at stalls There also they practise dannsing, and other ranged along the side nearest the river; whilst noblemen's pastimes, as they used to doo which the Judges too often sold injustice to the highest are brought up in the king's house. On the bidder from their official lofts. The rafters of working dayes, the most of them apply them- the ancient roof and blackened walls were enselves unto the studye of the lawe, and on the livened with dusty banners and moth-eaten holye dayes to studye of holye Scripture; and antients; and passing to and fro was a continual out of the tyme of divine service, to the reading of stream of London residents and country sightChronicles. For their indeed are virtues studied seers, who made a clamorous hubbub under the and vices exiled. So that, for the endowment of seats of justice as they exchanged greetings with vertue, and the abandoning of vice, Knights and friends newly arrived from Paul's alley or the Barrons, with other states and noblemen of the Tower. If any of the sight-seers conceived a realme, place children in those innes, though desire for more substantial refreshment than they desire not to have them learned in the could be bought at the fruiterers' stalls, they lawes, nor to liue by the practice thereof, but had only to adjourn to one of three taverns that onely uppon their father's allowance.' In fact, plied a brisk trade beneath the very roof of the the Inns became the fashionable university of Hall and under titles which respect for austere feudal England, and its chief colleges were the readers forbids us to put on this page. At any Temples, pleasantly situated on the margin of one of these hostelries the holiday-maker could the river, Lincoln's-inu standing on the western get a dinner or dram of strong drink ere he went extremity of the capital, and Gray's-inn, which, over the way for a look at the 'lively effigies' originally planted in the open fields, even so late and catafalcos of the Abbey. as the days of Addison and Sir Roger, prided itself on the salubrity of its country air and the picturesqueness of the rural prospect commanded by its terrace and backward windows. "Had the Inns constituted the whole of the "So long as the lawyers retained their old social preponderance in London, their presence in town made what is now-a-days called 'the season.' The new poems and plays, the novel fashions and toys, were brought out during 'term. The day on which the lawyers re-trian propensity, and freed themselves from The opening of the courts was celebrated formerly by a state and display that has dwindled to a procession of private carriages. This was THE FIRST DAY OF TERM. 6 How d'ye do, brother? I wish you a good term.' Having performed these courtesies to the serjeants, the Chancellor and his officers passed on to the Chancery at the southern end of the Hall. Following the example of the Chancellor, each Judge of King's Bench greeted each serjeant on his way up to the Court of King's Bench; and in like manner, the Judges of the Common Pleas, before turning into the serjeants' peculiar court, accosted the serjeants. one by one. Lastly, the Barons of the Exchequer approached, and shook hands with the serjeants who did not enter the Common Pleas, until the last knot of Judges had wheeled round, and marched out of the hall into their adjacent. Court of Exchequer. JUDICIAL STATISTICS, 1868. COURT OF CHANCERY (continued). ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL'S RETURN.-The return furnished by the Accountant-General of the proceedings in his office for the year ended the 1st Oct. 1868 shows the amount of cash, securities, and other effects paid and transferred into court and out of court, and other proceedings in the office during the year. "In accordance with feudal taste the lawyers of olden time delighted in public processions; and other legal dignitaries, besides the Chancellor, were occasionally attended from their residences to Westminster Hall by glittering retinues. Describing the grand array of lawyers and gentlemen unlearned in the law, who attended Sir Henry Montague to Westminster, on Nov. 14, 1616, on his elevation to the chief ship of the King's Bench, Dugdale says, First went on foot the young gentlemen of the Inner Temple; after them barristers according to their seniority; next, the officers of the King's Bench; then the said Chief Justice himself on horseback, in his robes; the Earl of Huntingdon on his right hand, and the Lord Willoughby, of Eresby, on his left; with above fifty knights and gentlemen of quality following.' Sir Henry rode a horse: but it had formerly been the rule for Justices of the King's Bench to ride on mules when making a State progress to Westminster- company took their places at windows and bal-number of powers of attorney issued was 3800, of "His Lordship' (Roger North says