DIARY FOR JANUARY.

1. Wed.. Circumcision. Taxes to be computed from this date.

2. Th... Error and Appeal Sittings.

5. SUN.. 2nd Sunday after Christmas.

Heir

6. Mon.. Epiphany. County Court and Surrogate Court Term begins. Municipal Elections. and Devisee Sittings commence.

7. Tues.. Last day for Township, Village and Town Clerks to make returns to County Clerk.

8. Wed.. Election of School Trustees, 11. Sat. County Court and Surrogate Court Term ends. 12. SUN.. 1st Sunday after Epiphany.

13. Mon.. Election of Police Trustees in Police Village. 15. Wed.. Treasurer and Chamberlain of Municipality to make return to Board of Auditors. School Reports to be made to Local Superintend't. 18. Sat.. Articles, &c., to be left with Secretary of Law Society.

19. SUN.. 2nd Sunday after Epiphany. 20. Mon.. Members of Municipal Councils (excepting Co's) and Trustees of Police Villages to hold first meeting.

21. Tues. Heir and Devisee sittings end. 25. Sat... Conversion of St. Paul.

26. SUN.. 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.

28. Tues.. 1st meeting County Council.

Our work has however hitherto been almost entirely a labour of love. We are willing that it should so continue, if need be, but we hope nevertheless that those interested in this publication will do their part of the work with more regard to our right to an increased measure of support (not only as to the number of our subscribers, but as to the payment of what they owe after they have subscribed), and with more regard to their own interests, by furnishing us with such information as may be interesting and instructive to our readers in general.

Our thanks are due in this respect to many of the County Judges and others who, having their heart in the work, desire to do what they can for the benefit of others.

BLUE BOOKS FOR 1866.

Reading blue books is looked upon somewhat in the same light as reading Johnson's Dictionary-instructive, but if anything a little dry. We have never heard of any one whose courage and endurance carried him through a

JANUARY, 1868.

1868.

Great changes have taken place in the political aspect of this country during the past year. These changes call for notice from us only so far as they affect ourselves. Upper Canada and Lower Canada are, in name, no more. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have cast in their lot with us, and Canada as a unit, comprising four provinces, has become a dominion.

As the oldest legal periodical in the four provinces, and as the organ of the profession in the largest and wealthiest of them, the CANADA Law Journal claims, without fear of contradiction, or, we think, without the danger of being considered presumptuous, the right of representing not only the profession of Ontario, but that of the Dominion at large.

Earnestly desiring also to increase as well the usefulness as the sphere of usefulness of this journal, we shall spare no exertion on our part to make the Gazette acceptable in the sister Provinces amongst a class of readers, similar to those who form the bulk of our subscribers in Ontario.

same time valuable and interesting information may always be gathered even from much abused statistics.

We have approached the subject in the hope of presenting to our readers some facts that may interest them, gleaned from the mass of figures

before us.

The following table we have compiled from the volume of public accounts for the year ending 30th June, 1866, lately received with a number of other books of the same colour.

The County of Halton does not for some reason appear in the returns.

The table is interesting as shewing the amounts received from the sale of stamps used in law proceedings in all the several courts of civil jurisdiction in Upper Canada, and under three distinct heads, viz.: (1) C. F. or Consolidated Revenne Fund; (2) F. F. or Fee Fund; (3) L. S. or Law Society.

The stamps of the first and third kind (C. F. and L. S.) being used for payment of fees on business done in the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Court of Chancery. The stamps of the second kind (F. F.) being for payment of fees on business done in the County Courts, Surrogate and other local Courts, and on proceedings under various statutes before the local judges.

$28,879 52

The figures in the above table show the amount of stamps sold, to be used in proceedings in the Superior Courts, $44,306 78, and in the County courts and other local courts $43,378 79, or in other words that the income derived from business in the Superior Courts exceeds that from the Local and Inferior Courts by $927 99. But in reasoning upon these figures it must be borne in mind that the general revenue is not chargeable with the expense of court accommodations for the County and Inferior Local Courts, that comes from local sources. Whereas the fact is otherwise in respect to the Superior Courts of Common Law and Equity, the L. S. (Law Society) stamp collection being applicable to interest upon and redemption of debentures issued by the Law Society to cover the outlay for extension of buildings, &c., necessary to make the accommodation required for the Superior Courts at Toronto; and consequently the sum of $15,427 26, being wholly applicable to the purpose mentioned, and there being a counter outlay in the Local Courts which is not represented in this table, the sum named should be deducted from the aggregate of $44,306 77, leaving $28,879 52 against $43,378 75, and showing a contribution to the General Revenue Fund by the County and other Local Courts of

