gary, is 4 per cent., and large capitals, cise judicial functions, and some twenty have amounting to two or three millions, are em- passed since he quitted his seat in the Court barked by the banks, which make consider- of Common Pleas. But his death, which we able profits. Here also the term for repay-noted on Monday, May 4, merits more than ment is about forty years. The information from France is not quite so full and detailed as that which is supplied with respect to Austria and Hungary. The system is there centralised, and, in fact, the Credit Foncier of France since 1852 has been 'the sole national bank of real property.' Its capital was then sixty million francs, half paid up, and in 1888 was 170 millions. The great central institution does not appear to lend the money directly, but advances it to departments, communes, and agricultural associations, which become the immediate creditors of the mortgagor. The Credit Foncier is actually administered under the supervision of the Minister of Finance. The total amount of mortgage and communal loans is about twelve millions sterling. Sir Edward Malet, from Berlin, refers to a number of books for detailed information, but also gives particulars, from which it appears that there is no State guarantee in Germany, and that a like system of land banks and amortisation is established. The report from Italy gives very full particulars of the different banks established, the principles of working, and the degree of supervision exercised by the Government. As in Austria-Hungary, the amount advanced is limited to half the value of the property, and the period of repayment varies from ten to fifty years. In Switzerland a like method seems to have achieved great success, and the loans effected by the Mortgage Bank of the Canton of Berne amount to no less than 3,391,2087. Similar institutions exist in the other cantons. It will be interesting to see whether joint-stock or co-operative enterprise will in this country undertake transactions of like character and proportionate magnitude.-Law Journal. THE LATE SIR MONTAGUE SMITH. Men's memories as to judges, even much better known and more recently in active service than Sir Montague Smith, are short. For about ten years he has ceased to exer a passing word. An interesting figure, representative of much that is best in the English bench, has passed away. He came to the front on the Western Circuit, then the nursery of judges, possessed of a brilliant bar, and able to give employment to some halfdozen "silks "—a circuit very unlike its present starved and attenuated self. In the group of singularly gifted men who went that circuit were several much better advocates than Montague Smith, but none inspired more respect-none were more guileless of rhetorical devices, and few more effective in that persuasiveness which comes from moral character. It is significant that he, a consistent and active Conservative, was made a judge by a Liberal Lord Chancellor, Lord Westbury. He was appointed a member of the Court of Common Pleas at a time when that Court, not always strong, was unusually so. Sir William Erle was Chief Justice; and the present generation has forgotten that many of his contemporaries regarded him as the very first of forensic speakers and the best of judges. Willes, Keating and Byles, then puisnes, were lawyers of learning and ability, and among them Montague Smith showed to no disadvantage. It was a time when there was a rivalry-in many ways useful— between the three Courts of common law. Business chiefly set, as it always had, at least since Mansfield's time, to the Queen's Bench. But the Court of Common Pleas was also in favor, especially among mercantile men, and Montague Smith did much to sustain its reputation. In 1881 it became necessary to strengthen the Judicial Committee, then overweighted with business and suffering from the loss of several of its best members, especially Lord Kingsdown. Loud raged the storm of indignation at the circumstances of the appointment of Sir Robert Collier, who was transferred, after being some forty-eight hours a member of the Court of Common Pleas, to the Judicial Committee, in direct violation of the spirit of the Act of Parlia ment. Not a question was raised as to the Curators appointed. Re William Duffy, Cote St. Paul.-W. A. Caldwell, Montreal, curator, June 4. Re Willie Burque, trader, St. Hyacinthe.-J. O. Dion, St. Hyacinthe, curator, June 1. Re Zoël Gagnon, trader, Ste Agnès de Charlevois.H. A. Bedard, Quebec, curator, June 2. Re Lamarche & Gagnon.-J. M. Marcotte, Montreal, curator, May 30. Re Joseph Savoie.-H. Guimont, Somerset, curator, June 2. Re S. Thibault, grocer.