in the Examen), had an early fancy, or rather freak, the first day of the term (when all the officers of law, King's counsel, and Judges used to wait upon the Great Seal to Westminster) to make his procession on horseback, as in old time the way was, when the coaches were not so rife. And accordingly the Judges were spoken to, to get horses, as they and all the rest did, by borrowing and hiring, and so equipped themselves with black foot-cloths, in the best manner they could; and divers of the nobility, as usual, in compliment and honour to a new Lord Chancellor, attended also in their equipments. Upon notice in town of this cavalcade, all the show dirt; tion of his grave brethren, was laid along in the their coaches as before. I do not mention this a custom derived from times when the holders of conies, with the foot guard in the streets, to par high judicial posts were usually ecclesiastics. take of the fine sight; and, being once well settled It is reported,' says Dugdale, that John for the march, it moved, as the design was, statelily Whiddon, a justice of this court, was the first of along. But when they came to straits and inthe Judges who rode to Westminster Hall on a terruptions, for want of gravity in the beasts, horse or gelding, for before that time they rode and too much in the riders, there happened some on mules. The last Chief Justice to receive the curvetting, which made no little disorder. Judge honour of a public procession was Lord Ten-Twisden, to his great affright and the consternaterden, who was attended to the House of Lords in 1827 by a strong muster of the Bar. "It was a mule, the animal alike typical of clerical humility and clerical tenacity of purpose, that Wolsey used to ride from Old York House (Whitehall) to Westminster,-sitting on a saddle fitted with housings of crimson velvet and gilt stirrups. Clad in scarlet or crimson, with a tippet of sumptous sables on his shoulders, and holding in his hand the doctored orange which served him for a vinaigrette, the superb ecclesiastic was habitually attended from his residence to his court by the pole bearers and noble footmen, whose magnificent attire roused the envious animosities of the old nobility; and on the grand openings of term the cardinal-chancellor delighted the populace and infuriated his enemies by an ostentation that was absolutely regal. Unable to surpass, no subsequent holder of the seals attempted to equal Wolsey's official gorgeousness; but Hatton in Elizabeth's time, and Francis Bacon in the days of James the First, gladdened the lawyers and the crowd by the gallant state with which they opened term. When Francis Bacon rode from Gray's-inn to Westminster on the first day of Trinity, upon gaining custody of the great seal, he wore a suit of purple satin, and was attended by Prince Charles, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, and a long procession of earls and baronets, knights and gentlemen, as well as by the judges, and customary crowd of lawyers. The cavalcade consisted of more than two hundred horsemen. "As carriages became more general the fashion grew for Chancellors and ancient lawyers to exhibit themselves to the multitude in ponderous coaches drawn by four or six horses; and during the Commonwealth the Judges and leaders of the Bar were so seldom seen in mounted processions, that they were represented by scandal mongers as having completely lost their skill in equitation. It was averred that the Chancery and the three common law courts did not contain a score of legal personages who could gallop over a mile or two of rough country without coming to grief; and when Serjeant Glynne, to the vivid delight of his political foes, was flung from the saddle into the London mud in the sight of a dense multitude of spectators and of the legal cavalcade that contributed to the pomp of Charles the Second's coronation, the accident would have confirmed the public in its erroneous misjudgment of the lawyers, had the latter not recently demonstrated their eques The total amounts were : s. d. Cash and SecuritiesPaid into court.................. 17,045,909 10 3 Paid out of court............... 15,732,430 16 0 The following were the amounts for the year 1867 Paid into court. £ s. d. .... 17,048,862 16 5 Paid out of court.............. 16,542,127 5 8 The number of cheques signed was 47,940. The which 232 were impressed with 1s. stamps; 1199. with 5s, stamps; 2353 with 30s. stamps; and 16 were without stamps. The total number of accounts was 28,399. For the preceding year the number of cheques was 47,354; the number of powers of attorney 3863, of which 221 were impressed with 1s. stamps; 1273 with 5s. stamps; 2353 with 30s. stamps; and 16 were without. stamps. The total number of accounts was 27,673. For 1859 the number of cheques signed was 42,051. The number of powers of attorney issued was 3683; of which 294 were impressed with 5s.. stamps; 856 with 20s. stamps; and 2533 with 30s. stamps. The amount of cash and securities carried over in the Accountant-General's books was. 2,346,1547. 