education; but it is questionable whether So much of 2 G. 2, c. 23, as relates to the the groundwork even of professional know- fee on admission of attorneys, repealed.-Reledge can be laid in less than five years. citing that by 2 G. 2, c. 23, intituled, “An act That, however, must be the risk of the can-licitors," it is enacted, that the judges of the for the better regulation of attorneys and so didate himself. This act, which passed 15th July, 1837, is intituled, "An act for amending several acts for the regulation of attorneys and solicitors." It recites that by 1 & 2 G. 4, c. 48, intituled "An act to amend the several acts for the regulation of attorneys and solicitors," and which was afterwards amended by 3 G. 4, c. 16, intituled, "An act to amend an act made in the last session of parliament, for amending the several acts for the regulation of attorneys and solicitors," provision was made for facilitating the admission of graduates of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, as attorneys and solicitors of the courts of law and equity, in manner and upon the conditions in the said acts mentioned; and that since the passing of the said recited acts a body politic and corporate by the name of the University of London has been constituted by the royal charter of his late Majesty King William the Fourth, and an university has been founded and established in connection with the cathedral church of Durham, under the authority of 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 19, Pr., intituled, "An act to enable the Dean and Chapter of Durham to appropriate part of the property of their church to the establishment of an university in connection therewith, for the advancement of learning:" and that since the passing of the said last-mentioned act a royal charter of incorporation has been granted to the University of Durham; and that it is expedient that the provisions of the said first-recited acts should be extended to graduates of the said universities of London and Durham. It is therefore enacted as follows: Provisions of former acts, relating to the admission and inrolment as attorneys of Bachelors of Arts or Law at Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, extended to Bachelors of Arts or Law at the Universities of Landon and Durham.From and after the passing of this act all the provisions, regulations, conditions, and restrictions in the said recited acts, or either of them contained, for or relating to the admission and inrolment as attorneys and solicitors of persons who had taken or shall thereafter take the degree of bachelor of arts or bachelor of law in any of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, shall extend and be applicable to the admission and enrolment as attorneys and solicitors of all persons who shall have taken or shall take the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Law either in the said university of London or in the said university of Durham, as fully and effectually as if the said body politic and corporate called the university of London and the said university of Durham had been respectively constituted and founded at the time of the passing of the said acts, and had been therein named, together with the said universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. (s. 1.) several courts of Common Law therein mentioned, respectively, or any one or more of them, shall, before they shall admit any person to take the oath therein mentioned, examine and enquire, by such ways and means as they shall think proper, touching his fitness and capacity to act as an attorney; and that the Master of the Rolls, or two of the Masters of the Court of Chancery, shall in like manner, before he or they shall admit any person to take the oath therein mentioned, examine and enquire touching his fitness and capacity to act as a solicitor, and that if the said judges shall be satisfied that such person is duly qualified to be admitted to act as an attorney, and the said Master of the Rolls or two Masters in Chancery shall be satisfied that such person is duly qualified to be admitted to act as a solicltor, they are hereby respectively authorised to administer to such person the oath therein mentioned, and to admit and enrol him as an attorney or solicitor of such court respectively, without any fee or reward, other than 1s. for administering such oath: And reciting that other fees, gratuities, and sums of money beside the said fee of 18. have been in practice demanded or received by officers of the said Courts respectively; and that it is expedient to repeal so much of the said last recited act as relates to the fee payable upon such admission, and to make other regulations in lieu thereof: And that regulations for ensuring the due examination of persons to be admitted and inrolled as attornies or solicitors of the said Courts of Common Law and Equity have been made or approved by the Judges of the said Courts respectively; and that it is expedient that reasonable and certain fees, in lieu of those now demanded and received as aforesaid, should be paid by the persons so to be admitted upon and for such examination and admission, and the expenses incident thereto: it is enacted, that from and after the passing of this act so much of the said last-recited act of the second year of the reign of King George the Second as relates to the fee payable upon such admissions shall be and the same is hereby repealed. (s. 2.) No fees on examination or admission of attorneys, except those in schedule. From and after the passing of this act no fees, gratuities, or sums of money whatsoever, other than the fees or sums of money mentioned in the schedule to this act annexed, shall be demanded or received by any person or persons upon the examination or admission of attorneys or solicitors in any of the said Courts respectively, upon any pretence whatsoever. (s. 3.) Attorneys or solicitors admitted of one Court may practise in and recover costs for business transacted in another.