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for the more important work which required the time and attention of the solicitor,and which otherwise would have been, and still is, insufficiently paid for. The solicitors have still the same material work to do, but no sufficient remuneration is allowed for it.

exercising similar powers, have consulted and many similar proceedings have been the Taxing Masters, and the most experi- abolished. These were for the main part enced attorneys practising in their Courts, purely mechanical work; and the fees upon and have thus been enabled to settle scales them served to make up a fair remuneration of fees which have given general satisfaction to the suitor as well as to the attorney. It may be well to advert to the legal nature of the solicitor's title to his fees, and to consider whether the interest of this officer of the Court in those fees differs from that of all the other Court officers. The Clerk in Court was originally a solicitor who had established a partnership relation with a six clerk. Till the office was abolished, the Great Seal and the Courts of Law alike admitted that both six clerks and clerks in Court had a legal interest in their fees, and refused to exercise the power of modifying the practice, so as to injure them; and when the officers were abolished, they received full compensation. It is submitted, that the solicitor has an equal legal interest with the clerk in Court to have his remuneration for actual work preserved.

It ought always to be borne in mind, that a fee is by no means a mere remuneration for the particular service denoted by it, but it also covers all work intervening between the earning of the last previous fee in the cause, and the earning of the one in question. It is in the nature of a toll, which pays not only for the use of the road at the spot where it is taken, but for the use of all the road from the place where the last toll was taken. The intermediate work, for which no charge is now allowed to be made, is very often the most important to the interest of the client, and the most Whether the very exceptional rule-expensive to the solicitor. All such work as which deprives solicitors of the right, com- the receiving, considering, and writing all mon to all the rest of the world, of fixing their own rate of remuneration, either by contract with their employer, or by the application of the principle of quantum meruit, -should be continued in its present full force, may be open to grave question; but it can hardly be contested that, so long as this rule prevails, the solicitors should be secured against any injurious exercise of the very serious and important power under which such orders as those complained of are made.

The number of years and great outlay devoted to the special education of solicitors, the capital necessarily embarked in carrying on their profession, and the exceptional provision directed exclusively against them, by means of which the only other path of life which might be open to them (the Bar), is virtually closed, all these combine to make it a matter of bare justice that they should be able to rely, with confidence, on the sufficiency of the remuneration assigned to their employment.

Papers have been submitted to the Equity Judges showing the comparative profit allowed under the scale of fees before 1852 and since; but they will only show this in part, for many fees have been entirely abolished without any substitute, and no comparative statement is made in that respect. States of facts, abbreviation of pleadings, warrants, orders for confirmation of reports,

the letters and documents accessory to the progress of a cause-the keeping of all letters, indexing, &c., and the making all entries in books, the making out and copying of bills of costs, is necessarily incidental to the practice of a solicitor, and must, together with the interest of capital, rent, and office expenses, clerks' salaries, and allowance for bad debts, be covered by the pay in some way or other; and it is the existence of what may be called this dead weight, for which no pay is allowed, that contributes to make the new fees so inadequate.

Under the present system this singular anomaly arises-that the more slowly and the worse the work is done by the solicitor, the better it pays him. An incompetent clerk For instance, costs least and earns most. to be so well prepared for the Judge's Chief Clerk, that the solicitor can get through an account, pedigree, or any other matter of detail, in one sitting, may require perhaps a week's previous preparation. For such preparation the solicitor was never allowed any fee-while if the preparation were omitted, and that preparatory work really done in the officer's presence, the solicitor was paid for it; it is the public officer's

2 By the General Order of February, 1855, the Judge may allow a fee not exceeding ten guineas in particular cases; but the allowance ought not to be restricted to those cases, nor should the amount be limited.

time only that is wasted. The scale and centage on the amount. In lunacy, also, table of fees constructed by the Orders of the system under which one-half of the October, 1852, were opposed, in their principle and tendency, to those for which they were substituted; for under the old system, if a solicitor prepared a long and intricate report, and settled it at one sitting before the Master, his fees were the same as if he had had the whole number of warrants and attendances which the length of the report justified, and thus he had the inducement of despatch, which is taken away by the operation of the present system.