12s. 5d. in 1838, against 3,118,350. in 1867, and 2,424,0017. 7s. 9d. in 1859. The amount of fees collected by Chancery feefund stamps was 7421. for 1868, against 7501. for 1867, and 7371. for 1859. The following statement of the suitors' fund and SUITORS' FUND AND SUITORS' FEE FUND. suitor's fee fund is made from the annual account presented to Parliament by the Accountant-General, under the Act 5 Vict. c. 5, s. 63. Suitors Fund. Balance of cash on 1st Oct. 1867 sioners of Patents as any way evil in itself, but only as a levity "If the reader were to imagine that on arriv- Total income Payments Carried over to Suitors' Fee Fund £51,585 3 0 £ s. d 16,813 6 6 106,774 9 3 490 0 0 124,077 15 not illegal. To render it corrupt it must be made The number of causes and original matter for denied, the act was held to be innocent: further directions were: Awaiting hearing at the commencement of the the year Set down during the year Heard during the year Otherwise disposed of Awaiting hearing at the end of the year Number of appeals: Awaiting hearing at the commencement of the year Set down during the year.. Heard during the year Awaiting hearing at the end of the year The number of decrees and orders of each class, including those made by the registrar amounted together to The return next shows The number of affidavits filed The number of witnesses examined. The number of reports and certificates filed 52 51 1881 3 981 2,184 636 The number of warrants or summonses issued. 2,631 The number of advertisements issued Amount realised by sales of estates 110 £30,301 273 £280 £6,512 COALITION AGENCY-UNDUE INFLuenceTREATING EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS GUILTY OF UNDUE INFUENCE.-There being a coalition between candidates, the agent of one becomes the agent of the other; and if a corrupt act is brought home to the one, both are unable to hold their seats. But personal corruption must be proved against each individually: the proof personally against the one does not prove it personally against the other. Doing or threatening violence to an elector to induce him to vote or refrain from voting, vitiates the election, although done by an agent only. And if that is done which a man has a perfect right to do, but with a view to influence a vote, it is intimidation. Ex. gr. if a landlord threatens to turn out, or does turn out, a tenant for his vote, that is inflicting harm or loss within the statute. An employer who dismisses his servant on account .£22,575 of his vote is also guilty of undue influence. £29,606 Whether the withdrawal of custom from a £207,469 tradesman, or a threat to withdraw it, amounts £22,814 to undue influence, is a question of degree. Semble £166,691 where the loss proposed to be inflicted in this way would seriously affect the saleable value of the goodwill of a business, it would be such a loss as is contemplated by the statute. The loss must be so serious that a judge could direct a jury in a criminal court that a person threatening to inflict or inflicting it was guilty of a NOTES OF NEW DECISIONS. misdemeanor. A threat to exercise undue BARRISTER'S COURT MONEY-BRIBERY influence must be deliberately uttered with the AGENCY OF A REGISTRATION ASSOCIATION- intention to carry it into effect, and not in a WHEN PAYMENT CORRUPTION-TREATING moment of anger; whilst the loss to be inflicted EMPLOYMENT OF VOTERS.-It is not illegal to must not be too remote. An act of treating assist persons in getting their names on the under sect. 23 of 17 & 18 Vict. c. 102, does not electoral register. But where under colour of affect the election. If it comes within the 4th so assisting persons, payments are made with section it will affect the election. But the the intention of influencing the votes of such candidate will be responsible if he is in any way persons, it is bribery; and for the purpose of accessory to the giving or providing of refreshdiscovering the intention, the important element corruptly, i.e., with the view of influencing ments for consideration are, first, whether the payments were made contemporaneously with the registration; and, secondly, whether they were remuneration for payments out of pocket so that the voter should not be a loser, or whether it was intended to give him a profit. An association, admittedly the agents of the respondents, made certain payments to voters for attending the barrister's court. These payments were made contemporaneously with the registration, and amounted to no more than loss out of pocket. No evidence, however, of particular precaution being taken to ascertain the bona fide nature of the claims to payments