specified and shall observe or perform the provisions and things herein contained which are or ought on their parts to be observed or performed. Part 6. A. B.'s Covenants. 1. The lessees paying the rents royalties and wayleave rents hereby reserved and observing and performing the covenants provisions and conditions herein contained and on their part to be observed and performed shall peaceably and quietly hold and enjoy the hereby demised premises (but subject to the restrictions conditions exceptions and reservations specified in the first and second parts of this schedule or elsewhere in these presents) during the continuance of the term hereby granted without any lawful interruption from or by the said A. B. or any person rightfully claiming from or under him other than such (if any) as may be caused by the acts or operations of any lessees or tenants underleases agreements or tenancies in existence at the date of these presents (including leases which may be granted subsequently to the date of these presents in pursuance of agreements in existence at the date of these presents) or by the acts of any railway or water company or board or local authority. Part 7. General Provisions. 1. If and so often as the rents royalties and wayleave rents hereinbefore reserved or any of them or any part thereof respectively shall be in arrear for days next after any of the days whereon the same ought to be paid (whether the same shall have been legally demanded or not) the lessor may suspend the works in the demised mines and may enter into and upon the hereby demised premises or any adjoining or neighbouring mines or lands which shall for the time being be worked or used by the lessees in connection with the hereby demised premises or any parts or part thereof and especially the neighbouring lands mines collieries and mineral areas now held or hereafter to be held by the lessees under lease from the said and in which neighbouring premises the pits by which the minerals in the demised mines are to be brought to bank are or may hereafter be situated and may seize and distrain all or any of the coal and other minerals actually gotten from the demised mines and all horses tramplates engines machinery trucks whimsies tools implements and other utensils goods chattels and effects which shall be in or upon any part of the demised premises or (so far as the lessees can grant such power but not further or otherwise) in or upon such other mines or lands as aforesaid and may sell and dispose of the same to and towards the satisfaction and payment of all such arrears of rent royalties and wayleave rents and also of all expenses incidental to or occasioned by such distress or distresses in like manner as rent can be recovered by law. PROVIDED ALWAYS that the express power of distress herein before contained shall be in addition to and not in lieu of any power of distress to which the lessor may be by law entitled for recovery of the rents royalties and wayleave rents hereby reserved and that all sums hereby made payable as rents royalties and wayleave rents respectively are and shall be deemed to be rents of those amounts issuing out of the premises hereby demised. 2. If the rents royalties and wayleave rents hereby reserved or any of them or any part thereof respectively shall at any time be in arrear or unpaid for days next after any of the days whereon the same ought to be paid as aforesaid whether the same shall have been legally demanded or not or if the lessees shall make default in or be precluded from observing or performing all or any of the covenants provisions and conditions contained in this schedule and on their part to be observed and performed then and in any such case it shall be lawful for the fessor at any time thereafter and although he may not have taken advantage of some previous default of a like nature into and upon the premises hereby demised or any part thereof in the name of the whole to re-enter and the same to have again repossess and enjoy as of his former estate but without prejudice to the rights and remedies of the lessor for the recovery of any rents royalties or wayleave rents then remaining unpaid or in respect of any breach which may have been committed by the lessees of any covenant provision or condition herein contained or in respect of the liability of the lessees under these presents to do any act after the determination of the term hereby created and without prejudice to any right of indemnity to which the lessor may be entitled under these presents. 3. If at any time during the continuance of this demise all the coal in the first demised mines which having regard to the conditions and circumstances in which similar seams are worked in the district may fairly be deemed to be workable at a profit (other than such coal as may be permanently left ungotten in accordance with the provisions of these presents) shall be exhausted or if at any time during the continuance of this demise the leases (including the lease dated the day of 19) of the neighbouring mineral areas held or arranged to be held by the lessees under lease from the said (and upon which neighbouring areas or some or one of them the pits by means of which the minerals in the demised mines are to be brought to bank are or may hereafter be situate) shall be boná fide determined without any view to a renewal thereof as to all or any part of the premises comprised therein upon similar or any other terms to the lessees or any person or persons corporation or company virtually representing the lessees including a new company formed as a reconstruction of E. F. and Co. Limited or