THE ETIQUETTE OF THE BAR.
We have received a communication from "A
Young Barrister," pointing to a state of things
which must be faced boldly, and checked by
exemplary punishment. The opinion of the
Profession generally is against a merger of the
Clerks assembled at King's College on Wednes-
classes of barristers and attorneys. The Articled
day night emphatically applauded Sir R.
PALMER'S remarks against such a merger.
fession lay in the other direction, would it be
But even supposing the opinion of the Pro-
fair for a few men at the Bar to take advantage

of the uncertain state of the question by entering
their more scrupulous brethren?
solicitors' offices, thus stealing a march upon
We consider
the matter of so much importance, that we here
print the letter to which we refer:

Sir, I wish to ask your opinion upon a question of legal etiquette. I was always possessed of the idea that "hugging attorneys" was an offence for avoided in town; that it was decidedly wrong to which a man would be shunned on circuit, and advertise; and that to seek the acquaintance of solicitors with an eye to business alone was reprehensible. This being the state of my mental impressions respecting my Profession, you will understand my intense astonishment when I saw a member of my Inn, who was called about the same time as myself, sitting in the Court of Exchequer amongst the attor neys with a bundle of law papers in his hand, and obviously assisting the attorneys in conducting a friend-for such I considered him-was eccentric; case then being heard. I thought that possibly my that he had got a brief which had so turned his head that he had forgotten to robe and had strayed to the wrong bench. Yet I knew that he was a hardheaded fellow, and not likely to be easily intoxicated by his first brief; wherefore I made inquiries, and office and was that day engaged in doing attorney's found that he, a barrister, had entered a solicitor's familiar friends, and they are of opinion that this work. I have mentioned the case to my more individual ought to be disbarred, and that I ought not to hesitate about cutting him dead. Will you kindly give me your opinion?

A YOUNG BARRISTER. We are certainly of opinion that, upon these

grounds, a barrister would be disbarred if the case were laid before the Benchers, and we are further of opinion that it is the duty of every barrister who values the honour and status of his Profession to show by his conduct towards those who transgress its rules that he strongly disapproves of such transgressions. A gentleman who, after he is called, resorts to a solicitor's office, whether for covert purposes of selfadvancement or for the ostensible purpose of obtaining a knowledge of routine business, inflicts a moral injury upon himself and does substantial hurt to the society to which he belongs.

ADJOURNMENTS.

IF criminals are entitled to consideration, something is also due to their prosecutors. Trials should not be adjourned without good cause shown, for delay is practically a punishment inflicted upon the prosecutor and his witnesses, who are mulcted of money and time. Mr. CAVE, one of the victims of the "Lady" swindler, has published in the Standard an angry but just complaint of the wrong done to him and the other prosecutors of this accomplished thief, by the postponement of her trial at the request of her counsel, on the plea that time had not sufficed for the preparation of her defence. The COMMON SERJEANT yielded too readily to such an application. He should have taken into

account the inconvenience and loss he was inflicting upon her victims, and bethought him whether it would be right to punish the plundered for the accommodation of the plunderer. We do not assert that in no case should an adjournment of trial be granted to the inconvenience of prosecutors, but the Judge should be satisfied, in all cases, that it is really required for the purposes of justice. He should ask the applicant to state particularly what is the nature of the defence to establish which more time is asked for. Had the COMMON SERJEANT done so in this case, or had he given a moment's consideration to it, he must have seen that delay could not possibly advantage the prisoner. The facts are undisputed; the identity is unquestioned; that she obtained the goods in the manner alleged she does not deny. She needed not time to procure witnesses, for no witness could help her. There is but one possible defence, and that is a technical one, namely, whether the manner of obtaining the goods was an indictable fraud; whether the alleged false pretence was sufficient in law. But this is a dry legal question that counsel might have argued on the moment.

The consequences of delay are also noxious to the community. Punishment should follow crime with all possible speed; whatever extends the space between them diminishes the effect of example. But a worse result is seen in the encouragement offered to crime by the impunity given to it through the natural aversion to prosecute when such cost and trouble are imposed upon prosecutors. This appears plainly to have been the effect upon Mr. CAVE, whose letter we extract, because it adds one more to the arguments for the establishment of a Public

Prosecutor.