was given beyond the statement of the members of the association making the payments that they were intended for payment of loss out of pocket to persons who had actually attended the court: Held, that these payments did not amount to bribery. Such payments, when the registration occurs close before a Parliamentary election, must be suspicious, and with a very little added, must justify the conclusion that they were intended to influence the election. At the time when the revising barrister was sitting many persons who attended his court were treated to meat and drink by the association, but there was no evidence that the treating continued beyond the day of registration: Held, that although foolish and unwise, the treating was not corrupt; but that had the object been to procure popularity or votes at the Parliamentary election it would have been corrupt. The municipal contest occurred a fortnight before the Parliamentary. At the former the customary amount of treating at public-houses went on, in a great measure under the superintendence of the agents of the association, who were also active partizans of the respondent at the Parliamentary election: Held, that although this treating might have influenced the Parliamentary election, yet, inasmuch as it was not in excess of treating at other municipal elections, and there was no evidence to show a corrupt intention, it did not affect the Parliamentary election. Lavish personal expenditure in a neighbourhood for the purpose of gaining influence is votes at the election then pending. The question He said, in these cases, 60 in number, the claimants are all clergymen of the Established Church of England, and each of them claims in respect of a freehold benefice, situate in the county of Middlesex. In each of these cases, the claim is made in respect not of the "benefice" of a parish which has existed from time immemorial, endowed with glebe lands and tithes, as such benefices have always been, but, in respect of benefices made such by Act of Parliament, in respect of districts which have by virtue of sundry statutes (which I may refer to shortly at the "Church Building Acts') been carved out of old existing parishes, and which new benefices are endowed, as a general rule, with either a grant of an annual sum from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to be paid out of their "common fund" or with the grant of an annual sum from the governors of Quean Anne's Bounty, or with pew rents, or with fees paid in respect of marriages, churchings, baptisms, and burials, or with some or one or other of these sources of income. To each of these claims objection has been made on the ground as I understand, that the income which is derived by the claimants in respect of their benefices is not of that character to entitle them to a vote for the county, it being contended that the income of which they are in receipt does not arise from "lands or tenements." Having elaborately examined the Acts and authorities, he said:It follows from all that I have said, that in my opinion in order to entitle a clergyman who holds a freehold benefice to a vote in the election of members of Parliament to represent the county in which that benefice is situate, he must, in respect of that his freehold benefice, be at the time of his claim in the receipt of, or have a present right to receive, or at the time of his claim actually derive, or be able at once to derive, an actual boni jide income of 40s. per annum at least, clear of all charges, arising on tenements situate in the same county and parish in respect of which the claim to vote is made. I proceed to consider the second point-namely, that each of the claimants has in right of his benefice such an interest in land as entitles him to a vote for the county. Now, the several sources from which the income of which the several claimants are in the receipt in respect of their benefices is derived may be arranged under the following heads-1. From grants of annual sums nade by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners out of their "common fund." 2. From the bounty. 3. From fees paid to the claimant in respect of marriages, churchings, baptisms, and burials. 