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of parents and insufficient information of registrars, should be so low. Indeed, if they reach only two per cent., it speaks well for the general information of registrars.

Next, as to the proposed legislation: Any person having charge of a child is to be an additional qualified informant of its birth. It will still be "the duty of the registrar to inform himself carefully of every birth occurring in his district." If a birth has not been registered within forty-two days, the registrar can require the attendance of a qualified informant to give the particulars up to three months from the date of birth, but without fee. After three months and within. twelve, the registrar can require a qualified informant to give the particulars, and to pay a fee. After twelve months, a birth can only be registered by authority of the RegistrarGeneral, and payment of an additional fee. The additional qualification of "any person in charge," for an informant is not without objection, embracing as it does every shade of individual from nurse-girl to baby-farmer.

It seems almost incredible that a birth should ever go unregistered because of the non-existence of any person possessing the old qualifications, namely, father, mother, occupier, overseer (in case of foundling), guardian, and any person present at the birth. And if these qualifications have been found sufficient in practice, the proposal to extend the responsibility of registering a birth to a larger number of persons, is at once unnecessary and mischievous; inasmuch as these additional people would rarely know any of the facts to be registered of their own knowledge, and would give any information, however imperfect, just as they were told to the registrar.

It will be observed that miracles are still expected, under the new Bill, at the hands of registrars. They are still "to inform themselves of every birth occurring in their district," and to register the same. This appears to be the alternative of compulsory registration. Either impose a task on registrars, involving a loss to the registration of two per cent., or make the giving notice of a birth obligatory

on the parents, in which case the births escaping registration would probably be less than one per cent. It is evidently the opinion of those who framed the Bill, that so slight a gain would not warrant the imposition of pains and penalties. It is without doubt, however, that a small penalty for omitting to give notice of a birth, within reasonable time, say, within a month, would materially lessen the number of unregistered births, and be of great service to registrars. The provisions for registering births so long after their occurrence, at twelve months and upwards, may be counted on to diminish the number that go unregistered slightly; but our trust is in a few persons, naturally well informed of the birth, who shall be required to give particulars of the same, very soon after it occurs, the sooner the better, to the registrar.

With regard to the proposed legislation in registering deaths, it is remarkable that clause seventeen in the Bill orders a registrar, upon receipt of a notice, written by whom does not appear, of the occurrence of a death, to issue his certificate for burial. This provision is supposed to allow further time for completing the information, but does it not also open the door to improper burials? The certificate for burial should only be issued by the registrar after the complete registration of the death; and no burial should be allowed without its production.

To prevent the burial of deceased children as still born, clause eighteen imposes a penalty upon any person, having authority in any burial ground, who shall permit the body of a still-born child to be buried, without first having a certificate delivered to him, stating that the child was not born alive, signed by a medical practitioner, or a declaration to the same effect, signed by some person who would have been a qualified informant of the birth, if the child had been born alive, or a coroner's order. The grave objection to this is that a declaration, signed possibly by an ignorant or venal attendant, will be equally effective with a coroner's order or medical certificate.

As an ineffable boon to all who will have to master the details of this new legislation and assimilate it with so much of the old, upon the same subject as is unrepealed, it is earnestly to be hoped that the present opportunity will not be missed to consolidate the law respecting the registration of births and deaths on land as well as at sea; and if this appeal may be supplemented by another, equally earnest, and by no means unimportant as affecting the position of a large number of persons, peculiarly qualified to fill the office of registrar, we would ask that Boards of Guardians be enjoined, in filling up these appointments, to consider carefully the doubtful qualifications of women, in consideration of their superior opportunities of "informing themselves of every birth likely to occur in their district."

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE RULE OF THE ROAD AT SEA.

To the Editor of the LAW MAGAZINE.

SIR, As you have twice noticed this subject, may I be permitted to put before you the present state of the question? On December the 15th, a despatch from the Duke Decazes was forwarded, through Lord Lyons, to the Foreign Office. It stated that, "independently of this special point, and taking a more general view of the subject, the question arises, whether the provisions of the International Regulations of 1862 offer guarantees sufficiently powerful to prevent such disastrous collisions as that which has just caused the loss of so many human lives. This is a point to which I would beg your Excellency to be so good as to call the attention of your Government, and one which, it appears to me, might be the subject for the consideration of an International Conference, or, at all events, of a mixed Anglo-French Commission, whose labours might subsequently, as in the case of the Regulations of 1862, be submitted for the consideration and approbation of the other maritime powers. I shall be happy to learn that the Cabinet of London shares the wishes of the French Government in this respect."

In reply, a Memorandum of the Board of Trade (without signature) was returned, stating that, "as regards the Steer

ing and Sailing Rules of 1862, the Board of Trade are advised that, though no material alteration in them appears to be necessary, there are various points of detail in which additions, and amendments deserve consideration.”—(Parliamentary Proceedings, 1874.)

In February, Germany intimated that "our Admiralty will be much pleased by an offer of the English Government to attend an International Inquiry into the operation of the Steering and Sailing Rules, as proposed by the French Government," adding, "no doubt, all naval men must have great interest in the matter, and the question of the Rules of the Road at Sea properly settled in a mixed commission, and adopted by all nations, will save many lives."

