thereto shall, during the period of three consecutive months, have taken any proceeding therein, the action shall, at the expiration of that period, (eo ipso) stand dismissed." § 15.

Without prejudice nevertheless to either of the parties, within three months after the expiration of such first period of three months, but not thereafter, to revive the said action, on shewing good cause to the satisfaction of the Sheriff why no procedure had taken place thereon, OR, upon payment to the other party of the preceding expenses incurred in the cause. § 15.

Whereupon such action shall be revived and proceeded with in ordinary form, with power to the Sheriff, if he shall see fit, to disallow such expenses, or any part thereof, in the accounts of the agent of either party against his client. a 15.

But there is the following exception :-" Provided always that nothing herein contained shall apply to cases in which the right under such action has been acquired by a third party, by death or otherwise, within such period of six months." § 15. In such case there may be a wakening.

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By the former practice a judicial act, such as an interlocutor renewing the last interlocutor, was sufficient to keep a process awake, and such an interlocutor falls within the words taking any proceeding therein." At the same time it must be observed that prorogations by the Sheriff of the periods for lodging any paper, and for transmitting any process to the Sheriff, or for closing a record, can only be made once, except by written consent of parties. § 6.

Sisting Process.

An interlocutor sisting process, if pronounced by the Sheriff-substitute, may be appealed to the Sheriff; and a Sheriff's interlocutor sisting process may be advocated.

Supplementary Summons.

A supplementary summons may still in certain cases be required. There is nothing in the recent statute declaring it incompetent.

Taxation of Expenses-See Expenses.

Tender.

A tender, in order to have the effect of subjecting the opposite party to expenses subsequent to its date, must be pure, absolute, and unqualified— See Gunn, 17th March 189, 1ì D. 106, and other recent cases as to the effect of tender on the question of expenses; Carnegie, 13th Feb. 1849; Logan, 6th March 1850; and Allan, 1st July 1851.

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CHAPTER IX.

Particular Actions.*

With reference to the rules which we have stated in the two preceding chapters, as applicable to the ordinary course of procedure in the Sheriff Court, we shall, in this last chapter, treat of what may be termed Particular Actions—namely, those in which the styles of the summons or petition, and more or less of the after procedure, differ from the ordinary procedure which we have exemplified in Chapter VII.

Adjudication.

We need not enter upon the subject of adjudications, because although they are, to a certain extent, and within narrow limits, competent before the Sheriff (see page 10), yet in practice they are seldom, so far as our observation has gone, pursued before the Sheriff, but before the Court of Session. Should any practitioner intend to raise any of those kinds of adjudication which are competent before the Sheriff, he will find the subject fully and ably handled by Mr Parker in his valuable treatise on Adjudications, to which forms of summonses are appended, which can, by a slight alteration, be adapted to the Sheriff Court.

Aliment.

As stated in the chapter on Jurisdiction, page 8, actions of aliment may be instituted, heard, and determined in any Sheriff Court in Scotland. 1 Will. IV. chap. 69, § 32.

If, however, an action for aliment be brought at the instance of a woman against her alleged husband, should he deny the marriage, it has been held that instead of allowing the proof to be taken incidentally in the Sheriff Court, process should be sisted until the pursuer shall instruct her marriage in a declaratory action before the Court of Session.-Cameron v. Innes, 25th January 1711, Dict. 7405.

But in an action for the aliment of a child born of a married woman, but said to be illegitimate, against which the defender, the alleged father, who was not the husband, pleaded pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant, the Court of Session held that the question, whether the defender was the father of the child, to the effect of subjecting him in aliment, could be decided in the inferior court; such decision, however, being no bar to the child afterwards bringing a process to declare its legitimacy.

The following may be the form of a

* Throughout this Chapter, where Sections alone are cited, they are those of the recent Statute 16 & 17 Vict. c. 80. A. S. 3 is the Section of the Act of Sederunt, 10th July 1839.

to officers of Court, jointly and severally.-Whereas it is shewn unto me by A. B. design) pursuer, against C. D. (design) defender, in terms of the conclusions underwritten: THEREFORE the defender ought to be decerned to pay to the pursuer, his lawful son, who is unable to earn a livelihood for himself, and whom the defender refuses to receive into his house, the sum of L.25 sterling yearly, in name of aliment, and that by two equal portions, beginning the first payment thereof on the first day of October last, as for aliment from the 1st of April last, to that date, and the next payment at the 1st day of April next for the six months preceding, and so forth half-yearly during the pursuer's lifetime (or as the case may be, or until the defender receive and support the pursuer under his own roof), with interest on each term's payment from the time the same is payable until payment, with expenses of process: AND MY WILL Is that ye summon the defender to compear in my Court-house at Edinburgh, upon the sixth day next after the date of your citation, in the hour of cause, with continuation of days, to answer in the premises, with certification in case of failure of being held as confessed, and that ye arrest in security the defender's goods, monies, debts, and effects.—Given at Edinburgh the second day of November eighteen hundred and fifty-three years.

Sheriff-Clerk.

Summons of Aliment at the instance of a Wife against her Husband.

Sheriff, &c. (as above)—Whereas it is shewn to me by A. B. (design her) wife of C. D. (design him) pursuer, against the said C. D. defender, in terms of the conclusions under written: Therefore the defender ought to be decerned to pay to the pursuer, whom the defender has deserted, and left without the means of subsistence, the sum of L. &c. as in the preceding style.