4. From pew rents. Each of the claimants is not in receipt of income from all of these sources; but the above include all the sources from which any of the claimants derive their incomes. Some of them derive an income from all; but others from some or one of these sources. And his conclusion was this :-The claimants have not in my opinion, by reason of these annual stipends so granted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, any such direct interest in land as to entitle them apply to the income derived by some of the clai to votes for the county. The same observations ants from the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. The fund under their control also appears (see Stephens on the Laws of the Clergy, 554 to 556) to be a "mixed fund," and nothing has beenshown in these cases which could compel the governors to make their payments out of that portion of their income which arises from real estate. None of the claimants therefore has, in my opinion, in respect of these grants, any such direct interest in land as to entitle him to a vote for the county. As to the question of fees, he stated elaborate rearal claimants in these cases derive from fees paid in sons for his opinion that the income which the severespect of the performances of the various rites of the Church cannot be considered as paid in respect of the "user" of the freehold of the person, or as income in any way arising from lands or tenements, and that therefore, so far as this portion of their income is concerned, they have no such interest in land as to entitle them to vote for the county. And he thus concluded his judgment:-I now come to the question of pew rents. As to these there is a distinction between the cases of the various claimants. In some of the cases pew rents have been assigned to or are actually received by the claimants, under the authority of various statutes; but in others no such assignment has been made, and the claimants are not in receipt of any income from this source. Now the question of the right to vote for the county in respect of the receipt of pew rents is discussed in a judgment delivered by Mr. Serjeant Manning during the revision for South Hampshire, in 1837, and which is reported in 2 Jurist, p. 459. The claimant in that case was a Mr. George Silby, and he claimed as being "elected to and minister for life of a freehold Independent chapel." This decision of Mr. Serjeant Manning has always, I believe, been considered as containing a true exposition of the law in these cases, and is cited by Elliot in his work on Registration, p. 26. Mr. Serjeant Manning says, "I am of opinion that wherever Mr. GOREN has decided the following points:- the building is held by feoffees, &c., upon trust to THE MIDDLESEX REGISTRATION. purpose they may be conveniently classified under (Before COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH. COCKBURN, C. J., MELLOR, LUSH, and India Stock, 5 Cent. The cost of election petitions. 1870 India Bonds (10001.) 4 Do. (under 1000l.) 4 per Cent. 5001. Ex. Bills, 1000L. 1001. and 2001. ... a June 3 per cent., 108. a d ƒ в d March 23 per cent. 58. pm. June 3 per cent. 108. pm. e June 3 per cent., 5s. pm. f June 11s. premium. PUBLIC COMPANIES. DIVIDENDS. Koursk Charkoff Railway Five per Cent. Bonds.— The dividend warrants are payable at the counting house of Baring Brothers and Co., 8, Bishopsgatestreet Within. S. Hill, Q. C. moved to-day, for a rule calling pay over the 'pew rents' to the minister for the time being, or where other property is held upon trust to payover the rents and profits to the minister, the latter is entitled to be registered as a voter; and in a later part of his decision he says, "where A. is seised of lands or other tenements for such an estate as would confer the elective franchise on him provided he were in the receipt of the rents and profits to his own use, then, if such land and tenements be held subject to a trust directing the rents and profits, or a sufficient portion thereof, to be paid to a party so designated in the instrument creating the trust as to be capable of being distinctly ascertained (as to the person officiating as minister of such a chapel, or to the schoolmaster teaching at such a school, &c.), such person being appointed either for life or for any uncertain period which may endure for life, will be entitled to vote according to the nature of the estate so held in trust." Of course in all these cases there must be an express trust, or what is equivalent to an express trust, in favour of the party claiming the right to vote, of the pew rents or a fixed portion of the pew rents. If there is such a trust, or what is equivalent thereto, and the claimant has a freehold interest in his office, then I think that such claimant would have a right to vote for the county. With reference, therefore, to those cases now under consideration, in which the claimants are actually in receipt of the pew rents, or of a certain fixed proportion of the pew rents, arising from the churches of which they are vicars-the payment of such pew rents, or fixed proportion of pew rents, being secured to them by an assignment or under some deed or statute securing the same to themI am of opinion that the claimants in all those cases have such an interest in land as entitles them to votes for the county; and I so decide. There remain now the cases of those claimants to whom no assignment of pew rents has been made, and in favour of whom no