Division, where he sat until his resignation in 1913. During this period, in addition to his judicial duties, he rendered notable public service by acting as chairman of the Universities Commission under the Universities Act from 1889 to 1897, and again when he acted as a member of the Churches Commission of 1905. people said that the criminals were all at the front. He thought there was a better reason than that—namely, that through the amount of employment available and good wages men were now doing honest work who formerly, through poverty and irregular employment, would have fallen into crime. It was another instance which shewed that at the root of the whole criminal question was not what our forefathers called original sin, but poverty and absence of regular employment. It is, however, as a judge that Lord Kinnear will be best remembered. A learned lawyer and a great master of polished language, he possessed that skill in the statement of principle which is the hall-mark of legal genius; indeed, when he had only been three THE latest list of causes standing for hearing years on the Bench, Lord President Inglis re- in the House of Lords includes eight cases from ferred to him as a judge "whose felicity of England and one from Scotland-Oakbank Oil expression in the exposition of legal principle Co. Ltd. v. Love & Stewart Ltd. In addition I am accustomed to admire." The subject there are four Scots appeals awaiting judgment which he found most congenial was undoubtedly Davidson & Co. v. Officer; Glendinning v. Board the Scottish system of land rights, particularly of Agriculture for Scotland; Houston and Others the law governing the relationship of superior v. Burns and Another; British Columbia Farms and vassal and the law of entail, and his judg- Association v. Stewart. ments contain many masterly expositions of the law on these subjects. In his earlier years at the Bar he had made a special study not only of the feudal law but of the social conditions out of which it arose, and this, combined with a legal instinct which was one of his natural endowments, made him one of the greatest of Scottish feudalists. But it would not be true to say that he was a feudal lawyer and nothing more. His grasp of legal principle and balancing power made his judgments valuable even when he was dealing with those branches of law where his great powers of deductive reasoning found little scope. When Lord Kinnear resigned his seat on the Bench in 1913 he was eighty years of age, and it might naturally have been thought that his judicial work was done. But during the next three years he took a prominent part in the disposal of appeals in the House of Lords. Notwithstanding his age his judgments shewed no falling off in quality; they were fewer, and, on the whole, shorter than his judgments in the Court of Session, but the legal reasoning was of the same high order. His death removes one of the ablest of judges and one of the most learned of Scottish lawyers. COURT OF SESSION.-The Lords of Council and Session have resolved to adjourn the Court, from 9th to 16th February. A SITTING of the High Court of Justiciary was held in Glasgow on 27th December. Lord Guthrie and Lord Skerrington were the presiding judges, and Mr C. H. Brown and Mr W. T. Watson prosecuted. There were only four cases, and at the close of the proceedings Lord Guthrie made reference to the lightness of the calendar, and said that it was very satisfactory to note the small amount of crime that had been before the Court. Some WE regret to record the death of Colonel R. Burns Begg, K.C. (Transvaal), which took place in Edinburgh on 9th January. We hope to publish a notice of his career next week. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK GRAY, who has been killed in action, was the only son of the late Mr William Dixon Gray, a Sheriff-Clerk Depute of Lanarkshire. He was educated at Airdrie Academy and at Glasgow University, where he took honours in conveyancing. He afterwards served an apprenticeship to the law in Glasgow, and he was admitted to the Bar in 1916, on the day on which he received a commission in the Highland Light Infantry. Recently Captain Gray was awarded the Military Cross. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROBERT KYLE, Highland Light Infantry, who has received the D.S.O., is a well-known member of the legal profession in Glasgow. For many years he was associated with the Volunteer movement, and served both in Glasgow and in Dumbartonshire. He qualified as an instructor of musketry and Army signalling. Immediately after the outbreak of war he offered his services to the War Office, and was gazetted to the position of captain and adjutant of the battalion of which he is now commander. Colonel Kyle has been on active service since September 1914. He was wounded a year ago. Last month he was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's despatches. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN THE Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stevenson Horne, K.C., R.E., who becomes a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was in time of peace one of the busiest seniors at the Scottish Bar. He gave up his practice more than a year ago in order to offer himself for national work. He was appointed Deputy-Director of the Agricultural Section of the National Service Department. This appointment he resigned to take up the duties of Assistant Inspector-General of Transportation under Sir Eric Geddes, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. When Sir Eric Geddes returned to this country to become Controller of the Navy, Colonel Horne was appointed Director of Materials and Priority in the Admiralty, and this office he now holds. Colonel Horne is the prospective Unionist candidate for the Partick Division of Lanark shire. He contested Stirlingshire in the two General Elections in 1910. Mr James Adam, who has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, is the son of the late Lord Adam, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1893. Since the outbreak of hostilities he has devoted his whole time to war work. He acted as supervisor of the office work of the headquarters of the Edinburgh branch of the Red Cross. For the last year he has been Chief Commissioner of the Agricultural Section of the National Service Department. Sheriff Maconochie and Sheriff-Substitute Fyfe (Glasgow) have been made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire, and Sheriff-Substitute Menzies has been made an Officer of the same Order. Mr R. R. Simpson, W.S., who has received the honour of knighthood, is one of the oldest members of the Society of Writers to the Signet, having been admitted in 1869. Mr Simpson is principal partner of the firm of R. R. Simpson & Lawson, W.S. He is a native of Bathgate, and a brother of the late Sir A. R. Simpson and nephew of Sir James Simpson, the inventor of chloroform. He has been for over forty years depute-clerk of the Free Church, and latterly of the United Free Church. a The Hon. J. C. Dove Wilson, who has also been knighted, is a son of the late Professor Dove Wilson, Aberdeen. He was admitted to the He was Faculty of Advocates in 1888. reporter for the "Scots Law Times," and was subsequently on the staff of the "Session Cases" under Mr Rettie. In 1904 he was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Natal, and for some years he has been Judge President of the Natal Provincial Division of the Supreme knighthood has been conferred on Mr Patrick Rose Innes, K.C., the Recorder of Sandwich; on Mr Herbert Neild, K.C., M.P.; and on Mr J. Litheby, legal adviser to the Local Government Board. Mr Anthony Hope Hawkins, one of the most notable of the new knights, is also a member of the English bar, but it may safely be said that in his case the honour is conferred in respect of his literary rather than his legal distinction. DURING the year 1917, 299 divorce cases were disposed of in the Court of Session, compared with 261 in 1916 and 231 in 1915. The husband was the pursuer in 160 of the actions and the wife in 139; while infidelity was successfully urged in 179 cases and desertion in 120. Lord Anderson disposed of nearly four times as many as any of his Outer House colleagues, having 201. Lord Ormidale followed with 56, the late Lord Dewar had 33, and the other Lords Ordinary 3 each. AT a sitting of Stranraer Sheriff Court in the County Buildings, Stranraer, Mr George Morton, the newly appointed Sheriff of Dumfries and Galloway, was formally introduced to the Bench and the Bar by Sheriff-Substitute Watson, who said that Mr Morton's record was ample guarantee that he would creditably discharge the duties of the important position of the sheriffdom. Mr Morton belonged to an agricultural district, so he would have experience which was invaluable in the kind of cases which frequently came before the Court. Mr J. M. Rankin, ProcuratorFiscal, welcomed Sheriff Morton on behalf of the Bar. Sheriff Morton thanked Sheriff Watson and the members of the Bar for their kind welcome. He assured them it would be his endeavour to follow the precedent set by his predecessors in office in regard to the way they carried on their work and the courtesy which they had extended to the gentlemen of the Bar. Mr MR JOSEPH MERSON, solicitor, Banchory, has been appointed Assistant County Clerk of Aberdeenshire, in succession to the late Mr Charles Diack, advocate in Aberdeen. Merson was town-clerk, registrar, and clerk to the School Board and Parish Council of BanIn England Sir James Woodhouse, one chory, and these appointments he has just of the Railway and Canal Commissioners, has resigned. He has been clerk and treasurer to been created a peer; and the Attorney-General the Banchory School Board for twenty-four (Sir Frederick Smith) and Mr Ellis Griffith, years. Court of South Africa. K.C., M.P. (formerly Under-Secretary at the Home Office), have been created baronets. The Solicitor-General (Sir Gordon Hewart) has been appointed a Privy Councillor. The honour of LAW LIBRARY. BOOK NOTICES. DECISIONS IN THE ENGLISH COURTS. In re Edwards. FEE AND LIFERENT-APPORTIONMENT OF DIVIDENDS-CONSTRUCTION OF WILL-APPORTIONMENT ACT 1870 (33 & 34 VICT. CAP. 35), SECTION 7.-A testator by his will gave his property to trustees on trust for sale, with directions to invest the proceeds and pay the income to his wife for life. The testator empowered his trustees to postpone the sale, and further provided that pending sale "the whole of the income of the property actually producing income shall be applied as from my death as income." Dividends on certain shares forming part of the estate were declared after the testator's death in respect of a period prior thereto. Held that these dividends fell to be treated as capital, the above-quoted provision in the will not excluding the operation of the Apportionment Act 1870.-Chan. Div. (Astbury J.).