VOL. VII.

PUMP COURT.

The Temple Newspaper and Review.

CURRENTE CALAMO.

De Lege; de Omnibus Rebus et Quibusdam Aliis.

AFTER many weary months of suffering, borne with a patience and a dignity that were truly king-like and sublime, Kaiser Friedrich III. of Germany is at peace. The story of his death, equally with the story of his life, will remain a deathless and glorious memory for his people, a sublime example for the t world. As nearly perfect in all the relations of life as it is given to man to be-dutiful son, devoted husband, tender father, wise counsellor, brave soldier, noble king-the magnificent figure of the dead Kaiser will remain in German history among the grandest of its heroes. Chivalrous and dignified, gracious, and greathearted, full of sympathy with all that was true and good wherever it was to be found, the German nation and the whole world regarded his accession to the throne of the Hohenzollerns with wellfounded hopes of peace and progress, tempered only by the knowledge that, so far as human fore

sight could tell, the reignoncime

of the illustrious Em

peror who ascended the A

throne of his ancestors of herning cowed b

amid such gloomy sure to a go of us roundings could not be

of long duration. Unhappily this anticipation was destined to be fulfilled only too soon. The stately drama of a noble

No. 88.

life is played out, and while we cannot but feel in some degree a sense of relief that the long and weary waiting for death is over, we feel how truly it may be said of him, "Take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again."

THE point which now engages the attention of all Europe is the result which may accrue from the accession to the throne of William II. It has been thought that with the death of Frederick III. the pacific element would also die, to be succeeded by a distinctly warlike and aggressive spirit, embodied in the person of the hot-blooded young William. It must be confessed, also, that in the new Emperor's first words addressed to the army there was little but the sound of the trumpet and the clangour of arms. He recognised. his responsibility for the honour and glory of the army, and there an end. Happily, however, now, the first words of the young Emperor have been succeeded by a manifesto addressed to the German nation, than which it would be hard to conceive anything more king-like, dignified, and noble. If, as we hope, and as would seem probable, from the apparent frankness and sincerity of the diction, this manifesto comes straight from the heart of the young Kaiser, it may well inspire even the most pacific amongst us with new hope; for such manly words omedy could not come from the

truculent, sullen bully A which certain sections of the German people, and, still more, some outsiders, would have us believe the new ruler of the German Empire to be.

IT must also be remembered that behind William II. stand Bismarck and Moltke, full

This bites were of years and wisdom and

patriotism, so that we may well hope that such lingering sparks of overzeal for military glory which exist, fraught with danger to the peace of Europe, may be counterbalanced by their wise counsel and mature experience so far as is consistent with the honour of the Fatherland. In a word, we may perhaps hope that the peace of Europe may not be jeopardised by the change of sovereignty in Germany, and, this would appear to be thought elsewhere, as is shown by the hardening of prices in almost every class of security which has taken place during the place during the past few days. Yet Europe is one great powder-magazine, and we fear Wilhelm may be the firebrand.

Ir is scarcely necessary to record in these columns the fact that the deepest sympathy of the members of the legal profession is with the bereaved Empress and her family, and with our own Queen and royal family, in the removal of the truly noble and gracious figure which has loomed so largely and so honourably in the pages of contemporary history.

Fixit! Ficit!

The gallant fight is fought, the victory won, At last, through pangs, grief, woe-the long dark spell

Of doubt is broken, by the solemn bellTo glorious father goes more glorious son; For he has conquered Death, as conquered none Mortal, and wrung new wreaths from very hell, To be immortal now his work is done,

Wrought out of pain endured-and it is well. We would not weep, and even these natural tears Fall at our bitter loss and severed ties, But not for him who in God's mercy lies; He suffered sore, with no complaint or fears, And now he rests and speaks through endless years

Yea, victor Friedrich lives, 'tis Death that dies.