of any company for the time being occupying the position of the lessees or to any continuance or renewal of possession by the lessees or by any such person or persons corporation or company as aforesaid and without any view to the determination of this demise as an object in itself and possession shall be definitely and finally surrendered accordingly then and in any such case the lessees may determine this demise at the end of any year of the term hereby granted by giving twelve calendar months previous notice in writing to that effect to the lessor or his agent but without prejudice to the rights and remedies of the lessor for the recovery of any rents royalties or wayleave rents then remaining unpaid or in respect of any breach which may have been committed by the lessees of any covenant provision or condition herein contained or in respect of the liability of the lessees under these presents to do any act after the determination of the term hereby created and without prejudice to any right of indemnity to which the lessor may be entitled under these presents. 4. It shall be lawful for the lessees (having first paid and discharged the several rents royalties wayleave rents and sums of money payable by them by virtue of these presents and having observed and performed all the covenants provisions and conditions herein before contained) at the expiration or sooner determination of the said term or within calendar months thereafter unless the same shall be determined under the power of re-entry hereinbefore contained and in that case at any time not less than calendar month nor more than calendar months after such determination to remove for their own benefit all the fixed and movable machinery tramplates tools implements utensils and plant used or employed in or about the demised premises which the lessor shall not have elected to purchase under the provisions hereinafter contained (except landlord's fixtures) making reasonable compensation for all damage done to the said premises by such removal. 5. [Power to lessor to purchase machinery at the expiration of the lease.] 6. Every notice by these presents required or authorised to be given by the lessees to the lessor shall be in writing and may be given to the lessor or his agent personally or be sent to the lessor or his agent by registered post letter directed to him or his agent at his or his agent's last known place of residence or of business in the United Kingdom and every notice hereby required or authorised to be given by the lessor to the lessees shall also be in writing and may be sent by registered post letter addressed to the lessees (when a limited company) at their registered office or (whether a limited company or not) at their works or may be given to the manager or other official at their works or may be left at the office or counting-house of their works. 7. If any dispute question difference or controversy shall arise between the lessor and the lessees touching the construction meaning or effect of these presents or any clause matter or thing herein contained or the operation thereof or as to any valuation of plant or other articles or things or any matter in any way connected with these presents or the rights duties or liabilities of either party under these presents or otherwise howsoever in relation to the premises then and in every or any such case the dispute question difference or controversy (including any matter hereinbefore provided to be referred to or be determined by arbitration) shall be referred to two arbitrators one to be appointed by each of the parties in difference in accordance with the Arbitration Act 1889 or any statutory modification thereof for the time being in force and these presents shall be deemed a submission within the meaning of the said Act. PROVIDED ALWAYS that the lessees shall not be entitled to require the lessor to refer to arbitration under this clause any question dispute or difference except in respect of matters between the lessor and the lessees only and not any question dispute or difference wherein the rights or liabilities of the lessor as regards third parties are or may be involved. IN WITNESS &c. POOLING INSURANCE.-The Licenses Insurance Corporation and Guarantee Fund Limited has established an entirely new scheme of Insurance for Fire, Burglary, Workmen's Compensation, &c., by which the profits accrue to the insured. (See p. 382). [ADVT.] COUNTY COURTS. SITTINGS OF THE COURTS. Abergavenny, Monday, at 10 Bishop Auckland, Tuesday and Bishop's Castle," Monday at 10 Bournemouth, Tuesday and Wed- Bridgnorth, Thursday, at 10 Bridgwater, Friday, at 10 Cleobury Mortimer, Friday, at 10 9 Newcastle-on-Tyne, Thursday (R. By), at 10 North Shields, Thursday, at 10 Nottingham. Monday (County Courts Act 1903, if necessary) and Wednesday, at 10: Friday (A.O. at 10, By at 12) Oldham, Thursday (Reg.), at 9.30 Oswestry, Friday, at 10 * Pontypool, Wednesday, at 10.30 Reading, Thursday (R. By at 2), at 10 Rhayader. Monday, at 16 Seanam Harbour, Monday, at 9.30 Southampton, Thursday (R. By), at 12 No return from Circuit 3 Other sittings are specially fixed if necessary. THE JURIS THE DICTION OF MAGISTRATES. Gaming on Licensed Premises. A POINT raised on behalf of a defendant who was summoned this week before the Brighton justices serves to draw attention to the legal position of the proprietor or licensee of an hotel, and also of his guests, in respect of gaming by the latter on the premises of the proprietor or licensee. In the case in question the licensee of an hotel was summoned for permitting his premises to be used for the purpose of gambling. The evidence showed that guests who were staying in the hotel had indulged in unlawful gaming during hours in which the sale of intoxicating liquors was prohibited. It was contended on the defendant's behalf that no offence had been proved, inasmuch as there was no evidence that the guests were carrying on any unlawful game with the permission of the landlord, or, indeed, at all. It will be remembered that under the Gaming Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 109) an offence is committed by any person who owns or keeps a common gaming-house (sect. 4); whilst under the Gaming Houses Act 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. 