Sir,—In common with the other daily journals you have, in your report of the police case, paid me a compliment for the manner in which I followed up and gave into custody Mrs. Geraldine Meurice alias Mrs. Hope, Mrs. Fraser, Mrs. Durant, &c. I should have been content to let the matter rest and to carry out the prosecution to the end; but to-day I find that the end which was expected this afternoon has been postponed, at the request of the prisoner's counsel, for another month. Seven days have I lost at the police-court, and seven days is no small loss

to a West-end tradesman. Three days more have

fellows, have been content with the first loss as
the best.

I wish through your columns to impress upon the
public the features of this case. Here is an accom-
plished swindler, against whom no fewer than
fifteen indictments are laid, and who has victimised
more than 100 tradesmen, who would absolutely
have escaped prosecution at the criminal bar but
for the enterprise of one private person. It seems
to me if ever a case was strong it is this one in
favour of the appointment of a public prosecutor.
It is really hard, especially upon young beginners
in trade, that they should be compelled either to see
the guilty escape or to pay roundly for the privilege
of seeing them punished. I have, of course, in the
present state of the law only done my duty; but it
is not clear to my mind why the law should lay the
duty on me at all.-Yours obediently, W. CAVE.
127, Mount-street, Oct. 31.

THE JUDGE OF THE ADMIRALTY
COURT.

THE following well-deserved compliment was
paid by the Bar to the new Judge.
PHILLIMORE took the oaths and his seat on
Sir R.
Monday, but the newly-appointed Queen's Advo-
cate, Sir TRAVERS TWISS, was, in consequence
of his having to attend Her Majesty, unable to
be present. At the sitting of the court on the
following morcing, the letters patent appointing
the Queen's Advocate having been read,

Lordship is aware of the circumstances which pre-
The QUEEN'S ADVOCATE said,-Perhaps your
vented my attending yesterday before you, but I
cannot allow your Lordship to take your seat and
appear before you as Her Majesty's Advocate with
out offering to you our congratulations upon your
appointment to a post which has been so long and
ably filled by your predecessor. Perhaps it is not
too much to say that the public are infinitely in-
debted to Dr. Lushington for the energy and care
by which he brought his great attainments and his
high legal knowledge to bear upon matters in this
Westminster-hall. He has himself raised in his own
court, upon its transfer from Doctors'-commons to
department of law an imperishable monument of his
reputation in that comprehensive exposition of the
law of prize, applicable to military booty. While,
my Lord, he has laid the foundation of a system
of law, upon which it will be your duty to
build up and complete the edifice, in those
new branches which the Legislature has now
called upon the Court of Admiralty to enter-
tain, Dr. Lushington has been called away from
among us by that inexorable monitor-age, which
warned him at the same time that it relieved him
from his post, but I am happy to think that it is
possible we may live still to see him in another
court, and it will be I trust, our satisfaction to argue
before your Lordship, and to experience from you
that courtesy which we have always experienced at
And I am satisfied that your great attainments in
the Bar when we were members mutually of it.
ecclesiastical and international law will enable you
to do justice to the seat which you occupy, and may
it be your good fortune to administer to that inheri
tance of law which Lord Stowell has handed down
in this court, and to which I may also add the name
of Lord Mansfield, for you may be called upon to
expound those great principles of commercial as well
as maritime law, of which that most learned and able
Judge has left a record in the reports I may say of
Burrows, and of Cooper, and of Douglass. My Lord,
longer from the duties of the present day, but in
I will not detain your Lordship or the Profession
their name I beg to offer you our congratulations,
and may you be able to discharge the high office
to which you have been raised with advantage to
the public and satisfaction to yourself.

SIR R. J. PHILLIMORE, Queen's Advocate, I am

much obliged to you for the address which you have
been so good as to deliver, and I desire to convey to
you and the gentlemen of the Bar, whom you repre-
sent, my sincere thanks for the kind tone and manner
which prevailed throughout that address.
assure you that I was not without proper misgivings
as to my own competency in the acceptance of the
important office to which it has pleased Her Most

I can

I

for their clients with respect for themselves and acknowledgment of their duty to the court. Its Queen's Advocate, relying upon the maintenance honourable feeling between the Bar and the Bench, and on the full co-operation of the Bar in the admi nistration of justice, that I hope to be enabled: discharge adequately the duties of the high ad important office to which I have been called. I thank you, Queen's Advocate, and I thank yo gentlemen, for the honour which you have doue me

DEATH OF MR. EDWARD JAMES, Q.C., M.P. IT is our melancholy duty to record the prematur death of this distinguished lawyer, which took place at Paris on Sunday last. He had bee taking, as was his custom, a vacation tour in Switzerland, where he caught a severe cold, which turned to pleurisy. From this dangerous malady his life was for some time in imminent danger; but the inflammation was subdued with dently anticipated. As soon as he could be removed difficulty, and his complete recovery was confi England. There alarming symptoms of weakness with safety, he was brought to Paris, en route for supervened, from which he never rallied. H› gradually sunk and died on Sunday.

