agents were again referred to in Acts of Sederunt as practising in Court. In 1672 a statute was passed which provided that in respect several persons being neither advocates nor advocates' servants do take upon them under the name of agents to meddle in processes, such agents be debarred the house. Even this Act was apparently ineffectual, for in 1678 and 1685 Acts of Sederunt referred to persons attending the house and pretending to negotiate in and manage processes who were neither advocates nor servants to advocates, and also referred to "the crowd of agents."

Towards the end of the seventeenth century the tenacity of the agents seems to have worn down the opposition to them, and during the succeeding fifty years the position of an agent was gradually recognised by the Court. An Act of Sederunt in 1754 legalised the office of agent or solicitor and recognised the right of Advocates' First Clerks and Clerks to the Signet to practise before the Court, and directed all the other existing agents to enrol themselves on or before 1st February 1755. By this and subsequent Acts of Sederunt regulations were made for the examination and admission of future candidates. In 1797 the solicitors then practising were incorporated by Royal Charter, which was confirmed and amended by a private Act of Parliament in 1871, re-incorporating the Society of Solicitors under the name of "The Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland."

The Society of Writers to the Signet and the Society of Solicitors before the Supreme Courts prescribe regulations for the training and admission of applicants. In order to become a Writer to the Signet one must be indentured to a member of the society and satisfy the requirements of their examiners. One may, however, become a member of the Society of Solicitors before the Supreme Courts by qualifying as a law agent under the Law Agents Act and thereafter seeking admission to the society. Both societies have funds out of which annuities are paid to the widows of deceased members, and possess excellent libraries for the use of their members.

While the present position of agents in the Supreme Courts was a matter of evolution extending over three centuries, the agents in the inferior courts called writers or procurators, except in Aberdeen where the practitioners styled themselves advocates, suffered no similar shaking down process. The inferior courts were originally modelled on the Court of Session, and the practitioners therein were simply advocates of a lower rank, being in sole control of their clients' causes. They could only plead before the inferior courts into which they had been admitted, but both the inferior courts and

the Court of Session have control over them at common law or in virtue of various statutes.

In several of the more important Sheriff Courts, viz. Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Paisley, the procurators early formed themselves into local societies and obtained charters. Members only were permitted to practise in the Courts. Candidates for admission required to be apprenticed to members of the societies, and regulations were made as to their qualifications, examination, and admission.

Till 1825, however, there were no general regulations in regard to the qualifications for admission except that candidates must subscribe certain oaths and take out annual licences to practise. In that year the Court of Session passed an Act of Sederunt for the purpose of securing a uniform system of legal training for intending procurators in the inferior courts other than those above mentioned. While retaining the legal rights of chartered bodies, provision was made for intending procurators serving an apprenticeship of three years to a Writer to the Signet, a solicitor, or a procurator. At the end of the three years, and before they were admitted to practise, candidates were generally remitted by the Sheriff to a procurator in his Court to undergo an examination in law. This examination, however, was never very rigorously conducted. It would be interesting to modern solicitors if a practitioner before 1873 were to give the details of his examination.

The next important step was taken in 1865, when the Procurators Act was passed prescribing a complete course of study in general knowledge and in law, and increasing the period of apprenticeship to four years in certain cases. Before the Act several societies had been incorporated by Royal Charter in addition to those already referred to, and provision was made for procurators incorporating themselves into societies which were directed to issue regulations for examining apprentices in general knowledge, and, if thought fit, imposing a curriculum of legal study and instituting compulsory examinations in law at the end of the second, third, and fourth years of apprenticeship. The deans or other chief office-bearers of all the societies incorporated before the Act or under its provisions formed a general council, meeting at least once a year, whose principal duties were to prescribe a curriculum of legal study, to act as examiners of persons applying for admission as procurators, and to frame regulations as to the subjects of examination both in general knowledge and in law. The curriculum and regulations were approved of by the Court of Session on 22nd June 1866. The Procurators Act further provided that it should be competent to any society of procurators previously incorporated to assimilate the con