We last week laid before our readers a summary of suggestions submitted in March, 1854, for re-modelling the present system of remuneration.

Court fees was levied by a per centage on the lunatic's income, has been found to work so well, that latterly the whole of the Court fees are levied by the same method. The receivers of the Court of Chancery have (like other receivers) always been paid by a per centage on the rental collected. In the probate and administrative business of the Ecclesiastical Courts, which it is now proposed to transfer to the Court of Chancery, the fees are fixed upon an ad valorem scale, and it is understood that this system will be continued on the transfer of the business to the Court of Chancery. The mode of paying architects, brokers, receivers, and all agents whose employment relates to property in any form, is almost invariably by means of a per centage. In fact, the solicitors believe that whenever an opportunity has been afforded to the public to fix the

The changes proposed do not necessarily involve the introduction of the ad valorem principle of charge; but objections have been made to that principle upon grounds which show that the suggestions of the so licitors in this respect have been misappre-rate or mode of pay for work done in conhended. It seems therefore desirable to state more explicitly that it has never been proposed to apply the principle to what may be termed contentious or litigated business; but to confine it to those cases in which the duties of the solicitor are mainly administrative, or which relate to the sale, purchase, settlement, or administration of property, whether in or out of Court.

nection with property, the ad valorem principle has been invariably adopted as affording the natural and simple index to the value of the services rendered. The solicitors think that the principle of remuneration adopted by the Court and the public as the best for paying its other officers or agents is equally applicable to themselves, in analogous cases.

them.

The importance to the public, as well as to the Profession, of a revision of the existing system of remuneration has been universally admitted.

On the several grounds before stated, In advocating within these limits the ap- the solicitors submit that the Orders of plication of a system of ad valorem charges, 1852 ought at once to be revised; and they the solicitors feel confident that they are ask that no orders for a similar purpose following the direction indicated alike by should be made in future, until, by seeing the present state of public opinion and by them in draft, they have had the opthe experience of the Court itself. The portunity of being heard upon any objecSelect Committee of the House of Com- tions which they may have to make to mons, by their report, of 1848, on the "Taxation of Suitors in the Courts of Law and Equity by the Collection of Fees," reported as their opinion that the amount required for the maintenance of the Court of Chancery which the income of the Suitors' The effect upon the Profession of the Fund is insufficient to pay, should be raised recent changes is so serious and injurious— primarily by a poundage of a half per cent. they have been decided upon with so little upon all capital sums paid into Court; and inquiry-without, as is believed, consulting on the income collected by the Accountant with the persons most skilled and experiGeneral and receivers of the Court. Ac- enced in the subject-certainly without an cordingly, the Court fees levied on the opportunity afforded to the parties chiefly passing of receivers' accounts, which were affected by them being heard, that the sopreviously regulated by the length of the licitors cannot believe that their respectful, accounts, have been commuted for a fee of but firm and earnest, appeal to the justice one-half per cent. upon the annual rental. of those to whom the Legislature has conUpon the taxation of solicitors' costs, the fided an important duty will have been fees which, in the hands of the clerk in made in vain. Court, were fixed by the length of the Bill of costs, are now levied by means of a per

New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.

137

NEW STATUTES EFFECTING ALTE newspapers shall be entitled to the like privi

RATIONS IN THE LAW.

NEWSPAPER STAMP DUTIES.
18 VICT. c. 27.

NOT to be compulsory to print papers on stamps; s. 1.

leges of transmission and re-transmission by the post between places in the United Kingdom, either postage-free or otherwise, on the same terms and conditions and under and subject to the like rules and regulations as newsnews-papers duly stamped are now entitled and subject to under any Act or Acts in force, but under and subject nevertheless to the terms

Periodical publications printed on stamps to be transmitted by post free of postage; s. 2.

