sity. For him, as for many of us, the death of Alexander Campbell Fraser, of the Logic chair, last December, at a great old age, broke our last link with college days.

Mr Simpson passed as a Writer to the Signet in 1869. His apprenticeship was served to Sir Thomas Dawson Brodie in the office of Gibson Craig, Dalziel & Brodies, which still held many memories of the great Whig lawyer and party manager, Sir James Gibson Craig, Bart. of Riccarton, and was then under the strict but just rule of John Clerk Brodie and George Dalziel, two of the strongest personalities in the profession-the one a great lawyer, the other a great man of business. He was nurtured in all

the traditions of the elders, good and bad. On the one hand, there was a high sense of duty to clients and to the Court, a punctilious standard of thoroughness, producing minute, even meticulous, attention to details, and there was the example of principals, who drudged with their own hands at work now ordinarily entrusted to subordinates. On the other hand, in 5 Thistle Street, as in other offices, great and small, practices prevailed which now seem to this generation (wiser, or, at least, wiser in their own conceit) to savour of the Dark Ages.

Evening hours, 7 to 9, and often much later, were mistakenly thought the only way to get business done, and were strangely thought the only way to keep the clerks out of mischief. For lunch we had to be content with a bap or a bun, bought from a baker's box in the office lobby. Papers for counsel, however bulky, had to be copied in the office by the ordinary staff, even although this involved work long after midnight, and delivery by the unhappy "Thomas to the yet more unhappy counsel in the small hours of

the morning. Important letters were drafted, and often re-drafted, by the heads of the firm with their own hands; and all letters, long or short, continued to be copied by hand (with evergrowing inaccuracy, as "Mr. Russell's " years and infirmities increased) even although press copies of these letters had already been taken. There was another striking contrast to modern days. Persistent soaking or drinking bouts on the part of clerks entrusted with responsible duties were not, as now, thought incompatible with continued service and confidence, even when they led to periodic absences, not to bury one or two but many grandmothers. Mr Simpson will recognise the reminiscence.

f

At different times during Mr Simpson's 5 Thistle Street days he had as associates in the office John Blair Balfour (Lord Kinross), J. P. B. Robertson (Lord Robertson), William Mackintosh (Lord Kyllachy), and Charles John Pearson (Lord Pearson), preening their wings for higher flights, but perhaps not always restricting themselves to the mid-day bap or bun. Lord M'Laren was in the remarkable line of clericojudicial succession associated with 5 Thistle Street, but some years before Mr Simpson's

time.

Mr Simpson was in partnership with Mr Alexander Gifford, S.S.C., Lord Gifford's uncle, from 1870 to 1875, and the present firm name, R. R. Simpson & Lawson, came into existence in 1883, when he assumed the late Mr J. B. Lawson. Mr. Simpson's partners to-day are Mr A. P. Melville and his own two eldest sons, Mr A. R. Simpson and Mr Samuel Raleigh Simpson, all of them Writers to the Signet. The name Samuel Raleigh will pleasantly recal to many the noble head and beaming face of the very able Manager of the Scottish Widows Fund, Mrs Simpson's father, a singularly silent, but also a most kindly man.

Contrary to some old-fashioned ideas, Mr Simpson's success as a lawyer has in no way interfered with manifold activities on his part in other departments of business, and in many religious and philanthropic enterprises, not to speak of a love for golf and foreign travel.

His position as a Director of the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway, as Chairman of the East of Scotland Board of the Legal Insurance Company, as Chairman of the Queensland Mortgage Company, and in connection with many other commercial concerns, sufficiently shews the public confidence in his business capacity.

