Page images
PDF
EPUB

Perthshire, to which they transferred the name of Kinloch, was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and was called by the Faculty of Advocates in 1823. He was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom, under Mr. Gladstone's Premiership, in 1873. June 17.

LAMB, Samuel Blackman, Esq., Solicitor, aged 80. Admitted 1834. April 30.

LOVELL, George, of St. John's Coll., Cambridge, and of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 54. Called 1853. June 17.

MCKENZIE, Adam, Esq., Depute Sheriff-Clerk of Perthshire, Admitted 18

[ocr errors]

April 30.

MCLENNAN, John Ferguson, M.A., LL.B., Advocate at the Scottish Bar. Called by the Faculty of Advocates, 1857. Mr. McLennan was well known as the author of Primitive Marriage, and of various essays on Archaic Law and Custom. June 16.

MARSLAND, George, Esq., Solicitor, formerly of Manchester and Bolton, aged 55. June 19.

MATHEWS, Samuel Livingston, of the King's Inns, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 44. Called to the Irish Bar, 1862. May 22. MERCER, William Edward, Esq., Solicitor, Cavan (Irel.). Admitted 1879. Only son of the late William Mercer, Esq., of St. John's, Antigua, West Indies. June 8.

MILLETT, Hannibal Curnow, Admitted 1842. June 18.

Esq., Solicitor, aged 62.

MILLS, William Hardman, Esq., Solicitor, Bicester, aged 44. Admitted 1859. June 4.

MOLONY, Michael, Esq., Solicitor (Irel.), of Dublin and Sligo. Admitted 1854. May 25.

NICHOLSON, Richard Ward, Esq., Solicitor, Town Clerk of Ripon, aged 57. Admitted 1853. April 28.

OUVRY, Frederic, Esq., Solicitor, V.P.S.A., aged 66. Admitted 1837. June 26.

PADDISON, Joseph, Esq., Solicitor, Melton Mowbray, aged 41. Admitted 1862. May 9.

PATERSON, Adam, Esq., LL.D., Member of the Faculty of Procurators, Glasgow, aged 70. Admitted 1840. July 1. PROUT, John William, M.A., of Neasdon House, Middlesex, and of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister-at-law, aged 64. Called 1841. B.A., Wadham College, Oxford, 1839; M.A., 1841. June 2.

RAE, George, Esq., Solicitor, Liverpool, aged 44. Admitted 1858. June 8.

REA, John, Esq., Solicitor (Irel.). Admitted 1849. May 16. REILY, Thomas W., of the King's Inns, Esq., Barrister-atLaw, aged 73. Called to the Irish Bar 1834. June 20.

SALE, Thomas, Esq., Solicitor, Town Clerk of Leominster, aged 76. Admitted 1829. June 23.

SLOPER, Samuel Elgar, of Winterton Hall, Hants, and of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 64. Called 1856. July 1.

SMITH, George Frederick, Esq., Solicitor, of Golden Square, London, aged 69. Admitted 1834. July 10.

STANSFIELD, John Fish, Esq., Solicitor, Accrington, aged 61. Admitted 1847. June 23.

STEEL, William Robertson, Member of the Faculty of Procurators, Glasgow. Admitted 1831. May 2.

SWANZY, John, Esq., Solicitor (Irel.), formerly of Dublin, Admitted 1849. May 16.

TIGHE, Robert, M.A., of Trinity Coll., Dublin, and of the King's Inns, Barrister-at-Law. Called to the Irish Bar, 1829. Formerly Judge of County Courts, and Chairman of Quarter Sessions, Co. Limerick. June 15.

USHER, John, Esq., Solicitor, Southampton, aged 74. April 28.

VERDON, Michael, Esq., Solicitor (Irel.), aged 39. Admitted 1863. May 19.

WALKER, James, Esq., W.S. (Scot.). Admitted 1824. May 20. WALLER, Henry, of the Middle Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-law, aged 62. Called 1846. May 11.

WILSON, Roderick John, M.A., of Seacroft Hall, Yorkshire, and of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, aged 34. Called 1872. Eldest son, by the daughter of Roderick Macleod, Esq., of Cadboll, of John Wilson, Esq., of Seacroft Hall. Educated at Eton, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, B.A. 1870, 2nd class Modern History. June 3.

YOUNGHUSBAND, William Ogle Grey, of the Middle Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, at Malta, aged 30. Called 1874. May 16.

398

Reviews of New Books.

A Practical Treatise on the Law of Marine Insurance. By RICHARD LOWNDES, Author of "The Law of General Average," &c. London: Stevens and Sons. 1881.

