seventeen, which, with the eleven appeals undisposed of and brought forward from the previous year, made the total of appeals before the House of Lords twenty-eight. Of these fourteen were disposed of by judgment during the year, including two cross appeals arising out of one original action, six appeals were withdrawn, and eight were left pending at the end of the year. Of the actions disposed of by judgment one was from the Valuation Appeal Court, in which the judgment was reversed, the remainder were from the Court of Session, of which five judgments were affirmed and seven reversed. The total number of appeals to the House of Lords in the previous year was twenty-nine. THE COURT OF SESSION. The total number of actions before the Court was 2197. The average number for the five years ended 1912 was 2375. Of these 1397 were disposed of by final judgment, 202 were otherwise taken out of Court, and 598 were left pending at the end of the year. Of the 1397 actions disposed of by final judgment there were 1014 in which no evidence was led in court, 352 in which proof was taken, and thirty-one in which there was trial by jury. In actions for divorce and separation and aliment the total number of judgments given was 257-viz. for divorce 251, and six for separation and aliment. There were 105 actions at the instance of the husband, and 152 at the instance of the wife. In only four cases was divorce refused. In 65 per cent. of the cases there were issue of the marriages. The parties to the 257 actions had in 230 cases been married for periods of five years and upwards. Inner House. The total number of actions before the Inner House was 895. The average number for the five years ended 1912 was 945. Of the total, 441 were disposed of by final judgment, and of these 210 were by the First Division and 231 by the Second Division. There were otherwise taken out of court 193, and 261 were left pending at the end of the year. Of the 441 actions disposed of by final judgment fifty-four were brought into the Inner House by reclaiming note from the Outer House; eighty were brought on appeal from the Sheriff Courts; sixteen by notice for trial by jury from the Outer House and from Sheriff Courts; six were special cases stated by the Land Court for the opinion of the Court of Session, whilst the remaining 285 were initiated in the Inner House. Lands Valuation Appeal Court. There were ten cases in which there were appeals as against twenty-six, the average for the five years ended 1912. Of seven appeals taken by parties other than the assessor, four of the Valuation Committee's decisions were sustained, two were varied, and one was withdrawn. Of the three appeals taken by the assessor the decision of the Valuation Committee was sustained in one and varied in two. Bill Chamber of the Court of Session. No The number of applications before the Court during the year was 147, the lowest number yet recorded. In the five years ended 1912 the average was 220. Of the total number 131 were disposed of by the Lord Ordinary, 109 being granted and twenty-two refused. further action was anticipated in ten cases, three were otherwise taken out of Court, and three were left pending at the end of the year. The number of writs presented to and disposed of by the clerk of the bills within the year was 318. Court of Teinds. The number of actions in which there were proceedings in the Teind Court during the year was thirty-one, made up as follows: For augmentation of stipend, twelve; for erection of parishes quoad sacra, thirteen; petitions to feu glebes, five; and one other. Twenty-three of these actions were disposed of, all the applications being granted. Proceedings were taken in twenty-nine actions. before the Lord Ordinary on teinds, viz: localities. of stipend, twenty-seven; feuing of glebes, one; and valuation of teinds, one. Fifteen of these actions were disposed of, all the applications being granted. The cases for 1913 were disposed of as follows: By decree, 50,351; otherwise than by decree, 12,980; removed from the roll, 1434, leaving undisposed of at the end of the year, 1569. There were 291 reponings on decrees in absence. In 154 cases judgment was repeated, and in 137 altered. The number of remits from the Small Debt Court to the Ordinary Court was ten. Ejections following on Small Debt Court decrees under 52 & 53 Vict. cap. 26, section 6, numbered 145 as against 391 in 1912; and decrees for summary ejections 4694 as against 6928. The total sums claimed in actions disposed of by decree amounted to £206,120, 11s. 2d., as compared with £227,063, Os. 9d. in 1912. This sum is made up of sums decerned for £178,167, 6s. 9d., and sums disallowed £28,953, 2s. 5d. The average sum decerned for in each case was £3, 13s. 6d. as against £3, 14s. 7d. in 1912. The total expenses awarded during the year amounted to £21,965, 15s. 8d. DECISIONS IN THE ENGLISH COURTS. Auster Ltd. v. London Motor Coach Works Ltd. CONTRACT-WAR-MORATORIUM-POSTPONEMENT OF PAYMENTS ACT 1914 (4 & 5 GEO. V. CAP. 11)-£5 LIMIT-ACTION ON AN ACCOUNT.