38) an offence is committed by any person who, being the owner or keeper of anyhouse, room, &c., permits the same to be used for the purpose of unlawful gaming, or by any person who has the care or management or assists in the conduct of such house, room, &c., for the purpose aforesaid. Under either of these sections a licensee of an hotel might to be liable to conviction, according to the evidence that might be adduced against him, and, in practice, informations are frequently laid against licensees and managers of licensed premises, for permitting the user thereof for the purposes of unlawful gaming. The question whether the game that is permitted to be carried on is an unlawful game is always, a question of law for the court to determine : (Reg. v. Davies, 76 L. T. Rep. 786; (1897) 2 Q. B. 199). Many games were made and still remain unlawful under the statute 33 Hen. 8, c. 9, and other statutes, some of which have 66 been repealed. Mr. Justice Hawkins in a well-known judgment enumerated the games which are now unlawful: (Jenks v. Turpin, 50 L. T. Rep. 808; 13 Q. B. Div. 505). The learned judge defined these as ace of hearts, faro, basset, hazard, passage, roulette, every game of cards which is not a game of mere skill, and, I am inclined to add, any other game of mere chance." To this should be added any game of cards played for money in any place where gaming is prohibited. Under the statutes above quoted, the guests of the licensee of the hotel, who play unlawful games upon his premises, would appear to incur no penalty (Jenks v. Turpin, sup.), unless by taking an active part in assisting to conduct the business, such as the banker at " faro," who has bought the bank, they bring themselves within sect. 4 of the Act of 1854: (Derby v. Bloomfield, 20 Cox C. C. 674). By the 79th section of the Licensing (Consolidation) Act 1910 (10 Edw. 7 & 1 Geo. 5. c. 24), reenacting sect. 16 of the Licensing Act 1872, the holder of a justices' licence shall not suffer any gaming or unlawful game to be carried on on his premises under a penalty of a fine. It would appear that in a prosecution under this section, although the prosecutor need not prove knowledge on the part of the licensee that gaming was being carried on on his premises, yet it is a good defence for the licensee to show that he had no knowledge thereof: (Sherras v. De Rutzen, 72 L. T. Rep. 839; (1895) 1 Q. B. 918). The licensee may, however, be affected with constructive" knowledge, through a person whom he has left in charge of the premises: (Bond v. Evans, 59 L. T. Rep. 411; 21 Q. B. Div. 249). The licence-holder cannot set up any exemption from this enactment on the ground that the persons playing the unlawful game were his private friends and not his customers (Patten v. Rhymer, 2 L. T. Rep. 352), even if the gaming takes place after closing hours: (Hare v. Osborne, 34 L. T. Rep. 294; Cooper v. Osborne, Ib. 347). This section would not, apparently, impose any penalty upon the guests themselves, who might, however, be liable possibly to conviction under sect. 62 of the Act of 1910, if the justices found that they were not bonâ fide guests, but were on the premises during closing hours for the sole purpoɛe of gaming. In addition to the laws dealing with this aspect of unlawful gaming, heavy penalties are attached to similar offences in connection with betting, under the Betting Act of 1853 and various subsequent enactments. 66 LEGISLATION. Accountants and Auditors. THERE have been of late years certain events which have suggested the desirability of instituting some reforms as regards persons on whom so much responsibility rests in the administration of business affairs. Mr. Harold Smith, Mr. Joynson-Hicks, and Mr. F. E. Smith, K.C., are collaborating in introducing a Bill to secure the registration of these persons, and to introduce new elements which should make for their higher efficiency. The general scope of the Bill is to set up in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland respectively three registration boards by whom there will be in turn established a register of public accountants and auditors. Unless by one method or another a person becomes so registered, he will be unable, after one year from the time that the Bill passes, to describe himself or to hold himself out lawfully as a public accountant or auditor. will he be able to act as a trustee in bankruptcy or under a deed Nor of arrangement under, in each of these cases, liability to a penalty on summary conviction not exceeding £20, or to imprisonment up to two months. The Register. AFTER the formal data concerning name and address, the register is to set out the qualification by virtue of which registration is obtained, and the name of the firm with which the person registered is associated and the date of admission to the register. The Bill's provisions as to qualifications will naturally be scanned with anxiety by every person whose vocation is embraced under the