Richards, Frederick Henry, Shoreditch, Mantle Manufacturer. March 7 at 2 at offices of Goldberg and Langdon, West st, Finsbury circus Richmond, Samuel, Nottingham, Baker. Feb 28 at 3 at offices of Belk, Middle pavement, Nottingham Rickards, James, Park st, Camden Town, Umbrella Maker. March 9 at 2 at offices of Kennedy, Warwick ct, Gray's inn Robinson, James, Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancaster, Grocer. March 8 at 2 at offices of Gibson and Co, South John st, Liverpool. Tom. kies, Liverpool Robinson, John, Warkworth, Northumberland, Brewer, March 10 at 11 at offices of Tate and Percy, St Michael's lane, Alnwick Ruffle, William Fitch, Portsmouth, Commission Agent. March 7 at 3 at offices of Blake, Ordnance row Portsea Savery, Alfred, Taunton, Somerset, Ironfounder. March 4 at 11 at offices of Kite, East st, Taunton Savill, Charles, jun, High st, Camden Town, Cheesemonger. March 8 at 2 at offices of Kennedy, Warwick ct, Gray's inn Sawyer, Henry, Tunstall, Suffolk, Blacksmith. March 11 at 2 at offices of Pollard, St Lawrence st, Ipswich Scott. Nathaniel Latham, Hoxne, Suffolk. Farmer. March 14 at 2 at White Lion Hotel, Eye. Gudgeon, Stowmarket Shaw, Thomas, and not Straw, as erroneously printed in Gazette of 15th inst., Hanley, Stafford, Tripe Dresser. offices of Stevenson, Cheapside, Hanley Macrh 12 at 11 at Sheard, Edwin, Batley, York, Oil Merchant. March 7 at 2.30 at the George Hotel, Wellington st, Batley. Law, Batley Smith, John, Moton nr Gainsborough, Lincoln, Innkeeper. March 3 at 11 at offices of Bladon, Gainsborough Smith, Joseph, Braceborough, Lincoln, Farmer. March 4 at 10 at offices of Law, St. Mary's pl, Stamford Smith, William Henry, Bradford, York, Stay Maker. March 5 at 11 at offices of Wright, Darley st, Bradford Spurgin, William Job, St. Martin's court, St. Martin's lane, Licensed Victualler. March 3 at 3 at offices of Norman, Great Marlborough st, Regent st Stead, Levi, Batley, York, Baker. March 7 at 2 at offices of Wooler and Wooler, Exchange buildings, Batley Stratford, Francis Henry, Gloucester, Publican. March 3 at 11 at offices of Henderson, Berkeley st, Gloucester Sudbury, Samuel, Ormskirk, Lancaster, of no occupation. March 8 at 3 at offices of Parr and Sadler, Railway rd, Ormskirk Sutherland, Eric, Berkeley sq, Farmer. March 10 at 2 at Lombard House, George yd, Lombard st. Vallance and Vallance, Essex st Swann, William, Scarborough, York, Saddler. March 2 at 3 at offices of Appleyard, Newborough st, Scarborough Taylor, Alfred, Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, Farmer. March 9 at 12 at offices of Copeman, Downham Market Taylor, George Henry, Horbling, Lincoln, Farmer. March 2 at 10 at Nag's Head Inn, Bourn. Law Thomas, Abraham Dolamore, Fortis Green, Hornsey, Carman. Tucker, John Francis, Southend, Essex, Plumber. March 9 at 2 at Wallbanks, Henry, Burslem, Stafford, Beerseller. March 7 at 3 at offices of Alcock, Market st, Tunstall Watson, Edward Albert, Reading, Painter. March 5 at 10 at 24, Way, James Joseph, Bristol, Cork Cutter. March 2 at 2 at offices Weston, William Edward, Leicester, Cabinet Maker. March 8 at 3 at offices of Wright, Belvoir st, Leicester Whiting, John, Brookshot rd, Brentford, Carman. March 4 at 3 at offices of Lay, Townhall, Brentford Williams, Edward Richard Johns, Sheerness, Kent, Navigating Lieutenant, R.N. (March 7 at 1 at Law Institution, Chancery lane. Copland, Sheerness Wilson, George, West Hartlepool, Journeyman Butcher. March 5 at 3 at Brunswick Hotel, West Hartlepool March 9 Race Winn, John, Horseferry rd, Westminster, Contractor. AW PARTNERSHIP WANTED, by a Solicitor, accustomed princípally to Chancery and Conveyancing.-Address, G. H., care of Davies & Co., Advertising Agents, Finch-lane, Cornhill. LAW Wanted, Situation by Advertiser (un admitted). Competent to manage Common Law and Bankruptcy without supervision, Conveyancing with slight supervision. Twenty-five years' experience.-Address, C., care of Mr. Benson, Law Stationer, 13, Postern-gate, Hull. AS SECRETARY to a SOLICITOR.The Ad vertiser, son of a Solicitor, 27 years of age, a good Accountant and Correspondent, and possessing the faculty of order, offers his services in above capacity.-Address, B. Z., 29, Mark-lane, E.C. CLERKA well-educated Youth wants a situation as above in a Solicitor's Office. Can be well recommended for steadiness and industry.