deed or instrument securing the pew rents or any portion thereof has been executed, and who are not in receipt of any income from this source. With reference to these cases it has been argued, on the authority of the case of Astbury v. Henderson (Keane & Grant, p. 6), before referred to, that these claimants were entitled to vote, inasmuch as they may at any moment make their freeholdviz., their church, productive by calling on the churchwardens to let the pews, and that the churchwardens would, therefore, be bound to do so, subject only to the sanction of the bishop as to the amount. Of course I am now alluding to the cases only of those claimants in whom the freehold of the site of the church is in my opinion vested. When that is not the case the argument which I am now considering is inapplicable. Now, is it the fact that these claimants can at any moment make their freeholds productive by calling on the churchwardens to let the pews? In order to ascertain this, we must look at the statutes by virtue of which the right to the receipt of pew rents is granted to the several claimants-the right to pew rents-all these cases being derived entirely from statute. The statutes which confer and regulate this right to pew rents in the case of the present claimants are, I believe, the following: viz., the 58 Geo. 3, c. 45; the 59 Geo. 3, c. 134; the 5 Geo. 4, c. 103; the 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 38; and the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 70. In looking through and considering these statutes I find that before the churchwardens can call for the payment of any pew rents there must in some cases be an assignment by the commissioners empowered to carry out the provisions of the several Acts of the amount of pew rents to be paid by the several holders of pews and of the stipend thereout to be paid to the incumbent for the time being of the church. And in other cases the scale of the amount to be paid must, before the same can be demanded by the churchwardens, be fixed by certain persons named in the several Acts other than the churchwardens. But in no case do I find that the churchwardens have any power of themselves, or that they can be required to fix what pew rents are to be paid. But that the assigning and apportioning any such pew rents are in all these statutes left to the discretion of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, or of some person or persons other than the churchwardens. I am therefore of opinion that none of these claimants whose claims are now under consideration can, as it has been Exch. Bills contended, at any moment make their freeholds productive. I think, therefore, that those claimants to whom no assignment of pew rents has Brighton... Stock 100, been made, and in favour of whom no deed or instrument securing the payment to them of the pew rents of their churches, or of some fixed portion thereof, has been executed, and who are not in receipt of any of the pew rents, have not in respect of this prospective right to pew rents any right to a vote for the county. The result of my decision is, that none of the claimants are, in my opinion, entitled to be registered as voters for the county, except those who have had an assignment and are in the receipt of pew rents. I now proceed to consider the various claims, and to apply to them the principles which I have laid down. For this Quebec City Sterling Six per Cent. Bonds, Massachusetts State Sterling Five per Cent. Bonds.-The dividend warrants which were negotiated through Baring Brothers and Co., are payable at their counting house. General Finance, Mortgage and Discount Company (Limited).—A dividend at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum, free of income tax. Gas Meter Company (Limited).-A dividend at declared. the rate of 10 per cent. per annum has been Regent's Canal Company.-A dividend of 9s. per share has been declared. 66 English Bank of Rio de Janeiro.-A dividend 'on account" of 4 percent. (8s. per share), free of income tax. Great Western Railway of Canada.-A dividend on the preference stock at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, and on the ordinary shares at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum, free of income tax. West Flanders Railways.-A dividend of 5s. 9d. per share. Standard Bank of British South Africa (Limited).-A dividend of 10s. per share on the shares with £25 paid, and 48. per share on those with £10 paid. Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company (Limited). The directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 15 per cent. per annum. Russian Four per Cent. Loan of 1867.-The dividend warrants falling due on the 1st inst., are payable at the counting house of Baring Brothers and Co. Delhi and London Bank (Limited).-An interim dividend of 2 per cent. per annum, free of income tax. Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Com pany (Limited).-An interim dividend at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum. Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.-A bonus of 30s. per share out of the insurance fund. Bahia Gas Company (Limited.)-A dividend at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum on the preference shares, in addition toanother of 3 per cent. per annum on the ordinary shares. Singapore Gas Company (Limited.)-At the rate of 7 and 5 per cent per annum respectively on the preference and original capitals, free of income tax. Liquid Meter Company Limited.-Interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum has been paid, and further calls agreed to. Oriental Bank Corporation.-An ad interim dividend at the rate of 12 per cent. per annum. Telegraph Company River Steamer Company (Limited).—A petition for the winding-up is to be heard before ViceChancellor James on the 6th inst. St. Bride's United Slate and Slab Company (Limited).-At extraordinary meetings resolutions for a voluntary winding-up have been adopted, and Mr. Wm. Levett, accountant, of Basinghall. street, has been appointed liquidator. Waterford and Passage Railway Company and the Chubwa Tea Company of Assam (Limited).Petitions for the winding-up are to be heard before Vice-Chancellor Malins on the 5th inst. Société Financière d'Egypte.-A further distribution of 12s. per share was made on the 5th inst. on the £10 shares, making, with the previous payment, a return of £4. 4s. per share. The shares with only £6 paid have been cancelled by decree of the French law courts. North Kent Railway Extension Railway Company. A petition for the winding-up is to be heard before Vice-Chancellor James on the 6th Nov. Imperial Mercantile Credit Association (Limited).-A call of 21. 10s. per share is announced to the contributors as payable on the 1st Dec. Some of the company's investments are said to be assuming a more favourable character. Imperial Land of Marseilles (Limited).-The chairman of the Credit Foncier, as representative of the principal creditors, has summoned a meeting to submit a statement of the company's affairs and prospects; and to show the "absolute necessity" of a change in the mode of liquida tion. Taxation of costs-Order to tax rescinded. This was an application to rescind an order of Master Smith for the taxation of a bill of costs of the plaintiff. Towne submitted that if this order could be supported it would virtually repeal the provision in the 37th section of the Solicitors' Act (6 & 7 Vict. c. 78), which provides that no bill should be taxable after twelve months from its delivery, unless special circumstances were proved to the satisfaction of the judge. The bill in question amounted to 611. 18s. 6d., and it was delivered on the 12th Oct. 1868, and an action to recover it commenced on the 7th Oct. 1869, and the summons to tax was on the 20th Oct. 1869. An affidavit in support of the summons was made by one of the defendants as follows: IN THE COMMON PLEAS. Between Josiah Towne, plaintiff, and Henry Hart and Henry Hart defendants. I, Henry Hart, of the Raglan Music Hall, Theobald's. road, in the county of Middlesex, one of the abovenamed defendants, make oath and say, That I dispute several of the amounts of the items in the bill of costs for which this action is brought, and especially those relating to the journeys of the plaintiff, and the instructions for and drawing brief, add also the amounts of payments of fees to counsel, as I only gave instructions to the said plaintiff to employ one counsel to appear for me. HENRY HART. Towne contended that this affidavit only amounted to the statement of the defendant that he disputed the bill, and afforded no proof whatever that he had any ground for his objections. He referred to Re McKay, (solicitor), 15 L. T. Rep. N. S. 101; Re Harle, 19 L. T. Rep. N. S. 305. HAYES, J.-I have a great respect for Lord Romilly's judgment. Is there any later authority? Counsel (amicus curia). The last authority is that of Ex parte Robinson. Towne.-Yes; that may be found in L. Rep. 3 Ex. 4. There the court held that, where it appeared on the face of the bill that a sum of 921. was charged for thirty-one days attending a cause in London, it was sufficient proof of special circumstances. HAYES, J.-I should think so too. Orchard, for defendant, stated that the master had consulted Master Johnson in this matter previous to making the order, and both masters held the affidavit in this case sufficient. HAYES, J.-I see nothing unusual on the face of this bill, and consider the order to tax should be rescinded. All bills are more or less reducible by taxation. Order accordingly. PORTSMOUTH COUNTY COURT. (Before C. J. GALE, Esq. Judge.) Mr. Cousins, solicitor, of Portsea, said that some time ago his Honour had remarked upon the fact that some of the Professional gentlemen attending this court appeared in gowns and others did not. His Honour then said that he did not wish to insist upon professional costume being adopted, but he thought there should be uniformity, and would be glad to know if the legal gentlemen wished professional robes to be adopted or not. Mr. Cousins said that in accordance with the suggestion of his Honour, he then ascertained the wishes of his Professional brethren, who asked that his Honour would require gowns to be worn. Since that time, some of his friends had grown somewhat careless with reference to the matter. A law society had been recently established in Hampshire, and he that institution, to present his Honour with the now had the pleasure, as the honorary secretary of following memorial from the Society: "To Charles James Gale, Esg., the Judge of the the County Court of Hampshire. "The humble memorial of the Hampshire Law Society, presented in pursuance of a resolution passed at their quarterly meeting held on the 21st Oct., 1869. "Showeth-That with a view to maintain the status of the legal profession, your petitioners humbly request that you will be pleased not to permit attorneys' clerks, accountants, or other unqualified persons to practice as advocates in the County Courts within your jurisdiction. "And your petitioners also humbly request that you will be pleased to require all barristers and attorneys who appear as advocates before you at courts where professional costume is usually worn, to appear in such professional costume "And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. "(Signed) CHAS. B. HELLARD, President. (Signed) Thos. COUSINS, Hon. Sec." He (Mr. Cousins) need make no obsevation on the memorial. Mr. Field said he concurred with the memorial. Mr. Furner, the judge of the Sussex County Court, insisted upon the professional gentlemen practising before him, coming properly robed. His Honour said he had always prohibited attorneys' clerks, accountants, and other unprofessional persons practising before him, and should continue to do so. He approved the views of the memorialists as to professional costume, and would insist upon it after the 1st Jan. 1870. GENTLEMEN APPLYING TO BE ADMITTED AS ATTORNEYS. Michaelmas Term 1869, pursuant to Judges' Bill, Frederic, Wednesbury; Great Barr, Stafford and Lascelles, Eaton M., Cardigan-A. H. Lascelles, Narberth, and W. G. George, Cardigan and Lloyd, Robert Owen, 82, Warwick-street, Pimlico; Macclesfield Warner, Edward Lee, 6, Charles-street, Grosvenorsquare-C. T. Arnold, 20, Whitehall-place Worthington, Christopher, Congleton-J. E. Ward, Congleton Last Day of Michaelmas Term 1869. Allen, Thomas Lewis, Gray's inu-square-R. Peckham, Great Knightrider-street; J. J. Merriman, 28, Queenstreet; and T. Eaton and T. Bowker, Bedford-row and Gray's-iun-square Angel, Edmund Grey, 6, Millman-street, Bedford-row; and The Close, Exeter-E. W. Paul, and H. M. James, Exeter Arthy, Joseph Bridge, Chelmsford-J. Parker, and J. W. Wilson, Chelmsford Atkey, Frederick Walker, 11. Windsor-road, Denmark. hill J. R. Upton, Austin Friars Blake, Charles, 32, Fitzroy-street, Middlesex; and Newport, Monmouth-H. J. Davis, G. Blakey, and Catherall, Edward, 5, Canonbury-street, Islington-C. W. J. Lloyd, Newport Gammon, 9, Cloak-lane Collins, Alexander, Upper Grange-road, Bermondsey; and South-parade, Trafalgar-square-E. K. Bridger, 120, Keunington-park-road Greening, Joseph Robert, Arthur-road, Brixton; and Bramah-road-J. S. Bennett, Mark-lane, London Greaves, John Brook, Ecclesfield, York-C. L. Coward, Harvey, Frank Jacob, 151, Warwick-street, Middlesex ; and Torquay-B. Hooper, Torquay Rotherham Leeming, Charles Heury, Pellon-lane, Halifax; and Essex-street, Strand-F. Jubb, Halifax Lucas, Lionel Richard, jun., Louth; 19, Keppel-street, Russell-square; and 13, Wakefield-street-W. Allison, Louth Lycett, Henry, Bowden, Chester; 13, Cecil-street, Lynch, Christo her Bernard, Onslow-square; F. C. Moxon, John, 28, Milton-terrace, Wandsworth-road; Walker, Edward L., 71, Oxford-terrace, Hyde-park- Manchester Evans, John, Wrexham Blunt, George Henry, Egremont; and Leicester Deakin, Bickerton Homer, Monmouth; and Tettenhall wood street Derry, Richard Courtenay, North Shields; and 36, St. James's-square, Notting-hill Edwards, Edward Rasbrook, Walham Green; and 57, Usher-road, Bow Clapton-Feuillade, Francis,Stratford; and 23 and 25, MillmanForster, Joseph, 306, Camberwell New-road Forward, William, 58, Albert-street, Regent's-park Greenwelj, Walpole Eyre, 22, Dorchester-place Hall, Matthew Henry, 9, Alma-terrace, Hammersmith, Harriss, Alfred Edmund Calcutta Hoffman, John Wills, 3, St. Ann's-terrace, Wandsworth Fowler, John Seymour, Liverpool-A. B. Anderson, Hague, Temple Layton, Acomb, near York-H. Cowling |