STUDENTS of International Law should read with attention the judgment of Mr. Justice Kay in the Republic of Peru v. Dreyfus Brothers and Co., which was recently delivered, where he decided that contracts entered into between foreign Governments or their subjects, and the head of a State or Government, de facto acknowledged by the assent of the nation, are good and valid under international law. It appeared that the defendants, who were a French firm of merchants, had agreed to purchase a certain quantity of guano, and by article 33 of the contract, it was arranged that all differences recurring under the contract were to be decided by the tribunals of the Government of Peru. When Señor Pierola was Dictator of Peru he had absolute power, and was acknowledged by the Govern ments of France and England as the de facto Governor of Peru, and during his Dictatorship he made certain awards. in favour of the defendants in disputes between them and the Government of Peru. The Government of Peru subsequently became a Republic, and the Congress of Peru then passed an Act repealing all the internal Government acts of Señor Pierola's Dictatorship. Messrs. Dreyfus Brothers had obtained a decision in their favour in an action brought by them against the Peruvian Guano Company Limited, for a sum of Consols-but the Republic of Peru now claimed the consols, and brought this action claiming to recover them.

It is, said Mr. Justice Kay in his judgment, a question of International Law of the highest importance, whether or not the citizens of a foreign State may safely have such dealings as existed in this case with a Government which such State has recognised. If they may not, of what value to the citizens of a foreign State is such recognition by its Government? There have been successive governments in European countries-usurpations of the power of previous Governments overthrown, altering the constitution essentially. These have in turn been recognised by this and other nations. When the Government of this country recognised the third Emperor of the French, if any Englishman entered into contracts with his Government, could it be maintained that the validity of such contracts must depend upon the law of France as settled by decree of the Republic which was established on his deposition? Obviously it would follow that no Englishman could safely contract with the present Government of France, or, indeed, with any existing Government lest it in turn should be displaced by another Government which might treat its acts as void. There is no authority for any such proposition: the law must be taken to be that the Englishman or Frenchman might safely contract with Señor Pierola's Government, if not before, at any rate after, it was recognised by the Government of England and France respectively.

UNDER an Act of Parliament passed about 350 years ago, magistrates are permitted to inflict on such persons as were found guilty of frequenting known gaming houses the repressive penalty of 6s. 8d. It was under this Act that the police, after a raid on a gambling club in the neighbourhood of Manchester, took proceedings against the offenders. Though the judge had power to inflict heavy fines, yet he had no power whatever to secure the payment of the sums ordered to be paid, and could neither imprison in default nor direct the prosecutors how to proceed in order to obtain the money. Some of the persons were, however, bound over in their own recognisances not to frequent common gaming houses for the next twelve months. As to the persons fined, though found guilty of a serious offence, they were able to walk out of the dock as free men.

APROPOS of the small-pox epidemic at Preston, the inspectors have specifically set forth that every patient entering the workhouse gates, even though sent by the Corporation, would become pauperised ipso facto and lose his civil rights, and that the poor law authorities could not legally recognise non-pauper cases in that building. As this loss of civil rights was to be deprecated, both the political parties have conferred, and have arranged not to take any steps to deprive of the franchise any person unfortunate enough to be compelled to go to the workhouse hospital for treatment.

THE Solicitor-General (Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., M.P.) has been retained as leading counsel on behalf of Miss Phyllis Broughton, the well-known actress, in her action against Viscount Dangan for breach of promise of marriage, the writ in which was issued recently; while Sir Charles Russell, Q.C., M.P., has been retained for the defendant. The case is not likely to be tried before the Long Vacation. When it comes on it promises to create nearly as much sensation as the historical case of Finney v. Garmoyle. The members of the jeunesse dorée, who worship at the shrine of Phyllis, are in a great state of mind, and will muster in Court "not singly, but in battalia."