Of his philanthropic and religious work, his connection with Dr Guthrie's Industrial Schools, now at Liberton and Gilmerton, may be taken as one instance out of many, proving that he is not of that large class who do indeed put their hands to the plough but, unfortunately for themselves and others, look back. In the Sunday School of these Schools, then in Ramsay Lane, Edinburgh, he taught when he was a lad; and, to the great advantage of all concerned, he has been since 1891 the Chairman of the Directors managing the Schools. His connection as Chairman or Director, with the National Bible Society, the Industrial Brigade, the Victoria Hospital, the Christie Homes, and other institutions, has been almost equally close and influential. There remains the very special place in the grateful and affectionate regard of people resident in every parish in Scotland, which Mr Simpson has obtained as Depute Clerk for thirty-eight years in the General Assembly of the Free Church, and since the union of that Church with the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, in the General Assembly of the United Free

Church. The smooth working of Assembly business has been largely due to his capacity for managing affairs and men, his perfect temper, even to the suffering gladly of fools (Highland and Lowland, lay and clerical, male and female), his brotherliness and accessibility, his optimistic outlook, seeing difficulties only to solve them, his gift of emphatic, concise utterance, in ringing tones, audible to the dullest and deafest, his power of turning away wrath with a jest, and his constant inclination, a lawyer though he be, and an official though he be, to take the straightforward course and the just and equitable course, even at the cost of brushing aside mere technicalities and formalities and ignoring precedents more or less musty.

As Depute Clerk of the Free and United Free Assemblies, Mr Simpson has been brought into the most confidential relations with men of the highest intellectual endowments and the loftiest character. These men have always relied on the soundness of his judgment and the integrity of his character, and they have always welcomed his intervention in Church business and his co-operation in Church work. Their feelings were expressed in 1903 by Principal Rainy, when an excellent portrait, dignified, shrewd, and genial as the man himself, painted by Mr Robert Gibb, R.S.A., was presented to the United Free Church, with a replica to Mr Simpson. C. J. G.

COURT OF SESSION BUSINESS.-The Court of Session resumed on Tuesday after the February recess. Lord Cullen has been absent during the week on account of indisposition, and in consequence the sittings of the Extra Division have been suspended. On Tuesday the Inner House judges, with the exception of Lord Johnston, were engaged in a seven-judge hearing. On Wednesday Lord Skerrington sat in the Second Division along with the Lord Justice Clerk and Lord Guthrie in order to finish a partly-heard case, while Lord Dundas sat in the First Division along with the Lord President and Lord Mackenzie.

MR R. A. MAUDE, Solicitor-General of the Gold Coast, has been appointed Attorney-General of Sierra Leone.

MESSRS CAMERON & YOUNG, solicitors, Newmilns, have assumed Mr John Mair, solicitor, Newmilns, as a partner in the firm, and the business will in future be carried on under the name of Cameron, Young & Mair.

THE LATE MR DAVID DOUGALL, AYR.-The death occurred on Monday last of Mr David Dougall, solicitor, Ayr. Mr Dougall, who had been in failing health for some time, was an Honorary Sheriff-Substitute of Ayrshire, and, prior to his retirement from business, which took

FIRST INSTALMENT UNPAID-REFUSAL TO DELIVER FURTHER INSTALMENTS-SALE OF GOODS ACT 1893 (56 & 57 VICT. CAP. 71), SECTIONS 39, 42.-The sellers of a quantity of goods delivered the first shipment and, on receiving only a part of the price for them, refused to deliver further shipments until they had received the balance. In an action by the sellers against the buyer to recover the balance of the price of the first shipment, the buyer counter-claimed for damages for non-delivery of the remainder of the goods. Held that the seller had no right to refuse delivery, and that the buyer was therefore entitled to recover on his counter-claim.-K.B. Div. (Atkin J.).-24th November 1914.

LAW LIBRARY.

BOOK NOTICES.

Handbook on the Formation, Management, and Winding Up of Joint Stock Companies. By F. Gore Browne, M.A., K.C., and William Jordan. Thirty-third Edition. London Jordan & Son Ltd., 1915. Price 7s. 6d.

Only eighteen months have elapsed since the last edition of this book was published, but so insistent is the demand that the present edition would have appeared some three months earlier, had it not been for the outbreak of the present war, which led the authors to add some pages on the effect of the war on commercial engagements in general and on corporations in particular. Since the last edition was published there has been no new legislation directly affecting Companies. There have been a number of important decisions, of which Sinclair v. Brougham (where the House of Lords dealt with the effects of an ultra vires contract and put the law on a more satisfactory basis) is probably the most noteworthy. These decisions have been incorporated in the text and the book is thus again up to date. It is as good as ever.