The practical treatise on the Law of Marine Insurance which Mr. Richard Lowndes has recently published will fully maintain the reputation which its learned author has already gained in the field of legal literature. To those who were familiar with the author's book on the "Law of General Average" the announcement of a treatise embracing in its wide scope the entire law of Marine Insurance was welcome as promising some pleasant reading about an interesting though intricate subject. Nor will such anticipations be disappointed by the book. Mr. Lowndes possesses the gift, as valuable as it is rare in legal text-books, of a lucid and pleasant literary style. He has the power of stating complicated facts in such clear, simple, and well-arranged narrative, that the attention is maintained without effort, and the impression retained without confusion. This is not a common, nor is it a small merit, especially in a book intended for mercantile as well as for legal readers. A wellexpressed principle is so easy, the facts which qualify, if not also those which illustrate it, are so difficult, to remember, that it is an immense advantage to have a case so stated that its individual details as well as the general principles of law which were applied for its decision are together impressed on the reader.

Though possessing the merit of bringing into prominence, by succinct and clear statement, the facts and circumstances of important cases, Mr. Lowndes does not fail to trace, step by step, and with admirable firmness of grasp, the general principles of the subject. These are adverted to and explained, in detail and in summary, so that while the structure of parts is carefully noted, the entire conception is likewise vividly presented. The law of Marine Insurance is not, like some branches of English law, a mere conglomerate mass of decisions and dicta of judges, more or less familiar with the subject, upon cases brought to judicial notice by the accidents of commerce and litigation; it is a system based and reared on definite and consistent principles of law and commercial economy, and, as

such, Mr. Lowndes treats and explains it. Indeed the fault we should be disposed to find with the book as a legal text-book is that it deals too much with principles, and occasionally mixes up what is law with arguments about what ought to be law. This, however, is a mere fault of construction, and is often inevitable owing to the number of really important points, intimately connected with points actually decided, on which there is an absence of authority.

The book is so excellent a legal text-book, that one is apt, somewhat unfairly to the author, to criticize it exclusively as such. But the author explains in his preface that the primary aim of the book is to explain the law on the subject for the use of mercantile readers. "In these pages," he says, “I have endeavoured to put in few words, and in as plain language as I could use, such matters relating to the law of Marine Insurance as I thought a merchant or shipowner ought either to know or to have within easy reach My main object has always been to write something which might be serviceable to a mercantile reader."

[ocr errors]

It would be impossible in this brief notice to illustrate by quotations the author's method of treating his subject, or to follow him into the discussion of any of the numerous interesting questions raised by him. On all these Mr. Lowndes will be found an instructive, on most a safe guide. There is indeed no book on the subject which so well supplies the needs of mercantile readers. In the short space of 217 pages the whole subject is concisely explained, in clear and plain language, with the practical sagacity of a business man but also with legal accuracy.

The subject is treated in its natural order, the seven chapters being devoted to the following matters:-Insurable Interest; Effecting of the Insurance; Causes which make a Policy void; Perils insured against; Total Loss; Particular Average; Other liabilities of Underwriters.

The chief value of the book to lawyers lies in its suggestiveness. This is probably due to Mr. Lowndes's wide practical experience as an average adjuster, and if so, the fact gives an additional value to the suggestions. They chiefly relate to questions which will some day doubtless arise, and in this book Mr. Lowndes has discussed many of these points with a wealth of argument which cannot fail to be very useful.

The most novel, and perhaps the most fruitful, of his sug

gestions are those connected with the "sue and labour clause' (sec. 326 and onwards). The question is there discussed as to "whether the master of the ship is to be considered, for the purposes of the sue and labour clause, the servant or agent of the owner of the cargo, in incurring expenses either exclusively for the benefit of the cargo, or for its benefit or preservation conjointly with that of the ship." On this question Mr. Lowndes hardly ventures to express a definite opinion. There are difficulties, he says, in either view. The most recent authority is the case of Whitworth v. Dixon, 4 C.P.D. 378, in which Lindley, J. expressed a strong opinion in favour of the view, adopted in the law of the United States, that a shipowner can recover expenses incurred about the defence, safeguard or recovery of the ship, under the terms of the sue and labour clause, from his underwriters on ship and freight, leaving them to recover any contribution that may be due from the cargo.

A somewhat similar question is also discussed as to whether an undistributed loss by a sacrifice of cargo or ship's materials, claimed directly from the underwriter of the thing sacrificed, is claimable as particular average. This is an important as well as a difficult question, and Mr. Lowndes inclines to the opinion that such a loss is claimable under the sue and labour clause, and is not particular average. In fact, if Mr. Lowndes is right, the ancient sue and labour clause which is already encrusted with the practice and the decisions of centuries, is not yet fully comprehended, and contains the germs of many a lawsuit and many a peril for the much suffering underwriter.

The London (City) Tithes Act, 1879, and the other Tithe Acts Effecting the Commutation and Redemption of Tithes in the City of London. By HENRY BLOMFIELD BURNELL, B.A., LL.B., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law. Stevens and Sons. 1880.

The passing of the London (City) Tithes Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict., c. 176), is evidently the fons et origo of this book. That Statute is printed at length, and is carefully annotated. All the other Statutes relating to the subject are presented to the reader in an Appendix. Another Appendix contains the famous Decree of Henry VIII., which for upwards of three centuries regulated the payment of tithes in the City of London, with the exception of those parishes where recent legislation has introduced a desirable modification. This Decree, by the terms of

« PreviousContinue »