tary of Glasgow University Court, and on of benzine was destroyed by fire owing to the Mr Robert Renwick, Depute Town-Clerk of Glasgow. MR ALEXANDER MACMORRAN, K.C., has been appointed Recorder of Hastings in succession to the late Mr J. F. Torr. MR WILLIAM C. HUNTER, W.S.; Mr James M. Hodge, solicitor, Blairgowrie; Mr John B. Millar, solicitor, Blairgowrie; and Mr Duncan Macnab, solicitor, Perth, have been appointed Justices of the Peace for the county of Perth. DECISIONS IN THE ENGLISH COURTS. George Clare & Co. v. Dresdner Bank Ltd. BANK-BRANCHES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES — LIABILITY FOR CURRENT ACCOUNT. The defendants were a German banking company with branches in various countries, including England. The plaintiff, at the outbreak of war, had a balance on current account at the Berlin branch of the defendants' bank, and now claimed payment of that balance from the London branch. Held that the bank, having branches in various countries, was not under obligation to pay in one country a debt due on current account in another country.-K.B. Div. (Rowlatt J.).-2nd March 1915. Foran v. Attorney-General. REVENUE-INCREMENT VALUE DUTY-RETURN —MINERALS—FINANCE (1909-10) ACT 1910 (10 EDW. VII. CAP. 8), SECTIONS 25 (2), 26 (1), (2).The owners of certain land made a return of "Form 4" of land in certain occupation. The land was let on lease to the occupier with a reservation of minerals to the lessors. The minerals were neither leased nor worked. In the return the column for the capital value of the minerals was left blank. When the minerals were subsequently sold, and increment value duty became payable, held that the owners were not bound to treat the capital value of the minerals at the date of the return as nil. Decision of Warrington J. reversed.-Court of Appeal (Lord Cozens-Hardy M.R., Phillimore L.J., and Joyce J.).-5th March 1915. Lennard's Carrying Co. Ltd. v. Asiatic Petroleum Co. Ltd. unseaworthiness of the vessel. In an action by indorsees of the bill of lading, the owners of the vessel pleaded the protection of section 502 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, which provides that owners shall not be liable for loss or damage happening without their "actual fault or privity." One of the directors of the owning company was the active director of the other limited company which was the manager of the ship. Held that the owners were, in the circumstances, not entitled to the protection of section 502. Decision of the Court of Appeal affirmed. -House of Lords (Viscount Haldane L.C., Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Parker of Waddington, and Parmoor).-10th March 1915. INSURANCE COMPANY.-A jeweller, who was insured at Lloyd's against theft, devised a scheme for pretending that he had been robbed and for SHIP-CARGO-FIRE-LIABILITY OF OWNERS- obtaining insurance money for jewellery said UNSEAWORTHINESS-"ACTUAL FAULTOR PRIVITY" to have been stolen. He tied himself up in OF OWNERS-MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT 1894 his shop and shouted for help. A policeman (57 & 58 VICT. CAP. 60), SECTION 502.-A cargo | heard his cries and found him partly tied up. The jewellery of which he pretended to have is plain from the number of cases which have been robbed was found hidden, and no claim been reported, and the cases which have come under the policy was made. Held that these into court are only a small fraction of those facts did not warrant a conviction for an attempt which have need to be dealt with in practice. to obtain money by false pretences.-Court of We, therefore, confidently anticipate that this Criminal Appeal (Lord Reading C.J., Bray and little book will prove most serviceable to the Lush JJ.).-15th March 1915. profession. It is written, not in the form of notes to the different sections, but in one continuous statement. After dealing with the valuation provisions of the Act and with substituted site value, it treats of the different duties in their order and concludes with a chap Hampton v. Toxteth Co-operative Provident INSURANCE LIFE-INDUSTRIAL AND PROVIDENT SOCIETY—BONUS PROPORTIONATE TO MEM-ter on procedure in appeals, and there is also an - An BER'S PURCHASES PAYABLE ON DEATH. Appendix of Statutes and Rules. The book is industrial and provident society instituted a fund out of which a sum was to be paid on the smooth and obscure things plain. It would be a praiseworthy attempt to make rough places death of a member or of the husband or wife of an over-statement to say that the author has a member. The sum payable was to be propor- achieved complete success, for his subject is one tionate to the purchases made by the member of those things which cannot be made clear by during a certain period prior to the death. The any amount of exposition. But he will, at least, scheme was advertised as "free life insurance." have the satisfaction of knowing that he has In an action by a member for an injunction to done everything that can be done to this restrain the society from carrying on "life insur-end. ance business" on the ground that it was ultra vires, held (diss. Phillimore L.J.) that the scheme was not a life insurance business, and that the action should be dismissed.