Mr. EDWARD JAMES enjoyed the undispute leadership of the Northern Circuit. He hel also the honourable offices of Attorney-General for the County Palatine of Lancaster, and Judge called to the Bar in 1835, and is age is stated as of the Passage Court of Liverpool. He was sixty-four; but his robust frame and healthy complexion indicated less advanced years and a longer life. At the Bar he was distinguished for a sturdy independence, which sometimes brought him into collision with the Bench, recet instances of which will be in the memory of the reader. At the last general election he was elected for Manchester by a considerable majority, against Mr. JACOB BRIGHT, the Radical ca didate-the Liberal Conservatives and the Coservative Liberals having united in resistance!› extreme democracy. His course in Parliament with the usual consequence of not quite pleasing was, as at the Bar, perfectly independent, be either party, and it was very doubtful whether he would have succeeded in another contest.

The following deserved eulogy has appeared in the Standard:

The name of Edward James, Queen's Counsel member of Parliament for Manchester, and judge f the Liverpool Court of Passage, has been added to the already long list of legai celebrities to whom t year 1867 has proved fatal. In common with maty of his professional brethren, the honourable #2. i learned gentleman had sought rest and relaxati

on

the continent after many months of sever have greatly benefited by the change. About mental labour, and until very lately he seemed weeks ago, however, he caught cold, and negic it, as men of good constitutions and active m are only too prone to do, and as he probably as frequently done before without serious consequetes But on this occasion he was not to enjoy his A immunity. Symptoms of bronchitis showed theselves, and continued to increase in spite of ere effort to subdue them, until pleurisy superveles which, on Sunday last, terminated his existe His absence from the opening of the courts i Saturday, the first day of Term, was the occasion some remark, but few of his associates and comp titors were aware of the dangerous character of his illness, and still fewer imagined that on the following day, a career which had been both honourable and distinguished, would be closed for ever. Mr. James was one

examples of success at the Bar, attained with f of the many illustris adventitious aids, and in the face of many and midable obstacles. Originally destined for pursuits of a different order, his strong natural bent towards the calling of his ultimate choice, induced him, an age somewhat more advanced than that at we

men generally choose their profession, to stake s I wasted at the Old Bailey waiting until the case Gracious Majesty to appoint me. To sit in the should come on, and at the end of this I find that chair of Lord Stowell is to provoke a comparison and industrious competitors. It is true that success in a vocation always overcrowded with ste my trouble and my share of the expenses are all to from which men of far greater knowledge and ability annals of the Bar furnish many examples of this kin go for nothing, and that I shall have to attend than myself might not unreasonably shrink, and but it is not less true that every man who makes again at the Old Bailey and lose one or two days am well aware that my immediate predecessor, experiment runs a great risk, and shows a confident. more, besides extra expenses incurred. My first Dr. Lushington, whose encomium you have just in his own rowers which only one event can justit loss with Mrs. Meurice was nearly 120%, and my pronounced, and with which I most fully and Mr. James, however, not only possessed this re share of expenses in prosecuting more than I can entirely agree, has by the variety and extent fidence, but showed himself determined to prove afford to lose. It is, no doubt, as the Common of his legal knowledge, his great command well founded. Serjeant said to-day, very right that the prisoner of language, his unwearied assiduity, and his lege, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1851. He entered himself at Brasenose Colshould have the fullest opportunity of perfecting her never-failing courtesy, set an example which going thence to Lincoln 8-inn, he was called a di each remand, she was committed for trial on the days, renders the task of a successor one of no ordi- | Bar in 1835. He had his share of the trials and dis foth. She would, therefore, it tried yesterday, have that I should be assisted in the administration of before very long he made his mark, and wont is had more than a fortnight for preparation and con- justice in this court, not only by the able advice of sultation, without putting the prosecution and the skilled nautical assessors, but by the Bar, by advo- style than many of his contemporaries, almos Less fluent in speech and less sensational iz witnesses to further trouble and outlay, and if I had cates who in the conduct of a suit before me would superior to most of them in his quick and almost never forget that they were gentlemen, and who intuitive apprehension of the legal bearings of

defence. But, besides having a solicitor present at

known as much as I know now I should never have
undertaken the task, but should, like so many of my well know how to reconcile the most fervent zeal

each case entrusted to him.

Business flowed in

the rate shall have been made in respect of which
he shall have so claimed.

a pace, and among the traditions of his circuit
one still hears tales of the number of briefs
he held, and the amount of money that he By a subsequent Act a single claim to be rated
made, when practising in the Liverpool Pas-operates to continue the rating of the claimant so
sage Court, over which he afterwards presided. long as he occupies the premises, whether the over-
From this time forward his success was not only seers obey the first claim or not (14 & 15 Vict. c. 14,
assured, but remarkable. He took silk" in 1853,
s. 1). No person so claiming to be rated
after being eighteen years on the back benches; was shall be required to make any further claim
made judge of the Passage Court, and Attorney but shall be entitled to be put on the list and to be
General of the County Palatine of Lancaster-offices registered as a voter provided he shall have occupied
which he continued to hold until his decease. Ho the premises," &c.
was elected to the Bench of Lincoln's-inn, and for

The Act of 1867, it has to be observed, for the first
time expressly calls a lodger a "tenant" (sect. 4,
clause 2, and form No. 1 of schedule G). The inter-
pretation clause of that Act (61) provides that "dwell-
ing-house shall include any part of a house occupied
as a separate dwelling, and separately rated to the
relief of the poor;" and the 4th sect. (clause 2) de-
scribes a lodger as "occupying" as "sole tenant."
In my apprehension, therefore, the only distinction
between a lodger and a tenant is not the tenure or
the rature of the occupation, but simply that be-
tween being rated and not being rated. To intro-
duce the lodger to the status and all the privileges of
tenancy conferred by the Act, all that is required is
one claim to be rated, without proof or other pro-
cess. Such a lodger will not require the condition
of 107. rental. He will become the tenant created by
the new Act simply by claiming to be rated, and
will be entitled to be registered, although his rent
be no more than 6d.
per week.

By claiming to be rated and becoming thereby a
statutory tenant he does not enlarge, but really con-
tracts his liability. At present his goods are liable
to distraint for the rates of the whole tenement of
which his occupation forms a part, while by claim-
ing to be rated for the portion exclusively occupied
by himself he restricts his liability solely to the rate
due for that part.

I raise this question now because, if lodgers pro-
pose to act on the suggestion I have hazarded, they
must claim to be placed on the proximate rate about
to be made, that they may be qualified for the re-
gister to come into operation in January, 1869.
I am, Sir, your faithful servant,

was the method of Sir RoUNDELL PALMER'S advice. We will briefly epitomise his remarks:

In the first place he noticed that we live in times of change, and that as a natural consequence the question of a merger of the Bar and attorneys is canvassed. To this proposition he decidedly objected. He conceived that, if the advocate were brought in direct contact with the litigant his intellectual impartiality would be impaired. And further, whilst admitting that attorneys and solicitors were throughout the country displaying skill in advocacy, he observed that there are an infinite number of cases where something higher than mere advo cacy is required, and there the science and the skill of the barrister, who has leisure during his career to master the principles which he has to handle, become valuable and indispensable. One other remark he made on this head which we considered particularly forcible. If a solicitor conducted a case from beginning to end, and felt called upon in the course of it to exercise a discretion in its management not according with the passionate partiality of the client, he would do so at the risk of personal sacrifice. But if counsel exercises this discretion the attorney is relieved, and the client is bound to swallow his discontent even if he does not admit the wisdom of the proceeding. Let us add that Sir ROUNDELL'S view of this question was received with unanimous applause.

The learned gentleman was very elaborate in his description of what a barrister ought to be, and of what an attorney and solicitor ought to be. The former should be calm, keen, possessed of temper, tact, and courtesy: in short, endowed with all the qualities of a "gentleman." The attorney should be honest, truthful, checking, as he believed attorneys do every day, disputes between man and man, condescending to tell no lie to serve a client, and not risking his personal honour in a client's cause. High morality and intellectual impartiality, said Sir ROUNDELL, are the attributes of all great lawyers.

