STATUTES-CONSTRUCTION OF. 1. "I do not think that in construing an Act of Parliament, we are warranted in going beyond the Act itself in endeavouring to find out what mischiefs existed, and to say that the Legislature intended to remedy such. Acts of Parliament are to be regulated by their recitals, and if an evil is stated therein to exist, the Courts will be astute to apply the remedy; but if no mischiefs are pointed out, it is not within the province of a Court of Law to say, that this or that mischief was in existence, and that the Legislature intended to remedy it. That is not a sound mode of construing an Act of Parliament." (Per PENNEFATHER, B.) Ex. Ch. Stephenson v. Higginson 494 2. "Of course, it is unnecessary to say that no practice can affect or control the terms of an Act of Parliament. But if that practice has been of long standing in the Ecclesiastical Courts, it does furnish an authority for the construction of the Act, at all events, equivalent to express decisions of competent tribunals on the subject, and would require that the terms should be clear and unambiguous, to induce us to give to the statute a construction in opposition to that which has been proved to have prevailed by so long a practice. (Per PIGOT, C. B.) in Ibid 496 A Stock-broker negociating the sale and transfer of shares in a railway company, is not within the terms "promoter of a company" in the 7 & 8 Vic. c. 110, s. To an action, therefore, brought by him to recover money paid for the defendant in the purchase of shares, it is no defence that such shares were in companies not registered. Q. B. Rooney v. Palmer 327 STOCK. See CHARGINg Order. STOPPAGE IN TRANSITU. By the custom of the spirit trade in the city of Dublin, when whiskey is bonded in the Queen's stores, the party selling gives to the purchaser certain request notes, on the faith of which the price is paid, and which constitutes a sufficient authority to the storehouse-keeper to deliver the whiskey to the holder of them. The defendant having sold six puncheons of whiskey to A B, and having got his acceptance for the amount, hands him six request notes. A B sells the same to the plaintiff, giving him the |