-Court of Appeal (Lord Cozens-Hardy M.R., Phillimore L.J., and Joyce J.).-16th March 1915. The "Panariellos" (Part Cargo ex). INTERNATIONAL LAW-PRIZE-TRADING WITH THE ENEMY-DUTY OF ALLIES.-A French company, in implement of a contract made before the war, chartered a Greek steamer to convey a cargo of silver lead from Greece to Germany. War commenced while the cargo was being loaded in Greece. The vessel sailed but was diverted to Swansea, and there the cargo was seized and sold, although still the property of the French company. Held that the citizens of an allied state were not entitled to trade with the enemy, and that, as the owners in this case had done so, the cargo was liable to be condemned.—Prob., Div. and Adm. Div. (Evans P.). -22nd March 1915. Supplement No. 3, to 30th April 1915, in Con- This Supplement (No. 3) to the "Manual of Emergency Legislation" is a continuation of Supplement No. 2, and covers the period between 5th December 1913 and 30th April 1914. During that period many important changes in emergency legislation have been made. Of seventeen public general statutes passed during the period in question, as many as thirteen are emergency statutes. Amongst British ships and facilitating legal proceedings these are Acts restricting the transfers of ing the Defence of the Realm Act by giving against enemies, and there are two Acts amendBritish subjects the right to be tried by a civil court instead of a court-martial, and by extending the powers for expediting the production of war materials. In addition, numerous Proclamations, Regulations, and Orders in Council have been issued, and existing ones have been The Law Relating to the Taxes on Land Values. By amended, consolidated, and again amended. Edgar Percy Hewitt, K.C., assisted by Kenneth The text of the new matter is duly set forth, C. Raikes, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at- and all possible devices have been used to make Law. London: Butterworth & Co., 1915. the work of reference easy. There is an AnalytiPrice 7s. 6d. net. cal Index to Supplements 2 and 3, a Chronological Table of Emergency Legislation covering The duties on land values have only been in the whole period from the beginning of the war, operation for a period of about five years, and and a Table shewing the effect of the matter the valuation which they have rendered neces-contained in this Supplement on earlier legislasary is not nearly completed, but that they tion. The book is one which no practitioner have given rise to a large amount of litigation can afford to be without. LAW LIBRARY. BOOK NOTICES. THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES SCOTT DICKSON. In selecting Mr Charles Scott Dickson to fill the office of Lord Justice-Clerk the Government have made an appointment which has given much satisfaction in the Parliament House. Indeed, it is not too much to say that any other appointment would have been bitterly resented unless it was known that the vacant judgeship had been offered to, and refused by, Mr Dickson. Mr Dick son was born in Glasgow in 1850, and was edu cated at Glasgow High School and the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. After completing his apprenticeship he practised for a year as a law agent in in Glasgow. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1877, and he quickly made his way to the front rank of the junior Bar. He was appointed senior Advocate - Depute 1892, and he again held that office from June 1895 to May 1896, when he succeeded Mr Graham Murray as Solicitor-General. He entered Parliament at the General Election of 1900 as member for the Bridgeton Division of Glasgow-a seat which had never before returned a member of the Conservative party and in 1903 he was promoted to the office of Lord Advocate, which he held until the resignation of Mr Balfour's Government in December 1905. He lost his seat at the General Election of 1906 and returned to the Bar (where he had appeared comparatively seldom during his time in Parliament), and during the next few years he appeared in almost every important case which came before the Court of Session. In 1909 he was returned to Parliament as member for the Central Division of Glasgow. During the last ten years he has taken a leading in