was attended by a large congregation, whose numbers and personnel were indicative of the wide circle in which the passing of Sheriff Lyell is mourned. It included, in addition to relatives of the Sheriff, representatives of the public life of the city, of his colleagues on the Bench and other members of the legal profession, and of business and commerce. From the Sheriff Court there were Sheriff A. O. M. Mackenzie, K.C. (Sheriff Principal); Sheriff Fyfe, Sheriff Thomson, Sheriff Blair, Sheriff Macdiarmid, and Sheriff Welsh; Mr James Adair, and Mr John Hill, Depute Procurator-Fiscal; Mr R. G. Slorach, sheriff-clerk, and other officials. Among the representatives of the Corporation of Glasgow present were Bailie Dott, the Senior Magistrate; Councillor Barrie, Councillor Jubb, Councillor J. Bruce Murray, Sir John Lindsay (Town-Clerk), and Sir John Samuel. The service, simple and impressive in character, was conducted by the Rev. J. A. C. Murray, minister of Park Church, and the Rev. A. M. Shand, Bridge of Weir.

The cortege was met at the cemetery gate by a number of friends of the late Sheriff, including several Scottish Sheriffs and members of the legal profession in Edinburgh. Among those present were : The Lord Justice-Clerk (Lord Alness), the Very Rev. A. Wallace Williamson, D.D., St Giles' Cathedral; the Rev. Norman Maclean, D.D., St Cuthbert's Church; Sheriff M'Clure, K.C.; Sheriff Macphail, K.C.; Sheriff W. Lyon Mackenzie, K.C.; Sheriff Chisholm, K.C.; Sheriff Orr, K.C.; Sheriff Blair, Sheriff

of William Darling Lyell, who was so suddenly called to his rest. Your minister would have paid a tribute had he been here; it is, however, not unfitting that I, who am now minister of the church where his father was an honoured elder, and where his brother is now an elder, the church to which he rendered great service in his youth as leader of its choir, should, here in this church, in which I inducted him as an elder, lay on the altar of his memory an offering of thanksgiving. It is no part of my duty to speak here of the many gifts with which William Lyell was endowed. He had a mind of singular quickness, and he had the gift of imaginationthe gift that can see kingdoms in mustard seeds. He wrote books in which the life of the legal profession is depicted with an accuracy which will make them valuable to the future historian. He himself was quite content with having expressed himself, and was indifferent whether his critics made sense of his nonsense or nonsense of his sense. Few who met him realised that he was master of an incisive style which expressed the devious and subtle byways of life. As a judge his desire ever was to mingle mercy with justice. No man sitting on the Bench had greater sympathy with the man in the dock, or realised in fuller degree how little the difference is between the two.

"But it is as the loyal son of the Church that we here remember him. He loved the services of the sanctuary. I can see him now sitting in that corner, with his face lit up with interest as the preacher dealt with the mysteries of life

Dods, Mr G. W. Wilton, K.C.; Sir Joseph Dobbie, S.S.C.; Mr W. T. Ketchen, Keeper, General Register of Sasines; Mr Thomas Horne, W.S.; and Mr J. D. Strathern, ProcuratorFiscal, Glasgow. The grave is situated on the south side of the main walk near the entrance to the cemetery. The service at the graveside was short and simple. It was conducted by the Rev. Dr Norman Maclean, and the Benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Dr Wallace Williamson. The pall-bearers were Mr David Lyell, W.S. (brother); Mr W. G. Black, LL.D.; Sheriff Blair, Sheriff M'Clure, Sheriff Neish, Mr James Johnston, Town-Clerk, Paisley; the Rev. A. M. Shand, Bridge of Weir; and Dr Wallace Williamson. The floral tributes included one from Sheriff Lyell's fellow-elders in Park Church, Glasgow.

Tribute to the memory of Sheriff Lyell was paid on the following Sunday in Park Church, Glasgow, by the Rev. Norman Maclean, D.D., St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. At the conclusion of the forenoon service Dr Maclean said: "We cannot close this service without expressing our sense of the great loss sustained by this congregation and this city through the death

wandered to his heart he was ever ready to say a word of gratitude-a trait singularly lacking in Scots folk. Generous, kind-hearted, a lover of the Church of his fathers, in every relation of life straight as a die, he has passed to his rest. He did justly, he loved mercy, and he walked humbly with his God. He nothing common did nor mean. When we think of this man and his gifts it is impossible to think that death can be the end. Goodness and mercy followed him all the days of his life. Here, in the midst of this city, his soul dwelt in the house of the Lord, and what else can we say of him save this: that he shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Those dear to him, who to-day abide in the house of solitude, we can only commend to the comforting of God. Christ the consoler will turn for them the shadow of death into morning."