-Apply, by letter, to H. A. L., care of Messrs. Tucker & Lake, 4, Serle-street, Lincoln'sinn, London. A SOLICITOR (B.A., London), of many years' standing, who passed his examination with honours, and has had some experience in preparing candidates for legal and other examinations, is willing to read privately with Gentlemen desirous of passing the Preliminary, Intermediate, or Final Examinations. Terms moderate.-Address, B.A., H. Horne, Law Stationer, Warwick-court, Holborn, W.C. T. BATEMAN NAPIER, LL.B., London, Clif ford's-inn, then First Prizeman, Winner of the Incorporated Law Society's only (the Scott) Scholarship for the year 1876, Conveyancing Gold Medallist, and First Class Law Honours, London, prepares Students, both privately and in class, for the Preliminary, Intermediate, and Final. Students are also carefully prepared through the post. Fifty-three out of sixty of the pupils last sent up have been successful. Classes are now reading for the April Examinations, and will commence for the June on Tuesday, March 8. For terms, &c., apply, No. 1, Mitre-court-buildings, King's Bench-walk, Temple, E.C. DOYAL INSURANCE COMPANY.. Ro FIRE-LIFE-ANNUITIES. ACCUMULATED FUNDS IN HAND Agents wanted on liberal terms of commission. Apply to J. HAMER OWENS, Manager, Law Courts Branch 33, Chancery-lane. ROVIDENT LIFE PR FOUNDED 1806. OFFICE COCOATINA, REVERSIONARY and LIFE INTERESTS in SCHWEITZER'S COCOATINA, Anti-Dyspeptic Cocoa or Chocolate Powder. Guaranteed Pure Soluble Cocoa of the Finest Quality, with the excess of fat extracted. The Faculty pronounce it "the most nutritious, perfectly digestible beverage for Breakfast, Luncheon, or Supper, and invaluable for Invalids and Children." Highly commended by the entire Medica Press. Being without sugar, spice, or other admixture, it suits all palates, Keeps better in all climates, and is four times the strength of cocoas THICKENED Yet WEAKENED with starch, &c., and IN REALITY CHEAPER than such Mixtures. LANDED or FUNDED PROPERTY or other Securities and Annuities PURCHASED, or Loans or Annuities thereon granted, by the EQUITABLE REVERSIONARY INTEREST SOCIETY (LIMITED), 10, Lancaster-place, Waterloo Bridge, Strand. Established 1835. Capital, £500,000. Interest on Loans may be capitalized. F. S. CLAYTON, } Joint C. H. CLAYTON, Secretarias. BY SPECIAL APPOINTMENT, Made instantaneously with boiling water, a teaspoonful to a Break- To Her Majesty, the Lord Chancellor, the Whole f hs Judicial Bench fast Cup, coating less than a halfpenny. COCOATINA A LA VANILLE is the most delicate, digestible, cheapest Vanila Chocolate, and may be taken when richer chocolate is prohibited. In tin packets at 1s. 6d., 3., 5s. 6d., &c., by Chemists and Grocers, Charities on Special Terms by the Sole Proprietors, H. SCHWEITZER & CO., 10, Adam-street, London, W.C. Corporation of London, &c. SOLICITORS' AND REGISTRARS' GOWNS. CORPORATION ROBES UNIVERSITY & CLERGY GOWNS, ESTABLISHED 1689. 94, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. BOROUGH OF BIRKENHEAD. NEW LAW BOOKS JUST PUBLISHED BY TOWN General Clerk, who can attend Meetings of Committees and has a knowledge of Municipal and General Law. Salary, £150 per annum. Also, a Shorthand and Writing Clerk. Salary, £80 per annum. Applications, accompanied by testimonials, to be sent in, stating experience of applicants, on or before the 1st of March next. ALFRED GILL, Town Clerk, Birkenhead. Town Hall, 10th February, 1881. Periodical Sale of Reversions, Policies, &c., at the Mart, on Thursday next. MESSRS. MARSH, MILNER, & CO. will SELL by AUCTION, at the MART, E.C., on THURSDAY next, MARCH 3, at TWO o'clock precisely, the following interests: 1. The ABSOLUTE REVERSION to ONE-FOURTH SHARE of the following:-£6,700 on mortgage of freehold and leasehold property at Liverpool; £320 cash in Bank; £8,000 value of unsold portions of the Arnside Estate, Westmoreland; £270 Furness Railway Five and Six per Cent. Preference Stock; £180 Furness Railway Four-and-a-half per Cent. Preference £10 shares; £450 value of furniture-less certain legacies, receivable on decease of a lady now in her 54th year.-Solicitor, F. W. Watson, Esq., Kendal. 