PUMP COURT.

now look for, and a 2 per cent., and even a 1 per cent. return is generally regarded as a probability. There is

EDITORIAL, ADVERTISEMENT, AND PUBLISHING OFFICES, 33, Exeter Street, Strand, W.C.

JUNE 26, 1889.

Pro Lege.

OUR BAD BANKING.

THERE is an aspect of our banking system which invites reflection, and which presents that system in a strong, bad light. The aspect is of stored-up force for centuries, and of geometrically increasing force throughout the period. That is to say, science in its development has proved the handmaid of banking; such agencies as cheques, clearings, cable, telegraphic, and telephone transfers, each in turn multiplying the forces. This much conceded, what then? The consequences are various, and here from among the number is singled out one, which illustrates the fact that we have a bad banking system. As population, according to Malthus, increases faster than food production and tends to pauperism, so banking develops trade facilities in excess of the means of absorbing them, and tends to levelling down impoverishment. Assume that Consols

were at one time bought to pay 5 per cent., that to-day they are bought to pay 24 per cent., and that to-morrow they may be bought to pay 2 per cent., and the down grade course is apparent. Or assume that Bank stock was originally £100, that to-day it is £327, and that to-morrow it may be £330; and from the obverse side we have the same fact, with this difference, that while the depreciation in the return from Consols and, consequently, in Consols themselves is, broadly, 50 per cent., the depreciation in Bank stock is, broadly, 227 per cent. In the public mind there is a tendency to regard such increase in the market price of Bank Stock as so much gain, and each reduction in the interest on Consols as increasing wealth; but when this view is taken, it is convenient to disregard what should be the main factor in a conclusion, namely, in what does the wealth consist? There is surely no more urgent economic and social inquiry than-what is wealth? our banking system, by virtue of its badness, seemingly obscuring the question to the keenest vision. The issue may receive simple illustration. The landlord of a property formerly had a return of 5 per cent., whereas now he has only a return of 24 per cent. Under the circumstances, is he making head or stern way? Again, the trip fare to Brighton is, say, four shillings, and a box seat mail coach fare from the Hotel Métropole is, say, thirty shillings, besides gratuities to guard and driver. We get to Brighton all the same either way, and will it be contended that we are any more enriched by paying mail coach price than we are by paying £330 for a £100 stock? Thus we may as well open our eyes upon the fact that whatever there may be of good in our banking system, there is also much of evil. All round, while apparently appreciating investments, our banking system is steadily depreciating them. To this pass, indeed, have things come that a 3 per cent. return is as much as sanguine persons

upon a down grade, it is a mere question of time when we shall reach the bottom.

Meanwhile the banks prosper, but the prosperity is of a kind with Consols and Bank stock; it is a down-grade prosperity. Take Bank of Scotland stock, with £100 paid, and at the market price of £309 it yields a return of 4 per cent. Again, take London and Westminster Bank stock, with £20 paid, and at the market price of £70 it yields a return of 4 per cent. Thus the facilities afforded by our bad banking system are so excessive that the competition for returns from investment is depreciating all investment, while actually enhancing market values. Investment accordingly and necessarily adapts itself to the altered circumstances, when perhaps it should have broken a lance with our bad banking system. What investment now does, and does necessarily in self-defence, be it here repeated, is to turn to the tape. Instead of buying for all time as formerly, it buys for the turn of the market, for the account; in short, for any honourable means of earning money inside or outside of the Stock Exchange. At this change some persons shake their heads, and call names, but they are the veriest simpletons for so doing. They understand not the times nor the seasons. The age is progressive, and if our bad banking is drifting upon rocks and quicksands, the greater the justification for the conservatism of time bargains and the practice of taking profits. That action and reaction are equal and opposite is more than an axiom in mechanics, as with each banking deluge of the means of buying, there must be an equal accession to the ranks of those who wish to use their means in the investment market, in a small profit and quick return sort of way. Indeed there is no pursuit conceivably more legitimate than the discounting of the events and the probabilities of the day, whether these relate to Germany or Russia, to traffic returns, or to specie movements, and to condemn such action is, as before suggested, quite absurd. With reflection there will be a more rational judgment. Here mention may be made of the ostentation of the advertisement of the Stock Exchange Committee, that members of the Stock Exchange must not advertise. Obviously, the drift of things is unperceived by the Stock Exchange Committee, although appreciated by dealers and investors. These have Hobson's choice before them of being skinned under our bad banking system or of looking out for themselves. They look out for themselves, and may be bulls and bears by turns throughout the day.

