he debited himself with it, and gave them credit for its money value. The surety being called upon to pay, refused on the ground that he was only bound for the money the treasurer actually received. Held (by Ex. C., aff. court below), that the balances being ascertained and settled by the Poor Law auditors, the surety was liable.

PRINCIPAL AND AGENT.-Misrepresentation.-An agent, by describing himself as agent, gives a warranty that he is so, and renders him liable to recompense the party to whom he warrants himself as agent for all the damages he may suffer by breach of the warranty. Therefore A., a party who believed himself to be the agent of a landowner for the purpose of letting a farm, when in reality he was not so, having entered into a lease with B., and signed himself as agent, was held liable on the eviction of B. in an action at his instance, in order to recover the money laid out on the farm.-(Collen v. Wright, 28 L. T. Rep. 267.)

PROPERTY.-Stream-Rights of Riparian Proprietors.-The general principle of law is, that every proprietor of lands on the banks of a natural stream has a right to use the water, provided he so uses it as not to work any material injury to the rights of other proprietors above or below on the stream. Therefore a party was not entitled to divert and detain the water for the irrigation of his own land. (Sampson v. Hoddinott, 28 L. T. Rep. 304.)

RAILWAY.-Preference. By 17 and 18 Vic., c. 31, s. 2, no company shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favour of any particular person or company, or any particular description of traffic. The defendants, a railway company, charged plaintiffs a greater sum per ton per mile, for the conveyance of coals brought by sea to Ipswich, and thence transmitted to various places along the line, than was charged to another party who brought his coals inland-the object being to enable the latter to compete more advantageously with the former. This was held by C. P. to be an undue advantage. Without deciding that a railway company may not charge different rates where coals are carried in large or small quantities, and where they are carried for long or short distances, and where the difference made is for the purpose of competing with another line, the court thought some order must be made to prohibit the continuance of the practice in the particular instance.-(Ransome v. Eastern Counties Railway Co., 28 L. T. Rep. 339.)

At a railway station (though the company may be only able to admit a certain number of omnibuses), no preference should be given to one over another. Therefore, the London and S. W. having made arrangements with an omnibus from only one place to meet every train, and excluded another which ran to other places beyond, injunction granted.—(Marriott v. L. and S. W. Railway, 28 L. T. Rep. 305.)

THE SUCCESSION DUTIES ACT.-Several cases are occurring in England relative to the Succession Duties Act. In Re Jenkinson, 5 W. R. 301, the facts were shortly these:-Sir Charles Jenkinson, a tenant for life, agreed to pay an annuity to Sir George Jenkinson, who had the remainder in tail, in return for which Sir George charged the remainder with L.5000, to be at the disposal of Sir Charles, and L.20,000 to be held on trust for the daughters of Sir Charles. The first question was, whether any duty was payable on the L.5000? which was decided in the negative, on the ground that it was a purchase for money or money's worth, and therefore within the exemption of the 17th section. The other and more knotty point was, who was to be treated as the predecessor of the daughters-their father who had paid the annuity to secure the provision for them, or the relative who had charged it on the family estate? The Master of the Rolls regarded the transaction as a purchase by the tenant for life, and held him to be the granter, and as a necessary consequence, the minimum duty of L.1 per cent. only was payable.

Legal Intelligence.

SPRING CIRCUITS-1857.

SOUTH.

Lords JUSTICE CLERK and COWAN.

Jedburgh, Thursday, April 9. Dumfries, Wednesday, April 15.

Tuesday, April 21.

Donald Mackenzie, A. D.-Alex. Stuart, Clerk.

WEST.

Lords HANDYSIDE and ARDMILLAN.

Ayr,

Inverary, Thursday, April 16. Stirling, Wednesday, April 22. Glasgow, Tuesday, April 28.

D. Hector, A. D.-David Wyllie, Clerk.

NORTH.

Lords IVORY and DEAS.

Perth, Tuesday, April 21. Inverness, Wednesday, April 29. Aberdeen, Tuesday, May 5.

A. R. Clark, A. D.-James Aitken, Clerk.

LAW APPRENTICES,-In a statute of the last session, relating to the stamp laws, there is one provision of very considerable importance to those who are serving their legal apprenticeship under articles. We refer to the 3rd section of the stat. 19 and 20 Vict. c. 83, which, after reciting that, by an Act 7 Geo. IV., c. 44, it is enacted, that it shall not be lawful for the Commissioners of Stamps, or any other officers, to stamp, under any pretence whatever after the expiration of six months from the date thereof, any vellum, parchment, or paper, upon which shall be engrossed, printed or written, any articles of clerkship, contract, indenture or other instrument, whereby any person shall become bound to serve as a clerk or apprentice in order to his admission as a solicitor, attorney, proctor, writer to the signet, agent or procurator in any of the courts of law or equity, or the High Court of Admiralty, or any ecclesiastical court, or the Courts of Session, Justiciary, Exchequer, Commission of Teinds, or the Commissary Court, or any inferior court in Great Britain," enacts, that "it shall be lawful for the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, notwithstanding the said last-mentioned Act, in any case where they shall be directed so to do by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, to stamp any such instruments as last mentioned, upon payment of the duty chargeable thereon at the date thereof, and of such further sum as hereinafter specified by way of penalty, and in lieu of all other penalties; that is to say, as to any such instrument bearing date and executed before the 5th Aug. 1853, the sum of L.20. As to any other such instrument, where the same shall be brought to be stamped within the period of one year from the date thereof, the sum of L.10; after one year and within two years, L.20; after two years and within three years, L.30; after three years and within four years, L.40; and after four years, L.50."

