DIARY FOR JANUARY.

1. Tues... Circumcision. Taxes to be comp- from this day. 3. Satur. Last day for Tp. Vill. and Town Clerk to make 6. SEN... Epiphany. [returns to Co. Clerk. Term ends. Mun. Elec. Heir and Dev. sitt. com.

7. Mon... Co. Ct. and Surrog. Ct. 8. Tues... Elec. School Trustees.

9. Wed... Assizes County York.

12 Satur. County Ct. and Surrogate Ct. Term ends.

13. SUN... 1st Sunday after Epiphany.

14. Mon... Election of Police Trustees in Police Villages. 15. Tues... Treas. & Cham. of Mun. to make return to Board of Audit. School reports to be made,

19. Satur. Articles, &c., to be left with Sec. of Law Society. 9. SUN... 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.

1. Mon... Members of Municipal Councils (except Co's) and Trust. of Police Vil. to hold 1st meeting. Tues... Heir and Devisee sitt. ends. Mems. Co. Council Wed... Dec. of office by Sch. Tr. [to hold 1st meeting.

25 Friday Conversion of St. Paul.

4. SUN... 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.

0. Wed... Appeal from Chancery Cham. School Financial Report to Board of Audit.

51. Thur... Last day for Counties and Cities to make return to Provincial Secretary.

NOTICE.

Sulvribers in arrears are requested to make immediate payment of the sums due by them. All payments for the current year made before the 1st March next will be received as tash payments, and will secure the advantages of the lower

rates.

THE

JANUARY, 1867.

SHEET ALMANAC FOR 1867.

Our Sheet Almanac for 1867 is sent with the present number. Recent legislation has made considerable change in it necessary, and some information which we were hitherto enabled to afford, we cannot now give. For instance, it will, it is apprehended, be necessary for the judges to make some new rules as to the disposal of business in Easter and Michaelmas Terms, owing to the sittings now occupying three weeks instead two, as formerly; as this does not affect Easter Term, the paper days and new trial days are left, as to that term, as before. The same cause affects the sittings of the Court of Error and Appeal, the result apparently being that there will only be two sittings of that court during the present year.

The same act which makes these alterations also leaves it in the discretion of the Chief justices and judges of the superior courts to fix the time for the holding of the three yearly assizes for the city of Toronto and the County of York, in the same manner as the outside circuits are arranged. This of course prevents

being daily made both in the common and statute law. To this must be added, what are perhaps rarer qualities, an intuitive insight. into character and the workings of human nature, and a keen observance and appreciation of the customs, wants and necessities of the people with whom they are either mediately or immediately brought in contact.

This last requisite applies with peculiar force to County judges in this country. Often obliged to decide upon the spur of the moment, with no assistance from books, or from the arguments of experienced counsel-with a mass of evidence, perhaps " pitchforked " into court without order, rhyme or reason-in a crowded court room, with but comparatively little time to devote to each case, it is little to be wondered at, if judges sometimes give decisions which are not all that could be desired. The greater care should therefore be exercised in the selection of men to fill these offices,-men who are not only sound lawyers but also who can quickly and correctly discover the point at issue, analyse and apply the evidence, scrutinise motives, and attach to the evidence of each witness the credibility or importance which it deserves.

The following remarks, taken from a leading legal publication in England, with reference to

the appointment and position of the county judges there, are so much to the purpose that we copy them:

"There is no subject at present more deserving of the attention of the legislature and of the bar than the administration of law in the county courts. In the great majority of cases over which the jurisdiction of these courts extends, there is no appeal from the decision of the judge who decides upon them in the first instance. It may be true that they are occasionally of trifling importance to the parties concerned. On the other hand, to the majority of the suitors, who are of the poorer class, they are of great moment, and the decisions thus pronounced affect the existence of homes and the future of many lives. But the administration of law has a wider bearing than that which concerns the interest of the litigants in any particular case. It is necessary for the promotion of good citizenship and loyalty to the Crown and the institutions of the country that the law of the land should be fairly administered by every authorised tribunal. In many cases the vagaries of our county court judges are not a credit to the profession or the government. Some of these gentlemen carry out a law and practice of their own, decide upon principles of absolute morality, and not in accordance with legal autho. rity, and hold courts which are only distinguished for loud talk between the litigants and the judge, and other great irregularities. * Above all, care should be taken that good men should be appointed to the important position of a county court judge."

