to succeed would be the formation of an International Commission, the members of which should be chosen from the most eminent jurists of all countries, and whose duty it would be to prepare a project of laws, to be submitted for the acceptance of the different nations. M. Drouyn De L'Huys purposes that the code, when complete, should be submitted to the "sanction of universal opinion by making an appeal for the adhesion of learned bodies, academies, universities, faculties, schools," etc. Mr. Montague Bernard takes what in our opinion is the sensible view of the question. He writes: "To begin by attempting what has been called a 'Codification of International Law' would not, I think, be wise. The prospect of useful results would be greater if the association were to be content, in the first instance, at least, with more modest aims. For my part, indeed, I do not anticipate advantage from efforts to reduce all the maxims of conduct recognised among States to the form of short propositions, expressed with the precision of municipal law. Laws, in the strict sense of the term, they cannot be, until all the States of Europe and America are content to resign a large part of their independence into the hands of a central power." Mr. Vernon Harcourt asks, "Would it not be possible, that a certain number of English and American jurists who might be willing to co-operate in such a work might meet together and examine the actual condition of international law on the principal heads, especially those which relate to a state of war? They might agree to report what appeared to be settled and what to be uncertain. They would start from the basis of what exists, rather than indulge in loose speculations as to what ought to be-a course, however, which must not preclude the indications of desirable amendments. When they found agreement impracticable, they would endeavour, in the candid and amicable spirit of scientific inquiry, to work and measure the extent of disagreement. Such a society might, without any pretension to authority, and without attempting either to codify or to legislate, prepare a useful commentary on the principal heads of international law, whose value would resemble that which belongs to a text-book prepared in a considerate and impartial spirit." But no text-book such as here suggested could have any binding force. The consent of nations, not of individuals, is requisite to make law which shall be enforceable without artillery-and to induce the Parliaments of different countries to accept the law as laid down by a congress of publicists, would, we anticipate, be a matter of considerable difficulty. - Law Times.

Lawyers in the United States. In a single number of the Albany Law Journal (April 19), we find the following four paragraphs showing the conditions under which the legal profession does its work in America :

1. "The 'farmers' clubs' recently formed in Illinois for the purpose

of resisting the existing methods of railroad management, have at least served the purpose of illustrating very clearly one of the dangers of an elective judiciary. No sooner was the decision of the Supreme Court, in the Railway Commissioners v. The Chicago & Alton Railroad Co., announced (which our readers will remember decided that the act regulating railroad freight charges was unconstitutional), than these clubs began to assail the Court as antagonistic to the interests of the farmers, and, at one of the meetings, a resolution was adopted in favour of calling a convention for the purpose of nominating a candidate in place of Chief-Justice Lawrence, who wrote the opinion of the Court in the case, and whose term is about to expire. One can very well imagine what sort of a Judge such a convention would select; and about what kind of service would be required of him by his makers. But the Bar of Judge Lawrence's judicial district, appreciative of his ability, learning and integrity, have very unanimously joined in requesting him to allow his name to be presented as a candidate for re-election. Judge Lawrence replied in a very dignified letter, accepting the invitation. In the course of his letter Judge Lawrence said: 'Of all classes in society, the farmers are most interested in having an honest judiciary, for if a Court can be bought, it is certainly not they who will become the purchasers' a sentiment which the 'farmers' clubs' would do well to drink to."

2. "Chief-Justice Read of Pennsylvania, in dissenting from the decision of the Supreme Court of that State, that the local option liquor law is constitutional, made use of some expressions that, however correct ethically, were out of place in a judicial opinion. If such a ratio judicandi is to be tolerated, we may as well put aside our books and depend entirely on our 'inner consciousness.' The Judge said: 'Ale is a healthy liquor, and lager beer is a favourite beverage, particularly of our large German population. The question of license or no license is to be submitted to the citizens of Philadelphia, at the general election in October, and if the vote is against license, then the city will be under a prohibitory liquor law during the whole Centennial Celebration, to which we have invited the whole country. On the 4th of July 1776 every patriot drank to the independence of the thirteen States; shall it be that on the 4th of July 1876 all we can lawfully offer to our guests on this great anniversary will be a glass of Schuylkill water, seasoned with a lump of Knickerbocker ice? I am a strong believer in temperance. For twenty-five years of my life I drank nothing but water, but a dangerous illness made a strong stimulant an absolute necessity, and by the advice of a physician I am obliged occasionally to resort to it. Some of my friends, older than myself, have drank wine all their lives, and are temperate men. I believe in moral suasion as the true means of advancing the temperance cause, but I do not believe in a prohibitory law, which would reduce us to the condition of Boston."

3. "Something more than a year ago Mrs. Myra Bradwell of the Chicago Legal News, made application to be admitted to the bar, which application was denied by the Supreme Court of Illinois, and the case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States for review, on the ground that the decision was in violation of the second section of the fourth article of, and the fourteenth amendment to the constitution. That Court announced its decision on Tuesday last, affirming the decision of the State Court. The plaintiff in error set forth by affidavit, that she was born in Vermont, and had been a citizen in that State, that she was a citizen of the United States, and had been for many years a resident of Chicago, and that therefore she was entitled to any right granted to any citizen of Illinois. But the Court thought otherwise, and that the provision in the constitution giving the citizens of each State all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several States, had no application to a citizen of the State whose laws were complained of. The Court was also of opinion that admission to the bar of a State is not one of the privileges which a State may not deny under the fourteenth amendment, but that its control and regulation rested entirely with the State. This of course settles the question in one respect, but meanwhile the progressive legislature of Illinois has made it possible for Mrs. Bradwell or any other woman in the State, who shall show herself qualified, to practise law if she so desires."

