80 Superior Courts: Exchequer Chamber.- Criminal Appeals. the company to borrow money, if required, Butt and Unthank in support, contended the words of the first Act which were obligatory had been repealed by the amendment Act, which was permissive only. The Court (without calling on Crowder and Prideaux, contrà), said, that the Act of 1845 cast a clear and positive obligation on the company to make the new line of railway, and that the new enabling power of the subsequent Act had not the effect of repealing the compulsory one, as it was incorporated with the former Act, and the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench must be affirmed. Court of Criminal Appeal. A letter-carrier, on the request of a post- In this indictment against the prisoner as a person employed under the Post-office, for stealing a letter containing the sum of 10s., it appeared that the prisoner was employed to carry the letters in a sealed bag to the postmaster at Tybach, and that he had committed the offence in question while sorting letters on being asked by the postmaster. On the trial, at the last Glamorgan assizes, the prisoner was Taff Vale Railway Company v. Giles. Nov. found guilty, subject to this case reserved by Platt, B. 10, 1853. RAILWAY COMPANY. CARRIERS.—EVI DENCE OF CONVERSION.-AGENT. The general superintendent of a railway company permitted the plaintiff to place in their grounds certain quicks conveyed by them, and on the plaintiff calling for the same, the station clerk referred him to the superintendent, who refused to let him have the plants, and the managing director had also refused. A bill of exceptions was overruled to the ruling of the Judge that there was evidence of a conversion, to support an action by the plaintiff to recover possession of the plants in question. THIS was an action to recover possession of 120,000 quicks, which it appeared the general superintendent of the above company had permitted the plaintiff to place, in order to keep alive, into a piece of their ground. The plaintiff had paid the carriage of the plants, and had afterwards called to take them away, whereupon the station clerk referred him to the superintendent, who refused to let him have them, and the managing director had also refused. On the trial before Wightman, J., the jury were directed that there was evidence of a conversion, and the plaintiff obtained a verdict, whereupon this bill of exceptions to such ruling was tendered and accepted. Giffard in support, on the ground the permission given by the superintendent was not within his authority, and that the company were not therefore bound thereby or by the subsequent act of the managing director. Evans and Grove, contrà. The Court said, that it was the duty of the company to have some person to deal with the exigences of all cases which might arise, and give directions how to proceed, and it was a question for the jury, whether the superintendent was so appointed by the company. The exceptions would therefore be overruled. Giffard for the prisoner, on the ground the prisoner was performing a gratuitous service, and was not therefore within the 7 Wm. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 36, s. 26. 1 The Court said, that according to the interpretation clause in the Act, the prisoner was a person employed under the Post-office, and the conviction was confirmed. Regina v. Vodden. Nov. 12, 1853. CONVICTION AFTER DISCHARGE UNDER OF. A prisoner was discharged from custody on the clerk understanding the verdict of the jury to be "Not guilty," but on the mistake being discovered, he was taken into custody again and sentenced. The conviction was affirmed. On this trial for felony, it appeared that the prisoner had been discharged from custody, on the jury being understood by the clerk of the Court to deliver a verdict of "Not guilty," but that he had been taken again into custody on its being discovered that the jury had given an unanimous verdict of "Guilty," and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The question was, whether the Court had rightly allowed the entry of the verdict to be amended. Giffard for the prisoner, on the ground the clerk's entry of the verdict was matter of record, and could not be altered. The Court said, it was clearly a mistake and could be amended, and the conviction was accordingly affirmed. The Legal Observer, DIGEST, AND JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1853. CONCLUSION OF MICHAELMAS TERM. BUSINESS OF THE COURTS. SIONAL PROSPECTS. PROFES who consider the matter superficially, it will be found, that the quantity of legal business and the consequent prosperity of the Profession, is commensurate with and depends upon the national prosperity. The uncertainty connected with our foreign relations, THE Commencement of the first Term of coupled with the drain of specie consequent the legal year is necessarily a period of upon a deficient harvest, have suddenly speculative expectation. During the Long raised the value of money, and given a check Vacation, the opportunities for professional to commercial enterprise. The effect is communication are limited, and at its close, quickly felt through all the extended ramialthough each individual may have the fications of a complicated and artificial state means of calculating the number and extent of society, and one of its earliest effects is, of the claims upon his own attention, he is the diminished amount of legal business. ignorant how much, or how little, may be Again, the rapid succession of changes doing, or preparing to be done, in his effected of late years in the law, as well as neighbour's office or chambers. At the in the practice of the Superior Courts of conclusion of Michaelmas