But the major charge against our bad banking is in what, for want of a better name, must be called its demoralisation. It is, as before remarked, levelling down. The magnates who revel in a 2 per cent., as a return which finds them in practically more money than they can well invest or spend, are but sowing dragons' teeth. At large the world cannot live upon a 24 per cent. return, and reasonably regarded, it is playing with edged tools to follow a course which virtually insists on it. It is mistaken generalisation. It is overlooking a consequent grinding of the faces of the poor. Reduce the returns from reproductive industry to a 2 level, and what is the general social outlook? It is the blackness of darkness, as illustrated in the Bessemer rail trade. Last year one of the West Coast steel rail companies actually exported 35,000 tons of rails to the West Coast of America, and on the whole quantity realised the trifling net profit of only £35. This is no rash assertion, but a matter of fact, for which chapter and verse may be given. Excessive production, the banks will say. Very true; but of what? Demonstrably, less of Bessemer rails than of bad banking. The facilities afforded by bad banking tempt those who are favoured with them in the industries not as it turns out to wealth, but to ruin. Our bad banking is thus the thing of things for consideration and for reconsideration. If banking is a thing for individualism it cannot also be a thing for monopolism; and if a thing for State socialism, it cannot also be a thing for co-partnership with individualism. It obviously should be a thing of State or a thing of freedom. At present it is but a scandalous monopoly engaged in the wrecking of investment of industry and of occupation; whittling down

THE TICKER BLUNDER AND FIASCO. THE stoppage of the "ticker" service by the New York Stock Exchange is but another one of a series of business blunders made by the "governing committee " of that association of whom we fear it is to be said, as Goldsmith did of one of his characters:

"Oh, let him alone

For making a blunder or picking a bone." Ostensibly, a blow aimed at the so-called "bucketshops," the real object struck at is the business of the Consolidated Stock Exchange-a business that is certain to be materially enhanced by this transaction, from all present appearances. Be that as it may, a business association carrying on its operations in a structure of its own that cost nearly half a million of dollars for its erection, and which has, moreover, nearly the same amount of money in its treasury-coupled with a "ticker service of its own-is not to be fought with a switch or driven from the field by a mere clod flung at it.

66

As for the bucket-shops, their operations, however deleterious to those dealing with them, certainly have not injuriously affected the business of the New York Stock Exchange, which does not deal in such small parcels of stock as are sold by the "bucket-shops." Nor will the discontinuance of the "ticker" reports of sales and quotations on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange sweep the bucket-shops out of existence, inasmuch as they can as readily make their sales and settlements on the "ticker" quotations emanating from the Consolidated Stock Exchange as before, for the customers of these establishments are, in point of fact, merely betting upon the figures of the tape; so, at bottom, it matters not to them whether the tape be that of one Exchange or the other. Under no aspect can the business of the New York Stock Exchange be harmed by that of the bucket-shops; while, on the other hand, the sales of stock dealt in by that Exchange would be lessened by the closing of the bucket-shops, unsavoury as a whole as their operations may be for their customers. And what makes this blunder on the part of the New York Stock Exchange all the greater, or manifestly of that class of "petards" which only serve to "hoist" those who plant it, is that it occurred at a time when, manifestly, a wellinspired, healthy "boom" in railway and other securities was being generated and ready to burst forth into such vigorous life as would surely be of early great benefit to the members of that Exchange actively interested in the daily business on its floor, narrowed really down to less than 500 persons, for the rest are chiefly rich men who hardly ever enter its doors. It is, therefore, to be regretted that men who are invested with such authority as those from whom this inconsiderate measure has proceeded, should be blind to the patent fact that there is "ample room and verge enough" here in New York for the existence of both the New York and the Consolidated Exchanges and that it is for the best interests of both that they should regard each other not as a rival to be destroyed, but essentially as an ally whose prosperity were in no wise fraught with prejudice to the other.