part public affairs, and has been universally recognised as one of the most eminent leaders of the Union ist party in Scotland. In 1908 MrDickson was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in succession to Lord Skerrington. He was the unanimous choice of his professional brethren, and of the many eminent men who have held that office none has ever filled it with greater distinction or stood higher in the esteem and affection of the Bar. If any regret at all is felt about his elevation to the Bench, it is due to the fact that the same person cannot be at the same time both Dean of Faculty and Lord Justice-Clerk. MR CHARLES SCOTT DICKSON was entertained at luncheon at the House of Commons on 23rd June by his fellow Scottish members of all parties on the occasion of his appointment as Lord Justice-Clerk. Mr Eugene Wason presided, and the company, which numbered about fifty, included Lord Camperdown, the Secretary for Scotland, the Lord Advocate, Sir Robert Finlay, Mr Clyde, and practically every Scottish member who was not absent through illness, military duty, or other unavoidable cause. Among those who sent apologies for absence were Mr Bonar Law, Mr Arthur Henderson, and Lord Shaw of Dunfermline. Sir Robert Finlay, who was to have proposed Mr Scott Dickson's health, had to leave early to keep a professional engagement, and the duty was discharged by Mr Wason. He assured Mr Dickson that his appointment had given the greatest satisfaction to all his fellow-members for Scotland, irrespective of party, and while they regretted the loss of a genial colleague, they rejoiced that he had been given judicial preferment for which he was admirably qualified. The new Lord Justice-Clerk, in his reply, acknowledged the kindness which in spite of keen political differences he had experienced at the hands of his Scottish colleagues. SIR EDMUND BARTON, who is a judge of the High Court of Australia, sat for the first time last week as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. CAPTAIN IAN G. FLEMING, 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders, who has been awarded the Military Cross, is a son of Mr J. G. Fleming, solicitor, Keith. Going to the front as a lieutenant, he has been in the fighting line since November, and distinguished himself by his gallantry at Neuve Chapelle. Before joining the Army, Captain Fleming was assistant Parliament-House clerk to Messrs Alex. Morison & Co., W.S., and was at the same time a law student at Edinburgh University. AMONG those who have been mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service in the field are the late Colonel Alexander Brook of the 8th Royal Scots; the late Captain Thomas Todrick of the same battalion; and the late Colonel Fraser of the 4th Cameron Highlanders. CAPTAIN ALEXANDER W. U. MACRAE, 5th Battalion Royal Scots (T.F.) has been wounded in the left leg at the Dardanelles. He is the son of Colonel Horatio R. Macrae, W.S., Edinburgh. Captain Macrae was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Oxford University, where he graduated B.A. with honours. He studied law at Edinburgh University and passed LL.B. in 1909. In that year he was admitted to the Society of Writers to the Signet. He is a member of his father's firm, Macrae, Flett & Rennie, W.S. Captain Macrae served in the Oxford University M.I. from 1903 to 1906, and joined the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles in 1907. He was gazetted Captain in August 1912. He has been through the heavy fighting at the Dardanelles, and was previously slightly wounded. WE regret to record the death of Lieutenant Patrick H. Keith, 6th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Lieutenant Keith was the son of Mr Patrick Keith, writer, Hamilton. He was educated at Hamilton Academy and Fettes College, and served his apprenticeship with Messrs Paterson & Ross, writers, Glasgow, and was afterwards in the office of Messrs Lindsay, Cuthbertson & Mackenzie. He passed as a law agent in May 1912. He joined the 6th Cameronians as second lieutenant in 1908, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1910. On the outbreak of the war he volunteered for foreign service, and was attached to the special foreign service battalion at Larbert, but the 6th having volunteered as a battalion for foreign service, he rejoined them at Falkirk, and proceeded to France with them in March. On leaving Larbert he was placed in command of C company. When the double companies were formed he was second in command of the double formation, and was leading the company when he fell. "THE PUBLIC": A MEDITATION. According to the accepted view, it is indispensable that "the public" should be admitted to our civil and criminal Courts. And "the