several years before his death he led the great Northern Circuit, in a way which proved him no unworthy follower even of such predecessors as Scarlett, Brougham, and Pollock. On the death of Sir James Graham he issued an address to the electors of Carlisle, but finding the ground preoccupied, did not contest the city; nor did he, so far as we are aware, again attempt to enter Parliament until the last general election, when he stood with Mr. Bazley in opposition to Messrs. Jacob Bright and Heywood, receiving the support of all men of moderate opinions, and beating his more democratic rivals by majorities of 1100 and 2400 respectively. In his short Parliamentary experience he can scarcely be said to have realised the expectations formed of him, though great allowances are to be made for the position of a new member, making his debut on the eve of a great struggle, and exposed in consequence to that action of the whippers-in which was so desperately, but so vainly, tried as an expedient for keeping the Russell-Gladstone Cabinet in office. But, as evidencing his desire for law reform, we may here record that he introduced a motion for an inquiry into the present arrangements for the dispatch of legal business, similar to that which had been made by Mr. Powell, Q. C., when member for Gloucester, by which the inquiry now in progress would have been somewhat antedated. Other and more pressing matters intervened, and prevented the appointment of a commission at Mr. James's instance; but enough was said to show that his help might have been confidently relied upon in support of any measure for making legal process more simple and less expensive. This, indeed, was to be expected from the reputation which he had achieved. By universal testimony he was one of the most upright and honourable of The suggestion is ingenious. To make our practitioners, never stooping to take advantage of answer intelligible, we put the argument in fewer education; and he strongly inculcated method in The speaker then addressed himself to legal an opponent, and, while fighting most persistently words. Every occupier of a dwelling-house being study, and above all the historical method, on behalf of his client, always remembering that the advocate's duty is to serve the client per fus and not rated and paying his rates is entitled to the fran-expressing himself pleased at seeing that a per nejis. Uniformly kind and courteous in private, chise. A dwelling-house is defined to include lecture was to be delivered on the subject. He ever willing to help or to encourage others, he some-any part of a house occupied as a separate advised those who had leisure to pursue these times exposed himself to misconception by an studies, to read carefully Hallam's Constituirritability, in part occasioned by constitutional tional History and Middle Ages; Reeves's temperament, and in part by the pressure of an History of the Statute Law of England; and arduous and constantly-increasing practice. That Coke's Second and Third Institutes. Speaking this was but the single unfortunate element in his of examinations, he deprecated the system of character was shown during his life by the high cramming. He attached no value to that mode regard in which he was held by the members of his of learning law, by which information went in at own circuit, who knew him better than anyone else, while by the concurrent voice of the entire Profession the eye and out at the ear so soon as the his sudden death will be regretted as that of one who examination is over. He recommended students as a sound, a patient, and an erudite lawyer, had to master a few subjects thoroughly, rather than few equals, and scarcely any superior. His Dantesque attempt to answer every question in an exami face will henceforth be missed from the arena in nation paper. He particularly advised the study which it had become familiar by his frequent appearances and his many triumphs; but the story of of the law of real property, mercantile law, thehis struggles and of his successes will remain to law of wills, and the practice of conveyancing. encourage those who, like himself, have entered The last he compared to mathematics as regards upon the laborious and exciting conflicts of the most its influence upon the mind, necessitating as it open, and the most learned, of the professions. does consecutive thought and accuracy of expression.

I think, however, that I see in the clauses of the statute a way of escape from the repetition of these tedious forms, and, at the same time, a meang of extending the franchise in a direction not contemplated by Parliament.

of the poor

By the 59th section of the new Act, the old Reform and Registration Acts are incorporated with and made part of it. By the 30th section of the Act of 1832, to be read with the Act of 1867, it is provided that it shall be lawful for any person occupying any house to claim to be rated to the relief and upon such occupier so claiming and actually paying or tendering the full amount of the rate, &c., if any then due the overseers are hereby required to put the name of such occupier on the rate for the time being; and, in case such overseers shall refuse or neglect so to do, such occupier shall nevertheless be deemed to have been rated ... from the period at which

SIDNEY SMITH, Sec.
Liberal Registration Association, 31, Bush-lane,
Cannon street, E.C., Oct. 18.

dwelling and separately rated to the relief of the
poor." Every lodging is a part of a house occu-
pied as a separate dwelling. If occupiers are not
rated, they may demand to be rated, and that
demand is to be equivalent to rating. Therefore,
any lodger occupying any part of a house of any
value may claim to be rated and is entitled to
be registered as a householder.