Postscriptum: Since the foregoing was in type, the New York Stock Exchange very properly has receded from its false step and restored the ticker service. On the other hand, however, as the dealings of the Consolidated for the

week have all been based on the posted market quotations and with satisfactory business results, as shown by the value of reported business, it has been directed by a vote of 154 to 75 of the members of the latter Exchange, that hereafter their own posted market quotations shall be the guide or measure of all dealings on its floor. Under every aspect, the Consolidated Exchange has been the gainer in prestige. Moreover, its members have discovered by experience that their business can be carried on with all proper efficiency, entirely independent of any of the appliances of the other Exchange, a fact that they hardly realised until the result of this ticker incident had shown it to be so.-The Financial and Mining Record of New York.

CORRESPONDENCE.

JURISDICTION OF THE ENGLISH COURTS
IN THE CASE OF SCOTCH INSURANCE
COMPANIES.

TO THE EDITOR OF "PUMP COURT."

SIR,-In view of the interest which has been excited by the case of Watkins v. Scottish Imperial Insurance Company, I think it right to point out that the case is entirely an exceptional one, as the other* Scotch Insurance Companies have long ago divested themselves of any right, which they might have claimed under their original constitutions, of requiring proceedings to be taken before the Scotch Courts.

In the case of the Caledonian Insurance Company the Act of Parliament incorporating the company (9 Victoria, c. 45, s. 5) provides that the company may be sued in every Court in any part of Great Britain and Ireland, or elsewhere within Her Majesty's dominions, "in like manner, to all intents and purposes, as if the said Corporation had been incorporated by that name by Royal Charters under the Great Seals of England, Scotland, and Ireland;" while the more recent Act extending the company's powers (43 and 44 Victoria, c. 68, s. 8) declares that the company shall for all legal and other purposes be and be deemed to be a public office for insurance in London, and shall have and be deemed to have a domicile in the City of London."-Your obedient servant, D. DEUCHAR,

The honour of Knighthood has been conferred on Richard Charles Oldfield, Esq., Indian Civil Service, late a Puisne Judge of the High Court of Judicature, North-Western Provinces ; Aubrey Walsh, Esq., J.P. and D.L., formerly Chairman of the Justices of the Liberty of the Tower; and James Robertson. Esq, LL.D., Professor of Conveyancing in the University of Glasgow.

Mr. ROBERT HENRY LOGAN, barrister, has been appointed to act as Registrar of the Supreme Court of the Colony of British Honduras. Called at the Middle Temple in November, 1884.

Mr. JOHN BOROUGH, of the firm of Barber, Currey, Borough and Currey, of Derby, has been appointed by the Bishop of Southwell Registrar of the Diocesan Court, in the room of the late Mr. John Watson, J.P., of Nottingham. Admitted in 1856.

Mr. REUBEN C. GREEN has been appointed Clerk to the Trustees of the Campden Charity Estates.

Mr. JOSEPH RICHARDSON has been appointed Clerk to the Eccleshill Local Board. Admitted in 1885.

Mr. ALBERT PLATTS has been appointed Clerk to the Bingley Local Board. Admitted in 1884.

Mr. VALENTINE STAPLETON has been elected an Alderman for the Borough of Stamford. Mr. Stapleton has been twice Mayor of Stamford. Admitted in 1863.

Mr. ARTHUR BURGESS CROSBY has been appointed a Magistrate for the Borough of Stockton. Admitted in 1884.

Mr. ROBERT DOBSON has been appointed Deputy-Coroner for the Honour of Halton. Admitted in 1882.

Guardian

Fire and Life Assurance Company.

INSURANCE.

:

THIS is by no means either a large or a progressive company. Established in 1821, the life fund amounts now to only £2,335,815. During the past year 680 policies were issued, assuring £499,497, and yielding in new premiums £16,326, of which, however, £826 were by single payment. Re-insurances were effected with other offices during the year for £68,430, thus reducing the new assurances retained to £431,067, These are decidedly not startling figures, yet they show an advance on those of the immediately preceding year, and a decline as compared with the year 1886. The deaths of the year numbered 117, and gave rise to claims under 170 policies, assuring with bonuses £163,741, in addition to five matured endowments, amounting to £1,534. The total liabilities of the company under 8,206 policies on the 31st December last, after deducting re-assurances, amounted to £6,732,706. The life fund being £2,335,815, this shows the sum of £34 in hand, against £100 assured. As the Guardian is nearly seventy years old, and the majority of the policyholders on its books are old lives, it may be properly anticipated that its contracts will very rapidly mature, and therefore the test we have applied clearly shows that the office does not enjoy an exceptionally strong financial position. In the fire department the premiums of the year were £186,399, and the losses £273,664, being 56.26 per cent. of the premiums. This ratio shows a slight improvement compared with 1887, but the expenses of management have increased during the year, and are now more than 32 per cent. of the fire premiums. We consider this an excessive rate for a fire and life office like the Guardian, whose fire department, although comparatively small, is evidently largely fed by the life business. The premium reserve due to policies unexpired on 31st December, 1888, was £218,900, being considerably less than half the premium income. The general reserve fund of £405,000, and proportion of profit to be transferred to proprietors' account in the present year, make the total funds £652,220. The proprietors are to receive a dividend on each share of the subscription capital for the year ending 31st December last of £2 10s., with the addition of a bonus on each share of £1, being at the rate of 7 per cent. on the paid-up capital. The office appears to treat its shareholders better than its policyholders. As regards its investments, it is stated in the report that no change of importance has occurred in the condition of the company's investments during the year, but it seems that arrears of interest have increased on certain loans, which, being in the life fund, will have to be dealt with at the quinquennial valuation to be made after the end of the current year. There are also arrears on two loans in the proprietors' fund, which the directors believe to be secured to a great extent. The management is not sufficiently vigorous, and as we pointed out in the case of the Pelican Life in a recent issue, the company is yet another instance of the unwisdom of having as directors mere names that are chiefly ornamental. Numerically and socially they are a very strong body, comprising a score of names, but we presume that, excepting to draw their fees as directors and dividends as proprietors, they do not take a very active interest in the actual working of the company. If it were otherwise, the business could surely be trebled.

Scotch Companies.

THE following have no Act to protect English or Irish policyholders, and should therefore be left severely alone except by Scotchmen domiciled in Scotland. The present English and Irish policyholders might, however, successfully agitate to compel these companies to get an Act such as would be necessary to ensure fair dealing to them; and we should help them to the utmost of our power. These then are the companies that should be marked with a red letter in England and Ireland, viz. :-The Standard Life, The General Accident (Perth), Scottish Life, Sickness and Accident, Scottish Assurance (in liquidation), National Guarantee, English and Scottish Law Life, Scottish Imperial, Glasgow and London, Mercantile Accident, Scottish Alliance, Scottish Accident, Scottish Employers, Scottish Metropolitan, Scottish Temperance,

We knew that there was a paper called Money, for we make it our business to know Scraps of Drivel. of the existence of every journal printed