ON Thursday night, in the House of Commons, the Earl of Meath asked whether it was the intention of the Government within a reasonable period to build over the entire open space at present adjoining the Law Courts, and bounded on the western and south-western sides by King's College Hospital and Clement's Inn, and, if not, whether they would have any objection to lay out and maintain as a public garden such portion of the space as they did not intend to cover with buildings. As chairman of the Metropolitan Gardens Association he felt great interest in this question, and he was animated in putting it by a desire to add to the open spaces of the metropolis, and also to preserve an uninterrupted view of the Law Courts. Lord Henniker said it had been in contemplation to erect the

Bankruptcy offices on a piece of land at Clement's Inn. Part of the ground in question might therefore be required for these offices. It was impossible to say how soon these buildings might be erected. The land might be required for the extension of the existing accommodation at the Royal Courts of Justice, and such extension was much desired by the Lord Chancellor. There were several demands upon the Treasury. For instance, there were the Admiralty and War Offices to go up, and it might be years before the Treasury could find funds for the extension of the Royal Courts of Justice. It was also felt that any expense in connection with an open space should fall upon the metropolis rather than upon the public funds. If the Board of Works, the local vestry, or the Gardens Association desired to adapt the area as an open space, the Office of Works would consider the subject, with the imperative condition that the Government should be at liberty to deal with the land for their own purposes whenever they chose to do so. The Lord Chancellor thought it was rather an extraordinary proposition, that land purchased at an enormous cost for Courts of Justice should be used for other purposes. The Courts of Justice were hampered by not having certain rooms, where the judges might sit. Lord Herschell hoped the Government would not contemplate occupying the whole of the site for building purposes. The subject then dropped. The Earl of Meath was, no doubt, animated by the best possible intentions, but he is just a little bit of a fanatic upon the question of open spaces, or he would have surely recognised the unreasonableness of his suggestion, and refrained from laying himself open to Lorn Halsbury's rather unmerciful snubbing.

THE question is asked where the new Chancery judge is to be accommodated if he is appointed. At present, when the Queen's Bench judges are not away on circuit there are not sufficient courts to enable them to carry on judicial business to the best advantage. They have to arrange themselves so that two sit in each of three or four courts, otherwise several would be without courts. This affects the business of the country in this way: The appeals from lower tribunals which go to the divisional courts with two judges each are usually cleared off with great rapidity, for there are always three or four courts at work within; while the work which is brought to the High Court in the first instance, special and common jury cases and cases tried by a judge without a jury are greatly in arrear, because there is no accommodation for judges to try them. The business is done, in fact, according to the accommodation of the courts. If another Chancery judge be added, he can sit nowhere except in one of the Queen's Bench courts, which makes matters on that side still worse than they are now. The whole area on that floor is completely occupied, and the architect of the Law Courts has left no space in which another court can be conveniently added. The new bankruptcy buildings will not improve matters, for the occasions when Mr. Justice Cave, the Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, takes up a court are not many.

THE Government distributed to members of the House of Commons, on Thursday night of last week, the provisional proposals as to the number of county councillors and county aldermen for each county council in England and Wales and for the county of London. Under these proposals, there will be in England 47 county councils, and 12 in Wales. London is to be a county of itself. Of the 47 county councils in England, it is proposed that one, and only one, should consist of 140 members, one of 120, two of 88, one of 84, one of 80, one of 78, six of 76, nine of 72, eleven of 68, seven of 64, two of 60, three of 52, one of 48, and one of 28. Of the Welsh counties, one is to have 72 members, one 64, three 6o, six 56, and one 32. At the head of the county councils, as thus proposed, stands that for Lancashire, which is to have 140 members, of which 105 will be elective and 35 will be aldermen. There are 16 Lancashire boroughs with 28 elective councillors between them, and 77 are to be elected by the remainder of the county. Lancashire will have, in addition to this very large county council, other councils independent of it, in Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Oldham, Bolton, Blackburn, Preston, Rochdale, Bury, Burnley, and St. Helens, each of

which boroughs is to form a county of itself. Next in importance to Lancashire comes the West Riding of York, with 120 councillors-90 elected and 30 aldermen. There are eleven municipal boroughs in the West Riding, which are to elect 18 members between them, with 72 for the remainder of the Riding. In addition, there will be separate councils in the towns of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax. The counties with 88 members, 66 of which are elective, are Stafford, with nine contributory boroughs, and Durham, with six. Kent has 84, of which 63 are elective, and the number is made up by 16 for nine boroughs, and 47 for the Cinque Ports and the rest of the county. Devonshire is given 80, of which 60 are elective.