Term, it is alto- Law and Equity, has created a sense of gether different. By that time preparation uncertainty and doubt which suggests the has given place to action, and the experi- expediency of avoiding contentious litigaenced observer is not only enabled to calcu- tion, and compromising or abandoning late positive results, but to make a fair claims and rights, the enforcement of which estimate of what remains to be done. would be attended with difficulty. Let us tion of legal business, the abolition of many useless, and therefore objectionable matters of detail, which were the subject of occasional applications to the Court, and which could only be regarded as inconvenient interruptions to the regular course of judicial investigation. In the present instance, it must be not be supposed to disparage recent imadmitted, that neither the actual results provements, by omitting to mention, amongst nor the opening prospects are altogether the causes which account for the diminusatisfactory. Considering the lengthened period during which legal business was necessarily suspended by the closing of the Superior Courts for the Long Vacation, the cases brought under their consideration, since the commencement of the Term, have neither been numerous nor weighty. From the beginning of Term to its close, no question has been discussed in the Courts either of Law or Equity, which excited in any considerable degree public curiosity or professional interest. Whether the causes enumerated sufficiently account for the absence of business or not, it is quite certain that during the past Term the Judges were not over-worked, and many of the practitioners, seniors as The limited amount of business brought well as juniors, had abundant leisure. The before the Courts during the Term that has attendance of the Lord Chancellor at Cabijust concluded, is not to be ascribed ex-net Councils did not, as in the days of clusively to the operation of any single former Chancellors, interfere with his lordcause but to the combination of several. ship's sittings in the Court of Chancery; Although it may escape the notice of those and the Judges of the Common Law Courts VOL. XLVII. No. 1,343. F 82 Conclusion of Michaelmas Term-Business of the Courts—Professional Prospects. could hardly find sufficient to occupy them during the ordinary hours of attendance at Westminster, although on one of the last four days of Term, the Judges of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer sat in the Exchequer Chamber, and delivered their judgments seriatim, upon a question arising upon scire facias, as to the validity of a patent granted to the Eastern Archipelago Company, upon which Baron Parke dissented from the conclusion arrived at by all the other Judges. business now finds its way to the Court of Common Pleas than perhaps might be expected, when it is considered that amongst its Judges there are men of such profound sagacity and legal erudition as Justices Maule and Cresswell. In considering the relative amount of business depending in the Common Law Courts, it must not be forgotten, however, that the abolition of real actions has left the Court of Common Pleas without that jurisdiction which was formerly peculiar to it, whilst the Courts of Queen's Bench and Exchequer, have still exclusive jurisdiction in many matters which actually, or constructively, affect the Crown and the Revenue. The entry of causes at Nisi Prius for the Sitting after Term in Middlesex, is not so heavy in any of the Courts as might have been expected, from the number of causes set down for trial during the Term. In the Court of Queen's Bench the number of causes entered for the Sitting after Term was 90, of which 32 were remanets. In the Common Pleas there were 58 new causes and eight remanets, and in the Court of Exchequer 56 new causes and 14 remanets; so that no very striking disproportion appears in the relative numbers. As it is constantly found, when there are few or no arrears in any of the Courts, and suitors may reckon upon an equally early audience in any Court of co-ordinate jurisdiction, a disproportionate quantity of business flows to one of the Courts. Thus, the favourite Court, at the Equity side, for setting down causes and claims, is the Court of Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood; whilst amongst the Common Law Courts, judging by the relative number of entries of causes for trial at Nisi Prius during the Sittings in Term, for some inscrutable reason, the Court of Exchequer appears to have become peculiarly popular. The disparity between the number of causes and claims standing for hearing before ViceChancellor Wood and those in the papers At the close of the next week the Comof the other Equity Judges has been mon Law Courts adjourn to the Guildhall, promptly and effectually provided for by and the Sittings will probably continue two orders, made by Lord Cranworth, until the commencement of the Christmas under the authority of the Orders of Court Vacation. of the 5th May, 1837. By the Orders first referred to, dated respectively on the 17th November last, 36 causes standing for hearing before Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood, were transferred to the Book of Causes for hearing before Vice-Chancellor Sir J. Stuart; and a like number were transferred from Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood to the Book of Causes of the Master of the Rolls. The most important work which Michaelmas Term has produced is, the New Orders in Lunacy, issued by the Lord Chancellor, with the advice of the Lords Justices, under the authority of the Lunacy Regulation Act, 1853, under which the Orders in Lunacy heretofore in operation, and dated respectively the 