within the limits of the United Kingdom, but we cannot say we ever before now saw a copy, and we have not been able to find anyone who ever reads it. Who the editor is nobody seems to know, though we were induced to make inquiry in consequence of an idiotic paragraph, among other idiotic paragraphs, relating to our august selves in Saturday's issue. To the important subject of insurance the editor devotes less than half a dozen paragraphs which he calls "Insurance Items." "Items" is an appropriate term, but "Scraps" would be better, and if the editor is given to adjectives, we should recommend for his selection "Poor Scraps," "Mean Scraps," "Puerile Scraps," or, more appropriate than all these, "Scraps of Drivel." We don't know who collects these scraps, but there is intrinsic evidence that it must be the office boy's mother. The sapient editor then approves them, and they are printed for the benefit and instruction of the office boy himself. This is what the office boy's mother says of us :-" Pump Court-We are glad to learn there is such a paper, and that it devotes attention to insurance matters-writes shallow nonsense in its attack upon the Scottish Imperial.” Now after affecting ignorance of the existence of PUMP COURT-which, by the way, has been quoted or referred to over and over again in nearly every journal of repute in the kingdom-why is the office boy's mother glad to learn there is such a paper? What reason, real or ironical, can there possibly be for the ecstacy of the office boy's mother or her grandpapa-editor on first learning the news of our existence? An enjoyable pinch of snuff at the moment the two old cronies received the startling information must have been the real cause of their pleasure. Like most very old people, however, they are quite unable to trace effect to cause, except so far as the measure of time affords them a clue. But this is not all. One would suppose that even an office boy's mother, with the aid of snuff and grandpapa-if he were not asleep -would maintain some connection in her scrappy drivel, and that she would have tried to show what was the shallow nonsense complained of, or would at least have quoted our remarks for her readers, if she has any, to judge for themselves. Not a bit of it. After her scathing allusion to us as above quoted, she drops us like a hot potato, and maunders on in her poor, sleepy, snuffy way, opining that "the truth will out some day": that "nearly all the Scotch companies have acknowledged their liability to be sued in English Courts" (The office boy's mother has a very hazy notion of the mode in which the jurisdiction of a Court can be created, and imagines, poor thing, that because a present manager chooses to say that he has never disputed the jurisdiction of the English Courts, this would serve as an estoppel for all time against a plea to the jurisdiction; whereas in truth a manager has no power to create a jurisdiction which does not exist; the utmost he can do is to abstain from raising the plea, and he may or may not, as happens to suit him, plead in bar to the action. If he has a safe defence on the merits, he probably would not; if he has no defence, he probably would plead against the jurisdiction): that "the Scottish Imperial is not likely to repent its mistake" (We don't think they are likely to have many chances): that "it will suffer in purse for a time, we question not, but as public memory is short-lived (Mark this! grandpapa forgot that he and the office boy's mother had just been despising us with intense 'despision' a couple of line 3 previously, for attacking the Scottish Imperial) the mischief will not prove very disquieting." Disquieting to whom? Here grandpapa and his coadjutor again become vague. Disquieting to the widow plaintiff, who is kept out of her money, not on the merits of the case, but because she has been tricked out of the game by a trump card which the defendant produced from

You

his sleeve, or disquieting to the defendant company? Disquieting to the poor old snuff-takers, or to PUMP COURT? A pinch of snuff would have been useful to the poor old things at this stage, but they were fumbling for the box. We have quoted their drivel, which, we are glad to say, is not lengthy, as the following sentence is the last:-"Nearly every assurance company has blundered in its early days, and shortly been forgiven." Very green they may be in the Scottish Imperial Office, if no worse, but not so very young. The office was established over 24 years ago (early in 1865), and the talk of early days can only be excused as coming from a doddering old couple who will insist on treating grown people in the prime of life as children, oblivious of the fact that it is their own life that is but a childhood-a second childhood-respectable it may be or may not be, but effete - miserably effete. There is another scrap which would encourage the belief that the office boy's mother has been accustomed from her youth upwards to drink from other wells than the "well of English pure and undefiled." The rules of syntax seem to have formed no part of the curriculum of the youth of her period; evidently there were no Board-schools in those days. Now, grannies both, hearken to PUMP COURT, and cease quarrelling over the snuff-box. A verb must agree with its nominative in number and person. When you speak of accounts, don't say "It is perfectly understandable when looked closely into." but "They are." The whole phrase is inelegant, is indeed slipshod; but it is merely grammar that we want you to direct your attention to; to teach you "style" at your time of life would be a hopeless task. An ordinary acquaintance with the simplest rules of syntax, however, may not be unattainable; and therefore keep the rule in mind, and never be misled, because there happens to be a noun singular preceding, as to which is your true nominative. mean that certain accounts (not the form, nor the report) require critical examination to become intelligible. And this is how you express it: "No doubt it is perfectly understandable when looked closely into, but why not let people run and read?" The English of this is as bad as bad manners; the two, indeed, are kinsfolk. This is English of the gutter; and one may generally judge of a man's manners, or at least of his early surroundings, by bis mode of expressing himself. The last line, however, is funny, very funny. Why should the Alliance Marine Insurance Company be called upon to allow people to run? And who are the people who refuse to do their reading unless they are allowed to run? What the poor fellow meant to say (and the conception is extravagant as applied to accounts, especially insurance accounts) was, Why not prepare the accounts so that even those who run could read?" The proverb, "Chi reggi leggi," never meant, and is never applied to mean, that people should be allowed to run; but that the writing should be so distinct that even a man running could, without stopping, read it. Poor old snuffy, in attempting to paraphrase the proverb, has made a laughing-stock of himself, even to his solitary reader, the office boy. We hope the insurance companies will, before our next issue, show good cause why they prevent people from running. Further, we hope that such things as tables of mortality, whether on the Carlisle or Hm. system, expense-ratios, actuarial valuations and accounts, balance-sheets, etc., shall be prepared in such a manner as to be "perfectly understandable" at a glance by the editor of Money, without "confusing" the poor creature by obliging him to "look closely into " them. We have his word for it that he would "review" the report of any company which obliges him in this way. "with considerably more pleasure.' His idea is that insurance accounts ought to be as simple as his own early domestic banking arrangements. Two stockings behind the dcor, in one of which are placed all the halfpence received, and from the other of which all the halfpence for disbursements are taken, with daily adjustments, would hardly, however, we think be found quite adequate to represent the complex civilisation of an insurance office. Well, well; where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise, and we think the editor of Money, whoever he may be, will heartily wish that he had remained in ignorance of the existence of PUMP COURT. We'll probably remind him of this again next week, if he and his paper are still alive. But has the man no friends? Fancy his placing a large illustrated advertisement