LONDON, So far as numbers are concerned, comes below all these, being placed seventh, with 78 councillors, of which 59 are elective. Two of these are given to the City, and 57 to the rest of London. Under this arrangement London will, it is obvious, still remain the least represented part of the whole Empire, so far as local government is concerned. The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cornwall, Somerset, and Derby have each 76 members in their county councils, weighs them all put together in population and wealth. only two less for each county than London, which far outThey have, in addition, separate county councils for their chief towns, such as Ipswich, Norwich, West Ham, and Derby. London has nothing of the kind. The counties which have 72 members each, of which 18 are aldermen and 54 elective, are Chester, Gloucester, Hants, Middlesex, Northumberland, Warwick, Worcester, Surrey, and the North Riding. Those with 68, of which 17 are aldermen and 51 elective, are Bedford, Bucks, Cumberland, Dorset, Herts, Leicester, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, the eastern division of Sussex, and Wilts. Those with 64, of which 48 are elective and 16 are aldermen, are Berks, Cambridge, Hereford, Lincoln (Lindsey), Monmouth, Salop, and the East Riding. The two counties with 60, of which 45 are elective and 15 aldermen, are Lincoln (Kesteven) and the western division of Sussex. The three with 52, 39, and 13, are the Isle of Ely division of Cambridge, Lincoln (Holland), and Westmoreland. Huntingdonshire has 48, and Rutland 28.

THE Complete disproportion of London to all the rest is, perhaps, most clearly seen when we recollect that Rutland had 21,434 inhabitants in 1881, and probably has fewer now, yet it will have 21 councillors and 7 aldermen to the 59 councillors and 19 aldermen who are proposed for the county councils of London, with nearly four millions of people. There are 51 towns in the list of those which are to be counties under the bill.

LAST Saturday Mr. Justice Grantham gave a dinner to the Attorney and Solicitor-General and the Queen's Counsel of the South-Eastern Circuit, to which both the law officers, as did the host, belong. The other members of the SouthEastern Circuit and the judges who when at the Bar belonged to this Circuit were invited to meet them in the evening. Among the judges present were Smith, Kekewich, and Mathew. Among the Counsel were Bulwer, Finlay, Will, Winch, Candy, Nasmith, Stern, Richards, and many others. The menu showed what Pepys would have called a very pretty wit, as it was a facsimile brief, duly tied with scarlet ribbon.

THE dignity of the ancient office of coroner was not observed very strictly last week, when Dr. Macdonald, M.P. for Ross and Cromarty, the newly-appointed coroner for North-East Middlesex, held his first inquest at the Shoreditch Workhouse on the body of George Rigby, lately an inmate of the above institution. When the verdict was given, the foreman of the jury said that, this being the first case the coroner had inquired into, the jury wished to drink his health; whereupon the coroner said that he was much obliged for their services, and should be pleased "to stand a drink." Now this was very festive, but very undignified.

DR. MACDONALD is a resident of Millwall, and is the son of the late Angus Macdonald, of the Island of Skye. He

began life as a teacher, then read for the Church, then forsook religion for medicine, and eventually studied law in the Middle Temple; possibly, had he stuck to this ship he would have conceived a truer sense of the nature of his present position. He is 48 years old, and entered Parliament for the first time at the last general election as a crofter candidate. Dr. Macdonald practised for some time as a medical man in the East-end.