There are two answers to this device for
introducing what would be in fact universal
suffrage. First, the lodger is required by the
Act to occupy "as a lodger," and a lodger
is a person living in the house of another occu-
pier, and consequently he cannot be a house-
Secondly, the definition of a "
holder, nor can his lodgings be a dwelling-house.
dwelling-house,"

as a

"separate dwelling" precludes the mere
lodger, for a separate dwelling means a dwelling
separated from the rest of the house, which a
lodger's is not. If it is, that is, if he has a
separate entrance and no internal communi-

cation, he is not a lodger, but the occupier of
chambers, like those in the Temple and elsewhere,
and then he would undoubtedly be entitled to
the franchise; but as a householder, and not as
a lodger.

to be rated is, therefore, somewhat dangerous.
Mr. SMITH's exhortation to lodgers to demand

What if the overseer should take them at their
word and rate them, as, indeed, he would be
bound to do? Mr. SMITH'S victims would find
themselves compelled to pay the rate, but they
would not thereby obtain the franchise, because
they are in fact lodgers, and not holders of "part
of a house occupied as a separate dwelling."

SIR ROUNDELL PALMER ON THE
LEGAL PROFESSION.
On Wednesday evening Sir ROUNDELL PALMER
delivered the annual address to the Society
of Articled Clerks. His predecessors in this
office have been Sir FITZROY KELLY and Mr.
COLERIDGE. The addresses of the CHIEF BARON
and of Mr. COLERIDGE have a family likeness; in
each it is emphatically laid down that intellectual
cultivation and more particularly the acquisition
of a wide knowledge of literature are the first
essentials in legal education. Very different

Referring to secular knowledge, he echoed thewords of the CHIEF BARON and Mr. COLERIDGE ting all mention of Greek, he said that a know-a lawyer cannot be too well informed. Omitledge of Latin was necessary to the proper and perfect comprehension of language. proper use of language, he added, is essential in an advocate. Loose talk will not do before a discriminating judge; it damages rather than/ advances an argument.

And the

And lastly, Sir ROUNDELL PALMER spoke of the great benefits to be derived from the practice of debating, referring to ten eminent men, who were his contemporaries at Oxford, and who the shone as debaters.

We have summarised the ex-ATTORNEYGENERAL'S address from memory, but, on comparison with the report, we believe that it will be found mainly correct, and we think our readers will agree that it is distinguished for its strong common sense. It points a lofty moral; it places no unattainable standard before the eye of the aspirant; it consoles and encourages the student of slow capacity in his moderate profession, and hems in with practical rules and the laws of method the wild spirits of the ambitious Such teachings as these are eminently useful and the Articled Clerks' Society confers a great benefit on the common profession by drawing experienced, accomplished, and learned men on to the platform, and there eliciting from the

their thoughts upon the present and the future position and prospects of the law, the proper administration of which, as Sir ROUNDELL PALMER remarked, is necessary to the happiness and well-being of a nation.

INCONSISTENCIES IN THE COUNTY

COURTS AMENDMENT ACT.

FEARS were entertained immediately on the passing of this statute that it would, when the time appointed for its coming into operation should arrive, cause no small amount of difficulty and perplexity. It was not, however, anticipated that any question with respect to its operation would occur at so early a period as the present. The decision which was given at chambers the other day by Mr. Justice LUSH, has consequently taken the legal Profession, and, no doubt, the public generally, very greatly by surprise. The learned Judge held that the 5th section of the Act which enacts, that "if in any action commenced after the passing of the Act in any of Her MAJESTY'S Superior Courts of Record, the plaintiff shall recover a sum not exceeding 20l. if the action is founded on contract, or 104. if founded on tort, whether by verdict, judgment by default, or on demurrer, or otherwise, he shall not be entitled to any costs of suit, unless the Judge certify on the record that there was sufficient reason for bringing such action in such Superior Court, or unless the Court or a Judge at chambers shall, by rule or order allow such costs," is in force from the date of the passing of the Act, viz., from the 20th Aug. last, notwithstanding the provision of the 36th section that the Act is to come into operation on the 1st Jan. next; and that plaintiffs in any such action cannot, therefore, at the present time, recover their costs, unless such a certificate, rule, or order as is mentioned in the 5th section has been obtained. The question whether this is really so or not is one of considerable importance, not only with respect to the section under which the decision was