66

of a waste paper merchant in the most prominent position he could give it- his cover, inside front!! Granted that Poole, the waste paper merchant of Portsmouth Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, is the only other person besides the office boy that takes in the paper, is it for the editor to cry "stinking fish" in this fashion? Did any journalist ever hear of such madness? We pity the proprietor, whoever he may be for the paper might be made a power, and the title is a fetching one. As it is, it is simply a pastepot, and poor at that.

UNDER THE PUMP.

-:0:

Savigny on Possession in the Civil Law. J. Kelleher, Bengal Civil Service. (London: W. Thacker and Co., 1888.) Mr. Kelleher has abridged the justly celebrated treatise of Von Savigny, and added the text of the title on possession from the Digest. The great practical value of a treatise on possession can hardly be doubted when the frequent recurrence of questions turning on the theory of its principles is remembered, and that the masterly treatise of Von Savigny on possession according to the Roman Law would contribute much to the elucidation of principle is equally indubitable. But then the doctrine and principles of possession are not merely to be drawn from the law of Rome; it has played a very large part in our own system -how large a part the recent admirable treatise of Professor Pollock and Mr. R. S. Wright has shown, and indeed has relegated to obscurity, for all practical purposes of English law, an academic work such as that of Von Savigny. We confess, therefore, to feeling that the work is too late nor in our opinion has Mr. Kelleher had recourse to many works which would have furnished much valuable matter.

Digest of Questions Asked at the Final Examination of Articled Clerks. R. Hallilay, Esq., barrister-at-law. Fifteenth edition. (Horace Cox, 1889.) The fact that a fifteenth edition of this work has been called for is strong evidence of its utility, and the appreciation of that section of the public for whose use it is issued. The present edition has been prepared to meet the regulations made in 1887 by the council of the Incorporated Law Society. Questions of an obsolete character have been omitted, and changes in the law and procedure made by recent statutes, rules of Court and decided cases embodied, and the work brought down to the Hilary examination. We need only add that, in our opinion, the work will serve as a valuable test to the student during preparation, and alike serve to test the information he has acquired, and help him to arrange it for retention and reproduction.

Precedents of Indictments. By Thomas William Saunders, Metropolitan Police Magistrate, and William Edgar Saunders, barrister-at-law. Second edition. (Horace Cox, 1889.) This is an excellent little work, and one which gratifies the expectation naturally entertained of such a performance from the pen of the well-known magistrate. The wide experience of the author has enabled him to present an equally wide range of precedents in these pages, and we believe the collection will more than meet all the common wants of the practitioner. The volume contains a useful introduction in explanation of the rules to be observed in framing an indictment, and an index which appears to us to have been carefully prepared, and will much enhance its utility. On page 9 a passage occurs to this effect:-"In the case of goods being stolen from the possession of a married woman, they should be alleged to be the goods of her husband (1 Hale, 513), even though she may be living apart from him, R. v. French, R. and R., 491." This statement is, however, apt to mislead. In R. v. French (ubi sup.), the evidence showed that the married woman lived apart from her husband-they being separated-on an income arising from property vested in trustees for her separate use; that she resided in a house which the prisoner had burglariously entered, which was no part of the settled property, but was hired by herself, and that she paid the

rent for it out of her separate property, and her husband had never been in the house; burglary was proved, and stealing goods in the house entered, which was in the firet count alleged to be the dwelling-house of the husband; and in the second count as that of the wife. The judges

66 were clear that this house was to be deemed in law the dwelling-house of the husband. It was the dwellinghouse of someone; it was not that of the trustees, for they had nothing to do with it; it was not the wife's, because at law she could have no property; it could then only be the husband's." Another case is Rex v. Wilford and Nibbs, 1 Russ. and Ry. 517. The point in these cases is "because at law she could have no property"; now, however, at law a married woman can, in many cases, hold, acquire and dispose of property by virtue of recent statutes, and cessante ratione cessat ipsa lex.