2. The LIFE INTEREST of a gentleman, aged 69, in a freehold house, 167, East India Dock-road, Poplar, let at £36 per annum, but worth £40; and £3,000 New Three per Cent. Annuities, invested in the names of two trustees, and together producing £126 per annum ; also a policy for £100 in the Law Union Assurance, 126, Chancerylane.-Solicitor, John Bryan, Esq., Gloucester. 3. The REVERSIONARY INTEREST in FREEHOLD PROPERTY, situate at Pyworthy, near Holsworthy, Devon, in the occupation of the tenant for life, and let at a gross annual rental of £350 per annum, receivable on decease of a lady now in her 54th year, provided a gentleman aged 30 survives her.-Solicitors, Messrs. Truefitt & Gane, 54, Bishopsgate-street Within. 4. The ABSOLUTE REVERSION to a FOURTH PART of a SUM of £2,000, standing in the names of two trustees and invested upon a Debenture Bond of the Metropolitan Railway, receivable on decease of a lady now in her 79th year.-Solicitor, T. Bradley, Esq., 75, Mark-lane. 5. A POLICY of ASSURANCE for £1,000, effected in 1858 in the British Equitable Assurance Company, 4, Queen-street-place, E.C., on the life of a gentleman now in his 61st year. Original annual premium £31 148. 8d., reduced by bonuses to £23 58. 2d.-Solicitors, Messrs. Stibbard, Gibson, & Co., 21, Leadenhall-street, E.C. 6. A valuable POLICY for £1,000, effected in 1856 in the Scottish Provincial Assurance Company, London and Aberdeen, on the life of a gentleman now in his 61th year. Annual premium £31 58., together with bonuses accrued amounting to £355 18s. 11d.-Solicitor, G. C. Sherrard, Esq., 11, Lincoln's-inn-fields, W.C. Particulars at 51, Cannon-street. Wednesday, November 23 First Ground First F. B. F. These sales will include landed estates, town and country houses, ground-rents, reversions, and shares. Owners, solicitors, and trustees desirous of including properties, are respectfully requested to give instructions as early as possible, as it is of the utmost im. portance that sufficient time should be allowed to bring the sales prominently before the public.-Auction and Survey Offices, 117, Bishopsgate-street E.C. MESSRS, HARMAN & MATTHEWS' HOUSE PROPERTY LIST for February is now ready, and may be had gratis by post, or on application at 35, Walbrook, E.C. Desirable properties of every class wanted for numerous buyers. RE Ex EVERSIONS, ANNUITIES, &c., SOLD by Auction or Private Treaty, or Mortgages arranged. penses if not sold £2 12s. 6d., including printing and advertising.Mr. ALFRED BEAL, 82, Queen-street, London, E.C. Just Published. Price 7s. 6d. Part VIII. Vol. II. HE STATUTES of PRACTICAL UTILITY in the Civil and Criminal Administration of Justice passed 43 & 44 Victoria (1880), Alphabetically Arranged, with Notes thereon, and a Copious Index. By HORATIO LLOYD, Esq., Judge of County Courts. A General Index to all the numbers of Vol. II. of LLOYD'S STATUTES is given with this Part, to enable subscribers to bind them into One Volume, in continuation of the Four Volumes of CHITTY'S STATUTES by WELSBY and BEAVAN London: HENRY SWEET, 3, Chancery-lane; STEVENS & Sons, 119, Chancery-lane, Law Publishers. W° Just Published. Royal 8vo. Price 388., cloth. London: HENRY SWEET, 3, Chancery-lane; WILLIAM MAXWELL & Just Published. Demy 8vo. Price 188., cloth. THE COMMON AND STATUTE LAW RE- London: HENRY SWEET, 3, Chancery-lane, Law Publisher. Second Edition. One Shilling, or 13 stamps by post. SKIN cases, including forty distinct varieties of skin diseases. Piccadilly. Fourth Edition (further revised and enlarged), price 5s., net. HINTS on ADVOCACY, including Examples of Sixteen Types of Witnesses, and the mode of Cross-examining them. By RICHARD HARRIS, Barrister-at-Law, of the Middle Temple and Midland Circuit. London: WATERLOW BROS. & LAYTON, 24, Birchin-lane. Just published, post 8vo, price 3s. THE LIABILITY of EMPLOYERS, with the Act of 1880, and Rules thereunder. By W. HOWLAND ROBERTS and GEORGE H. WALLACE, Esqs., Barristers-at-Law. "All the necessary materials seem to be supplied, and the commentary shows a good grasp of the subject."-Law Journal. REEVES & TURNER, 100, Chancery-lane, London, W.C. PRELIMINARY, INTERMEDIATE, FINAL (Pass and Honours) LAW EXAMINATION. MR. ALBERT GIBSON'S Classes and Postal Preparation for these Examinations continue throughout the year, except during one month in summer. Two Residential Pupils received. Terms on application to 35, Southampton-build OR SALE, to pay 7 per Cent., House Property in ings, Chancery-lane, or to St. Mary Cray, Chislehurst. [N.B.