-An action was brought to recover payment of an account for goods sold and delivered, which included a number of items below £5 and a number of items above that amount. The moratorium decreed by Royal Proclamation under the Postponement of Payments Act 1914 did not apply to "any payment in respect of a liability which, when incurred, did not exceed £5 in amount.” that the moratorium did not constitute a complete defence to the action, but that the defendants might plead that defence to the separate items which individually exceeded £5-Decision of Sankey J. reversed.-Court of Appeal (Buckley, Phillimore, and Pickford L.JJ.).—20th October 1914. Southend-on-Sea Estates Co. Ltd. v. Inland Revenue Commissioners. Held REVENUE-UNDEVELOPED LAND DUTY-LAND LET ON LEASE WITH A BREAK-FINANCE (1909-10) ACT 1910 (10 EDW. VII. CAP. 8), SECTIONS 16 AND for seven years, subject to a right in the owners 17 (5).-Agricultural land was let on lease in 1904 to resume any part required for building purposes. not require any part of the land for building, and During the currency of the lease the owners did did not resume any part thereof. Held that the power of resuming had never arisen and that the duty was not exigible. Decision of Court of Appeal (1914 S.L.T. 34) affirmed.-House of Lords (Earl Loreburn, Lords Atkinson, Parker of Waddington, Sumner, and Parmoor).—21st October 1914. Westminster School Governing Body v. Reith. REVENUE-INHABITED HOUSE DUTY-BOARD ING SCHOOL-HOUSE TAX ACT 1808 (48 GEO. III. CAP. 55) SCHEDULE B, RULE 2.-In assessing for inhabited house duty the group of buildings forming a boarding school, held (diss. Lord Parmoor) that separate buildings used for school hall, etc., for purposes not connected with the board or lodging of the scholars should be excluded from the assessment. -Decision of the Court of Appeal reversed.-House of Lords (Earl Loreburn, Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Shaw of Dunfermline, and Parmoor).-22nd October 1914. A. R. PRENTICE, ESQ., SOLICITOR, GREENOCK. Lieutenant in the 3rd Highland (Howitzer) Mr Prentice is a native of Greenock, having been born there in 1859. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and at the Uni- THE retirement of Sir Thomas Hunter from versities of Tübingen and Glasgow, from the the office of Town Clerk of Edinburgh under latter of which he obtained the degree of the provisions of the Superannuation Act is due Bachelor of Law. After serving his apprentice- in June, but the Lord Provost's Committee of ship partly with the late Mr J. C. Smith, Edinburgh Town Council have agreed that he Greenock, and partly with Messrs Laurence should be asksd to continue to hold the office Thomson & Miller, Glasgow, he commenced for a further term of three years. business in Green ock in 1885 along with Mr John Patten, W.S., under the firm name of Patten & Prentice, and since then he has devoted his energies to the conduct of the large trust and commercial business carried on by his firm. He has, however, found time to take an active interest in professional matters apart from the immediate affairs of his own clients, and some years ago suggested a plan for the compulsory printing of all deeds to be recorded in the Register of Sasines, MR JAMES CALDWELL FRASER, sole partner of the firm of J. Caldwell & Co., writers, County Buildings, Paisley, has assumed as partners his brother Mr H. H. Fraser, solicitor, Edinburgh, and Mr W. R. Millar, who has been the firm's procurator for a number of years. The business will continue to be carried on under the firm name of J. Caldwell & Co. WE regret to record the death of Mr James H. Dunn, solicitor, senior partner of the firm of Dunn and the compilation of the record from dupli- & Allison, writers, Paisley, which took place cates to be furnished to the Keeper. legal brethren have recognised his professional standing and services by appointing him a member of the Council of the Incorporated Society of Law Agents in Scotland. For the last ten years he has also been secretary of the Faculty of Procurators in Greenock. In his younger days Mr Prentice devoted his leisure to Volunteering and held a commission as a Captain in the