*

There is good and bad of every thing in this world; and though we are not now complaining of the appointments that have been hitherto made in this country, or say that persons appointed to offices of high public trust for political reasons are unfitted, ipso facto, from occupying their positions with advantage to the publie, we do say that political motives or party influences, or the desire to shelve a friend, or silence an opponent, should have nothing to do with the appointment of the justiciary of the country.

Whilst making the general remarks contained in the last few sentences, we do not wish to be understood as referring to ap. pointments of this kind that have lately been made. On the contrary, we have reason to believe that the appointments to the county judgeships of Huron, of Bruce, and of Peel, have been made with a due regard for the interests of the public, irrespective of any of the objectionable influences alluded to. Mr.

Brough is a Queen's counsel of high standing at the equity bar, who, though not very conversant with common law practice, (which, however, he will soon pick up,) takes with him to his new sphere of action in the Division Courts, a thorough knowledge of the principles of equity jurisprudence, as distinguished from those uncertain, crude notions of natural justice, which some few judges, we are afraid, practically put in its place, thereby doing much "substantial injustice" to all parties, unsettling the ideas of the people, as to what is or is not law, under a particular state of facts, and so causing unnecessary litigation, injuring trade, and bringing their courts into contempt. Mr. Kingsmill, the county judge of the new county of Bruce, is also well fitted, by his knowledge of the country people, their ways and customs, obtained by an extensive and varied practice in the country, and by his good common sense and tact and general knowledge of law, for the post which has been assigned him. The judge of the newly separated county of Peel is a gentleman of less experience than either of the other two, but that will mend by time. It might be objected to him that it is unadvisable on principle to select a person to occupy a judicial position in the place in which he has been living, and whilst there is some force in this, we do not think it of much importance in this particular case, and certainly if the feeling which is already entertained of Mr. Scott in the locality where he resides is any index of the future, there is every reason to think that his career will be a useful one.

We wish these gentlemen every success in the laborious and responsible duties which they have undertaken to perform.

DIGEST OF ENGLISH REPORTS.

The value of the new series of Law and Equity Reports to the profession in this country is day by day better known and appreciated. They must necessarily become the Reports, and cases will be cited from them in preference to any other series, such as the reports (excellent as they are) published in the Solicitors' Journal and Weekly Reporter, the Law Times, and the Jurist. The price, however, is greater than that of those valuable publications, and the combination of interesting matter in the weeklies, for a compara.

tively small sum, will help to keep them up; and, indeed being old favourites, we should be sorry to miss them, though indeed as to one of them, the Jurist, it appears that it is intended to discontinue it shortly.

A new era in law reporting may be said to date from the commencement of the publication of the reports first mentioned, which may now be said to be the " orthodox" reports. This being the case, and the new series being in a permanent and complete form, and the reports which will be most generally referred to by judges and counsel, and desiring as far as possible to give such of our readers as do not feel justified in going to the expense of subscribing for them, the benefit to be derived from a knowledge of what they contain, we contemplate commencing with our next issue a digest of all the cases that have since their commencement appeared, and will hereafter from time to time appear in them, affecting or bearing upon the laws of Upper Canada. It is, we think, unnecessary to publish all the cases, as they would take up too much room without any compensating advantage, but a full and judicious selection will be made, leaving out nothing but cases referring to statutes, or to law not in force in this country.

It will take some numbers to bring up the cases of last year, after which the new cases will be given with promptness and regularity, and under such heads as the number and variety of the decisions may render advisable. In addition to this it is proposed to give at the end of each year a full index of the matter contained in the digest.

We are led to think that this digest, and index in connection with it, will be of great service to all, and particularly to country practitioners; and we trust that the time and labour it will involve will be appreciated, and that the enterprise will command an increased measure of support from the profession.

The first number of the Practice Court and Chambers' Reports under the new arrangement is, we understand, in course of preparation by Mr. O'Brien, and will be issued as soon as a sufficient number of decisions are collected. They will in the meantime, so as to give the profession as early notice of them as possible, appear in the Law Journal, and of necessity, as a general thing, before they can be published in the new form.

Magrath v. Todd.

Monday, December 17, 1866. Held, that a defect in an affidavit of the execution of a discharge of mortgage which the registrar overlooked, not being an objection patent on the face of the document as registered, was no objection to the registry. (Robson v. Waddell distinguished.) Heid also, that defendant being mortgagee of the term which he since foreclosed was bound by the covenant to pay rent contained in the original lease. Postea to plaintiff.