Periodical publications entitled to free transmission by post to be printed under certain limitations and conditions specified; s. 3.

Paper to be stamped for such periodical publications at the request of the proprietor or printer. Discount to be allowed on stamps in Ireland; s. 4.

Periodical publications to be posted within 15 days after being published; s. 5. Questions as to periodical publications, how determined; s. 6.

Newspapers may be registered at the General Post Office to entitle the same to the privilege of transmission abroad under treaties with foreign powers; s. 7.

Transmission by post of printed papers to foreign countries; s. 8.

Power to the Postmaster-General, with consent of Treasury, to make regulations for carrying the Act into effect; s. 9.

Periodical publications sent by post not in conformity with this Act to be charged letter rates of postage; s. 10.

London Gazette to be evidence of the issuing of warrants or orders; s. 11.

Interpretation of terms; s. 12.

The following are the Title and Sections of the Act:

An Act to amend the Laws relating to the
Stamp Duties on Newspapers, and to pro-
vide for the Transmission by Post of printed
periodical Publications. [15th June, 1855.]
Whereas it is expedient to amend the Laws
relating to the Stamp Duties on Newspapers,
and to provide for the transmission by post of
printed periodical publications: Be it therefore
enacted, as follows:-
:-

1. From and after 14 days after the passing of this Act it shall not be compulsory (except for the purpose of free transmission by the post) to print any newspaper on paper stamped for denoting the duties imposed by law on newspapers, and no person shall be subject or liable to any penalty or forfeiture for printing, publishing, selling, or having in his possession any unstamped newspaper.

2. Every periodical publication hereinafter mentioned which shall be printed within the United Kingdom on paper stamped for denoting the rate of duty now imposed by law on

and conditions in this Act contained.

3. Every periodical publication to be entitled to any such privilege as aforesaid shall be ing thirty-one days between any two consecu printed and published at intervals not exceedtive parts or numbers of such publication, and shall be subject to the same limitations and restrictions with respect to the number of sheets or pieces of paper whereon the same shall be printed, and with respect to the superficies or dimensions of the letter-press thereof, as by any Act or Acts now in force are enacted or imposed with respect to newspapers and suppublication shall be entitled to such privilege plements thereto; and every such periodical only on the terms and conditions following; (that is to say,) one of the sheets or pieces of paper on which the same shall be printed shall be stamped with an appropriated die, denoting the stamp duty imposed by law on a newspaper of paper and of the like dimensions with reprinted on the like number of sheets or pieces of; and on the top of every page of such pubspect to the superficies of the letter-press therelication there shall be printed the title thereof, and the date of publishing the same; and such periodical publication at the time when the same shall be posted shall be folded in such manner that the whole of the stamp denoting distinctly visible on the outside thereof; also the said duty shall be exposed to view, and be such periodical publication shall not be printed on pasteboard or cardboard, or on two or more pieces or thicknesses of paper pasted together, nor shall any pasteboard, cardboard, or such pasted paper be transmitted by post a back or cover thereto, or otherwise. with any such periodical publication either as

printer of any such periodical publication to 4. It shall be lawful for the proprietor or send to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, or to such officer as they shall appoint or direct in that behalf, any quantity of paper to be stamped with an appropriated die, to be provided in the manner directed by the third section of the Act passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 76, for denoting the rate of stamp duty chargeable on newspapers; and upon payment to the proper officer of the full amount of the stamps required to be impressed on such paper, the said Commissioners or their proper officer shall cause the same to be stamped accordingly: Provided always, that there shall be allowed in Ireland, in respect of such appropriated stamps as aforesaid for any periodical publication which shall be printed and published only in Ireland, the same rate of discount as by the said last-mentioned Act is directed

to be allowed on the purchase of stamps for the printing of newspapers in Ireland.