AMONG the students of the Middle Temple called to the Bar last week was Mr. Chan-Toon, a native of Burmah. During his studentship, Mr. Chan-Toon competed for the eight principal prizes open to law students and gained them all. At a Parliament of the Benchers of the Middle Temple the following resolution has been passed:-"The Masters of the Bench of the Middle Temple desire to offer their best congratulations to Mr. Chan-Toon on his most distinguished career as a student of the Inn, and, recognising the great honour Mr. Chan-Toon has, by his success, gained for the society, the Masters of the Bench express the sincere hope that his career throughout life may fulfil the promise of its commencement." In forwarding the resolution to Mr. Chan-Toon, the treasurer, Sir Henry James, with charming and characteristic courtesy, sent the following letter, which must have been peculiarly gratifying to its recipient :

A CONGRESS of Law Societies and Law Students will be held this week at the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn, on Thursday and Friday, from 11 to 1 in the morning, and from 3 to 5 in the afternoon, and on Saturday from 11 to 1. Delegates from the United Law Society, London, and from the New Students' Societies of Bristol, Blackburn, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Lancaster, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, Sunderland, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Worcester. The meetings of Friday and Saturday will be open to all members of the Legal Profession and to all students, but Thursday's meeting will be

confined to the delegates. Mr. F. R. Seacroft, of Birmingham, will move on Friday "That it is desirable to amalgamate the two branches of the Profession. This will be seconded by Mr. J. G. Hurst. On Saturday, Mr. E. W. Pearson will move, "That it is desirable to turn the Inns of Court into a Teaching University."

BARNARD'S INN was offered for sale on Wednesday, at the Mart, Tokenhouse Yard. After the auctioneer had described the property and invited biddings, Mr. T. W. Shipler Firth, of the firm of Godfrey Rhodes and Co., of 77, Chancery Lane, W.C., solicitor for Mr. Percy Alexander Vidler, gave notice in the following words :-" I have to give

notice, on behalf of Mr. Percy Alexander Vidler, that a writ has been issued against Mr. Bartle John Laurie Frere as the trustee, for the sale of this property, and the writ has been registered as a lis pendens, and any purchase made will be being proceeded with, the ultimate bid of £49,000 was subject to this lis pendens and the writ." reached, which, however, was not accepted, and the property was bought in for £56,000.

On the sale

We commend this action to the attention of the Congress. Unfortunately, Mr. Vidler, who is a law student, was unable to give the necessary undertaking for an interim injunction, which he could hardly be expected to do, as he is at present the only student who is making himself responsible for the cost of establishing what he considers to be the rights of Law Students. Messrs. Godfrey Rhodes have, it will be observed, taken the precaution to register the writ as a lis pendens. But it is not only Law Students that should bear the burthen. Every Lawyer of both branches, and of whatever grade, should aid in the endeavour to obtain a judicial declaration one way or the other as to these interesting Inns of Chancery.

It is said that our police system is to be slightly Americanised. In New York every policeman can be called at a certain time, and can communicate by telegraph or telephone to the central office from a station in the street. He is bound to report himself to his superiors from time to time. In England the police, once on duty in the streets, are subject only to such control as is exercised by officers who meet them upon their beats. The experiment to be made in Islington is based upon the New York method. The police will have to use a tell-tale clock at intervals during their hours of duty, and there will be means whereby they can communicate by telephone both with the central office and with the fire-engine station. The idea is excellent, and will probably very soon be carried out throughout the entire force.

IN another column the statement of accounts issued by the Law Society for last year is dealt with, and we hope our criticism will do the Council good. The paltry amount given for prizes (£418), and the fact that not a farthing has been given to the Manchester Law Society, for instance, to help them in Legal Education, are matters worth noting. In the £4,799 charged against the students' fund, as much as 1,841 is for "other expenses, including postage" connected with the examinations. May we ask what are the other expenses, and how much of the £1,841 is for this special postage?