Lyster v. Rumage.--Postea to plaintiff for an undivided two-thirds of the land sought to be recovered. Leave to appeal granted to defendant in this case and Lyster v. Kirkpatrick. Waddell v. Corbett.-Rule discharged. Carrick v. Johnston.-Judgment for defendant on demurrer to plea. Griffith v. Hall. Judgment for plaintiff on demurrer, with leave to amend on payment of

costs.

In re Scott and the Corporation of the County of Peterborough.-Held that the Surveyors' Act. does not extend to the re-survey of a whole township, but only certain concessions therein.. Rule absolute to quash by-law, with costs.

The Corporation of the County of Peterborough v. the Corporation of the Township of Smith.Judgment for defendants on demurrer. Count held bad and plea held good.

Williamson v. the Gore District Mutual Fire Insurance Co.-Rule discharged, with costs.

Golding v. Belknap.-Judgment for plaintiff on demurrer.

Wilson v. Biggar.-Judgment for defendant on demurrer, with leave to apply to a Judge in Chambers, on affidavit, to amend.

Furnival v. Saunders.-Rule absolute. Kinloch v. Hall -Rule discharged. Merrill v. Cousins.—Rule absolute.

Bell v. Mills-Stands.

December 22, 1666.

McLennan v. The Port Burwell Harbour Com pany Rule nisi refused.

Ockerman v. Clapp.-Rule nisi refused. Price v. McCormick et al-Rule refused. Rastrick v. The Great Western Railway Company-Stands.

Pomroy v. Wilson.-Held, that a Court of Quarter Sessions sitting in appeal on a decision from a magistrate's couviction cannot reserve a point for the decision of one or other of the Superior Courts: so no decision given on the merits.

Clarke Chipman-Held, that in order to sustain an action for money paid, it is enough to show a virtual though not an actual payment of money. Rule discharged.

Bank of Upper Canada v. Owen. - Held, that a venue laid in the United Counties of," &c., and not County of, &c., one of the United Counties of," &c., not sufficient. Judgment for defendant on demurrer. Leave to amend on payment of costs.

Unitarian Congregation v. The Western Assurance Company.-Postea to plaintiffs.

Rathwell v. Rathwell.-Rule absolute to enter verdict for plaintiff for $219.

Scratch v. Jackson.-Stands till next term.

Souter et al. v. Hagaman.-Rule absolute for new trial, on payment of costs before 1st day of next term, otherwise rule discharged.

Gore Bank v. Meredith et al.-Rule absolute to enter nonsuit.

In re Hyland and the Judge of the County Court of the County of Hastings.-Rule discharged.

Bickell v. Mathewson et al-Rule absolute, with costs to abide the event, including costs of the special case.

Hodgins v. Graham.-Rule absolute.

Jones v. Seaton.-Rule absolute with costs. Clissold v. Machell.-Rule absolute to extend the time for delivery of appeal on payment of

with liberty to defendants to amend ou payment of costs within four weeks.

Miller v. Miller. — Judgment for plaintiff on demurrer to second and third pleas.

Black v. Allan.-Rule absolute to enter verdict for defendant.

Glass v. O'Grady.-Rule discharged. Commercial Bank v. Cotton et al. Judgment for plaintiffs on demurrer.

Wiseman v. Williams et al Judgment for plaintiff on demurrer. Plaintiff's rule discharged. Defendant's rule refused.

Merner v. Klein.-Rule absolute for new trial. Costs to abide the event.

Stabler v. Linster.-Rule refused.

In re Lennox and the Police Commissioners of the City of Toronto.-Held, that Police Commissioners have no power to pass by-laws or regulations imposing penalties for non-compliance with their by-laws or regulations. Rule absolute to quash conviction.

Furnival v. Saunders. Rule absolute for a prohibition.

Cosford v. Drew. Defendants amendment upon payment of 25s. costs, and their judgment for defendants without costs.

Miller v. Wiley et al.-Judgment for demandant. Meyers v. Brown.-Held, that if taxes be validly paid before sale of lands for taxes the sale is void. Judgment for plaintiff on special case.

The Queen v. Hall.-Judgment for defendant. Wright v. Skinner.-Rule absolute to enter a nonsuit.

McCurdy v. Swift.-Rule absolute.

The Queen v. Atkinson.-Conviction affirmed. Flood v. The Great Western Railway Company. Leave to appeal granted.

Bacon left a will appointing six executors, but no property except his name and memory, which he bequeathed to "men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and the next age."

Lord Clarendon had nothing to leave his daughter but his executor's kindness; and Lord Nelson left neither a will of real or personal estate behind him, although he bequeathed his adopted daughter to the beneficence of his country.