public" turns out in considerable numbers to listen to the proof in consistorial causes and to trials in the High Court. What, then, is “the public" like? How can it be described so as to give the intelligent New Zealander a true impression of its quality? "The public" is very ugly, to begin with. The ordinary jury is a collection of Adonises compared with "the public." "The public" has generally a red, and not seldom a bulbous, nose. Such teeth as linger in its unattractive mouth are sparse and yellow. It has a dull, a bleary, and a fish-like eye-an eye devoid of a single spark of intelligence. Its hair is dead and unkempt. Its skin may be politely called sallow. It is ill-shaven: it may shave yesterday or shave to-morrow, but it obviously never shaves to-day. Yet the chief feature about "the public" is that it is amazingly dirty. Its face and hands and linen are grimy with the ingrained dirt of years. "The public" never washes, and consequently "the public" always has a smell. What becomes of "the public" in the intervals between causes célèbres? It is impossible to say. At the close of one trial it disappears to its den, only to reappear at the commencement of the next. It is inconceivable that it does any honest Date v. Gas Coal Collieries Ltd. -CHECKWEIGHER. work. No man in his senses would take "the K.B. Div. (Lawrence and Sankey JJ.).—25th public" into his employ, even for the most March 1915. menial of duties: so sodden, so languid, so disgusting, is "the public." The plausible theory has been started that in "the public" we at last come across our old familiar friends the "idle rich." There is much to be said for this view, but it must be frankly owned that "the public" presents few of the indicia usually associated with the conception of opulence. It is certain, moreover, that no respectable man ever had any dealings with "the public," and its normal habits must remain a mystery until the sanitary authorities have time to track it to its lair. A portion of "the public" is female. It is even more repulsive than the male section, of which, in its main characteristics, it is a worthy counterpart. CINEMATOGRAPH ACT 1909 (9 EDW. VII. CAP. 30), SECTION 2 (1)—LICENSING ALIEN ENEMIES -DISCRETION OF LICENSING AUTHORITY. Α company, of which the control was largely in the hands of alien enemies, was refused renewal of its licence for conducting a cinematograph entertainment by means of inflammable films in one of its theatres. Held that it was within the discretion of the licensing authority to consider, and to be influenced by, the enemy character of directors and shareholders of the company. Decision of Divisional Court (supra, p. 60) affirmed.-Court of Appeal (Buckley, Pickford, and Bankes L.JJ.).-23rd March 1915. COAL MINES ACT 1911 (1 & 2 GEO. V. CAP. 50), SECTION 16-INSPECTOR APPOINTED BY MINERS The appointment of an inspector by the miners working in a pit is not invalid by reason of the person appointed being a checkweigher. Decision of Bailhache J. (1914 S.L.T. 127) affirmed.-Court of Appeal (Lord Reading C.J., Swinfen Eady L.J., and Bray J.).-25th March 1915. Huth v. Huth. DEFAMATION LIBEL PUBLICATION. The defendant, whose wife had left him, opened an envelope addressed to her containing an account rendered by a tradesman. He deleted his wife's name and inserted her maiden name, and added certain statements said to be defamatory of their children. He sent the account by post in an unsealed envelope to the wife's new address, where the butler, out of curiosity, opened the envelope and read what the defender had written. The children of the marriage brought an action for damages for libel. Held that, as the butler had opened the envelope in breach of his duty, there had been no publication which would entitle the plaintiffs to a verdict.-Court of Appeal (Lord Reading C.J., Swinfen Eady L.J., and Bray J.).-26th March 1915. Arnhold, Karberg & Co. v. Blythe, Green, WAR-C.I.F. CONTRACT-OFFER OF BILLS OF LADING OF GERMAN SHIP.-When goods had been sold by one English firm to another on a c.i.f. contract, and shipped on a German ship for a neutral port, the sellers are not entitled after the outbreak of war with Germany to demand payment of the price on tendering the German bills of lading to the buyers.-K.B. Div. (Scrutton J.).-26th March 1915. Smith v. D. Davis & Sons Ltd. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT 1906 (6 EDW. VII. CAP. 58), SCHEDULE I. (4)—MEDICAL EXAMINATION.-When a workman had been paid weekly compensation and these payments had been discontinued, the employer was entitled, on a demand by the workman for renewal of payments, to require him to submit himself again to medical examination, provided that a further examination was a reasonable thing for the |