THE SUMMER CIRCUIT.

THE dates in parentheses mean the dates before which civil business will not be taken.

SOUTH-EASTERN CIRCUIT.-Huntingdon, Wednesday, July 3; Cambridge, Friday, July 5; Bury St. Edmunds, Tuesday, July 9 (Friday, July 12): Norwich, Tuesday, July 16 (Monday, July 22); Chelmsford, Thursday, July 25; Hertford, Tuesday, July 30; Lewes, Saturday, August 3.

WESTERN CIRCUIT - Salisbury, Wednesday, July 3 (Friday, July 5); Dorchester, Monday, July 8; Wells, Thursday, July 11 (Saturday, July 13); Bodmin, Tuesday, July 16; Exeter, Saturday, July 20; Winchester, Saturday, July 27; Bristol, Saturday, August 3.

HOME CIRCUIT.-Guildford, Wednesday, July 3 (Saturday, July 6); Maidstone, Wednesday, July 10 (Tuesday, July 16). OXFORD CIRCUIT.-Reading, Wednesday, June 19 (Friday, June 21, at 2 p.m.); Oxford, Monday, June 24 (Wednesday, June 26); Worcester, Thursday, June 27 (Monday, July 1); Gloucester, Wednesday, July 3 (Saturday, July 6); Monmouth, Tuesday, July 9 (Thursday, July 11); Hereford, Saturday, July 13 (Wednesday, July 17); Shrewsbury, Friday, July 19; Stafford, Thursday, July 25.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.-Aylesbury, Saturday, June 22 (Tuesday, June 25); Bedford, Wednesday, June 26; Northampton, Friday, June 28 (Monday, July 1); Leicester, Wednesday, July 3 (Thursday, July 4); Oakham, Thursday, July 11; Lincoln, Friday, July 12 (Monday, July 15); Nottingham, Wednesday, July 17 (Friday, July 19); Derby, Wednesday, July 24 (Friday, July 26); Warwick, Tuesday, July 30; Birmingham, Friday, August 2.

NORTH WALES, CHESTER AND GLAMORGAN CIRCUIT.-Newtown, Saturday, July 6; Dolgelly, Wednesday, July 10; Carnarvon, Saturday, July 13; Beaumaris, Wednesday, July 17; Ruthin, Saturday, July 20; Mold, Tuesday, July 23; Chester, Friday, July 26; Swansea, Friday, August 2.

SOUTH WALES AND CHESTER CIRCUIT.-Haverfordwest, Saturday, July 6; Lampeter, Wednesday, July 10; Carmarthen, Saturday, July 13; Brecon, Thursday, July 18; Presteign, Wednesday, July 24; Chester, Friday, July 26; Swansea, Friday, August 2."

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.-Appleby, Tuesday, July 2; Carlisle, Thursday, July 4; Lancaster, Monday, July 8; Manchester, Thursday, July 11; Liverpool, Thursday, July 25.

NORTH-EASTERN CIRCUIT.-Newcastle, Thursday, July 4; Durham, Thursday, July 11; York, Thursday, July 18; Leeds, Wednesday, July 24.

Huddleston, B., and Willis, J., remain in town.

A BILL INTITULED AN ACT FOR CODIFYING THE LAW RELATING TO THE SALE OF GOODS.

[LORD HERSCHELL.]

(Continued from page 367.)

PART II.-EFFECTS OF THE CONTRACT (Continued).
Transfer of Title.

28. Sale by person not the owner.—(1.) Subject to the provisions of this Act, where goods are sold by a person who is not the owner thereof, and who does not sell them under the authority or with the consent of the owner, the buyer acquires no better title to the goods than the seller had, unless the owner of the goods is by his conduct precluded from denying the seller's authority to sell.