remain by an oversight, as the 36th section of any material benefit from the transfer to the County
Act, which is the last, provides that the Act Courts of actions which cannot be brought in the
shall come into operation on the 1st Jan. next Superior Courts except at the risk of losing the
after its passing. The draftsman, in drawing costs? My opinion is, that the public in this respect
the Bill, would not prescribe any special time for tuted jurisdiction enforced by the Act. It must not
will in general gain no advantage from the substi
the commencement of the Act, but would, be supposed that because the amount of a debt
keeping in mind the statutory period for the sought to be recovered is either under 204 or under
commencement of all Acts of Parliament for the 50%. the County Court is the fittest court for pro-
coming into operation of which no particular ceedings to recover it; the same complicated and
time is provided, naturally frame its various difficult questions of fact and law usually exist in
clauses with reference to that period. It is, such cases of small debts as where the debt is above
therefore, very easy to see how such words as 504, and the public ought not to be deprived of the
those which we have above mentioned, may be option of submitting such questions to the decision
allowed to stand in one section of an Act, of the very learned and experienced judges of the
although the Legislature has, by a subsequent Superior Courts, nor ought they to be deprived of
section, expressly appointed some other time for courts. I deny that such cases ought to be tried
the assistance of the talented Bar practising in those
its commencement than the date of its passing. only in the County Courts, and I doubt very much
But whatever the explanation of two such con-
tradictory provisions appearing in the same sta-adjudicate in any action involving any difficult
whether the County Courts should be required to
tute may be, there cannot, in our opinion, be any question of fact or law, or in which the evidence on
doubt that the latter of them repeals the former, either side might lead to a substantial question as to
and that the 5th section of the Act must its sufficiency or admissibility. The judges of the
be read as though the words "commenced County Courts in difficult cases, would often be
after the passing of this Act" were not there. unequal to the duties and responsibilities cast upon
If this is not done, different portions of the Act them; it cannot be expected that the various points
will be made to come into operation at different Courts find it difficult to decide can be properly or
which even the experienced judges of the Superior
times, and this, too, in the face of an express satisfactorily disposed of by the judges of the County
provision that it shall come into operation on a Courts. Another evil would arise from giving to
particular day; a provision, moreover, which the County Courts such an extensive jurisdiction, and
contains no exception, and which must, there- that would be the want of uniformity in their decisions:
fore, we apprehend, be taken to apply to the Act there would be in many respects no settled point of
in its entirety. That one part of the same Act law which could be relied on as a guide either to
may virtually repeal another there can be no the public or Profession. The ludicrous fact would
doubt, it having been held, in the case of The appear that the same point would have been decided
Attorney-General v. The Governor and Company of differently by the various judges of those courts:
Chelsea Waterworks, Fitzg. 195, that where the and as to taking counsel's advice before action on a
proviso of an Act of Parliament is directly useless to do so, as much would depend on the learn-
supposed right of action or defence it would almost be
repugnant to the purview, the proviso shall ing and decisions of the judge of the particular court
stand, and be a repeal of the purview, as it in which it might be proposed to sue or defend,
speaks the last intention of the maker; and the and, moreover, there would be no general selected
circumstance was compared in the argument at reports of the decisions of all the County Courts
the bar to a will, with regard to which it is a The cheapuess of County Court proceedings is no
well-established doctrine, that the latter part of compensation for their disadvantages. If, however,
it shall, if inconsistent with the former, super-
both plaintiff and defendant, for the sake of cheap-
ness, prefer the County Court, let them go there;
successful. It has recently been suggested in the
should be allowed to do so, and to recover costs if

given, but also with respect to the 28th section sede and 'revoke it. The decision in the case but others, who prefer to sue in the Superior Court,

.

of the Act, which, if the view taken by the learned Judge is correct, must also, it appears to us, be already in force as well. The 28th section enacts that "from and after the passing of this Act no action or suit which can be brought in any County Court shall henceforth be commenced or be maintainable in any hundred or other inferior court not being a court of record; and every person who is legally entitled to any franchise or office in, or in respect of any of the said courts, the value of which shall be diminished or taken away by the operation of this Act, shall be entitled to make a claim for compensation to the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury within twelve months after the passing of this Act; and the said commissioners, in such manner as they shall think fit, may inquire what was the nature of the franchise or office, and what was the tenure thereof, and what were the lawful fees and emoluments in respect of which such compensation should be allowed; and the said commissioners in each case shall award such compensation as they shall think just, upon consideration of the special circumstances of each case," &c. The words "from and after the passing of this Act" in this section are even more express than the words with which the 5th section commences. If, therefore, the latter section of the Act is already in force, it seems to be perfectly clear that the former must be so likewise, and that no action over which the County Court has jurisdiction can at the present time be commenced in any hundred or other court to which the section applies.