heading of public accountant or auditor. To entitle persons to be on the register for the particular country or countries in which they may either reside or carry on their profession it will be necessary to satisfy the authorities that they come within certain classes. A person will be entitled to registration if he has been, at the time of the Bill being passed, engaged for at least six months in the profession of an accountant, or who can show that he is at that time a member of one of the bodies set out in a schedule representing the recognised societies, associations, and institutes with which all accountants are perfectly familiar. After these qualifications there comes that of passing satisfactorily an examination in accounting and auditing in connection with any of those bodies, or some other examination that has been arranged or approved by the authorities. Notwithstanding this, there still remains an overriding power to refuse to register or to remove from the register those who are guilty of professional misconduct, whether criminally punished or not (subject, however, to a right of appeal to the High Court), and those who refuse to pay the prescribed fees. The Boards of Registration. As already mentioned, there will be three boards, and these are to form bodies corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and with a power to sue and be sued and to acquire and hold land for their purposes without licence in mortmain. As regards the English board, one member will be appointed by the Treasury, one by the Board of Trade, and one by the Registrar of Friendly Societies, and there will be members elected by the accountants' societies on a certain scale This scale gives one member for a body of not more than 500 persons, and, if there are more than 500, then one member for each 500, and an additional member for any number exceeding 500 or a multiple of 500. The term of office of these members is to be three years. They then retire and their places are filled again, but re election is possible. Casual vacancies are to be filled by a renomination in the case of appointed members, and when elected members die, resign, or become disqualified then a new member is to be co-opted by the remaining elected members. It is needless to add that a member of the board must himself be on the register. The boards are to compile and publish the register of persons entitled to be treated as public accountants and auditors, and may conduct examinations, provide for training and education of students, grant diplomas or scholarships, establish lectures, and so on. It is noticeable that the Bill expressly contemplates the possibility of women being admitted to the register upon the same terms as men, and that, furthermore, they are to be admissible to the board either by the process of election or appointment. Deeds of Arrangement. WE have already touched upon several of the amendments proposed in regard to the law relating to bankruptcy, and it may be well for practitioners quietly to consider the pros and cons of those special amendments of the law which are designed to secure, without introducing an overplus of officialdom, an honest administration by trustees under deeds of arrangement. Part 2 of the new Bill suggests that such deeds are to be void unless they receive the assent of a majority in number and value of the debtor's creditors within twenty-one days after their registration, or within some extension of time as the High Court or a court having bankruptcy jurisdiction in the debtor's locality may allow. The assent is to be established by executing the deed or by the creditor sending his assent in writing attested by a witness to the trustee, and not otherwise. In calculating a majority of creditors, one holding security on the debtor's property is to be reckoned as a creditor only in respect of the balance due after deducting the value of the security. Creditors whose debts amount to sums not exceeding £10 are to be reckoned in the majority in value, but not in the majority in number. The Trustee. WITHIN seven days from the time when, in consonance with these requirements, the trustee files a statutory declaration as to the assent of creditors, he is called upon to give security to the registrar, in a sum equal to the estimated assets available for distribution amongst the unsecured creditors, to administer the deed properly, and to account fully for all assets coming to his hands, unless a majority in number and value of the creditors dispense with this safeguard. Failing compliance with these requirements, the deed may be itself declared to be void by the court, or an order may go appointing a new trustee. A penalty awaits a trustee who acts when a deed is void, or after he has failed to give satisfactory security to the registrar of the court having jurisdiction in bankruptcy in the district in which the debtor. resides or carries on business at the date of the execution of the deed. There is a liability to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding three months on summary conviction, or to a fine up to £5 for every day of such action, unless he can satisfy the court that he acted inadvertently or only so far as to take steps necessary for the protection of the estate. The trustee's accounts can be subjected to an official audit and each creditor, at the expiration of six months from the registration of the deed, is to receive, until the final winding-up, a statement of the trustee's accounts, and the court can after two years from the registration of the deed of arrangement, on the application of a creditor or of the trustee, order