THE Law Club lives on the Society's premises rent free, and the Society pays the club's gas, and other bills, and we believe also their coals and wood. Rates and taxes, &c., over £2,000. This includes rates and taxes for the club premises which the society pays, although out of nearly 5,000 members of the society only about a couple of hundred are allowed to use the club. Law costs expended by the society stand at over £2,000. This includes the costs of the society in prosecuting solicitors, while the costs received from offending solicitors only amount to £40. There is £20,000 still due as a mortgage on the society's premises, and it may be fairly argued that a portion of the students' fees goes to pay off a part of the mortgage debt every year. If this is the case, no wonder that the students' fees are not reduced, and no wonder the examinations are not made more severe. Metropolitan Police Fund is

charged at £15_9s.

Salaries to officers and servants £5,393 os. 8d. This is far too much for the society to pay for such purposes. Interest on balance of loans nearly £1,000. The expenses in connection with the annual certificates is charged at close upon £1,000 over and above the £5,000 paid to officers and clerks. Buildings and repairs stand at over £600, which of course includes repairs to the club premises, from which the bulk of members are said to be excluded. Certain houses in Chancery Lane, adjoining the society's premises bring in £296 6s. These houses were bought years ago. Why? and by what authority? There is an asset mentioned of £5 9s. Police Testimonial Fund, which is stated in another part of the account as £15 9s. Which is right? The assets not being totalled deprives us of a point; but while we are satisfied that it is 15, and is a mere clerical error, it is one that ought not to occur in accounts, especially in solicitors' accounts, the proofs of which should be carefully read before they are allowed to go out.

RAILWAY directors will not like the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of Butler against the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Company. The ruling, if it should be upheld, will put the companies in a difficulty with reference to the recovery of disputed fares. The plaintiff, a resident in Sheffield, took a return excursion ticket to Manchester, which cost him 2s. 6d. He gave up the forward half on reaching Manchester, and lost the return half. When, on the return journey, at the station next to Sheffield, he was asked for the return half, he told the collector that he had lost it, and offered to pay the whole excursion fare, 2s. 6d. The collector demanded the full ordinary fare from Manchester to Sheffield-3s. 5d. This the plaintiff declined to pay, whereupon he was ejected from the carriage, and detained at the station until he produced the money. He afterwards brought an action against the company. The jury found that no more violence than was necessary was used in ejecting the plaintiff, and assessed the damages, supposing he had been wrongfully ejected, at £25. Mr. Justice Manisty gave judgment for the defendants, holding that the course taken by the collector did not exceed the rights of the company. The Court of Appeal has now reversed this judgment. It holds that companies have no right to eject persons from their carriages who cannot produce their tickets. They must take their names and addresses, and sue them.

APROPOS of this case, Lord Justice Lopes told a funny story of his personal experience. He said: "I remember losing my ticket when I was judge of assize. I told the man I had had the ticket, but had lost it, and that I was the judge of assize, and the ticket collector said that he had heard that story before." A similar story is told of a chairman of the Midland Railway Company, who was travelling on one occasion when some race meeting was being held. On being appealed to for his ticket, he said he was a director. The collector replied dubiously, adding, "We've had a many of your sort here to-day."

A RATHER risky interpretation of an Act of Parliament was arrived at recently by the magistrates at the Rhondda Valley Police Court. Two grocers were charged with a breach of the Margarine Act, having sold margarine from a cask kept

under the counter, which was not ticketed as the law requires. The ruling of the magistrates was that no legal offence had been committed, as the direction of the Act is that the margarine must be "exposed for sale when ticketed; and, being under the shop-counter, it could not be considered as "exposed." The Stipendiary urged the speedy amendment of the wording of the Act; but a good many people will be disposed to think there is more need for an amendment in the judgment of himself and his colleagues for giving the obvious and natural interpretation to the words of the Statute. If margarine can be safely sold as butter, so long as the cask containing it is kept out of sight of the purchaser, the Act may indeed be regarded as of small effect; but it is strange that the prosecution did not raise the point that whether the cask was out of sight or not, the margarine, when it was weighed and handed over to the customer, must have been "exposed."