local Artillery Volunteers. He has two sons serving their country at the present time: one, C. H. C. Prentice, junior partner of the publishing house of Chatto & Windus, London, Second His on 27th January. He was at an advanced age, and had suffered from impaired health since the summer, but it was only recently that his condition became serious. Mr Dunn succeeded his father in the business which the latter founded. Over thirty years ago he received a commission as an Honorary Sheriff-Substitute. He took no part in public life, but he took an interest in communal affairs, and some years ago he gave £600 to the Town Council to assist in removing the old properties that injured the amenities of the Abbey. Mr Dunn was unmarried. In Paisley Sheriff Court on Tuesday Sheriff Blair made appropriate reference to Mr Dunn. Mr John Abercrombie, d Dean of Faculty, also referred to the services given to the Court by Mr Dunn as an Honorary Sheriff. or other accepted certificates in all the subjects, and 9 have satisfied the Examiners or been found qualified in two subjects. For the Second Examination in General Knowledge, 56 candidates entered. Of these 26 passed in one THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES AND subject, 19 in two, 2 in three, and 1 in four subjects. The papers of the candidates in this examination were as follows: Mathematics 14, passed 13; Logic 15, passed 9; Latin 28, passed 17; French 14, passed 10; German 1, passed 1; Book-keeping 30, passed 24. Since the Examinations held in July last 32 candidates have received certificates of exemption from the First Examination in General Knowledge in respect of holding leaving or other accepted certificates. The quarterly Examination in Law conducted by the Board of Examiners was held in Edinburgh last week, when 23 candidates presented themselves for examination. Twenty-two of these were examined in all the subjects, and 13 passed. One graduate holding the LL.B. degree of Glasgow University was examined in Court Procedure and passed. The following candidates have passed the Examination in Law: John Nicoll Bennett, St Andrews; James Cameron Boyd, M.A., LL.B., Kilmarnock; Duncan Davidson Campbell, Stonehaven; David Glass Cuthill, Bo'ness ; Alexander Hill Gray, Partick; James Hay, Aberdeen; David Lindsay, Airdrie, Andrew Stewart M'Culloch, Kilmarnock; Alastair Hugh Macdonald, Musselburgh; John Kevan M'Dowall, Glasgow; Murray Alexander Ferris Oliver, Leith; Robert Gavin Pollock, Glasgow; Andrew Sinclair Stewart, Alloa; William Fleming Strang, East Kilbride. CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS IN GLASGOW.— The annual general meeting of the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow was held in the Hall, 218 St Vincent Street-Mr Robert Carswell, President, in the chair. In moving the adoption of the annual report and accounts, which had been previously circulated amongst the members, the President referred with satisfaction to the clause in the report which stated that 341 men connected with the Institute are now serving with the colours, of whom 62 are members, 162 apprentices, and 117 clerks. On the motion of the retiring President, Mr Alexander Moore, of Messrs Moores, Carson & Watson, was elected President for the current year. The following gentlemen, having passed all the examinations prescribed by the rules, and being found duly qualified, were, on the recommendation of the Council, admitted as members, subject to the bye-laws, rules, and regulations: John Baird, jun. (Messrs Thomson M Lintock & Co.), Glasgow; James Carmichael, 33 Dumbreck Road, Dumbreck, Glasgow; Chas. G. A. Gordon (Messrs Thomson M'Lintock & Co.), Glasgow; John Hepburn (Messrs Marwick, Mitchell, Peat & Co.), Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.A.; CHILDREN AND UNATTENDED LIFTS. case were certainly such as to raise a clear question of fact and of law, and it is worthy of remark that the Court should not have extended its customary leniency to a pursuer's averments which at least approached so nearly to the border line of relevancy. The pursuer's main argument was directed to shew that the case was one of a trap or dangerous allurement, and fell within the rule of Cooke v. Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland ([1909] A.C. 229), as contrasted with that of Latham v. Johnson ([1913] 1 K.B. 398). Counsel deduced from these decisions, and from The First Division has lately pronounced a others in the same chapter of law which were cited, decision of some interest upon a question con- an interesting distinction between the conditions cerning the liability of one who allows the public of a proprietor's liability in respect of static and to have access to a possibly dangerous piece of of dynamic dangers respectively. It was argued mechanism for the consequences of an accident that one who was on the property of another by arising from its use (Wilson v. Glasgow and South- licence or by invitation must take the property Western Railway Co., 1915, 1 S.L.T. 8). The action and its dangers as he found them, so long as was one of damages against a railway company these dangers were merely passive, e.g. the paving at the instance of a father whose son had been stone in the case of Latham or the pond in the injured whilst being conveyed in a lift in one of case of Hastie v. Magistrates of Edinburgh (1907 the defenders' stations. The pursuer averred S.C. 1102), but that a different rule fell to be that this lift was used for the purpose of con- applied when the danger arose from an active veying luggage and parcels between two levels instrument, such as the turntable in the case of in the station; that the lift and its operating Cooke and the lift in the present case. The mechanism were accessible to the public frequent- two judges who delivered opinions, the Lord ing the station; that it was the custom of the President and Lord Skerrington-for Lord defenders' servants to allow members of the Hunter contented himself with concurring with public to work the lift for themselves for the the Lord President-agreed only in holding that purpose of conveying parcels, etc., and that boys the authorities cited had no bearing on the case were in the habit of going up and down in it before them. The Lord President expressly for their own amusement, all to the knowledge refrained from using the terms "invitee or of, and unchallenged by, these servants. On the "licensee," frankly professing that he did not unoccasion of the accident in question the lift was derstand their meaning. He elected to apply the being used by a message boy, on the invitation old rule referred to by Hamilton L.J. in Latham of one of the company's servants, for the purpose (cit. at p. 413), "that a person who, in neglect of of conveying a parcel. The pursuer's son, a boy ordinary care, places his property in such a conof about eight years of age, who was hanging dition as to be dangerous to another, may be about the station awaiting the arrival of his liable for resulting injury, even although, but father by train, entered the lift, and, in course for the intervention of a third party "-the messof transit, placed his foot in a position in which age boy in this case "the injury would not have it was caught and crushed between the moving occurred." He held that the averments disclosed platform of the lift and the projecting edge of a lift of ordinary, and not in any way of faulty, the stationary floor of the level which it was construction, and that there was nothing specially approaching. The pursuer alleged various grounds dangerous in its construction which should of fault against the defenders; in particular he make it the duty of the defenders to see that averred (1) that the lift was dangerous in the nobody entered the lift except those authorised manner of its construction; and (2) that the de- to use it. He concluded that the danger which fenders had neglected a duty of seeing that the beset the boy could not reasonably have been public had no access to the lift or to its operating anticipated, and that the defenders had not been mechanism, and of preventing its use by others negligent in failing to take precautions to guard than their own servants. The Lord Ordinary against it. Lord Skerrington's opinion was to (Lord Anderson) allowed an issue; the Division, precisely the opposite effect. He regarded a consisting of the Lord President, Lord Skerring-piece of mechanism which has stationary as well ton, and Lord Hunter, recalled this interlocutor as moving parts as being necessarily dangerous, by a majority (Lord Skerrington dissenting), and dismissed the action as irrelevant. Comment on a decision upon relevancy is always complicated by the consideration that the result might have been different had the pursuer proposed to make another use in law of the facts he was prepared to prove; but the averments in this at any rate when used by unskilled persons, and especially by children, and reached the conclusion that the pursuer should be entitled to try the question whether the defenders had unnecessarily or unreasonably exposed the child to risk, that of contributory negligence being also left to the jury. Of these two conflicting views that of the |