that all money representing unclaimed dividends and undistributed funds in the hands or under the control of the trustee be paid into court. Miscellaneous Proposals. ON a creditor being served with a prescribed form of notice by the trustee as to the execution of the deed and as to the filing of assents, with an intimation that after a month the creditor cannot present a bankruptcy petition founded on the deed or other act of the debtor, after the expiration of that period the creditor is to be debarred from presenting a petition. Where the deed becomes void, the fact of assent is not to debar the creditor from presenting his petition based on the execution of the deed of arrangement. The court with bankruptcy jurisdiction in the debtor's residential or business district, or, if in London, the High Court, can enforce the trusts of the deed or determine questions arising out of it, and there is a power given to appoint new trustees under sect. 25 of the Trustee Act 1893. It will be seen from this sketch of the Bankruptcy Bill now before the House of Commons, after passing through its stages in the Lords, that its thirty-three clauses cover some highly complex subjects. The report of the Departmental Committee of 1908, however, is sufficient evidence that something should be done without further delay to cut at the roots of evils which undermine commercial transactions and tend to encourage reckless speculation and deceit. Progress with Business. WITH the rise of the two Houses for the Vacation, it may be interesting to note the progress made with the chief measures of the session. Putting on one side any question as to the sufficiency of time allowed for the debate of the serious problems involved, it must be confessed that although there has been progress it has not been commensurate with the gravity of the difficulties still to be faced. The Home Rule Bill and the measure affecting the Established Church in Wales have both received their second reading. The latter has not touched the fringe of the perils of the committee stage, while the former has only reached the first clause. The Franchise Bill and the Trade Union Bill have passed their second readings. The Government of India measure has, on the other hand, received the Royal Assent, and provides some of the machinery for carrying into effect the changes adumbrated at the recent Delhi Durbar. The Royal Assent has also been signified to the measures affecting the Minimum Wage in Coal Mines, Shops, Finance, Army Annual, Sites for Public Offices, Metropolitan Police Rates, and more formal measures as to the Consolidated Fund and Public Works Loans. The Commons have still to consider the Lords' Bills on Marriages in Japan, Enfranchisement of Places of Worship, Factories and Workshops, Seal Fisheries, Irish Dairy Produce, and Bankruptcy, the last being a Bill of first-class commercial importance. Awaiting report stage there are measures on Scottish Temper ance, Light Railways, and the White Slave Traffic. Still before Standing Committee are the two Bills of much social interest dealing with Inebriety and Mental Deficiency. The following Bills have not got beyond their introductory stage-viz., those concerning County Courts, Bee Disease, Shipping Certificates Pilotage, Public Health, and Railways. OCCASIONAL NOTES.' Acting on the advice of his doctors, Lord Robson, G.C.M.G.. has resigned the office of Lord of Appeal. Lord Robson of Jesmond was created a life peer in 1910 and was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the same year. He is the third surviving son of the late Robert Robson, of Newcastle, and was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, of which he is an Honorary Fellow. After being called by the Inner Temple in 1880, he became a Bencher in 1899. He was Recorder of Newcastle from 1895 to 1905, and after holding the office of Solicitor-General when the Liberal Party came into power he became Attorney General in 1908 on the death of Sir John Lawson Walton. Sir John Fletcher Moulton, the new Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, who is the son of the Rev. James Egan Moulton, was born in 1844. Besides gaining honours at London University, he was Senior Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman in 1868. He held a Fellowship at Christ's College for a few years, but resigned it and came to London in 1873. In 1874 he was called by the Middle Temple, of which he is still a Bencher, and tock silk in 1885. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and has been a member of the Senate of the University of London since 1895. His appointment as a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal was made direct from the Bar. Sir John Andrew Hamilton, the new Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal, is the son of Mr. Andrew Hamilton, of Manchester, and was born in 1859. He was educated at Balliol, and was called by the Inner Temple in 1883, taking silk in 1901. Shortly before his appointment as a judge of the King's Bench Division he came into prominence as arbitrator in the Swansea education dispute, when he was appointed by the Board of Education to inquire into the attitude of the Swansea Education Authority towards the Oxford-street (Church of England) School in that town. He found that the local education authority had committed a default in the performance of their duties towards the school. report was accompanied by a covering letter from the Welsh Department of the Board of Education throwing over Mr. Hamilton's decision which was the subject-matter of severe criticisms in Parliament in the early months of 