This convenient handbook has now attained its eighty-third year and its ninety-first issue. Its general features are too well known to need recapitulation. It is enough to say that the new edition shews no changes except those which are necessary to bring it down to date, and these are the only changes which its public desires.

Manual of the Principles of Roman Law. By R. D. Melville, K.C., M.A., LL.B., Advocate, Professor of Roman Law in the Khedivial School of Law, Cairo. Edinburgh: W. Green & Son Ltd. Price 20s. nett.

Mr Melville explains in his preface that this work is the result of his experience in lecturing on Roman law to Egyptian students, who have little Latin-in fact, he aims at "Roman law without tears" by keeping to English terminology. As the Latin equivalents are given in brackets, and as there is a commendably full citation of text-writers and commentators, the book can be used with profit by students of wider attainments. There is an Historical Introduction of some fifty pages, and the statement of the substantive law, omitting the law of succession, is clear and well-arranged. A good deal of space might have been saved if the author had been content to state his propositions once and for all; he repeats them, often in different type, but generally in almost identical language. The iterative method is not a fault in oral lecturing, but it impedes the easy flow of a book. Mr Melville is a victim of the splitinfinitive habit.

THE LATE MR JOHN S. SAUNDERS,

SOLICITOR, PERTH.

By the death, through a singularly pathetic and regrettable accident, of Mr John Starkey Saunders-the sole partner of the firm of Messrs Thorburn & Saunders, solicitors-Perth has lost a much-esteemed member of the legal profession as well as a greatly valued and public-spirited citizen.

The only son of a well-known tea-merchant in Leith, Mr Saunders was born there in 1875. After receiving his education at the Edinburgh Institution he commenced his apprenticeship, at the age of sixteen, in the office of Messrs W. & J. Burness, W.S., and while in their employment he attended classes in Edinburgh University, taking honours in conveyancing.

He qualified as a

solicitor in 1897; and, after a short period of practice on his own account in Edinburgh, he went in 1904 to settle in Perth, where he carried on business with marked ability and success under the style of Thorburn

& Saunders. His knowledge of the law of Scotland was wide and accurate, and he spared neither time nor pains in the interest of his clients, whose confidence he very fully possessed. But his versatile nature and superabundant energy led him into many activities beyond the profession which he had adopted; and his sojourn of ten years in Perth shews a remarkable record of service, in social and political spheres, in religious, philanthropic and literary work, in the arena of sport and recreation, and finally, in the patriotic part he so conspicuously played in promoting the Citizens' Organisation, in connection with which he met with the sad accident which so prematurely terminated his life.

COURT OF SESSION.-The Second Division did not sit on Tuesday, the Lord Justice-Clerk being indisposed and Lord Salvesen absent on circuit. On Wednesday Lord Guthrie occupied the chair, and he had the assistance of Lord Ormidale and Lord Hunter. Lord Anderson was the only Lord Ordinary on Wednesday, Lord Dewar being absent on circuit and Lord Cullen sitting in the Extra Division. The case of the Earl of Galloway v. M'Clelland has been sent to the whole Court, a step which has been very rarely taken in recent years, the last

instance in the Court of Session being Wright v. Bell in 1905, and in the High Court of Justiciary Mortensen v. Peters in 1906. The case of the Earl of Galloway was recently heard before a Court of seven judges, and believe there is

we

no other instance of a case being considered both by

a Bench of seven judges and by the whole Court.

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY. - A sitting of the High Court of Justiciary was opened on Tuesday at the Justiciary Buildings, Glasgow. Lord Salvesen presided in the North Court, where Mr Mitchell prosecuted, assisted by Mr Lillie. Lord Dewar presided in the South Court, and Mr Wark, assisted by Mr Dunbar, appeared for the Crown. The circuit was a heavy one, and the proceedings extended over three days.

IN Glasgow Sheriff Court on 19th inst. Sheriff-Substitute Thomson referred to the honour which had been conferred by the War Office on Captain A. M. Alexander of the 5th Scottish Rifles. He said that he had noticed in the newspapers that a junior member of the Glasgow Bar had been mentioned by Sir John

g