5. Every periodical publication, posted in the United Kingdom, to be entitled to the privilege of transmission by the post between places in the United Kingdom, under the provisions of this Act, shall be put into a post office within 15 days next after the day on which the same shall be published; the day of publication to be determined by the date of such publication.

6. In all cases in which a question shall arise whether a printed paper is entitled to the privilege of a periodical publication, so far as respects the transmission thereof by the post under the provisions of this Act, the question shall be referred to the determination of the Postmaster-General, whose decision, with the consent of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, shall be final.

time think fit; and as a condition to any British newspaper being transmitted by the post to any place out of the United Kingdom, the same shall be printed on paper duly stamped with an appropriated die under the provisions of this Act, and the said last-mentioned Commissioners or the Postmaster-General may require such newspaper to be registered at the General Post Office in London in such form and with such particulars and subject to the payment of such fees as in the last preceding section mentioned.

like consent, from time to time to rescind or revoke all or any such orders, regulations, conditions, and restrictions, and to make and issue any new ones in lieu thereof.

9. It shall be lawful for her Majesty's Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, at any time or times hereafter to make and issue such orders, regulations, conditions, and restrictions as he shall deem to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of regulating the receipt, transmission, and delivery by post of periodical pub7. And whereas certain treaties and arrange-lications under the provisions of this Act, or ments have been made and entered into, and for preventing or detecting frauds or abuses in other treaties and arrangements may hereafter relation thereto, and for giving effect to the be entered into, by and between her Majesty's purposes of this Act; and it shall also be lawgovernment and certain foreign and colonial ful for the said Postmaster-General, with the governments, for regulating the transmission of British newspapers abroad; and it is expedient to make provision for enabling her Majesty's Postmaster-General to secure for such newspapers respectively the privileges and advantages of such treaties and arrangements: Be it therefore enacted, that, upon the Postmaster-General being satisfied that any printed publication is a newspaper, or entitled to the privileges of a newspaper, within the meaning of such treaties and arrangements as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the proprietor or printer of such newspaper or publication, if he shall think fit, to register the same at the General Post Office, London, in such form and with such particulars relating to the same, and subject to the payment of such fees, not exceeding 5s. respectively, as well on registration as afterwards periodically for being continued on the register, as the PostmasterGeneral, with consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury, shall from time to time direct or require in that behalf; and thereupon such newspaper or publication, being printed on paper duly stamped with an appropriated die under the provisions of this Act, shall be entitled to all the privileges and advantages secured to newspapers by any such treaties and arrangements as aforesaid.

10. All periodical publications sent by post otherwise than in conformity with the terms, conditions, and regulations established by or under the authority of this Act may be detained by the Postmaster-General, and any officer of the Post Office; and after being opened, the same shall be either returned to the senders thereof or forwarded to the place of their des tination charged with the like rates of postage as if the same were letters transmitted by the post: Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, by warrant under their hands, to authorise her Majesty's Postmaster-General to charge in any such case any such less rate of postage as to him shall seem fit.

11. Any printed copy of the London Gazette in which any warrant or order issued or made under or by virtue of this Act, or purporting so to be, shall be published, shall be admitted as evidence by all Courts, Judges, Justices, and others, of such warrant or order, and of the due making and issuing thereof, and of the contents thereof, without any further or other proof of such warrant or order, or of the matters therein contained.

8. It shall be lawful for the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, by warrant under 12. The term "periodical publication" used their hands, to allow any printed newspaper in this Act shall be construed to mean and in(Brit sh, colonial, or foreign) to be transmitted clude a newspaper as defined by the Acts in by the post between places in the United force relating to the stamp duties on newsKingdom and her Majesty's colonies or foreign countries, or between any ports or places beyond the sea (whether through the United Kingdom or not), either free of postage or subject to such rates of postage not exceeding 2d. for each newspaper, irrespective of any foreign or colonial postage, as the Commissioners of the Treasury, or the PostmasterGeneral with their consent, shall from time to

papers, and every printed literary work or paper, printed and published periodically, or in parts or numbers, at intervals not exceeding 31 days between any two consecutive papers, parts or numbers of such literary work or paper; and for all the purposes of this Act the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and the Isle of Man shall respectively he deemed to be part of the United Kingdom.