-Bilodeau & Renaud, Mont real, joint curator, June 4. Dividends. Re 0. Bégin & Co., boot and shoe manufacturers, Quebec.-Second and final dividend, payable June 22, N. Matte, Quebec, curator. Re X. A. Robidoux, St. Sébastien.-First and final dividend, payable June 21, Lamarche & Frigon, Montreal, joint curator. Re George Stewart, absentee.-First dividend, payable June 18, C. Desmarteau, Montreal, curator. APPOINTMENTS. Euclide Tremblay, M. D., L. F. Fafard, C. Clément, and L. H. Labrecque, M. D., to be jointly coroner for the District of Saguenay. C. G. H. Beaudoin and M. Lavoie, to be joint registrar for the registration division of Joliette. fitness of Sir Montague Smith's appointment. Result justified the choice. Of the four paid members then nominated none gave more satisfaction than he. That tribunal has often been charged with excessive timidity-as too prone to decide large questions upon small grounds, and not to give colonial Courts all the light and leading which they desire and fairly expect. The late judge was not the man to deprive that criticism of all its point. He excelled in clear analysis of facts and authorities. He fell, perhaps, too read-bec, (absentees).-First dividend, payable June 22, N. J. Dayet & Co., wine and liquor merchants. Queily into the habit, fostered by the system of de- Matte, Quebec, curator. livering judgment peculiar to that tribunal-a judgment which may exactly express the view of no one who is a party to it-of deciding nothing more than was absolutely necessary. But he did good work, as none would more freely admit than the Canadian and other colonial lawyers who appeared before him; and one or two of the judgments prepared by him-for example, that in The Bank of New South Wales v. Owston-are in their way classical. It has been said that a marked difference, one of kind and temper, exists between lawyers trained before and those trained after the Common Law Procedure Acts. Sir Montague Smith belonged to the former; he had their accuracy and firm hold of principles. But he had nothing of their pertinacious love of 'singleness of issue' and other technical beauties, and he was altogether modern in his desire to do justice, even at the expense of forms. We might have had abler and more learned men to sit in that greatest of all Courts of Appeal, the Judicial Committee. But he, with his disciplined sagacity, high sense of honor and long experience, gave satisfaction where more brilliant men might have failed.—Times. INSOLVENT NOTICES, &c. Quebec Official Gazette, June 6. Bernardin Desbiens, trader, Hébertville, May 28. Jos. Julien, trader, Ste. Jeanne de Neuville, May 26. LIQUIDATOR. Re The Eastern Townships Mutual Fire Insurance Quebec Official Gazette, June 13. Judicial Abandonments. Charles C. Cairns, dealer in fancy goods, Montreal, June 5. Hormisdas B. Lafleur, trader, parish of Ste. Adèle, June 5. Thomas O'Hare & Co., grocer, Montreal, June 3. Elizabeth Burns, doing business under the name of Robert Price, butcher, Sherbrooke, June 3. Curators appointed. Re W. J. Clarke & Co., Montreal.-G. H. Trigge, Re Cree, Scott & Co., Montreal.-A. F. Riddell, Re George Daveluy, insurance broker, Montreal.D. Seath, Montreal, curator, May 30. Re Eastern Townships Mutual Fire Insurance Co.- Re David Greenglass, dealer in trunks, Montreal.- Re Michael Babcock (R. Millard & Co.).-First and final dividend, payable June 30, A. F. Riddell, Montreal, curator. Re M. Cuddy, dry goods, Montreal.-First and final dividend, payable July 2, D. Seath, Montreal, curator. Re R. T. Dinaham.-Second and final dividend, payable June 26, Bilodeau & Renaud, Montreal, joint curator. Re Bruno Duperré, saddler, Quebec.-First and final dividend, payable June 30, H. A. Bedard, Quebec, curator. Re Letourneau & Paré, tailors, Quebec.-Second and final dividend, payable June 30, H. A. Bedard, Quebec, curator. Re Chs. Quellet.-Second and final dividend, payable June 23, Bilodeau & Renaud, Montreal, joint curator. James Millar, trader, East Angus, township of West- July 2, W. A. Caldwell, Montreal, curator. bury, May 21. Re R. Tyler, Sons & Co.-First dividend, payable Cree, Scott & Co., shirt and collar manufacturers, Montreal, May 29. APPOINTMENT. Olivier Dostaler, Montreal, to be insurance inspector, in the place of Geo. Daveluy. The several thousand law clerks who now at a salary of from $1,200 to $1,500 per annum. Some of them are experts in a particular branch of the law. Again there are men fit only to be law clerks-men who, for one reason or another,fail to become successful practitioners. The legal knowledge of such men is of more value to others than it is to themselves. Once more, there are highly educated law clerks who make it a business to write briefs. Indeed, it is an open secret that nearly one-half of the law books published are written by ill-paid clerks. The lawyer with a reputation gets some clerk to write a treatise to which he lends the weight of his name." The oldest Coroner in England, Michael Browne, died recently at the age of ninety. He had held the office of Coroner for the borough of Nottingham during a period of fifty-five years. In length of service we believe he is about equal to Coroner Jones of Montreal. The latter in age is but a few years behind. COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH— Carrier-Bill of lading-Place of destination of goods beyond carrier's route. Held:-Where the place of destination of toil in the city offices, says a New York journal,are quite a different set of beings from their predecessors. "The majority of them are well educated. Some have graduated from well known colleges-from Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Princetown. Others are graduates of law schools. Never was there a time like the present, when so many collegebred men were glad of the opportunity to become law clerks at a beggarly salary. Every year lawyers of standing in our cities have applications from college graduates, ready and willing to work without pay, if he will only give them desk-room and the use of his goods is beyond the carrier's route, and he books. Consider, for a moment, the pay of receives the goods under a bill of lading to these ambitious young men. The college- the terminus of his route, and carries them bred law clerk usually begins at $5 per week. safely to that point, to which alone he reHe may reasonably expect to earn $10 perceived the freight, the fact that at the reques week by the end of the second year. The of the shipper he undertook to deliver the graduate of a law school, having had some goods to another carrier to complete the transtechnical training, is better paid. He gets portation, does not make the first carrier $10 per week for the first year of his service, responsible for the delivery of the goods at and perhaps he may begin his second year the place of destination.-Jeffrey & Canada at $15 per week. Very few lawyers in New Shipping Co., Dorion, C. J., Baby, Bossé, York pay their clerks over $15 a week, as they can hire all the talent they want at that Doherty, J J., Tait, J. ad hoc, January 24, figure. There are between six thousand and seven thousand lawyers in the city of New York. The struggle for practice and existence becomes more difficult each year. Many are called, but few are chosen. Some men never get beyond being a law clerk. It is no uncommon thing to find skillful lawyers, grayhaired men, serving as clerks, year after year, 1891. Bank-Advance made upon security of shares of another Bank-Obligation to return shares on repayment of advance. Held:-(DORION, C. J., and CHURCH, J., diss.) Where in order to evade the law pro To appear in Montreal Law Reports, 7 Q.B. hibiting the acceptance by one Bank of the stock of another Bank as security for a loan (46 Vict., ch. 45, s. 2), an advance was made by a Bank, and stock of another Bank was transferred as security to the cashier of the lending Bank, and the transaction was duly noted in the books of the Bank, that the owner of the shares so transferred was entitled to reclaim them from the Bank, or to get their value, when the debt was paid for the security of which the shares were transferred as aforesaid. The prohibition of the law applies to the Bank and not to the borrower.-Exchange Bank of Canada & Fletcher, Dorion, C. J., Tessier, Baby, Church, Bossé, J J., May 23, 1890. Violation of Domicile-Municipal Corporation 2. Where the damages have been appraised by the Court of first instance, and the Court of Review has reduced the amount, the Court of Appeal will not interfere with the award of the intermediate Court, unless it appears that gross injustice has been done.-Pratt & Charbonneau, Dorion, C. J., Cross, Baby, Bossé, J J., March 20, 1890. error was discovered the respondents (vendors) offered to cancel the sale if the appellant (purchaser) had been misled by the error on the lithographed copies, but the appellant refused, and brought an action of damages. Held:-Affirming the judgment of DAVIDSON, J., M. L. R., 3 S. C. 403, In an action of damages by the appellant (purchaser), that he having received the full number of square feet bargained for, having refused to relinquish the bargain, having signed the memorandum of sale in which reference was made to the homologated plan showing a street 51 feet wide, and moreover no special damage being proved, an action of damages could not be maintained.-Inglis & Phillips et vir, Cross, Baby, Bossé, Doherty, J J., Jan. 24, 1891. DECISIONS AT QUEBEC. Corporation-Exercise of charter powers-Sale to corporate body-Ratification by corpora tion. Held:-1. A body corporate empowered by its charter to acquire property, "for the use limited in making a purchase of an immovand objects of its incorporation," is not able by the nature of the latter or the use which has hitherto been made of it; and it is sufficient that such immovable is susceptible of yielding revenue or value applicable to the use and objects of the incorporation, to bring the purchase within the charter power. 2. Where the charter of a corporation does not provide for the exercise of its powers Sale-Error as to accessory of thing sold-otherwise than by giving it the right to make Damages. the persons who are admitted to have, de facto and by common consent, acted as the governing body of the board, will be held to be its duly authorized agents, whose acts, performed within the limits of the charter, are binding upon it. by-laws for the "government of the instituThe appellant purchased from respondents tion and of the officers and servants belongat public auction two lots of land on a certaining thereto," and no such by-laws are made, street, and signed a memorandum of sale in which reference was made to the official plan on which the street was marked as being 51 feet wide at that place. On the surveyor's plan prepared for the sale, the street was also traced at 51 feet in width, but by inadvertence, on the lithographed copies distributed at the auction sale, the part of the street where the lots were situated was represented as of uniform width with the upper part of the street, which was 60 feet wide. When the 3. The powers of a corporation created by an Act of the legislature, and the mode of exercising them, are only to be found in, or deduced from, such Act, or in and from the general rules of law applicable to all corpora tions. So, where it is not so provided in the Act incorporating a religious body, the approval of the bishop of the denomination to which it belongs is not required to make its acts lawful. 4. Where the sale of an immovable is made, for a price payable by instalments, to the supposed agents or legal representatives of a corporation, and the latter takes possession of the property and uses it and pays one or more of the instalments, it will be held to have ratified such sale, and the same shall be as binding on it as if originally made in the form of law. 5. Where a corporation becomes aware that the sale of an immovable made to its supposed agents or representatives is informal, and for a period of eighteen months, during which it continues to deal with the property as its own, it takes no action to have the sale set aside, it will be held to have ratified the same and to be bound by it, as if originally made in due form of law. L'Hopital du Sacré Coeur v. Lefebvre, S. C., Andrews, J., Jan. 21, 1891. Drive, New Brighton, in the county of Chester, died December 24, 1890, leaving a will expressly limited to property in the United States only, and intestate as to her English property. effects The American will was duly proved in Philadelphia by the American executors. Searle now moved for a grant of letters of administration to the personal estate and of the said deceased, save and except the deceased's American property, to Mary Margaret Mann, her natural and lawful only child, and only next of kin. It appeared that though there were plenty of cases in which there were two wills, one dis posing of the property out of England and the other disposing of property in England, there was no case reported in which a deceased person had left a will disposing of property out of England and died intestate as to English property. JEUNE, J.: Is there no direct authority? I should have thought the case must have occurred before. Searle I can find no direct authority, but the principle involved is the same as that in Bail-Améliorations et additions-Droit du cases where there are two wills, one dispos ing of property abroad and the other disposing of property in England, as to which the practice is well established, probate being of the existence of the foreign will being granted of the English will only and a note made on the margin of such probate. JEUNE, J., by analogy to the practice of the old prerogative Courts, whereby if a man dying possessed of goods in two provinces made his will of the goods only in one of them and died intestate as to the goods in the other province, administration might have been granted as to the goods whereof he died intestate ('Williams on Executors,' 8th edit. p. 534; Godolphin, part 2, c. 30, s. 5), made the grant to the daughter as prayed. |