-Any person who shall have been duly admitted an attorney in any one of her Majesty Courts of Law at Westminster, Changes in the Law.-Notices of New Books: Greening's Forms of Pleadinge. 219 shall be at liberty to practise in any other of her Majesty's Courts of Law at Westminster, although he may not have been admitted an attorney thereof; and that no person, having been duly admitted an attorney or solicitor in any of her Majesty's Courts of Law or Equity at Westminster, shall be prevented from recovering or receiving the amount of any costs which would otherwise have been due to him by reason of his not being admitted an attor. ney or solicitor of the Court in which such costs shall have been incurred: Provided always, that any attorney or solicitor practising in any Court of Law or Equity shall be subject to the jurisdiction of such Court, as fully and completely, to all intents and purposes whatever, as if he had been duly admitted an attorney or solicitor of such Court. (s. 4.) Act may be altered this session.-That this act may be amended, altered, or repealed during the present session of parliament. (s. 5.) "The nature of the present work may be collected from the title page, and it will probably be thought a compilation of very easy execution. The author at first certainly expected it would be so, but he had determined on making simplicity of arrangement one chief feature in his plan, and he discovered in the progress of the work that this was only to be attained by much thought and consideration. It will be observed that the plan is to divide the declaration into three parts, the commencement, the count, and the conclusion, and that the various forms of each of these parts are brought together, and are complete in themselves, so as to avoid the necessity of frequent reference from one part of the book to another before a complete form of either can be obtained, which is not only the cause of much trouble but of constant mistakes. In prepairing a declaration from this work, the attorney has only in the first place to select an appropriate commencement; secondly, an appropriate count; and thirdly, an approFees to be paid on the Examination and Admis-priate conclusion; and by consulting the sion of Attornies in the Courts of Common SCHEDULE TO WHICH THE ACT REFERS. In each Court For the Judge's fiat For the oath in Court table of contents, and the directions given throughout the forms, this will be found to be a work of no difficulty. In the forms of counts on notes and bills 0 5 0 given by the rule of Trinity Term, 1 Will. 4., it will be observed that sometimes a promise is stated in the count, and sometimes it is not, and that according as it is or is not, one or the other of the two conclusions given by the same rule must be used; this has not unfrequently been the cause of errors in declarations pre . 0 15 6 0 10 6 To the usher on signing the roll 0 5 0 pared in attorneys' offices, for in many instan To the Master's clerk for certi ficate of inrolment.. 050 Fees to be paid on the Examination and Admission of Solicitors in Chancery. On leaving articles of clerkship and assignments for inspection and inquiry as to due service On the examination into the fitness and capacity of the clerk, and for the certificate thereof For the admission at the Rolls, in- 05 0 0 15 6 ces the wrong form of conclusion has been used; the consequence of which has been, that the declaration has alleged no promise to pay the bill, and has therefore been bad. To guard against any danger of this kind, a promise is alleged in every case in assumpsit on a note or bill in the count itself, instead of leaving the allegation to be made in the conclusion. With this exception, and with the exception of introducing the words "which period had elapsed before the commencement of this suit," instead of the words " which period has now elapsed," the forms given by the rule the Petty Bag Office, usher, &c. 1 17 0 alluded to have been followed, and the general NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. arrangement of the present work is in the order of those forms. Notes will be found appended to such of the forms as appeared to require any explanation, or where it was thought that any really useful information connected with them could be A Collection of Forms of Declarations and given. Parts of the rules of Hilary Term, other Pleadings usually prepared in At-4 W. 4, are given as notes to the pleas, they being the safest guide as to when the