New Statutes effecting Alterations in the Law.
SEWERS (HOUSE DRAINAGE).

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139

thereof; and the Commissioners shall appoint a time and place for receiving objections in writing, which any party interested in such messuages, tenements, or premises, or any of them, may desire to offer, and at the appointed time and place the Commissioners shall receive and consider such objections, if any, and may execute, abandon, or alter such intended works, and if they shall execute such works shall ascertain the expenses incurred thereby, and shall divide such expenses among the owners or occupiers of such premises respectively, in such proportions as they may deem equitable and reasonable; and the amount imposed upon

The following are the Title and Sections any such owner or occupier shall be paid by of the Act::

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Whereas it is of urgent importance to the health of the metropolis that powers of house cleansing, drainage, and improvement should be forthwith actively exercised by the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, for the purpose of executing in houses which may appear exposed to the ravages of zymotic diseases, such palliative and preventive works, either temporary or permanent, as the time admits of, to obviate the outbreak and spread of such epidemic disorders: Be it therefore enacted as follows:

1. That the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers be and they are hereby empowered to carry on forthwith such works as aforesaid, and they are hereby authorised to employ on such works a sum not exceeding 25,000l. out of the moneys in their hands borrowed on the security of the rates, charging the cost of such works in each case upon the owner or occupier, as hereinafter-provided.

an improvement rate upon such premises, or
shall in that behalf direct and decree.
as charges for default, as the Commissioners

3. This Act shall be deemed to be incorporated with "The Metropolitan Sewers Act, 1848," and shall be construed and taken as if this Act and "The Metropolitan Sewers Act, 1848," were one Act.

VALIDITY OF PROCEEDINGS (HOUSE OF
COMMONS.)

18 VICT. c. 33.

For removal of doubts as to the validity of certain proceedings in the House of Commons during the absence of Mr. Speaker.

The following is the Title and Section of the Act:

An Act to prevent Doubts as to the Validity
of certain Proceedings in the House of
Commons.
[15th June, 1855.]

Whereas the House of Commons on the 4th August, 1853, her Majesty having previously signified her consent that the House might do therein as they should think fit, resolved as follows:-"That whenever the House shall be informed of the unavoidable absence of Mr. Speaker, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means do take the chair for that day only, and in the event of Mr. Speaker's absence continuing for more than one day do, if the House shall think fit and shall so order it, take the chair in like manner on any subsequent day during such absence:" and whereas on the 4th of this present month of June, Mr. Speaker being unavoidably absent by reason of indisposition, the Right Honourable Henry FitzRoy, being the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, took the chair in pursuance of the said resolutions: and whereas the House on the same day further resolved as follows; viz.

2. To facilitate the execution of such works in cases where it shall appear to the Commissioners, on the presentment of one of their engineers, that it is requisite or proper to execute such works or any of them in several messuages, tenements, or premises situate in the same road, street, or place, or in contiguous or neighbouring streets, roads, or places, as combined works, or works of improvement common to several messuages, tenements, or premises, and for that purpose to construct, perform, or execute any sewers, drains, waterclosets, apparatus, or other works of improvement, whether temporary or permanent, simultaneously or in combination or conjunction, and that such works can be executed for such "That in the event of Mr. Speaker's aba sum as the Commissioners shall deem rea- sence continuing for more than this day, Mr. sonable and proper in that behalf, it shall be FitzRoy do take the chair on each subsequent lawful in all such cases for the Commissioners day during the present week:" and whereas to give notice to the owners or occupiers of the said Right Honourable Henry FitzRoy such messuages, tenements, and premises of did, in consequence of the continued absence their intention to execute such works, and to of Mr. Speaker, on each subsequent day durcharge them or some of them with the expenses ing the said week take the chair, and perform

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