In the case of a mother pursuing for the aliment of an illegitimate child, the form of petition has hitherto occasionally been resorted to. But the more correct form of proceeding is by a summons. It is declared by § 147 of the Act of Sederunt 1839, that actions of aliment brought in the form of a summons are to be entitled to the privileges of summary processes in every respect. The following may be the form of a

Summons of Filiation and Aliment.

day of

· Sheriff, &c. (as above)—Whereas it is shewn to me by A. B. (desi ̧n) pursuer, against C. D. (design) defender, in terms of the conclusions under written: Therefore the defender ought to be decerned to pay to the pursuer the following sums of money as his proportion of the inlying expenses and aliment of an illegitimate male child, of which the pursuer was delivered on the last, and of which the defender is the father, viz. L.1, 10s. of inlying expenses; Item, L.5 sterling for nursing, clothing, and aliment to said child for the first year after its birth; Item, L.4 sterling of aliment for each year thereafter, aye and until said child shall arrive at the age of ten years complete, said sums of aliment to be payable quarterly per advance, with the legal interest of said sum of inlying expenses from and since the day of and of each quarter's aliment from and since the time it has fallen or may hereafter fall due, quarterly until paid; but super

seding execution on said decreet until each quarter's aliment be first come and bygone; and reserving to the pursuer to apply for additional aliment on the expiry of said ten years, if said child shall then be unable to earn its own subsistence; also to make payment of expenses of process. AND MY WILL Is, &c.

Arrestment.

Small Debt Forms.

The Small Debt Statute, § 6, provides that the pursuer of any civil cause, including maritime civil causes and proceedings, may use arrestment on the dependence in regard to any money, goods, or effects, to an amount or extent not exceeding the value of L.8, 6s. 8d. now L.12, owing or belonging to such defender, in the hands of any third party, either within the county in which such warrant shall have been issued, or in any other county or counties.

But if the warrant is used in any other county, it must be first indorsed by the Sheriff-clerk thereof. § 6.

The form both of the schedule, and execution of arrestment, are given in the statute, schedule (C). It is unnecessary to repeat them here. One witness to the execution is sufficient. § 21.

The Small Debt Statute farther enacts, that the wages of labourers and manufacturers shall, so far as necessary for their subsistence, be deemed alimentary, and in like manner as servants' fees, and other alimentary funds not liable to arrestment. § 7.

Any arrestment laid on under the authority of the Small Debt Act shall, on the expiry of three months from the date thereof, cease and determine without the necessity of a decree or warrant loosing the same, unless such arrestment or warrant shall be renewed by a special warrant or order, duly intimated to the arrestee, in which case it shall subsist and be in force for the like time and under the like conditions as under the original warrant, or unless an action of forthcoming or multiplepoinding shall have been raised before the expiry of the said three months, in which case the arrestment shall be in force until the termination of such action. § 6.

Ordinary Court Forms.

Arrestment on the Dependence.

If the summons do not contain a warrant for arresting (which every summons may do, A. S. § 12), the clerk is authorized to issue separate precepts of arrestment upon there being produced to him a libelled summons not containing a warrant of arrestment, or a petition with pecuniary conclusions; A. S. § 153.

The precept shall always set forth the ground of application for the arrestment, and no blank warrant of arrestment shall be granted upon any pretence whatever; A. S. § 153.

Supposing the summons, of which we have given the style at page 30, had not contained a warrant of arrestment, and the pursuer wished to arrest, the clerk of court would issue a precept in the following form :—

Precept of Arrestment.

Sheriff, &c. -Whereas it is humbly meant and shewn to me by A. B. tailor and clothier in Edinburgh, complainer, against C. D. cabi

L

netmaker, residing in Castle Street there, defender, that the complainer has raised an action against the said defender, concluding (take in the conclusions). Therefore it is my will that ye arrest in security the defender's goods, monies, debts, and effects.-Given at Edinburgh the 4th day of November 1853.

Sheriff-Clerk.

This is a very much abbreviated form of the precept of arrestment at present in use, but it seems quite clear that such shortened form is authorised by the statute.

The

The agent instructs the officer to what extent he should arrest. sum is generally to an extent which will safely cover debt and expenses. The following is the officer's

Schedule of Arrestment.

By virtue of a warrant of the Sheriff of the shire of Edinburgh, given under the hand of the Clerk of Court at Edinburgh, the 4th day of November 1853 years, for arrestment on the dependence of an action raised before the said Sheriff at the instance of A. B. tailor and clothier in Edinburgh, against C. D. cabinetmaker, residing in Castle Street there, I hereby fence and arrest in the hands of you H. H. residing in No. 99 Queen Street, Edinburgh, all sums of money owing by you to the said defender, or to any other person for his use and behoof, and all goods and effects in your custody belonging to the said defender, and that to an amount or extent not exceeding the sum of all to remain under sure fence and arrestment at the complainer's instance, until due consignation be made, or until sufficient caution be found, as accords of law. This I do on the second day of November 1853, before Adam Huie, residing in Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, by delivering a copy of this exccution to you personally (or as the case may be.)

L.

JOHN ROBSON, Sheriff-Officer.

The execution will be the usual echo of this schedule, commencing with the date on which the arrestment was used.

Should the warrant of arrestment require to be used in a different county from that in which it is issued, endorsation by the Sheriff-clerk of that county is necessary.

If the officer executes the warrant of arrestment contained in the summons, by arresting the defender's effects, he must forthwith return an execution of arrestment to the clerk; A. S. § 18.

Where arrestment is used upon any libelled summons before executing the warrant of citation, "such arrestment shall be effectual, provided the warrant of citation shall be executed against the defender within twenty days after the date of the execution of the arrestment, and the summons be called in court within twenty days after the diet of compearance; or when the expiry of the said period of twenty days falls within the vaca tion, provided the summons be called on the first court-day next thereafter, whether such court-day be one of those authorized to be held in vacation, or in the ensuing session; and if the warrant of citation shall not be executed, and the summons called in manner above directed, the arrestment shall be null, without prejudice to the validity of any subsequent arrest