general torneys' Offices. With notes. By Henry issue can be properly pleaded, and when it is Greening, Esq., Special Pleader. Lon-necessary to plead specially; but as there is fredon, E. Lumley: 1837. We have here another little book designed to meet the difficulties experienced by practitioners from the extensive changes which have been effected in the forms of common law pleadings. Mr. Greening, the author, who is a special pleader, states that quently very great difficulty in knowing when the general issue is proper and when it is not, the attorney should be very careful not to act too frequently on his own judgment on this subject. The author has taken much trouble to render the work simple and useful, and he therefore hopes it will be found of some assis tance to those for whom it is intended." P 220 Liability of a Non-acting Executor.―ncorporated Law Society. Such is the object of the book, and we are bound to say that Mr. Greening has diligently performed his task. The forms are as numerous and extensive as the plan of the work indicates, and the practical directions are clear and sufficient. We think, however, that it is not reasonable to expect that the duties of the attorney and the special pleader can be generally performed by one person. The various departments of the law, and its complexities of practice, can be fully attained only by a due division of labour between counsel, pleaders, and attorneys; and, at all events, until the practice has become well settled and clearly defined, the attorney, who has all the various duties which belong to his department of the profession to perform, cannot be expected to acquire an immediate knowledge of the technicalities and details of the new system of pleading. LIABILITY OF A NON-ACTING EXECUTOR. lived in the neighbourhood (where the defen- WHERE money is considered as in the possession of an executor, he will be answerable for what becomes of it; and where he does any act whereby the money gets into the possession of another executor, he will become equally liable with such other, even though his motive was innocent. See Sangford v. Gascoyne, 11 Ves. jun. 333. This was a case where the executors having met after the testator's funeral, the widow deposited a bag of money in the hands of the defendant, one of the executors, who delivered it over to one of the other executors. A bill was filed by the widow, who was tenant for life under the will, and by the residuary devisees and legatees, against the executors for the usual accounts; whereupon the Lord Chancellor decided according to the above rule, and further said, "I feel great reluctance to charge an executor in such a case; but it is impossible, without breaking through the rule, not to say he has exercised an act of judgment and discretion; an act of selection by putting the money into the hands of Gascoyne, rather than the other executor, or keeping it himself; depriving himself and the other executor of any control over it. He did that act, and this loss is the consequence. This is a very hard case, but so are all these cases. The expression of the Court "does any act" in the first mentioned case, must, I conceive, be intended to mean any act which relates to the office and capacity of an executor, whereby arises a tacit admission that the onus of the executorship is accepted. Thus in Sangford v. Gascoyne, it was the act of selection, rather than the mere transit of the trust money through the defendant's hands, which fixed him with the charge of the executorship; for in Balchen v. Scott, 2 Ves. jun. 678, where there were only two executors, both of whom proved the will, but one never acted, it was held that a transmission by him to his co-executor of money which had been sent to him by a debtor to the testator's estate, would not fix him with the character of an acting executor. W. A.. INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY. Ar the Annual General Meeting of the Members, held on the 26th June last, William Tooke, Esq., M. P., in the chair, the following Report of the Committee of Management was read by the Secretary; "The attention of the Committee has, during the past year, been directed, not only to the affairs more immediately concerning the Society, but also to several subjects affecting the profession at large, as will appear by the following summary of its proceedings. The measures before the Houses of Parliament during the past year which appeared to But where the executor can assign a justifiable object or reasonable excuse in enabling the other to obtain possession of the money, he will not be deemed liable; as in Bacon v. Bacon, 5 Ves. jun. 331, where the co-trustee a Semble, if Kirby had merelybeen an atapplied to the defendant, who resided at a dis-torney of the testator, and the executor living tance, and requested an advance of a certain at a distance, had remitted the money to him sum to discharge the funeral expences, and for payment of testator's debts, he would not pay such of the creditors of the testator who even then have been liable. Incorporated Law Society. since the last annual meeting, made new regulations relating to parliamentary agents. The Committee on that occasion deemed it right to submit to him the propriety of limiting the future appointment of such agents to attorneys and solicitors practising in the Superior Courts. Although the Speaker did not adopt the suggestion to that extent, yet by the new regulations every attorney and solicitor is now entitled to enter his name on the list of parliamentary agents, on signing the declaration prescribed for that purpose. the Committee material to consider, were, the The Speaker of the House of Commons has, Bills for Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt, for extending the Jurisdiction of Sheriffs' Courts from 20. to 50%, and amending the Law relating to the Admission of Attorneys and Solicitors.