At the same time Sweden stated that "Her Minister of Marine had addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs a note referring to the probability of a mixed commission being appointed to inquire into the operation of the Steering and Sailing Rules, and to request him to secure a right for Sweden to be represented in the same."

On Tuesday, the 9th inst., it was announced from Berlin that "the German Chancellor proposes to take the initiative in negotiations which are to lead to the adoption of an International Code of Maritime Law. Prince Bismarck will, it is added, shortly make overtures to various Governments interested in maritime affairs, with a view to bringing about this object."

The following has been received from Washington, June 17:-"The Bill for the appointment of an International Commission, to study the means of providing for the safety of ocean travelling, passed the Senate to-day."

Yours obediently,

WILLIAM STERLING LACON.

LAW EXAMINATIONS.

BAR EXAMINATIONS.-At the general examination of students for Trinity Term, 1874, the Council of Legal Education awarded certificates to the following gentlemen:-Ainslie Douglas Ainslie, David Alfred Aird, Robert William Broomfield, Arnold Jeffries Cleaver, John Elliot, James Anson Farrer, John Gerald Laing, Henry Boyes Mugliston, Frederick York Powell, John Earle. Raven, Charles Stubbs, Robert Wallace, and Walter Henry Wilkin, of the Middle Temple; Charles Edward Eardley Childers, John Frederic Clerk, Henry John Wastell Coulson, Alfred Dobson, John Conrad Gie Kunhardt, Thomas Massey, Augustus Mirams, Joseph William Pullen, George Readman, Frederick Henry

Thomas Streatfield, Richard Henry Tidswell, of the Inner Temple; John Goode, John William Brodie Innes, Venkatakristnama Naidu Pokala, Henry Yorke Stanger, of Lincoln's Inn, Esqrs.

CALLS TO THE BAR.

Trinity Term, 1874.-The under-mentioned gentlemen have been called to the degree of Barrister-at-Law.

LINCOLN'S-INN.-John Gent, Esq., M.A., Oxford, Fellow of Trinity College; Arthur Fraser Walter, Esq., B.A., Oxford; John Goode, Esq., University of London; Harry Greenwood, Esq., B.A., Cambridge; Henry Yorke Stranger, Esq., B.A., Oxford, Tancred Law Student; Robert Kedington Rodwell, Esq., M.A., Cambridge, Fellow of Emmanuel College; Edward Pengree, Esq.; George Henderson, Esq., M.A., Cambridge, Fellow of Pembroke College; Robert Welch Mackreth, Esq.; John Theodore Dodd, Esq, M.A., Oxford; Francis Edward Armitsead, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Louis Edgar Agostini, Esq., University of London; Aldred William Rowden, Esq., Balliol College, Oxford; Charles Edward Cree, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Goronoske Yoshiyama, Esq., of Nagato, Japan; Cumbumpati Sabapathi Iyah, Esq., University of Madras; and Montagu Clementi, Esq., Captain Bengal Staff Corps.

INNER TEMPLE.-Henry Gribble Turner, Esq.; Arthur Corderý, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Thomas Stewart Omond, Esq., M.A., Edinburgh and Oxford, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford; Adam Henry Bittleston, Esq., B.A., S.Č.L., Oxford; Seymour Henry Knyvett, Esq., BA, Oxford; George John Courthope, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Frederick Henry Thomas Streatfield, Esq.; Edward William Hawker, Esq., LL.B., B.A., Cambridge; George Mallows Freeman, Esq., B.A., Oxford; William Ward Cook, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Herbert Baring Garrod, Esq., B.A., Oxford; William Denman Benson, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Richard Ord, Esq., Oxford; Harry Chadwick, Esq., B.A., Oxford; Jasper Myers Richardson, Esq., B.A., Cambridge; Thomas Shepherd Little, Esq., B.A., Cambridge; Walter Long Boreham, Esq., M.A., Cambridge; Eustace Morphett, Esq., B.A., Oxford; George Pearson Wheeler, Esq., B.A., Dublin; Edward Crofton, Esq., M.A., Oxford; John Francis Walker, Esq., M.A, Cambridge; John Henry Pelfy Simpson, Esq., Cambridge; Frank Ricardo, B.A., Cambridge; Henry Tullie Rivaz, Esq.; John Edward Courtenay Bodley, Esq., Oxford; Augustus Mirams, Esq., Cambridge; William Evans, Esq., B A., Oxford; John Francis Jerrard, Esq., London; Walter Lawry Buller, Esq.; Charles Edward Eardley, Childers, Esq., BA, Cambridge; George M Watters, BA, Queen's University, Ireland; Thomas von Donop Hardinge, Esq, B.A., Dublin; Thomas Edward Fairfax, Esq.; and George Douglas Harris, Esq.

MIDDLE TEMPLE.-William Charles Boden Elwell, Esq., University College, Oxford, B A.; Ainslie Douglas Ainslie, Esq.; William Wallace Rodger, Esq, of Exeter College, Oxford; Captain Edward Gladstone; Edward Henry Palmer, Esq., of St John's College, Cambridge, M.A.; Claude Fitzroy Wade, Esq, of

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