APPOINTMENTS.-Mr C. S. Whitmore, of the Oxford Circuit, has been appointed Judge of the Southwark County Court, in the room of Mr George Clive, now M.P. for Hereford, who resigned his judgeship before addressing the electors of that city.-Mr Martley, an eminent barrister, is appointed Chief Commissioner of the Incumbered Estates Court, Ireland, at a salary of L.3000

a year.-Mr John Cassidy, a Roman Catholic member of the Irish Bar, called Easter Term 1856, has been promoted to the office of Crown Counsel on the Home Circuit, vacant by the departure of Mr James Martley for Australia.Edward W. Cox, Esq., of the Western Circuit, has been appointed to the recorderships of the boroughs of Falmouth and Helstone, vice Mr C. Bevan, appointed Judge of the Cornwall County Court.-Lord Campbell has appointed Henry John Hodgson, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, a master of the Queen's Bench, in the room of Richard Goodrich, Esq., deceased. Mr Hodgson is a member of the Oxford Circuit. For ten years he has reported the Queen's Bench for the Law Journal, and he is the author of Steers's Parish Law.-Henry James Ross, Esq., has been appointed Chief Justice of St Christopher and Nevis. Hugh Henwood, Alexander Bain, and Charles Alexander, Esqs., are appointed members of the Legislative Council of Grenada. J. Brumell, Esq., has been appointed Registrar-general of population and property of the colony of British Guiana; and J. T. Vaughan, G. Tighe, C. A. Fleming, R. S. Turton, W. S. Johnson, and W. J. Jeffry, Esqs., are appointed district registrars of the same colony.— Mr Serjeant Channell is to be appointed to the vacant judgeship. Services as deputy for sick and absent judges, for several circuits, have entitled him to this promotion.

PRIVATE BILLS.-The plan proposed by the Government with respect to the private business of the House is, that it shall proceed up to the moment of the dissolution, and that a resolution, or an act, should declare that, on the reassembling of the new Parliament in May, it should be resumed at the point at which it closed, as if it had been only a recess, and not a change of Parliament.

IMPRISONMENT For Debt, etc.-Mr Hadfield has obtained leave to bring in a Bill to amend the law of imprisonment for debt, to extend the remedies of creditors, and to punish fraudulent debtors.

TRANSPORTATION.-Sir George Grey has submitted to Parliament the plans of the Government on the subject of transportation. Transportation is to be resumed, Western Australia being the region selected, the colonists there being willing to accept convict labour, at least for the present, and by the time they are too flourishing to care about it, some other new colonies may be found equally ready to avail themselves of the boon. The sentence of penal servitude is to be lengthened, so as to make it of the same duration as that of transportation under the old law. It will then be for the Secretary of State to determine, in each particular case, how the convict shall be dealt with-whether by actual transportation or by penal servitude wholly or in part, or by ticket of leave, according to the circumstances. Incorrigible offenders will then be banished from our shores; juvenile offenders will be sent to reformatories, and those in whom amendment may be hoped for, such as offenders for the first time, and when substantial signs of penitence are shown, will have a chance given to them of returning to virtue.-Law Times.

Lord Brougham has left town for his seat near Cannes, in the south of France, where he proposes to remain until after the Easter recess. His Lordship is in excellent health, and is only anxious to avoid the cold winds of this and the following month. He will resume his seat as soon as the business of the House of Lords, which is almost entirely dependent on the bills sent up from the Commons, really commences.

LAW OF LIBEL.-Lord Campbell has obtained a select committee to consider whether the privilege now enjoyed by reports of proceedings of courts of justice may be safely extended to reports of proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament, and of other assemblies and public meetings. Lord Wensleydale supported the motion, considering that the present anomalous state of the law on this most important question rendered inquiry into its principles necessary.

DEATH OF SERJEANT WILKINS.-Mr Serjeant Wilkins died on Wednesday. His genial disposition, kind-heartedness, and open-handed generosity, had made for him many friends, both within and without the profession. His zeal for his client, expressed in rare eloquence and with extraordinary power, had obtained

for him a large, lucrative, and rapidly increasing business, when the malady of which he died compelled him to quit the path in which he was so prosperously proceeding.-Law Times.