-At the Michaelmas Examination, 1880, out of 26 pupils sent up for the Final 22 passed, out of 17 sent up for the Intermediate 16 passed, and all 9 pupils sent up for the Preliminary passed. At seven out of the last eight Examinations Mr. Gibson's FOR SALE. TA Conveyancing and General Prac-pupils have taken Honours; the successes including First, of great development. Solicitors only need apply. - Civis, "Solicitors' Journal" Office, 52, Carey-street, W.C. tificates of Merit, Second and Third Class Honours. In last June FOUR and in last November three pupils secured Honours.] AS WE ANNOUNCED last week, the Order in Council consolidating the three common law divisions of the High Court came into operation on Saturday last, and a notice has been issued requesting solicitors to alter the title of proceedings commenced in the Common Pleas or Exchequer Divisions as follows:-"In the High Court 338 REFRESHERS ........................................................................................... SOCIETIES .................................................... 339 LAW STUDENTS' JOURNAL............................ 339 CREDITORS' CLAIMS.......................................................................... 340 of Justice, Queen's Bench Division.-Writ issued in the Common Pleas [or Exchequer] Division." COSTS. ................................................................ 341 NEW ORDERS......... ...................................... 342 LEGISLATION OF THE WEEK.......................... 342 LEGAL NEWS LONDON GAZETTES, &C., &C............................................................................................... 313 COMPARING THE LIST of honoursmen at the January examination of the Incorporated Law Society with that issued after the June examination last year, there will be observed a remarkable diminution in the number of men in the first class. Last June there were eighteen, there are now but seven. Considering that there were eighty-four candidates, as compared with seventy-five at June, it would seem either that the general standard of attainment has greatly fallen (which is not very likely), or that the questions have been more difficult. WHEN THE COUNCIL of the Incorporated Law Society are able to spare a little time from their engrossing public engagements, it may be well that they should bestow some attention on the evidence given in a case in the City of London Court, reported in the City Press of last Wednesday. It would appear from this case that a new profession has arisen-that of the client introducer. The defendant was sued by a firm of solicitors for work and labour done as solicitors at his request; and, according to the report in the newspaper, he stated that a lady having applied to him to recommend her to a lawyer, he took her to the plaintiffs. "He had," he said, "been in the habit of taking clients to solicitors from whom he got a commission, and he certainly expected a commission in the present instance." He had, however, never before, to the knowledge of the plaintiffs, been at their office, and not recognized he found that his profession was there. It would be very desirable to ascertain in what quarters his occupation has been plied, and whether he is the representative of any considerable number of client introducers. THE IRISH AUTHORITIES display considerable assiduity in putting in force old statutes. It is stated that at a recent Land League meeting at Ballinasloe a local publican displayed from his window a flag bearing a harp without a crown." The absence of the latter emblem being supposed to render the 66 flag disloyal, the head constable summoned the 66 One cannot help observing that in substance the twocases were very similar, but in the former case no doubt the application was incorrect in point of form. It is now perfectly clear that the action, though it may be dead upon the time given by the order of dismissal expiring, is capable of being brought to life again through the medium, not of an application to a master to extend the time, as was done in Whistler v. Hancock, but of an appeal to the judge to extend the time for appealing against the order, and also to vary it by extending the time for taking the particular step required. 