(2) Provided also that nothing in this Act shall affect(a.) The provisions of the Factors Acts, or any enactment enabling the apparent owner of goods to dispose of them as if he were the true owner thereof;

(b.) The validity of any contract of sale under any special

(2.) Nothing in this section shall affect the provisions of this Act relating to the sale of horses.

30. Sale under voidable title.-When the seller of goods has a voidable title thereto, but his title has not been avoided at the time of the sale, the buyer acquires a good title to the goods provided he buys them in good faith, and without notice of the seller's defect of title.

31. Revesting of property in stolen, &c., goods on conviction of offender.-Where goods have been stolen, or otherwise wrongfully obtained, from the person who was the owner thereof by means amounting to an offence under the Larceny Act, 1861, and the offender is prosecuted to conviction, the property in the goods so stolen or wrongfully obtained thereupon revests in the person who was the owner of the goods, or his personal representative, notwithstanding any intermediate dealing with them, whether by sale in market overt, or otherwise.

32. Resale by seller in possession of documents of title.-Where any goods have been sold, and the seller, or any person on his behalf, continues, or is in possession of the documents of title thereto, any sale, pledge, or other disposition of the goods or documents made by such seller, or any person or agent entrusted by the seller with the goods or documents so continuing, or being in possession, is as effectual as if such seller or person were an agent or person entrusted by the buyer with the goods or documents, provided the person to whom the sale, pledge, or other viously sold. disposition is made has not notice that the goods have been pre

The provisions of this section shall be construed with and subject to the provisions of the Factors Acts..

33. Effect of writs of execution.-(1.) A writ of fieri facias, writ of attachment, or other writ of execution against goods shall bind the property in the goods of the execution debtor as from the time when the writ is delivered to the sheriff to be executed; and for the better manifestation of such time, it shall be the duty of the sheriff, without fee, upon the receipt of any such writ. to endorse upon the back thereof the day, month, and year when he received the same.

Provided that no such writ shall prejudice the title to such goods acquired by any person in good faith and for valuable consideration, unless such person had at the time when he acquired his title notice that such writ, or any other writ by virtue of which the goods of the execution debtor might be seized or attached, had been delivered to and remained unexecuted in the hands of the sheriff.

(2.) In this section the term "sheriff" includes an under-sheriff, coroner, and the deputy or agent of any such officer.

PART III-PERFORMANCE OF THE CONTRACT. 34. Duties of seller and buyer.-It is the duty of the seller to deliver the goods, and of the buyer to accept and pay for them, in accordance with the terms of the contract of sale.

35. Payment and delivery are concurrent conditions.-Unless otherwise agreed, delivery of the goods and payment of the price are concurrent conditions; that is to say, the seller must be ready and willing to give possession of the goods to the buyer in exchange for the price, and the buyer must be ready and willing to pay the price in exchange for possession of the goods.

36. Rules as to delivery.-(1.) Unless otherwise agreed, it is the duty of the buyer to take possession of the goods; and the seller's duty to deliver the goods is satisfied by his affording to the buyer reasonable facilities for taking possession of the goods at the place where they are at the time the contract of sale is made, or in the case of goods to be manufactured, at the place of manufacture.

(2.) Where, under the contract of sale, the seller is bound to send the goods to the buyer, but no time for sending them is fixed, the seller is bound to send them within a reasonable time. What is a reasonable time is a question of fact.

(3.) The delivery of the key of the place where the goods are, may, by agreement, operate as a delivery of the goods.

(4.) Where the goods at the time of sale are in the possession of a third person, there is no delivery by seller to buyer unless and until such third person attorns to the buyer; provided that nothing in this section shall affect the operation of the issue or transfer of any documents of title to goods.

37. Delivery of wrong quantity.-(1.) Where the seller delivers to the buyer a quantity of goods less than he contracted to sell, the buyer may reject them, but if the buyer accepts the goods so delivered he must pay for them at the contract rate.

(2.) Where the seller delivers to the buyer a quantity of goods larger than he contracted to sell, the buyer may accept the goods included in the contract and reject the rest, or he may reject the whole. If the buyer accepts the whole of the goods so delivered he must pay for them at the contract rate.