MERCANTILE LAW COMMITTEE.-The committee who were appointed by the Mercantile Law Conference to carry out the opinions of that meeting, have formed themselves into a permanent body, under the title of the Mercantile Law Committee of the United Kingdom, and have resolved to raise a fund for the purpose of carrying out their object.

PROPERTY OF MARRIED WOMEN. By a bill of Lord Brougham and Vaux the real and personal estate of a married woman at the time of her union will be held by her to her separate use, as if she were a feme sole. The real or personal estate, earnings, etc., of married women accruing during their coverture will also be held to their separate use. A married woman, with respect to such property, may be sued as a feme sole, and a husband will not be liable for her antenuptial debts, except as to property settled by the wife on the husband or children. The real and personal estate of a married lady will be jointly liable for joint contracts of husband and wife. The persons of married women are to be sacred from arrest for debt under the provisions of this Act. A wife may dispose of and bequeath her property as if she were a feme sole.

REGISTRATION OF PARTNERSHIPS.-The registration of partners in private partnerships is also a question of great moment. At present there is no mode of ascertaining who are partners in a firm. Some firms comprise many partners, but are represented by one name. There are others with the words "and Co.," containing several partners; and there are others with that addition, yet having no partners at all. Mr Ryland, in his paper read at Liverpool, suggests that every private partnership should be required to send to the registrar of jointstock companies the name and residence of every member of the partnership, and the particulars of every change in the members, and that the non-registry may be pleaded, and shall be a good plea in bar, to any action at the suit of the partnership.-Address of Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association.

INCUMBERED ESTATES COURT.-The extensive influence which the Incumbered Estates Court possesses over the entire landed system of Ireland, becomes daily more apparent. It appears from a return (dated 13th February) that the total number of petitions presented in the Incumbered Estates Court is 4048; the total amount realised by the sales up to the present time is L.19,626,177, 17s. 8d. -Solicitors' Journal.

THE NEW BARON OF THE EXCHEQUER.- Mr Serjeant Channell, the newlyappointed Baron of the Exchequer, was called to the bar in the year 1827, and became a serjeant in 1840. The learned serjeant was a member of the Home Circuit, of which indeed, since the retirement of Sir F. Thesiger from circuit practice, and the elevation to the bench of Mr Baron Platt, he has long been the titular leader. As a junior counsel, the extent of his practice had been very considerable; it became apparent, however, after his promotion to the degree of the coif, that his qualifications were less adapted for the exigencies of leading business. At Nisi Prius, accordingly, and on circuit, he was soon distanced by men who, though his inferiors in legal erudition, possessed more nerve, prompter decision, greater tact, and a happier faculty of presenting a case advantageously to a jury. As long, however, as the serjeants were allowed to keep up their monopoly in the Court of Common Pleas, Mr Serjeant Channell retained a very respectable share of the business of that court. When the Common Pleas was thrown open to the profession at large, his practice again experienced a sensible decline. The respect universally entertained for his high personal character and professional attainments has been since then evinced in a marked manner by the frequency with which he has been selected to act as a substitute for the judges, when precluded from attending to their circuit duties. In this capacity the new baron is understood to have given very general satisfaction, and there is, we believe, every reason to hope that he will prove not only a learned and painstaking, but a useful and practical, judge.—Daily News.

THE

JOURNAL OF
OF JURISPRUDENCE.

Review of the Month.

The Elections-The future of Scotch Legislation and Scotch LawLegal versus Mercantile Members-The Lawyers Returned-Mr Dunlop and his Services-What an Independent Lawyer may accomplish-The Lord Advocate and his Contest-The Sacrifices which the Office entails-Evidence of the late Lord RutherfurdThe Business of the Court-Compulsory Division-Opinions of the Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, and Lord Ivory on the Subject.

THE elections are over, and we may now survey the field. For the result, as it affects Lord Palmerston or Lord Derby, we care nothing; but as it affects lawyers and the law, we have some cause for satisfaction, though still more for regret. Many a notability has been sent to retirement-relegated, to reflect in silence on the disappointments of ambition; and in losing the services of others, the country has sustained a loss which it will bear with patience, in the consciousness that it has administered a wholesome lesson of humility. Whatever, however, may be the results of a party computation of the gains and losses of the struggle, it is a fact, which men of all political creeds must admit to be undeniable, that there are several out of the new Parliament with whom Scotland and Scottish lawyers can with difficulty dispense, in the important discussions that must occupy its attention.

Of Scottish lawyers who have been returned, we mention with satisfaction the Lord Advocate, Mr Dunlop, and Mr Mackie. The unsuccessful were, Mr Brown Douglas, Mr Archibald Boyle, and Mr Lawrence Oliphant. These are all members of the bar. No writer to the signet, or Aberdeen advocate, or Glasgow writer, enriched with the savings of an industrious lifetime, offered himself for election; and the House of Commons will not contain a single member from one of the most intelligent bodies of professional men in Scotland. England sends to the House of Commons several attorneys, Mr Mullings for Cirencester, Mr Laslett for Worcester,

VOL. I.-NO. IV. APRIL 1857.

Y