-Upon these bills the Committee made such observations and suggestions as appeared to them proper for the consideration of the members of the Legislature, and they trust that their efforts have not been wholly ineffectual. A bill has been very recently introduced for altering the Bankrupt Law as to country fiats, which will stand over until another session, when it will claim much attention. The committee have endeavoured to obtain the same regulation regarding the fees to The several new rules and orders which counsel's clerks in the Courts of Equity as they have been made by the Superior Courts in had procured in the Common Law Courts; the course of the year, have been printed and for this purpose they presented a memorial and distributed for the use of the members. to the Lord Chancellor and the other Judges The rule for altering the time of public atten- in Chancery in August last, but have not yet dance at the law offices was made after much received an answer thereto, nor have directions considerasion, and conferences with the offi- as yet been given on the subject. The comcers of the Courts, and generally to the Judges.mittee, however, recommend to the members -The attendance has now been rendered uniform at all the law offices, and appointed at hours more convenient for the dispatch of business, according to the present habits and arrangements of the profession. On the subject of the examination of persons applying to be admitted on the roll of attorneys, the Committee have endeavoured, so far as in their power, to give effect to the rules and regulations made for this purpose by the several Courts of Law and Equity. to adhere strictly in all the Courts both of Law and Equity to the scale of fees approved by the Common Law Judges. In consequence of the diminished amount of fees at the declaration office, occasioned by the change in the practice of the courts, the clerk of that office sought to revive an ancient fee of 2s. a term, payable (as he alleged) by every attorney. It appeared to the Committee that this fee had become obsolete, and that it was originally not payable by Since the last general meeting a deputation the attorneys at large; and they therefore apattended the Master of the Rolls, on the sub-plied to the court to permit the secretary of ject of the memorial for an examination in Chancery, and his Lordship made an order similar to that of the Common Law Courts, except that the examination is directed to take place at the Rolls House, in the presence of one of the Masters in Chancery and one of the Sworn Clerks in Court; but the testimonials of due service are required to be previously left with the Secretary of this Society, in the same manner as in the other Courts. this society to be made party to the rule on For the convenience of reference, and for the accommodation of the members, the Committe have procured a copy of the alphabetical roll of attorney's in the Queen's Bench since the year 1790, which is kept in the Se The Examiners appointed by the Rule of Court of Easter Term 1836, having served the office for twelve months, another rule was made last Easter Term, by which the Judges were pleased to appoint the chairman and deputy chairman for the present year, with ten other members of the Committee of Manage-cretary's office for the general use of the ment (who had not previously been named,) Examiners for the ensuing year. The Committee have had several cases of mal-practice and misconduct submitted to their consideration, and have directed proceedings in such of them as appeared to require the interference of this Society. The affidavits filed at the chambers of the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, in support of applications for the re-admission of attorneys, being in pursuance of the Rules of Court, transmitted to their secretary, the attention of the Committee has been particularly drawn to these cases; and they have felt it incumbent upon them to oppose two of such persons, whose re-admission has been refused. society; and in which the admissions and readmissions of each term are from time to time entered, so that searches may be made more conveniently than at the master's office, and at times when that office is closed. In accordance with the wish of the members in general, the committee have expended a considerable sum during the last year in the purchase of books, as well in English Law, as in County History and Topography; and they have also purchased the London Gazette from its commencement in 1665, to the year 1812; and by the liberal assistance of the members of the Society, they have nearly completed the remaining volumes. The donations to the library in the course 222 Incorporated Law Society.-On Legal Examination Honours. of the year, amount to about 500 volumes. Amongst these may be particularly noticed the continuation of the works published by the Record Commissioners, and the Gentleman's Magazine from its commencement. About twenty volumes of private and local acts of parliament have also been presented, which, with those previously purchased and presented, form almost a complete series from the year 1723 to 1832. The total number of volumes in the library amount to about 4800 volumes, being an increase of upwards of 700 volumes during the past year. The lectures have been attended during the past season much more numerously than in any former year, except the first. The committee deem the establishment and success of these lectures of great importance and advantage to the profession, as affording the means of useful instruction to articled clerks in preparing for their examination; and important assistance to the junior members of the profession in the discharge of their duties, and thereby in the words of the charter, "facilitating the acquisition of legal knowledge." Amongst the arrangements connected with the library and lectures, the committee have deemed it proper to make a regulation for admission to the library of articled clerks who attend the lectures, but are not in the office of a member of the society, provided they have the recommendation of a member; upon which, and the payment of the usual subscription, they are admitted to the library. Since the last meeting sixty-three persons have been approved and admitted members. The society now consists of 1,083 members, of whom 907 are resident or practising in town, and 174 in the country. ON LEGAL EXAMINATION HONOURS. To the Editor of The Legal Observer. "Fame is the spur which the bright spirit doth raise, "(That last infirmity of noble minds;) MILTON. gentlemen who had only studied one depart. ment. If they gain honours in more than one branch, the more credit will be due to them. Nothing can be simpler and more efficient in its purposes, than the plan that I propose. The candidates, after their examination, shall be arranged in each department in three separate classes, according to the apparent merit of their answers. Several of the examiners to whom I have spoken, approve of the plan; and I believe that a general consultation will soon be held by them to provide for its adoption. In the second reason which D. H. S. adduces, he relies upon an argument non causa pro causa; he takes the very proposition which we are contending against, as a palpable demonstration, and asks, "what further distinction can be necessary than that now existing?" I have taken my ground on the plain, undeniable fact, that no sufficient distinction does exist. The candidates, good and bad, fit and unfit, are heaped indiscriminately together, without any relation to their respective merits. As to his third consideration, "that a candidate will be lowered in the esteem of the world, because he may not have received the highest honours" at the examination,-I would ask, is a man disgraced when he takes his bachelor's degree at college, and fails to become a senior wrangler or first-class man? Or is a medical student "lowered in the esteem of the world," when he tries for medals, and gets only a certificate of honour? or if he gets neither, yet passes in a creditable manner? Your correspondent "B.*" appears to take the case of distinction in a proper manner; but 1 do not like his suggestion of classing the candidates according to the time they have studied. The rules have been now promulgated sufficiently long to afford ample notice for preparation. Your other correspondent "T. H.,” wonders from where the prizes are to emanate. This is a matter of separate consideration from that of my present letter, which relates merely to honorary distinctions, according to the arrangement of classes. The distribution of prizes is quite collateral to the present subject, and will take place only when awarded for the legal essays, &c. How do the legal prizes which the Law Lecturer at the London University distributes, arise? Surely a similar plan may be adopted. Sir, I should like to hear your opinion upon the A correspondent of yours, with the signature subject-matter of this letter, and I hope you D. H. S., has in the last number of your peri-will not deem it unworthy your influence, by odical, expressed several reasons, the consideration of which, he thinks, will prevail against stimulate the profession to its adoption. devoting a leading article to it, and thereby the intended regulation for the distribution of honours to the candidates at the legal examination. no fixed rule can W. A. His first objection is, that " We question whether the time has arrived be laid down as to capacity." Such an objec-for any further change, but will consider the tion as this, is entirely obviated by the manner subject. Ev. in which I before suggested the honours should be awarded, viz.; that each department of professional knowledge should form a distinct class so that an opportunity of displaying those abilities would be afforded even to those |