The persons, moreover, who are entitled to claim compensation under the terms of the section may at once make their demand; but we think that the Commissioners of the Treasury would be not a little surprised were any such claim to be now sent in to them, and we question very much whether it would even for a single moment be entertained. Great as our respect for the learned and painstaking Judge whose decision we have here brought under notice is, the view taken by him of the point in question nevertheless appears to us to be entirely erroneous. The words of the 5th section would, undoubtedly, if that section were to be construed by itself, make its provisions applicable to every action of the kind therein mentioned, which may have been commenced after the 20th Aug. last, but the words "commenced after the passing of this Act" have, in our opinion, been allowed to

The Justices of Middlesex, 2 B & Ad. 818; 2
just quoted was followed in that of Reg. v.
Bing. N. C. 682.

time of its passing. Looking, then, to the cases
and to the statute above-mentioned, and bearing
in mind the various points to which we have
alluded in the course of our own consideration of
the question, it certainly appears to us that the
decision of the learned Judge was wrong, and
that the 5th section (and consequently the 28th
section) of the Act will not be in force until the
We hope, however, very shortly,
to lay before our readers the judgment of the
full court upon the point.

LAW TIMES that a Bar should be created for the The stat. 33 Geo. 3, c. 13, likewise supports County Courts, and also a system of pleading, in our view. That statute enacts that the Clerk of order that the course of business may be partially the Parliaments shall indorse on every Act, imme- assimilated to that in the Superior Courts; but when the same shall have passed, and shall have in the County Courts expensive, and perhaps not diately after the title, the day, month, and year this could only be effected by making proceedings received the Royal assent; and such indorse- much less so than proceedings in the Superior Courts. It is to be regretted that the new Act was allowed ment shall be taken to be a part of such Act, to pass so quietly as it did, without a strong effort and be the date of its commencement, where no being made on behalf of the Profession to protect other commencement shall be therein provided. themselves and the public from its prejudicial effects. From these words it appears to us to be clear There seems to be a mania amongst law reformers that where a time other than that of the passing to send everything to the County Court, which made a kind of dust-hole for the reception of all of an Act is distinctly provided for its commencement, the time so provided must, in the minor causes, as if it were quite immaterial how or absence of any express exception contained in by whom such causes might be disposed of, or however important might be the questions they involved. the provision to the contrary, be taken to be the And it is said that by this riddance the Superior date of the commencement of the whole of the Act, Courts will be relieved of their pressure of business; notwithstanding that there may be words in but, instead of this sweeping turn-out, no doubt some one or more sections of it which refer to the some arrangements might have been made in the Superior Courts to have enabled them to get through their business without, by means of an Act of Parliament, forcing suitors to go to the County Courts. The Superior Courts, however, may ultimately find themselves relieved to such an extent that the public will begin to think that the costly support of the Bench and Bar will be very disproportionate to the small amount of business permitted to be brought before them. I hope that the judges will check the County Court mania, and, in exercise of the discretion given them, award costs in all cases where there is any real question of fact or law, and that they will refuse in such cases to send to the County Court any action for a debt under 50%, and I think that a proper representation should be made to the judges of the views enter tained by the Profession in this respect. It is unfortunate that the Act does not define any ground or principle on which the judges should exercise ascertained until after the costs are incurred whether their discretion in giving costs; for it cannot be be provided for if the judges, by rule of court, or not they will be allowed. This difficulty might would permit parties at any time after action brought to apply to a judge at chambers, upon affidavit showing the questions in dispute, for an order for costs, subject to the plaintiff obtaining & verdict or judgment afterwards. It is to be hoped that the judges, by a fair and reasonable exercise of their discretionary powers, will save the attorneys from a great loss which otherwise must be sustained through the operation of the new County Courts Act.

1st Jan. next.

THE NEW COUNTY COURTS ACT.

IN pursuance of our plan, we print here the
following letter which has been addressed to us:

To the Editor of the LAW TIMES.

lature, or such of its members who call themselves
Sir,-It may have been very amusing to the Legis-
law reformers, to pass the recent County Courts Act
and thereby diminish the business of attorneys,
perhaps to the extent of one-half; and if the
majority of cases under 504. are also to be sent to the
County Courts, then attorneys may bid farewell to
their common law business. My impression is that
the greatest number of actions in the Superior
Courts are brought for debts under 50%, and I am
afraid that the loss which the attorneys will sustain
through this meddling Act will be very considerable;
true it is that they may practise in the County
Courts, but the business in those courts will not suf-
ficiently remunerate them. Of course it will be said
that the interest of attorneys must be put aside for
the benefit of the public: but will the public derive

B. H.

The Pall-Mall Gazette, after describing the vastly extended jurisdiction of the County Courts by the Act of last session, thus reason

94 932947 to declared,
3
30s,
prem.

The fluctuations of stocks and shares during the Marine, Maritime Passengers', and the Accidental week have been as follows: