the end from such accounts being rendered and sustained. The duties of returning officers have been, and in future will be, discharged by laymen who have not sought and could not have recovered anything like the £40 charged by this gentleman for a day's work at the polling booth, writing a few letters, and instructing a few bill-stickers. We feel profoundly that in many departments the legal profession is underpaid, and, in particular, that three guineas for acting as presiding officer is certainly far too little, though we think it is all that Mr. Downie was truly entitled to under the statutes, but cases like this create a prejudice against us in the public mind which make it almost vain to try to improve the law as to lawyers' fees.

Fowers of School Boards as to Religious Instruction.-The question has been raised whether or not School Boards have power to sanction the teaching of the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church in the schools under their control. This question is included in the larger one, viz., Have School Boards power to sanction the giving of religious instruction in any way or form other than that which "has been the custom in the public schools of Scotland "?-(Vide" Preamble to Education (Scotland) Act 1872.") It may seem superfluous to discuss such a question at this date. It is a point on which we never entertained, and do not now entertain, any doubt. Nevertheless the fact that the subject has recently been seriously debated by intelligent members of School Boards seems sufficient to justify the following observations. It has been stoutly maintained, and with some show of plausibility, that School Boards have power only to permit the "continuance" of that religious teaching which had been customary in the old parish schools. Those who hold this view take their stand upon the preamble of the Act, and they consider their position impregnable. The words of the preamble are as follows:-" And whereas it has been the custom in the public schools of Scotland to give instruction in religion to children whose parents did not object to the instruction given, but with liberty to parents, without forfeiting any of the other advantages of the schools, to elect that their children should not receive such instruction, and it is expedient that the managers of public schools shall be at liberty to continue the said custom." Some hold that "the ,custom," which was in the contemplation of the Legislature while framing this preamble, was the custom observed in the parish schools of Scotland of teaching religion from the Bible and Shorter Catechism, and that this is the only religious teaching sanctioned by the Act. They say it is a question between these two thingsviz. the "said custom" (i.e. the Bible and Shorter Catechism) or no religious teaching at all. Whatever plausibility this construction of the preamble may possess, if the general spirit and scope of the Act are duly considered, it will be found quite untenable. The history of the Bill while passing through the Committee of the House throws some light upon the subject favourable to our view of it. The Lord Advocate was doubtless satisfied that the sectarian

zeal of his countrymen would almost certainly bring defeat upon a measure which provided for the religious education of their children, and accordingly he introduced a purely secular Bill. He "proposed to deal with this matter by saying nothing about it, feeling convinced that" if let alone " the people would continue to teach religion in their schools as they had always done."-(Introduction to Fifth Edition of Mr. Tod's Handbook of the Education Act.) The people have been let alone. The Education Act enacts nothing. on the matter of religion, but merely recognises it, and leaves the people to deal with it in any way they think proper. The Act leaves the question of the continuance of what the jargon of the Church Courts has called "the use and wont" (as much or as little of it as the Boards think fit to adopt) or "the disuse" of it entirely in the hands of the people, to be decided by them through their representatives at the School Boards. In many cases these Boards have availed themselves of this "liberty" conferred upon them by the Act in departing from the "use and wont." Some Boards have adopted the Bible, but have declined to torture the children with that Catechism, which with a fine irony is usually called "Shorter." Children trained under the régime of Episcopalian School Boards will probably derive their religious opinions, in part, from the "Church Catechism," and where a Roman Catholic majority is dominant the religious instruction will naturally, and quite legally, have an unmistakably Popish complexion. In fine, the observance of the "use and wont" is by no means a sine qua non in those cases where School Boards have decided that religion shall be taught. If the majority of members of a School Board were Mahomedans or Buddhists the children in the schools under their control might legally be taught to believe in the doctrines of the Koran or to follow the precepts of Gaudama.

Soldier's Liability for Aliment of Wife and Family.—We are surprised that none of our readers has noticed the error of the statement in our article on the "Statutes of 1873 affecting Scotland" (December number, p. 626), that the Mutiny Acts of this year “contain nothing beyond the stereotyped clauses." On the contrary, the 107th section is one of very considerable importance to those who have to administer the Poor Law, and we print it at length. A similar clause stands in the Marine Mutiny Act (36 & 37 Vict. c. 11). See Barclay's Digest, s.v. Mutiny Act. The works of Mr. Fraser on Parent and Child, and Mr. Guthrie Smith on the Poor Law, do not notice the point. The 107th section of 36 & 37 Vict. c. 10 is as follows:

"107. Notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, a soldier shall be liable to contribute to the maintenance of his wife and of his children, and also to the maintenance of any bastard child of which he may be proved to be the father, to the same extent as if he were not a soldier, but execution shall not issue against his military necessaries or equipments, nor shall he be liable to be imprisoned or taken out of Her Majesty's service in consequence of such liability or any order made for enforcing the same; nor shall he be liable to be punished as an idle or disorderly person, or as a rogue and vagabond, or as an incorrigible

rogue, under the Act passed in the fifth year of the reign of King George the Fourth, chapter eighty-three, intituled An Act for the punishment of idle and disorderly persons and rogues and vagabonds in that part of Great Britain called England, or under any other Act of Parliament, for the offence of neglecting to maintain his family or any member thereof, or of leaving his family or any member thereof chargeable to any parish, township, or place, or combination of parishes, or to the common fund of any union, nor shall he in Ireland be liable to be convicted under the Act passed in the session of Parliament held in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of Her present Majesty, intituled 'An Act to make provision for the punishment of vagrants and persons offending against the laws in force for the relief of the destitute poor in Ireland,' for the offence of deserting or wilfully neglecting to maintain his wife or any child whom he may be liable to maintain, so that such wife or child shall become destitute and be relieved in or out of the workhouse of any union in Ireland.

"When any order is made under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, or under the Bastardy Acts, on a soldier, or, in Scotland, decree is pronounced by a court of law, having jurisdiction, in an action of aliment or filiation and aliment against a soldier, for the maintenance of his wife or children, or for the maintenance of any such bastard child as aforesaid, or any of such persons, or where, in Ireland, any civil bill decree has been made for the cost of the maintenance of any illegitimate child against any soldier being the putative father of such child, under the provisions of the Act passed in the session of Parliament held in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the reign of Her present Majesty, intituled 'An Act to amend the law enabling Boards of Guardians to recover costs of maintenance of illegitimate children in certain cases in Ireland,' or when any order or decree has been made on or against any soldier for the recovery of the costs of any relief given to the wife or child of such soldier under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor in Ireland by way of loan, a copy of such order or decree shall be left at the office of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and the said Secretary of State may withhold a portion, not exceeding sixpence, of the daily pay of a non-commissioned officer who is not below the rank of sergeant, and not exceeding threepence of the daily pay of any other soldier, and allot the sum so withheld in liquidation of the sum adjudged to be paid by such order or decree.

"Where a summons is issued against a soldier under the said Acts, or any of them, or an action is raised against him at common law or under any Act of Parliament, for the purpose of enforcing against him any such liability as aforesaid, and such soldier is quartered out of the petty sessional division in which the summons is issued, or out of the jurisdiction of the court in which the action is raised, the summons shall be served on his commanding officer, and such service shall not be valid unless there be left therewith, or along with the service copy thereof, in the hands of the commanding officer, a sum of money to be adjudged as costs incurred in obtaining the order or decree (should an order be obtained or decree pronounced against the soldier) sufficient to enable him to attend the hearing of the case and return to his quarters; and no summons whatever under the said Acts or any of them, or at common law, shall be valid against a soldier if served after the time at which an order has been given for the embarkation for service out of the United Kingdom of the body of troops to which the soldier belongs."

Obituary.

JAMES VEITCH, Esq. of Eliock, Advocate (1821), died at Edinburgh, December 15. After nearly twelve years' practice at the bar, Mr. Veitch was appointed Sheriff-Substitute for the Middle Ward of Lanarkshire, .e. for the Airdrie and Hamilton districts.

Twenty years later the great increase in the criminal business of the county made it necessary to have a Sheriff-Substitute permanently located at Airdrie. In 1870 Sheriff Veitch retired from the bench on account of infirm health. At the installation of his successor at Hamilton, Sheriff Glassford Bell said of Mr. Veitch that "No one ever brought to the office of resident Sheriff a more honourable or upright mind-no one ever proved himself a more faithful magistrate, a more painstaking judge, or a more estimable gentleman." Mr. Veitch's estate is situated on the banks of the Nith, in Dumfriesshire, and gave the title of Lord Eliock to one of his predecessors, a Senator of the College of Justice. Mr. Veitch died at Edinburgh at the advanced age of 74, survived by his wife.

GEORGE BROWN ROBERTSON, Esq., W.S. (1841), died at Edinburgh, November 26, aged fifty-four. Mr. Robertson relinquished practice as a Writer to the Signet about twenty years ago, when he was appointed to the office of Deputy-Keeper of the Records, on the death of his father and the retirement of his uncle, who had long held jointly the same office. Great changes have recently taken place in the system of registration. The Registers of Sasines have been concentrated in Edinburgh, and in the arrangements consequent on the passing of the recent Acts of Parliament making this change, Mr. Robertson took a very active part and rendered very material assistance. Previous to his appointment as DeputyKeeper of the Records, the Deputy-Keepers took the chief charge of making searches of incumbrances over lands. At the time of Mr. Robertson's appointment this system was discontinued, and a new one adopted, under which a number of official searchers were appointed by Government. This important department remained still under the superintendence of Mr. Robertson. In all matters belonging to his department his services were highly valued by the profession, and, as the Scotsman says, by the present "Chief of the Register House," to whom that newspaper thinks it necessary to pay some fulsome adulation every time it mentions the Register House, and to whom, even in its memorial notice of Mr. Robertson, it endeavours to give the chief credit of certain recent reforms and improvements, which might have been much. greater, and which have been promoted and carried out by Sir W. G. Craig's superiors and subordinates quite as much as by himself.

Act of Sederunt.

ANENT EXAMINATIONS OF LAW-AGENTS.

EDINBURGH, 20th December 1873.

THE Lords of Council and Session, considering that by section 8th of the Act of the 36th and 37th year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, chapter

63, entituled "An Act to amend the Law relating to Law-Agents practising in Scotland," it is provided that it shall be lawful for the Judges of the Court of Session, or any seven or more of them, of whom the Lord President and the Lord Justice-Clerk shall be two, "from time to time to prescribe the subjects of Examination in Law and in General Knowledge, and to make Rules for conducting such Examinations, and also for Entrance Examinations of Apprentices, and Intermediate Examinations," do hereby Enact and Provide as follows:

I. That when the Judge, to whom a Petition for admission of a LawAgent has been presented under the 7th section of the Act, shall require the Applicant to be examined under the provisions of the 8th section, he shall remit the Applicant to the Examiners appointed by the Court.

II. The Examination of the Applicant under such Remit shall be held in Edinburgh, and shall embrace the following subjects:

(I.) GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

History of England and Scotland; Geography; Arithmetic; Bookkeeping; Latin. The first and second Books of the Eneid; Logic (Jevons' Elementary Lessons); or in place thereof, in the option of the Applicant, Mathematics (first three Books of Euclid).

(II.) LAW.

The Law of Scotland, Civil and Criminal-Erskine's Institute, Bell's Principles, Hume's Commentaries, Conveyancing; Forms of Process, Civil and Criminal.

III. The Examination in General Knowledge above prescribed may take place, in the option of any intending Applicant, as an Entrance Examination before entering into Indenture of Apprenticeship, or at any time before the Applicant's Petition to the Court for admission as a LawAgent, and, in either of these cases, it may be held either in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, or Dundee, and those applicants who have passed such Examination shall not be required, on applying for admission as LawAgents, to pass any farther Examination in General Knowledge.

IV. Every applicant for admission as a Law-Agent must have attended and taken part in the Examinations of the classes of Scots Law and Conveyancing in a Scottish University, and these classes must have been attended in two separate Winter Sessions.

V. For the future no person shall be admitted as Apprentice under Indenture to a Law-Agent, until he shall have passed an Entrance Examination by the Examiners appointed by the Court, which may take place in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, or Dundee, and shall embrace the following subjects:-English Composition and Writing to Dictation; Arithmetic, Simple and Compound, and Vulgar and Decimal Fractions; Elements of Latin.

VI. It shall not be necessary for any Apprentice or applicant, for admission as a Law Agent, to undergo any Entrance Examination or Examination in General Knowledge, where such Examinations are dispensed with by the said Act, and also in the following cases, viz.:

(1.) If the Apprentice or applicant hold a Degree of any University in Great Britain or Ireland granted after Examination.

(2.) If he have attended in three separate Sessions, three separate Classes in Arts, in any Scottish University (one of said Classes