$43,378 79

$15,427 26=$87,685 57 $14,499 27 more than contributed by the Superior Courts. And the disparity is much greater even than these figures exhibit. For the clerks of County, Surrogate and Division Courts (nearly 300 officers) are all remunerated by fees payable by suitors of these courts in money, while the whole staff of officers in the Superior Courts of law and equity in Toronto, and the several deputy clerks of the Crown, are paid by salary from the general revenue. But this opens a large question, one too extensive for a single article, and we leave it for the present.

A great disparity will be observed in the amount of collections from the different counties; a desparity it is not easy to account for. This is especially noticeable in respect to the Fee Fund stamps for the Local and Inferior Courts. Not to speak of York and Peel, which gives a sum of $6,004 05, there is the County of Simcoe giving $2,682 99, the County of Wentworth, $1,989 11, the County of Waterloo, $1,854 40, or a total for these three counties of $6,526 50, as compared to a total of $976 85 (or one-seventh nearly) for the following three counties, viz.: Essex, $54 63, Prescott and Russell, $418 72, Lamb. ton, $503 50. There has been a great falling off in the business of the courts this last year it

MEDICAL EVIDENCE.

We have medical practitioners among us who have a regard for truth which cannot be considered over nice, but we believe that no such instance of medical amiability has ever been developed in this country as was recently brought to light in England in the trial of Johnson v. The Midland Railway Company. The plaintiff sued for damages for injuries caused by the Company, and his medical attendant gave the three following certificates:

This is to certify that I am attending Mr. Johnson, undertaker, of 8 Hethpool street, Hall-park, Paddington, suffering from severe concussion of the brain, and compression produced by extravasation from a ruptured vessel, caused by the railway accident at Colney Hatch, Aug. 30, 1865, and I have no doubt but that he will feel the effect of it for some time.

J. MORGAN, M.R.C.S.L., L.A.C./ Sept. 28, 1865.

I hereby certify that I found nothing serious in the case of Mr. Johnson, 8 Hethpool street, Hall-park, Paddington, and consider him not injured by the accident at Colney Hatch.

Sept. 28, 1865.

J. MORGAN, Surgeon.

were empowered by statute to order streets to be paved by the owners of the adjoining premises, and, in case of their default, to do the work themselves, and to charge the respective owners with their proportionate part of the expenses; and, as an additional remedy, the council were empowered to require payment from any tenant or occupier, to be levied by distress, and it was made compulsory on the owner to allow such payments to be deducted from the rent. Premises in G. street were demised by the plaintiff to the defendant at a "clear yearly rent," the defendant covenanting to "pay and discharge all taxes, rates, assessments and impositions whatever, which during the term should become payable in respect of the demised premises." Subsequently the council gave notice to have G. street paved. The plaintiff neglecting to do the required work, the council caused it to be done, and the plaintiff paid his proportional share of the expense. Held, that the payment having been made by the plaintiff, not for a rate, assessment or imposition, payable in respect of the premises, but for breach of duty imposed on him by statute, he could not compel the defendant, under his covenant, to repay him the Tidswell. Whitworth, Law Rep. 2

amount. C. P. 326.

MUNICIPAL LAW-TOWNSHIP COUNCIL. In 1854, a Township Council passed a hy-law for remunerating the councillors for their attendance at the council, at the rate $20 a year. In 1850, and thenceforward, by-laws were passed providing for the further sum of $10 a year for each councillor for letting and inspecting the roads, in addition to the $20. The by-law passed in 1866, was moved against and quashed by the Court of Queen's Bench, as illegal. On a bill by a ratepayer, filed in the same year, the Court ornered the members who were defendants, to repay to the corporation the $10 a-year they had respectively received; but held, that the ratepayers were not entitled to a decree restoring the same actually paid fer the years between 1859 and 1865, except to the extent that such payments exceeded the statutory limit.-Blaikie v. Staple, 67.