66 Mr. J. C. MATHEW's appointment increases the predominance upon the judicial bench of former members of the Home or South-Eastern Circuit. That body is now represented by nine judges-namely, Lords Justices BRAMWELL and LUSH, Sir BARNES PEACOCK, Sir JAMES HANNEN, Mr. Baron POLLOCK, and Justices DENMAN, HAWKINS, WILLIAMS, and MATHEW. The circuit may also claim among former judges Lord CHELMSFORD, Lord Chief Justice BOVILL, Lord Justice THESIGER, Mr. Baron CHANNELL, and Justices WILLES, ARCHIBALD, and HONYThe Western Circuit ranks next, with five judges, Lord COLERIDGE, Sir MONTAGUE SMITH, Sir ROBERT COLLIER, and Justices LOPES and BOWEN, to which list the name of the late Sir ALEXANDER COCKBURN should beadded. THE PEACE PRESERVATION BILL, introduced by Sir W.. HARCOURT this week, differs in some respects from the previous Peace Preservation Acts. It provides (clause 1) that no person is to carry or have arms or ammunition in a proclaimed district except under conditions to be named in a proclamation by the Lord-Lieutenant; while the Act of 33 & 34 Vict. c. 9, allowed the carrying of arms under a licence, section 6 providing that no person, though licensed to kill game, should have or carry arms in a proclaimed district without a licence to do so under the 19 & 20 Vict. c. 36 and the amending Acts. Clause 6 of the new Bill defines arms as including any cannon, gun, revolver, pistol, sword, cutlass, pike, and bayonet (or any part of the arms so described), and “ammunition" as including bullets, gunpowder, nitro-glycerine, dynamite, gun-cotton and every explosive substance. Section 4 of the Act before referred to defined the word "arms" in the same way as in the present Bill, and included bullets, gunTHE CASE of Carter v. Stubbs (29 W. R. 132, L. R. 6 powder, and ammunition, but did not specify any other Q. B. D. 116) decided a practice point of some import-explosives. ance. Some time ago, a decision of a highly technical character was pronounced by the Queen's Bench Division in the case of Whistler v. Hancock (26 W. R. 211, L. R. 3 Q. B. D. 83). The point there raised was as follows:An order had been made dismissing the action unless statement of claim was delivered within a week. The week expired, and no statement of claim was delivered. The plaintiff then took out a summons for further time for delivering statement of claim, and the master made an order giving the plaintiff a week's time. This order was set aside on appeal by Fry, J., on the ground that the master had no jurisdiction to make it. The Queen's Bench Division affirmed the decision of Fry, J., on the ground that the action being already dead at the time when the master made his order, he had no jurisdiction to extend the time for delivering statement of claim. This decision was followed by the Exchequer Division in Wallis v. Hepburn (L. R. 3 Q. B. D. 84). It has always seemed to us that these decisions went upon a much narrower and more technical ground than might at first sight appear. The court, in deciding the recent case of Carter v. Stubbs, rather sail round than overrule these decisions, but they show that the point decided was one of form rather than of substance. In Carter v. Stubbs an order was made dismissing the action unless an answer to interrogatories was filed by the plaintiff within seven days. The plaintiff swore his affidavit in answer within the time, but did not file it until after the seven days had expired. He, however, then took out a summons to have the order dismissing the action rescinded, and a master, thereupon, rescinded it, and gave the plaintiff a week's further time. On appeal against this last order, Hawkins, J., at chambers, set the order aside, and made two orders-one which extended the time for appealing against the original order dismissing the action, and the other varying that order by substituting fourteen for seven days. These orders of Hawkins, J., were upheld on appeal by the Divisional Court, and subsequently by the Court of Appeal. The case of Whistler v. Hancock is distinguished, on the technical ground that there was no order there extending the time for appealing against the order dismissing the action. MAN. under £120,000. The City Press says that the will of Mr. Charles Druce, late of Billiter-square, and of Denmark-hill, solicitor, who died on the 10th ult., was proved on the 8th inst. by Mr. C. C. Drace and Mr. A. D. Druce, the sons, the executors, the