1909, and ultimately came before the courts on proceedings of certiorari and mandamus, which were finally dealt with by the Court of Appeal deciding that a mandamus should issue to the Board of Education directing them to determine the issues involved. This Mr. Rowlatt, who has been appointed a justice of the High Court (King's Bench Division), as an Attorney-General's "devil" on the King's Bench side, succeeds almost as of right to the vacancy in the High Court. He was educated at Eton an1 Cambridge, becoming a Fellow of King's College. Called ly the Inner Temple in 1836, of which he has been for some years a Bencher, and elected a member of the Oxford Circuit, he soon showed, as Bowen and Wright before him, that scholarship is not inconsistent with advancement in the Legal Profession. He was fortunate in his early days, like his circuit companion, Sir Henry Erle Richards, K.C., to have his merits discovered by Sir Robert Finlay; and to Sir Robert Finlay the new judge owes his promotion first to the post of counsel to the authorities of Inland Revenue, then to that certain stepping stone to the High Court Bench, the office of Junior Counsel to the Treasury in the King's Bench Division and in Crown cases generally. Mr. Rowlatt has had judicial experience as Recorder of Windsor for some years, when he succeeded Mr. Justice A. T. Lawrence. Mr. Dudley Stewart-Smith, who has been appointed ViceChancellor of Lancaster, was born in 1857, was educated at London University, and was called to the Bar in 1886, taking silk in 1902. He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He represented the Kendal Division of Westmorland in the Liberal interest from 1906 to 1910, and in 1910 unsuccessfully contested that division and East Nottingham. The terms of the address for the appointment of an additional judge have now been put upon the Parliamentary Paper by the Attorney-General. They are as follows: "High Court of Justice (King's Bench Division).-That an humble address be presented to His Majesty representing that the number of the puisne judges of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice now amounts to fifteen, and that the state of business in the said division requires that one additional judge should be appointed to the said division under the first section of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1910, and praying that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to appoint a new judge of the said division of High Court of Justice accordingly." The Court of Criminal Appeal will not sit again during the Long Vacation. Mr. Charles Janvrin Robin, of Steephill, Jersey, and Courtfieldgardens, South Kensington, S. W., barrister at-law, who died on the 2nd July, domiciled in Jersey, aged sixty-four, left estate of the gross value of £72,727. The August adjourned general sessions for cases arising on the north and south sides of the Thames will commence on Tuesday next, at the Sessions-house, Newington, at 10.30.. In the final match of the tournament for judges for the challenge cup presented by the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Horace Avory beat Sir Alfred Lawrence at Walton Heath at the nineteenth hole. Mr. James Edward Goddard Bradford, of Marlborough-buildings, Bath, formerly of the firm of Messrs. Bradford and Co, solicitors, of Swindon, who died on the 26th May, aged eightyfour, left estate valued at £49,793 gross, with net personalty £44,316. The west gate to the Temple is again closed for the Long Vacation, thus causing great inconvenience to junior members of the Inner and Middle Temple. Complaints have been made time after time in consequence of the closing of this gate during the vacations, and it is impossible to understand why it should be so closed. Miss Gladys Adeline Taylor was recently admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Victoria Supreme Court. She made her first appearance in court as instructing solicitor in a case connected with the application of trusts for educational benefits. The will concerned had been found unworkable, and the scheme submitted by Miss Taylor, which involved considerable legal research, was adopted by the Chief Justice. Great progress is now being made towards the completion of the west wing to the Law Courts, which, it is understood, will be opened either on Saturday, the 12th, or Monday, the 14th Oct. next. This new wing provides four additional courts, and judges' private rooms. The courts which will be removed to this new addition will be the two courts of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the Commercial Court. Several other changes will be made in the main building during the Long Vacation. Appeal Court I. will be transferred to King's Bench Court I., and the vacated Appeal Court will be converted into a room for the use of the members of the Bar. In consequence of these improvements, Mr. Justice Eve, the junior Chancery judge, will have a court of his own. Probably one of the Probate and Divorce Courts will be assigned to him. A remark by a writer in the lay Press with reference to the resignation by the Master of Elibank of the position of Chief Government Whip, that the position attained by the Master of Elibank in the House of Commons has not been held by the eldest son of any other Scottish peer, may render it of interest to recall the fact, now all but forgotten, that until the Scottish Reform Bill of 1832 the eldest sons of Scottish peers were disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons, and their seats were declared vacant on the succession of their fathers to the Scottish peerage. This exclusion