27th October, 1842, and the 15th April, 1844, are discharged. As not only all future, but all pending proIt would, perhaps, be desirable that the ceedings, are to be carried on under the Lord Chancellor had authority in the same provisions of the New Orders, (dated the manner to apportion the business between 7th November, 1853,) we took the earliest the three Courts of Common Law, so that opportunity of submitting them without the anomaly should not again exist, which abridgment to our readers. The operation many who peruse this will recollect, when and effect of the New Orders, and the the Court of Queen's Bench was overwhelmed changes which they will necessarily produce by the arrears of business which had accu- as to the mode of procedure in matters conmulated, whilst the Court of Common nected with the care and custody of the Pleas, with equal judicial strength and persons and estates of lunatics, will be corresponding machinery, was compara- more conveniently considered upon a future tively idle. A much smaller proportion of occasion. 1 See the Orders with the Schedule of Causes Transferred, Leg. Obs., Nov. 26, 1853. Postscript. 50. See Leg. Obs, Nov. 19, 1853, pp. 44 to The Qualification of Attorneys.—Review: Thring's Succession Duty Act, 1853. THE QUALIFICATION OF AT- PROPERTY.-EDUCATION. 83 "Free Trade" Parliament will not accede to the proposition of compelling a preliminary Examination,-to pass which the Candidate must remain at school or college till We have received some communications the age of 18 or 19. The Chancellor of the in condemnation of the reduction of the Exchequer, indeed, condemned the "enorStamp Duty on Articles of Clerkship, with mous Stamp Duty of 120, because it vehement apprehension that the number of formed a wall or barrier against admission attorneys will be largely increased by the introduction of a lower class of articled clerks than the present body, who are undoubtedly, for the most part, well-educated and respectable gentlemen. A short time will show as a matter of fact, and not of conjecture, whether there has been any actual increase in the ranks of the Profession consequent upon the abatement of 401. in the amount of the stamp. The articles must be registered, and we shall ascertain at convenient periods the comparative number. to the Profession; and he emphatically contended for a "freer competition." On this principle, it may be apprehended that the House of Commons, if it should adopt the suggestion of a higher degree of edu cation, will not impose it on the very threshold of the Profession. It may, however, be induced to authorise an Examination into such branches of learning as may usefully bear upon the performance of the duties of an attorney,—allowing them to be acquired (in part at least) during the period of clerkship, and ascertained before admission on the Roll. In the meantime it may be recollected, that (if desirable) a rigid application of the Whilst contending for the abolition of the present rules and regulations will occasion annual tax, as an unjust burthen (although a much larger outlay than the sum in questhis also partakes of the nature of a protion, for the purpose of qualifying the can-perty qualification); we have always maindidate to be admitted on the Rolls of the Superior Courts. tained the expediency of continuing the taxes on Articles of Clerkship and AdmisÎn addition to a strict inquiry into the sions, more especially as there was no exmode of service and the conduct of the pectation, even if desired, that the Governclerk during the period of his articles, the ment would give up all the three taxes, and Examination may be properly extended, not whilst two of them remained, amounting to only into the principles of the Law in all 84,000l. a year, an answer was thereby the departments included in the business of given to the auctioneers, bankers, and an Attorney and Solicitor and the proce- pawnbrokers, who also pay a personal tax. dure of the Courts, but into the general The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not maxims of our system of Jurisprudence, accede to this view; but it would have been whether set forth in Latin or Norman absurd, beyond all measure, if the attorneys French. It was said by the late Lord had rejected the remission of 25 per cent. Ellenborough, when Chief Justice, that on the annual tax, because the Government since the pleadings and proceedings of the chose also to reduce the entrance fee. Courts were required to be written in English, the learning of the Profession had declined. If deemed advisable, a knowledge of the Latin and French languages may, to a certain extent, be thus made necessary, although much cannot be said in favour of the classical purity of our Law Latin, or Norman French. This alteration may be effected, with the sanction of the Judges, but without any application to the Legislature. We shall pursue this subject at an early opportunity. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. The Succession Duty Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 51) with an Introduction, Notes, and an Index. By HENRY THRING, M.A., Barrister-at-Law, Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge. London: Stevens & Norton, 1853. It is urged, however, by several correspondents, that the most effectual method of excluding uneducated persons from the Profession will be, the institution of an Examination, before entering into articles, on subjects of general literature and science, including classics and mathematics. On It supposes a man to make a profit of the other hand, it is anticipated that our least 400l. a year. MR. THRING was employed as Junior Counsel to Mr. Erle in preparing the Succession Duty Act, and is therefore wellqualified to expound the several provisions of this important measure. His Introduc F > 84 new Statute : Review: Thring's Succession Duty Act, 1853. tion and Notes are highly valuable. After "Having thus disposed of the amount, the a brief historical sketch of this branch of Act (sect. 20) declares that the duty shall be taxation, Mr. Thring thus notices the alter-paid at the time when the successor, or some ation made in the Legacy Duty Acts by the person in his right or in his behalf shall become entitled in possession to his succession, or to the receipt of the rents and profits there"The most material alteration in the Legacy of. Duty Acts, effected by the Succession Duty Act, is the abolition of the technical distinction between leaseholds and other real property. Leaseholds of every denomination are declared to be no longer liable to duty under the Legacy Duty Acts, as personal estate, but are to be hereafter included in the Act under the term of Real Property; which, as will be presently is taxed in a different manner from personal property. seen, New Tables are given for the calculation of the value of annuities, both under the Succession Duty Acts and Legacy Duty Acts, and the Tables annexed to the 36 Geo. 3, c. 52, are virtually repealed. "Another provision may be mentioned, having for its object the alteration of the Legacy Duty Acts in favour of the tax-payer. Under those Acts, when a legacy was given to a sonin-law or daughter-in-law, a stranger in blood to the testator, a duty of 10l. per cent. was payable; but by the Succession Duty Act, it is provided that this inconsistency shall cease, and that either husband or wife shall be entitled, in calculating the amount of duty, to take advantage of the nearer relationship of the other to the person from whom the benefit is derived." The Author then proceeds to explain the nature of the duty imposed by the new Act: "This requirement of possession as a condition precedent to the payment of the tax is carried still further in this Act than in the Legacy Duty Acts. Under those Acts, if a legatee having an interest extending beyond his own life die before his legacy falls into possession, the person who actually receives the legacy at the time of its falling in pays a duty not only on the gift to the original legatee, but on the derivative gift to himself; on the other hand; under the Succession Duty Act, it is provided (sect. 14) that where the interest to any successor in any personal property shall, before he shall have become entitled thereto in possession, have passed by reason of death to any other successor or successors, then one duty only shall be paid in respect of such interest, and shall be due from the successor who shall first become entitled thereto in possession; the section, however, adds, that such duty shall be at the highest rate which, if every such successor had been subject to duty, would have been payable by any one of them." On the difficulty arising from the nature of land, the Author observes that :— "For the purposes of taxation a successor's interest in real property is considered (sect. 21) as an annuity equal in amount to the net produce of the land enjoyed by him for his life, or for any less period during which he may be entitled to the receipt of "It will be recollected (he says), that, under the rents and profits. The duty thus becomes the Legacy Duty Acts, the amount of duty paid a tax upon the rent, and not upon the corpus is regulated by the relationship of the recipient of the land, and as it is payable by four annual to the person from whom he derives his benefit. instalments, and not in one gross sum, there Under those Acts the points between which the can never, under ordinary circumstances, be line of pedigree was to be traced were easily any necessity for a sale of any portion of the determined. The property must have passed property in order to satisfy the demands of the under a will or an intestacy, and it was only Crown. It is true that by this arrangement a necessary to trace the relationship of the legatee tenant in fee and a tenant for life pay a tax of to the testator, or of the next of kin to the in- equal amount; and the Act does not attempt testate to determine the percentage of the duty. to distinguish between them, except in the This principle of making the amount of tax event of the tenant for life dying before he has depend on the degree of relationship is pre-paid all his instalments; in which case all inserved in the Succession Duty Act, but the stalments not due at his death cease to be paymore comprehensive nature of its scope re- able, while in the case of a tenant in fee the quires a corresponding expansion of the terms unpaid instalments continue to be a charge on used to denote the persons between whom the the property, payable by the owner for the time relationship regulating the tax was to be traced; being. Rules are given for estimating the accordingly, the term Successor has been value of various descriptions of real property. adopted to denote the person entitled to any Advowsons are taxable only in the event of property chargeable with duty; the term Pre- their being disposed of for money or money's decessor to denote the settlor, disponer, testa-worth, and personal property directed to be intor, obligor, ancestor, or other person from vested in real property, in which the successors whom the interest of the successor is derived; take limited interests, is to be treated as real and the term Succession to denote any pro- property." perty chargeable with duty under the Act." As to the time for the payment of the tax, Mr. Thring says:— There are several other valuable annotations on the principles of the Act, as well |