personal estate in the United Kingdom being sworn The testator gives to his son, Charles Claridge, the piece of plate presented to his father by the Corporation of the City, a pecuniary legacy of £2,000, and all his real estate. The testator recites in his will that he had made various gifts and transfers to his children in his lifetime; and he leaves the residue of his personal estate to his said two sons. "An Official" writes to the Times :-"With the view of ascertaining what proportion counsel's fees bear to the expense of an ordinary action in the common law divifiled in the Central Office here in cases which have prosions, I have just analyzed thirty of the last bills of costs. ceeded to trial. The result I find to be:-Total costs of thirty actions (including counsel's fees), £3,250 10s.;. counsel's fees in same, 598 guineas. I may add that these bills were taken just as they came, without any selection whatever." LORD COLERIDGE'S TILT. ONE of the effects of the consolidation of the three chiefs of the common law divisions seems to be that the consolidated one, conscious, no doubt, of the pith of three mighty warriors in his single arm, and feeling his thrice manly heart beating valiantly beneath the ces triplex of his chieftainship, has felt himself impelled to tilt, and has, in fact, tilted, against the sails of that gloomy old mill which was once known to men as the Court of Chancery, and which still, in spite of its new name and coat of paint, looms-at any rate, when seen from Westminster-almost as gloomy and giant-like as ever. We shall leave to the doughty champion himself (who has, we hope, by this time safely regained his feet) the pleasant task of examining the scars and marks of mischief which the recent encounter has doubtless left on his four-handed grinding old adversary; ard we shall merely make a few prosaic, common-place remarks in the expectation that, after the heat of the conflict has passed away, they will be received, if not with acquiescence, yet with the tolerance which befits the truly brave and chivalrous. It appears then-to drop all metaphor and disguise that Lord Coleridge is so confident of the unerring accuracy of the test applied to chancery proceedings for administration by observing the ratio between the value of the estate administered, and the costs of administering it, that on finding, in the course of a case before him last Monday (reported in the next day's Times), that there had been an administration action in which the costs had been large in proportion to the estate, and on calling to mind another instance of the same kind, he thought it right from his judicial seat to pronounce a solemn malediction on the whole of the existing machinery provided for the public winding up of the affairs and estates of deceased persons, and to declare "that a system that permitted such a state of affairs was scandalous." Now, we do not mean to say that in some instances the costs of administration are not excessive; but what we do say is, that it is idle to compare, as Lord Coleridge did, the costs of actions at law with proceedings for administration in chancery, or to treat, as the Times reporter did in his report of the case we have referred to, the costs of administration actions "as illustrating the cost of litigation." The proper winding up of a very small estate may be necessarily a very arduous, anxious, and expensive undertaking. Men may, and often do, die and leave very little after them except tangled bundles of rights and liabilities, and if, as cannot be doubted, it is proper to provide public machinery for unravelling these intertwisted skeins, it is clear that the cost of employing such machinery, and of skilfully watching and superintending its action, cannot be kept necessarily at a low percentage on what may be the value of the ultimate result of the process. Administration, in fact, is not litigation; and however procedure may be altered and costs cut down, there must still be many cases in which estates must pay very largely for the operation of disentangling, clearing up, and dividing. It is to be hoped that, as intelligence spreads, the public will see that this must be so, and will not be led by the random observations of even consolidated judges to consider that, because it is possible for a small estate to give rise to