Sympathetic references were made by the Sheriff of Lanarkshire (Mr A. O. M. Mackenzie) and by Mr Timothy Warren, Dean of Faculty, at a sitting of the Appeal Court in the County Buildings, Glasgow, to the death of SheriffSubstitute W. D. Lyell. The Sheriff was accompanied on the Bench by Sheriffs-Substitute Fyfe, Thomson, Blair, Welsh, Macdiarmid, and Mercer, and the body of the Court accommodated a large representation of the legal profession.

Sheriff Mackenzie said that since the last sitting of that Court, Glasgow Sheriff Court had sustained an unexpected and grave loss in the death of his colleague and friend, Sheriff Lyell, and before proceeding with the business of the day he wished to say a few words as a tribute to one whom they all held in high respect, and whom many of them regarded with warm affection. As a judge Sheriff Lyell gained a high reputation in the city. Clear-headed, with a firm grasp of legal principle and a wide knowledge of case law, patient, industrious, with great commonsense, broad human sympathies, and a controlling desire to do justice, he possessed qualifications of a high order for judicial work, and he never spared himself in the performance of public duties. His passing was a great loss to that Court and to the community it served, and his services as Sheriff would be remembered with high appreciation by all who had had the opportunity of estimating their value. Speaking in that place he had only referred to Sheriff Lyell's merits as a judge, but he was a man of versatile gifts and superabundant energy, and he excelled in other spheres than judicial work. He was a celebrated writer of novels, and was read with enjoyment and appreciation. He wrote frequently in the public press on legal subjects, and his contributions were always informative and interesting. As an after-dinner speaker he never failed to delight. To accomplishments beyond the common were added a gaiety of spirit which endeared him to his friends, of whom there were many.

Mr Timothy Warren, Dean of Faculty, who also spoke, said they felt with the Sheriff that they were met in the wake of a great and tragic sorrow, the circumstances of which made it doubly sad. Not many months ago Sheriff Lyell had lost a son of much promise, to whom he was deeply attached, and now, when a few short hours before he had been busily pursuing the calls of that professional life of which he was so proud, apparently in full possession of his normal physical and mental vigour, he himself was suddenly taken. They who were left could but bow their heads in reverent submission. Sheriff Lyell was not only a sound and wellinformed lawyer; to these qualities he added great good judgment, a wide knowledge of men and affairs, and a mind as acute and fearless as it was fair. Upon the remarkable versatility of his accomplishments in other fields, apart from his distinction as a judge, he did not touch. They were well known to all. But distinguished as Sheriff Lyell was in so many varying walks of

life, he could not but think that they should wish to think of him and should miss him most as a man and as a friend. Intuitively a gentleman, he had the genius of friendship in no small measure, and his merry heart and wonderful sense of humour, expressed in many a witty sally, would be often recalled. On behalf of the Bar he desired to express their respectful sympathy with the widow and daughter so suddenly bereft of a husband and a father, and with the Sheriff and his colleagues with whom Sheriff Lyell's daily task was done. Not only the Profession but the whole community was the poorer by the loss of one so eminent and so human, and he ventured to believe that in these parts the great qualities of head and heart of William Darling Lyell would keep his memory green for many years to come.

LIMITATIONS OF TITLE OF A TRUSTEE IN SEQUESTRATION-I.

The present article is suggested by actual experience which has emphasised the consideration that in different directions a good many important qualifications require to be made on the general proposition that the title of a bankruptcy trustee is of a universal character. It is not claimed that very much actually new is here raised or suggested, but it is not known that those qualifications of title have previously been brought together and marshalled. To do so seems useful and even suggestive, though considerations of space make it impossible to give anything like exhaustive treatment. Be sides, some of the matters mentioned, particularly those in connection with partnerships, are not of everyday occurrence, and to some extent may practically have the recommendation of novelty.

1. Personal Estate in the United Kingdom. It would be natural to say that, if there is one sphere in which the title of a trustee in a Scottish sequestration carries as much force beyond, as within, Scotland, it is with reference to personal estate beyond Scotland but within the United Kingdom. The vesting section of the 1913 Act legislates in identical terms for personal assets whether in Scotland or in England; yet there are differences, and these afford excellent object-lessons, at the outset, of the importance of the various limitations on the trustee's title. The following differences exist: