That all other candidates for admission shall pass a satisfactory examination upon the following subjects, namely, (Latin) Horace, Odes Book 3; Virgil, Eneid, Book 6; Cæsar, Commentaries Books 5 and 6; Cicero, Pro Milone. (Mathematics) Arithmetic, Algebra to the end of Quadratic Equations; Euclid, Books 1, 2, and 3. outlines of Modern Geography, History of England (W. Douglas Hamilton's) English Grammar and Composition.

That Articled Clerks shall pass a preliminary examination upon the following subjects:-Cæsar, Commentaries. Books 5 and 6; Arithmetic; Euclid, Books 1, 2, and 3; Outlines of Modern Geography, History of England (W. Douglas Hamilton's) English Grammar and Composition, Elements of Book-keeping.

That the subjects and books for the first Intermediate Examination shall be:-Real Property, Williams; Equity, Smith's Manual; Common Law, Smith's Manual; Act respecting the Court of Chancery (C. S. U. C. c. 12), (C. S. U. S. caps. 42 and 44).

That the subjects and books for the second Intermediate Examination be as follows:-Real Property, Leith's Blackstone, Greenwood on the Practice of Conveyancing (chapters on Agreements, Sales, Purchases, Leases, Mortgages, and Wills); Equity, Snell's Treatise; Common Law, Broom's Common Law, C. S. U. C. c. 88, Statutes of Canada, 29 Vic. c. 28, Insolvency Act.

That the books for the final examination for students at law, shall be as follows:

1. For Call.-Blackstone Vol. i., Leake on Contracts, Watkins on Conveyancing, Story's Equity Jurisprudence, Stephen on Pleading, Lewis' Equity Pleading, Dart on Vendors and Purchasers, Taylor on Evidence, Byles on Bills, the Statute Law, the Pleadings and Practice of the Courts.

2. For Call with Honours, in addition to the preceding -Russell on Crimes, Broom's Legal Maxims, Lindley on Partnership, Fisher on Mortgages, Benjamin on Sales, Jarman on Wills. Von Savigny's Private International Law (Guthrie's Edition), Maine's Ancient Law.

That the subjects for the final examination of Articled Clerks shall be as follows:-Leith's Blackstone, Watkins on Conveyancing (9th ed.), Smith's Mercantile Law, Story's Equity Jurisprudence, Leake on Contracts, the Statute Law, the Pleadings and Practice of the Courts.

Candidates for the final examinations are subject to reexamination on the subjects of the Intermediate Examinations. All other requisites for obtaining certificates of fitness and for call are continued.

That the Books for the Scholarship Examinations shail be as follows:

1st year. Stephen's Blackstone, Vol. i., Stephen on Pleading, Williams on Personal Property, Griffith's Institutes of Equity, C. S. U. S. c. 12, C. S. U. C. c. 43.

2nd year.--Williams on Real Property, Best on Evidence, Smith on Contracts, Snell's Treatise on Equity, the Registry Acts.

3rd year.-Real Property Statutes relating to Ontario, Stephen's Blackstone, Book V., Byles on Bills, Broom's Legal Maxims, Story's Equity Jurisprudence, Fisher on Mortgages, Vol. 1, and Vol. 2, chaps. 10, 11 and 12.

4th year.-Smith's Real and Personal Property, Russell on Crimes, Common Law Pleading and Practice, Benjamin on Sales, Dart on Vendors and Purchasers, Lewis' Equity Pleading, Equity Pleading and Practice in this Province. That no one who has been admitted, on the books of the Society as a Student shall be required to pass prelim. inary examination as an Articled Clerk.

J. HILLYARD CAMERON,
Treasurer.

from the partially retired position which he has occupied since dragged from his lofty position by an unworthy son.

As an item in connection with the gradual assimilation of the laws of the various confederated Provinces, we notice that several Nova Scotians are, and have been studying in this Province, intending, when called to the Bar, to return to their native Province. One of these (Mr. Sedgwick) has returned to Halifax to practice. It would appear that he had to obtain a private Act of Parliament, at the last Session of the Local Legislature, authorizing his admission to the Bar of Nova Scotia, as by some careless legislation in 1872 the statutes providing for the admission of British and Colonial barristers had been repealed. We believe, however, that the law has recently been so amended that English barristers, and barristers of those Provinces that extend similar privileges to members of the Nova Scotian Bar, can now be admitted to the profession in that Province, without a previous course of study there. It may some day become a question to discuss whether complete reciprocity in this respect should not prevail in all the Provinces of the Dominion.

66

There have been some amusing passages at arms between the "grave and reverend" editors of the Law Magazine and Law Times anent the Judicature Bill. The latter criticised sharply some observations of the former, and described their argument as twaddle." The Law Magazine then retorted by accusing the Law Times of a fulsome attempt to pay a high compliment to Lord Selborne at their expense. "We have known," says the Law Magazine," ill-behaved children at school try to curry favour with the schoolmaster by informing him of some uncomplimentary statement made concerning him by some one of their fellows. The Law Times

seems to be endeavouring to approach the Chancellor and say, 'Please, Lord Selborne, the Law Magazine says you are an uninformed person.'" Thereupon the Law Times shifts its ground and makes some caustic remarks upon the following observations of the writer of an article in the Law Magazine for July, wherein it is stated, when speaking of the penalties of the law, "Justice is dependent upon evidence, and if evidence is false, and the falsity is of such a nature that it cannot be discovered, some seeming injustice will there and then be done, for the judges thus deceived will, according to law and justice, inflict a penalty on one whose selfwill has not been opposed to the universal will, who has not committed crime. He does this, even though he may be unaware of the fact, that he may give back to the criminal the free will he has parted with to do him a justice and a right, and where he does this, deceived by the false words of many witnesses, he tries to give a man back that which he has not lost, and, therefore, he does that which is unjust, but what is nevertheless inevitable." We feel almost as impressed with the mysterious profundity of these two long paragraphs as the bewildered editor of the

Law Times.

NEW LAW BOOKS.

Several legal works by Ontario barristers have been or will shortly be issued from the press. We have recently reviewed Mr. Taylor's book on Titles, and we have now before us a work on the law of insurance as applicable to Canada, by Mr. S. R. Clarke, already favorably known to the profession by his book on the Criminal Law. Mr. R. T. Walkem, of Kingston. has in the press a treatise on Wills, which cannot but be most acceptable in the altered state of the law on this difficult subject. We have good reason to think that the author will do his work well. Mr. Ewart (of Ewart's Index to the

Statutes) is compiling a book on Costs, which is much wanted by students and practitioners. McMillan on Costs, though in many respects defective and occasionally inaccurate, sold well and was found useful.

Mr. Harrison has in the printers' hands, and now nearly completed, another edition of his Municipal Manual, rendered necessary by the recent Act. We fancy this must have rendered necessary a re-casting of the whole work; but however this may be, we do not doubt but that the proper course has been taken. We should counsel its being kept back for a few months to see what further changes the Ontario Legislature may make. It will be strange if they do not make some. Mr. Cooper has continued his Chancery Digest by a supplementary volume, which is said to be much superior to the first one, which was not all that could have been desired. It is not given to every man to know how to make a Digest. But this brings us to the last book on our list, which is by far the most important one of them all--the much wanted, long promised, and patiently waited for Digest by Mr. Christopher Robinson, Q. C. We fancy we already see the hard worked lawyer actually gloating over this book, for will it not save him, day after day, hours of weary labour. It will contain all the cases "from the beginning of the (Upper Canada) world" to the present time, thus superseding and practically rendering waste-paper the labours of Mr. Harrison in "Robinson & Harrison's Digest," the labours of Mr. Henry O'Brien in "Harrison & O'Brien's Digest," and that of Mr. Cooper in his "Chancery Digest" and supplemental volume. We understand that this new digest by Mr. Robinson, in the preparation of which Mr. Frank Joseph has been assisting him, will be in the hands of our readers before Christmas. The sooner the better.

MEETING OF COUNTY JUDGES.

Complaints have been made, and not without foundation, of a want of uniformity in the rulings of County Judges, leading to much inconvenience and bringing the administration of justice into disrepute by reason of a lack of that certainty which is the essence of law and

order. Let us look at the causes of the evil and the most available means of remedying it.

It may be, and we fear is the fact that in the selection of those gentlemen who preside over the local Courts a few mistakes have been made, and that some perform their duties in a perfunctory and unsatisfactory manner, not being equal to their position, whilst others again are all that can be desired, being of such ability, learning and industry, that they would sit with credit to themselves and advantage to the public on the Superior Court Bench. But the fact is, there is scarcely any inducement to men of the first rank in the profession to accept County Judgeships. The inadequacy of the salaries is in itself a sufficient reason in a new country where there is little inherited wealth, and families have to be provided for. When the best men at the bar can hardly be found to accept judgeships in the Superior Courts of law and equity for this very reason, it is manifestly absurd to expect them to retire to a county town on salaries barely sufficient to keep body and soul together.

But no matter how good a lawyer may be appointed, his position as a County Judge is necessarily peculiarly difficult. The principal difficulty is the want of attrition. They have not, as a rule, the advantage of hearing cases before them argued by counsel of the experience and ability of those who conduct cases at the Assizes or in Term. Neither have they the books to refer to that can be had in the Osgoode Hall Library. But above. all they have no fellow Judge to consult

with on subjects of difficulty. Each Judge does, and in the new points daily arising in his multitudinous duties, each Judge must decide them according to what is right in his own eyes, without that "talking it over" which is so necessary to bring out the various points of a case, and to show it in its different bearings and aspects. Isolation, moreover, almost inevitably tends in the large majority of men to narrow the legal mind.

None feel these difficulties more than the County Judges themselves, and we are not therefore surprised to see, and are very glad to be able to chronicle the efforts that they are making (with some not very brilliant exceptions) to remedy the evil as far as it lies in their power to do so.

Hence the meeting of County Judges to which we alluded in our last issue.

On the 24th of July last a large number of them met at Osgoode Hall, in the Convocation Room, which had been placed at their service for that purpose, and inaugurated a series of meetings which we cannot but think will have a most beneficial effect in the administration of justice in the Local Courts.

His Honor Judge Gowan presided. The fact of his being Chairman of the Board of County Judges would in itself entitle him to this distinction, but in other respects it was fitting that one who has for years thoroughly commanded both the confidence of his brethren and that of the public, should in this as he has done on other occasions, take a leading part in matters of law reform. To his influence, combined with the energetic action of the best of the County Court Bench is mainly due the organization of these meetings, and to his tact and management as Chairman is largely attributable the success of the meeting which has recently terminated.

Although much was done in the way of organization and preliminaries, it would be unfair to expect too much from

We

that which is but a commencement. take, moreover, some small share of blame to ourselves for not being in a position to detail more fully what did take place of a generally instructive character. We intend, however, in future to be better prepared to relate what may be useful to our readers, and in this matter we are promised the valuable assistance of the Judges themselves and their Secretary.

Of the various subjects brought before the meeting we may mention that discussions took place as to the practice under the Partition Act, and a conclusion arrived at that it should be settled by rules, and that suggestions as to these rules, and as to the fees of officers, &c., should be made to the Judges of the Superior Courts, and for this purpose a committee consisting of Judges Jones, McDonald and Hughes was appointed to draft rules and frame a tariff, &c.-As to which is the better mode of taking evidence under sec. 4 of the Married Woman's Real Estate Act of 1873, whether rica voce by the Judges, or by affidavit, and how the evidence should be perpetuated. -As to the meaning of the word "claim" in the Division Court Amendment Act of 1869, and the extent to which an attachment affects a debt due by the garnishee to the primary debtor, under that Act.-As to the practice to be followed in case of an appeal to a County Judge from the award of an Assignee under the Insolvent Acts.-As to the jurisdiction of the County Judges under 31 Vict. cap. 26.-As to the expediency of having a fixed salary to Surrogate Judges in lieu of fees, and as to which a committee consisting of Judges Gowan, McDonald, Hughes, Kingsmill, and Burrowes, was appointed to endeavor to obtain a practical result in that direction.— As to the proof of wills made in a foreign country, of real estate in Ontario, then being a resident executor, the others residing abroad, &c.