-30th November 1917. The place of honour in the latest number of the "Juridical Review" is assigned to a skit, in rhyme, by Professor Gloag, Glasgow, on the M'Caig litigations, in which a bequest of a large sum of money for the purpose of erecting statues representing the members of the testator's family was held to be invalid. It is a most amusing effort-so far as we know, the best thing of its kind which has been produced in Scotland since Mr Brodie Innes' report in verse of the Mackenzie divorce case, which appeared in one of the early numbers of this review. Under the title "Mrs Mackenzie's Misfortune" Mr William Roughead tells the sordid story of a woman who was hanged in 1823 for stabbing a young man in a house of ill fame which she carried on in Edinburgh. Mr W. W. Lucas has an article-"The Persistence of Common Consent in British Politics"-in which he attempts to belittle the Joshua Buckton & Son Ltd. v. London and North- part which the House of Lords has played in Western Railway Co. legislation prior to the passing of the Parliament Act. Mr L. V. Holt contributes a short sketch CARRIAGE OF GOODS SPECIAL of the decisions on the subject of soldiers' and RAILWAY CONTRACT SIGNATURE- REASONABLENESS WILFUL MISCONDUCT RAILWAY AND CANAL TRAFFIC ACT 1854 (17 & 18 VICT. CAP. 31), SECTION 7.-The plaintiffs delivered certain goods to the defendants, along with an owner's risk consignment note bearing the plaintiffs' signature in print. Under the contract the defendants were liable for damage to the goods only if occasioned by the wilful misconduct of their servants. There was open to the plaintiffs an option to send the goods on ordinary common law liability at a rate considerably below the statutory maximum. The goods were damaged because the waggon which was sent to the plaintiffs' works to carry the goods was insufficient owing to the negligent mistake of the defendants' servants. Held (1) that the printed signature was sufficient to satisfy the requirement of a signed contract contained in section 7 of the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854; (2) that the contract was just and reasonable in the sense of the section; and (3) that the mistake as to the waggon did not amount to wilful misconduct on the part of the defendants' servants. -K.B. Div. (Astbury J.).—1st December 1917. sailors' wills, and Sheriff Lorimer criticises the recent decision of the Second Division in a slander action-A. B. and C. D. v. X. Y. (1917 S.C. 15). There is also a review of the legal literature of the quarter. The number is an excellent one, and the editor must be congratulated on keeping up the high standard of his magazine in spite of the difficulties occasioned by the war. Principles and Practice of the Law of Libel and Slander. By Sir Hugh Fraser, of the Inner This book contains an admirably succinct account of the principles of the law of libel and slander as developed in England. The law is digested into a number of articles setting forth the leading propositions and these are commented on in notes in which the case-law is discussed. Copious references are given to the decisions, but in the text the author uses authorities mainly for purposes of illustration and does not overload his book by an exhaustive discussion of every case; in this way the principles of the law are very clearly brought out. The more important Scots cases are mentioned and the machinery of reference is replete with the latest improvements. The book should prove a most useful one. THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN LORNE MACLEOD, LORD PROVOST OF EDINBURGH. Edinburgh has been exceptionally fortunate in its chief magistrates, and it is exceptionally fortunate in its present one. Perhaps the greatest of all the Lord Provosts of Edinburgh was George Drummond. But for him we might never have had a North Bridge, the foundation stone of which he laid and the building of which he urged, with the result that the city spread away to the north, with all its new buildings of the New Town - perhaps the most amazing development of any city in history. To him also we be the youngest Lord Provost who ever was elected, and one who is shaping for another Drummond. Sir John Lorne MacLeod, one of the few members of the legal profession who has been elected Provost of Edinburgh, was born in 1873 at Inveraray, where his father was governor of H.M. Prison after his retiral from the Army. Sir John had his early education at Inveraray, and later at Edinburgh University, where he attended the Arts and Law classes, taking high distinction in conveyan cing and being pre sident of the Scots Law Society. He was ad mitted a member of the S.S.C. Society at the early age of twentytwo, and was then assumed a partner by his brother-inlaw, the late Mr George Whigham, in an old-established legal business which is carried on as Messrs Whigham & MacLeod, S.S.C., his brother being are indebted for the founding of that great and noble institution, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, in which these two great discoveries, antiseptics and anesthetics, were first used-now associated with him in the business. discoveries which have revolutionised the whole Sir John was elected to the School Board of of medicine all the world over. Drummond was Edinburgh in 1903, and served on it for six no less than six times elected Lord Provost of years, being successively convener of the Finance, Edinburgh in the middle of the eighteenth cen- Law, and Building committees. In 1905 he was tury, and his great success was due to the fact elected to the Edinburgh Town Council. He that he was elected as a young man full of was immediately appointed convener of the Law energy. committee, became chairman of the Educational We have now in the chair one who is said to Trust and governor of the Art College, and b |