THE fifty-sixth anniversary festival of the United Law Clerks' Society was held on the 13th inst. at the Freemasons' Tavern, the Attorney-General in the chair. The company, which numbered between two and three hundred, included many prominent members of the Bar and of the legal profession. The Committee reported a steady increase in the membership. The income for the past year had been £5,505, and the expenditure £4,088, leaving a balance in hand of £1,417. From the Benevolent Fund, which was for the benefit of those law clerks who were not members, in the past year £461 had been distributed in grants which could not exceed £5.-The Chairman, in giving the toast of" The Queen," said that amid all the enthusiasm with which her Majesty's name was greeted, it was impossible to dismiss from their minds the great sorrow which seemed to be hanging over her and the Royal Family by the grievous illness of the Emperor Frederick. In proposing the toast of the evening, "Prosperity to the United Law Clerks Society," the Chairman said he was delighted to see the insurance fund connected with it so prosperous, because he was satisfied there was nothing which ought more to engage the attention of those who were careful with regard to the conduct of their lives, than to make provision for those they left behind by means of insurance. Though the Society had now £77,200 invested, although no less than £91,000 had been given in relief in the past 56 years, and nearly £30,000 expended in the sick, superannuation, and insurance branches, there was room for a great many more to join it, and in this way do something to secure that which should be the dearest aim of life-self help.-Mr. M'Intyre, Q.C., proposed the "Chairman," whose name, he said, was deservedly received with acclamation in every assembly of lawyers.-The Chairman, in reply, expressed the pleasure it would always give him to do what he could to assist the Society, whether he was permitted for some time longer to retain his present office or whether he worked unofficially in the profession.-The toast of "The Bench, the Bar, and Q.C. Subscriptions amounting to £650 were announced. the Profession," was acknowledged by Sir Horace Davey,

THE 28th anniversary festival in aid of the funds of the Solicitors' Benevolent Association was held on the 14th inst., at the Hôtel Métropole under the presidency of Mr. N. T. Lawrence. Among a company numbering upwards of 100 were Lord Lingen, Mr. Justice Kekewich, Sir J. Parker Deane, Q.C., Mr. Lewis Fry, M.P., Mr. Gedge, M.P., Judge Francis Bacon, Mr. E. J. Bristowe, Mr. H. J. Roscoe, Mr. J. Hollams, Mr. W. D. Freshfield, Mr. Williams, and Mr. F. L. Capron. After the usual loyal toasts, the chairman gave "The Houses of Lords and Commons," which was responded to by Lord Lingen and Mr. Lewis Fry, M.P. Mr. Justice Kekewich and Sir John Parker Deane, Q.C., responded respectively on behalf of the Bench and the Bar. The chairman, in giving "Prosperity to the Solicitors' Benevolent Association," said that during the 30 years of the existence of the society over £41,000 had been distributed, and during the year that had just passed £4,000 had been distributed. They had relieved 192 cases, and of these 35 only were members, the rest being non-members. They did not, therefore, confine their benefaction to members only. They had a permanent income of only £1,500, and for the rest of their expenditure they were entirely dependent upon donations. The life of the society was in its new members, and it would languish unless new members joined it. There were at present 3,500 subscribers to the society, being a large increase on the previous year. He trusted that their income would be permanently increased. The subscriptions announced amounted to £1,370, including 100 guineas from the chairman.

A SITTING of the Portsmouth County Court was held recently before his honour Judge Leonard. There was no business of any public interest for disposal. The appearance of his honour minus his wig attracted some curiosity, and it afterwards transpired that the learned gentleman's head-gear had been sent on to Southampton by mistake, for which the railway authorities at Bishopstoke were responsible.