from the House of Commons of the eldest sons of Scottish peers was embodied in a supplementary article of the Act of Union between England and Scotland. The disability was based on the old Scottish law under which no eldest son of a Scottish peer could sit and vote in the Scottish Parliament, and, so far from being removed, was continued after the Scottish Union, and rendered applicable to the status of eldest sons of Scottish peers in respect to the British House of Commons: (see Report from Select Committee of House of Commons (Vacating of Seats), ordered to be printed 20th May 1895, p. 12). The promotion of Mr. Rowlatt to a judgeship of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice from the position of Junior Counsel to the Treasury in the King's Bench Division and in Crown cases generally is in accordance with the practice by which the holder of the post of Junior Counsel to the Treasury may be regarded as certain of elevation to the Bench from the Outer Bar. The promotion of stuff gownsmen to the Bench, except when Junior Counsel to the Treasury, is now very unusual. In days gone by, stuff gownsmen were frequently raised to the judiciary, as in the cases of Abbott (Lord Tenterden), Sir Edward (Baron) Alderson, and Mr. (Lord) Blackburn. Sir Charles Abbott was appointed to a seat in the Court of King's Bench from the Outer Bar in 1816; in 1818 he was promoted to the Lord Chief Justiceship. He was, however, not raised to the peerage till 1827, on the recommendation of Mr. Canning, whom he had never seen and to whose principles he was known to be opposed. Lord Chancellor Eldon has explained the reasons which led the Government of which he was a member to refrain from recommending Sir Charles Abbott for a peerage, and places amongst them the fact that he had not taken silk. In a letter to the second Lord Kenyon he thus writes: "I agree with you that, generally speaking, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench should be a peer, even if there had been no usage on the subject. Now, as to Abbott, his practice has been behind the Bar. He never had any office; I think not a silk gown": (Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, iii., p. 314; see also Lives of the Chancellors, vii., p. 338). Lord Campbell himself thus records in his diary, writing on the 3rd July 1859, the feeling produced by the promotion of Mr. Blackburn to the Bench from the Outer Bar: "I have already got into great disgrace by disposing of my judicial patronage on the principle detur digniori. Having occasion for a new judge to succeed Erle, made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, I appointed Blackburn, the fittest person in Westminster Hall, although wearing a stuff gown, whereas several Whig counsel M.P.s were considering which would be the man, not dreaming that they would all be passed over. They got me well abused in the Times and in other newspapers, but Lyndhurst has defended me gallantly in the House of Lords": (Life of Lord Campbell, ii., pp. 372-373). The resignation by Lord Robson, G.C.M.G., of the great office of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, would under the statute 39 & 40 Vict. c. 59, known as the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, while leaving him the status and dignity of a peer of the realm for life, have deprived him of his position as a Lord of Parliament and writ of summons to the House of Lords. By the amending Act, 50 & 51 Vict. c. 70, Lords of Appeal in Ordinary on resignation of their office continue to be entitled to writs of summons to the House of Lords. The late Lord Russell of Killowen, who in May 1894 was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and in the following July was promoted to the Lord Chief Justiceship of England, was, as an ex-Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, a Lord of Parliament with a seat in the House of Lords for life. In 1885, on the death of Sir Edward Sullivan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord FitzGerald of Kilmarnock, who, having been for two and-twenty years a member of the Irish Judiciary, was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, was offered the Lord Chancellorship of Ireland, which he was willing to accept, but felt constrained to decline, having regard to the fact that under the provisions of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act of 1876, which had not then been amended, resignation of the Lordship of Appeal in Ordinary would entail the loss of his seat in the House of Lords. PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Adjournment of Parliament. THE adjournment of both Houses of Parliament on the selfsame day, the 7th Aug., to the selfsame day, the 7th Oct., was not in any way necessary and is not in accordance with practice, although by no means without precedent. Adjournment is solely in the power of each House respectively, and there is no method whatever by which the adjournment of the two Houses, otherwise than by the consent of both respectively, can be rendered contemporaneous, whereas, of course, a prorogation, which is an act of the Crown in exercise of the Royal prerogative, affects both Houses alike. A power of interfering with adjournments in certain cases has been conceded to the Crown by statute. The Act 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 14, amended by 33 & 34 Vict. c. 81, enacts that when both Houses of Parliament stand adjourned for more than fourteen days, the King may issue a proclamation, with the advice of his Privy Council, declaring that Parliament shall meet on a day not less than six days from