difficulties, the system that cannot always overcome such difficulties without causing considerable expenditure, is necessarily a scandal and disgrace. We are informed that it was arranged, subject to Sir H. M. Jackson's bealth allowing him to attend, that he should be sworn in as a judge of the High Court on Thursday. THE COST OF LITIGATION. LORD Justice Bramwell has addressed a letter to the Times on the cost of litigation which contains one useful suggestion, and, if we may venture to say so with the utmost respect, some other suggestions which seem to be either unpractical or unnecessary. The useful suggestion is that interlocutory costs should be paid down. The result of the adoption of this course would certainly be to diminish applications for time and so forth, which are now too numerous, arising, not from a desire to heap up costs, but from pressure of work or an easy-going compliance with custom. If a solicitor had either to furnish the money necessary for this purpose out of his own pocket or to ask his client for it, he would be likely to consider more carefully before making these applications. But this is a very small part of the Lord Justice's scheme. He proposes that the whole system on which costs are allowed in litigation shall be changed. "The remedy I propose," he says, "is that the solicitor should be paid a lump sum; for instance, so much if proceedings stopped at the writ, so much if they stopped at a further stage, so much if there was a trial; and this sum should vary according to the amount at stake and other circumstances. It might either be a percentage or it might be a lump to be determined by the Master on hearing the nature of the case. But I do not desire to go into detail. Merely to pay according to the work done is wrong. Of course the amount might vary if the losing party had vexatiously increased the expense. It might vary, as between solicitor and client, if the client insisted on a particular expense. If it was thought necessary to protect the client, according to modern legisla. tion, his order for extra expense might be required to be in writing. No doubt some hardship would be worked by this. A solicitor would sometimes be underpaid. A successful party would not always get the full amount of costs occasioned by his adversary being in the wrong. But, as in other cases, the occasional hardship must be borne as part of a good system." This proposal strangely leaves out of sight the difference which exists among actions as to the period at which the main expense is incurred. In some actions a very large part of the solicitor's work may have to be done before the writ is issued. Take, for instance, an action for breach of contract for successive deliveries of coal or iron. There will most likely be a most voluminous correspondence, which must be read and copied, and analysed and carefully considered, by the solicitor before any legal steps are taken. On the other hand, there are actions where but little expense is incurred before trial; cases, for instance, in which the facts are not in dispute and a point of law only is involved; here, until the preparation of the brief and payment of counsels' fees there is little outlay. How is it possible, when actions vary so greatly as to the period at which the main expense is incurred, to fix an arbitrary lump sum if the action is stopped at the writ, and another lump sum if it is stopped at a further stage and before trial? would be not merely "occasional hardships," but constant injustice resulting from such a system. There But the Lord Justice suggests that the lump sum to be allowed need not be arbitrarily fixed; it might be determined by the Master on hearing the nature of the case. And he suggests that the Master should be constituted a final and unfettered tribunal to decide the lump sum at his own will. This at least is the meaning we attach to the following passage in the Lord Justice's letter:"Thirdly, it would be necessary to abrogate the present rules of taxation. A master is bound by the practice. For instance, suppose in a certain class of cases two counsel are allowed. The master must allow them in such a case, or a judge will set aside his taxation. If the judge refused, the Divisional Court would; if that refused, then the Court of Appeal, or finally, the House of Lords. In other words, though, |