the proclamation, and the Houses shall then stand adjourned to the day and place declared in the proclamation, and all the orders which may have been made by either House and appointed for the original day of meeting, or any subsequent day, stand appointed for the day named in the proclamation: (see May's Parliamentary Practice, p. 47). Other Acts (45 & 46 Vict. c. 48, s. 13, and 45 & 46 Vict. c. 49, s. 19) have provided that whenever the Crown shall cause the militia to be embodied or the army reserve or militia reserve to be called out on permanent service, when Parliament stands prorogued or adjourned for more than ten days, the King shall issue a proclamation for the meeting of Parliament within ten days. Accordingly, on the 7th Oct. 1899, Parliament, which stood prorogued till the 27th Oct., was summoned by proclamation to meet on the 17th Oct.: (see May's Parliamentary Practice, p. 45). By the Act 6 Anne, c. 7, on the demise of the Crown, Parliament, if separated by adjournment or prorogation, is immediately to meet and sit. The Appropriation Act. THE passing of the Appropriation Bill on the 7th inst., the day on which the Houses of Parliament adjourned, may direct attention to the fact that the passing of the Appropriation Bill takes place ordinarily, but not necessarily, on the day appointed for the prorogation of Parliament, but on several occasions, when special circumstances have demanded an adjournment instead of a prorogation, the Royal Assent has nevertheless been given to the Appropriation Act, and on the meeting of Parliament after the adjournment, the outstanding business has been proceeded with. As the Money Bills have been passed and the [Committee of Supply closed, the special sitting has been held without any disturbance of the financial arrangements of the year. On the 17th Aug. 1882 the Appropriation Act received the Royal Assent, and on the following day both Houses adjourned until the 23rd Oct. On the reassembling of Parliament, the regularity of the adjournment was challenged in the House of Commons by Lord Randolph Churchill on the ground that, the Appropriation Act having been passed, no further business could be proceeded with. The contention was resisted by Mr. Gladstone as Prime Minister, and, on a division, the motion for the adjournment of the House, which had been instituted for the purpose of raising the discussion, was defeated by a majority of sixty-seven-Ayes 142, Noes 209: (see 274 Hansard's Debates, 3rd series, p. 3). Suspension of Members. THE suspension on the 6th inst. from the service of the House of Mr. MacCallum Scott, for disregarding the authority of the Chair, may recall the fact that the punishment of suspension, to which in the times of the Stuarts and of the Commonwealth there are several instances of recourse, was for nearly two centuries left in abeyance, no case of suspension having occurred between 1692 and recent times. On the 25th July 1877 it was laid down from the Chair by Mr. Speaker Brand that any member guilty of a contempt would be liable to such punishment, whether by censure, by suspension from the service of the House, or by commitment, as the House may adjudge: (132 Commons* Journals, p. 375). Under Standing Orders passed the 28th Feb. 1880 and amended the 22nd Nov. 1882, suspension lasted on the first occasion for a week, on the second for a fortnight, and on any subsequent occasion for a month, but these periods of time were taken out of the Standing Order in the course of its amendment in the session of 1902 with a view to the substitution of other periods. As these, however, were not agreed upon by the House, the suspension of a member under the Standing Order continues for a session unless the House terminate it sooner. Mr. MacCallum Scott, whose suspension was largely due to a misunderstanding on his part of a ruling from the Chair, tendered on the 6th inst. an ample apology to the Speaker and the House, which was accepted, whereupon the Prime Minister has put down a motion for the first day of the reassembling of the House of Commons, which, as a Government motion, will have precedence, that "the period of the suspension from the service of the House of Mr. MacCallum Scott do terminate this day." A motion by an unofficial member to rescind the order for the suspension of a member or to terminate his suspension is not entitled to priority, as it is not a matter of privilege. On the 7th March 1901, however, the Speaker accorded priority to a motion for the rescinding of the suspension of a member under the special circumstances of the case, as it appeared that the member had been in error reported for disobeying the order of the Chair: (see 90 Parliamentary Debates, 4th series, p. 831). Secretary to the Treasury. THE resignation of the office of Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury by the Master of Elibank may render it of interest to give an account of the duties of the holder of this office, which are thus tersely defined by Mr. Bryce His duties are (1) to inform every member belonging to the party when an important division may be expected, and, if he sees a member in or about the House, to keep him there until the division is called; (2) to direct members of his own party how to vote; (3) to obtain pairs for them if they cannot be present to vote; (4) to "tell "-that is, countthe members in every party division; and (5) to "keep touch' of opinion within the party and convey to the leader a faithful impression of that opinion from which the latter can judge how far he may count on the support of his whole party in any course he proposes to take: (Bryce's |