4. "In Stearnes v. Felker, 28 Wis. 594, it was held that an agreement between an attorney at law and his client, whereby the former was to prosecute an action for the latter, pay the expenses thereof, and divide the amount recovered with the latter, was champertous. The doctrine of Champerty belongs to an anterior civilization, and it would seem that modern courts ought to disfavour it. See ante, vol. vi. 135. In New York it has been held that an agreement by an attorney to prosecute a suit and share in the proceeds is not void. Fogerty v. Jordan, 2 Rob. 318. See Sedgwick v. Stanton, 14 N. Y. 289. The contrary decision in Stearncs v. Felker is accompanied by the holding that the attorney in such a case after prosecuting the action to judgment is entitled to full compensation for his services."

Grotesque Litigation in India. - The Law Magazine and Review gives some curious illustrations of the kind of litigation sometimes had in India, from which we extract the following:-In one case, an appeal came up to the late Sudder Court in 1854, in which thirteen parties as plaintiffs sued twenty-six barbers, to compel them to shave them. It appears that a succession of barbers, of a particular caste, had lathered and shaved the ancestors of the plaintiffs from time immemorial. From father to son the same razor had come down as an heirloom destined to shave the chins of certain families, their heirs and successors for ever. At last, however, prompted by some evil genii, the barbers absconded, and, as a result,

the beards of the plaintiffs appeared, which being repugnant to the spirit of the shashias, the judge was asked to have the plaintiffs duly shaved, which he declined to do. In another case certain parties sued certain individual barbers, praying that the latter might be compelled to pare the nails of the former. The first court found that it had been the custom of the defendants to perform this service for the plaintiffs, and passed a decree compelling the defendants to perform it. The barbers, being indignant, appealed. The lower appellate court held that such a suit will not lie; and, as is the custom of litigants in India, an appeal was immediately made to a higher tribunal. It was gravely urged in special appeal to the high court, that a suit will lie for the enforcement of an established usage having the force of law. The high court, in its turn, solemnly say (see Weekly Reporter, vol. i.): "We have carefully considered this argument, but, looking at the facts of the case, we think it should be governed by the decision of the late Sudder Court, 2nd November 1854, p. 465, in which thirteen parties sued twenty-six barbers to compel them to shave them, and which appears to us to be on all-fours with this. It is, indeed, urged in that case that any barber may have been resorted to, and here the individual defendants must perform the service, otherwise plaintiffs lose caste. But that was not the ground of that decision. It was that the claim was of doubtful principle, and not one of which the courts could enforce execution." The special appeal was accordingly dismissed.

The Multitude of Reported Cases. In one of the cases in the European arbitration, Mr. Fischer, Q.C., having cited cases decided by the Master of the Rolls and Lord Cairns in the Albert arbitration, Lord Westbury said he would, out of deference to the authorities cited, reserve his decision. At the same time, he remarked that nothing was so miserable in our law as the existence of any number of reported cases which might be cited in support of almost any proposition, reminding him of the saying that a certain person could quote Scripture for his own purpose.

The Junior Bar in Ireland. The Law Times notices a new phase of the question as to the rights of the Junior Bar in Ireland, which we noticed formerly (ante, p. 86, J. of J. for February). Our contemporary says:-"The battle of the Junior Bar has been successfully fought in the Courts of Ireland. A leader who essayed to argue a point of law alone was worsted, and his case postponed until a junior had been retained with him. The case in question was stated by metropolitan magistrates for the opinion of the Court of Exchequer under the provisions of 20 & 21 Vict. c. 43, s. 2, and the Corporation of Dublin had instructed a Queen's Counsel only. The court, on the objection of the junior counsel on the other side, decided that the case was one in which a junior should be instructed, and further, junior counsel' has a technical meaning, and does not mean the junior of two Queen's Counsel. The Irish Law Times

VOL. XVII. NO. CC. - AUGUST 1873.

2 H

has some ingenious arguments to show the advantage of employing a leader and a junior. 'Experience,' it says, 'is valuable, but so is speculation. Minds are sharpened by the friction of experience, but they are narrowed by being sharpened, and what we gain in experience we lose in imagination. A combination of both is best for both, and the client who retains a junior and a senior obtains combined force of the happy union of these valuable qualities. "

Appointments.-ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL LAWRIE, Esq., Advocate (1860), has been appointed District Judge of Candy, Ceylon. It would have been impossible for the Colonial Office to find any abler or more efficient lawyer for the important and desirable judicial position which, to the regret of his brethren of the Bar, Mr. Lawrie has been induced to accept.

CHARLES J. G. RAMPINI, Esq., Advocate (1865), District Judge in Jamaica, has been appointed a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court at Demerara, British Guiana.

VACATION ARRANGEMENTS.

The Autumn Circuits. - The following are the arrangements for the Autumn Circuits:

North-Lords Justice-Clerk and Ardmillan. Dundee, Tuesday, 9th September; Perth, Friday, 12th September; Aberdeen, Tuesday, 16th September; Inverness, Friday, 19th September. Andrew Rutherford, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Æneas Macbean, Clerk.

South-Lords Cowan and Neaves. Jedburgh, Tuesday, 16th September; Dumfries, Friday, 19th September; Ayr, Tuesday, 23rd September. Henry J. Moncreiff, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Alexander Ingram, Clerk.

West-Lords Deas and Jerviswoode. Inveraray, Thursday, 18th September; Stirling, Thursday, 25th September; Glasgow, Monday, 29th September, at half-past 12 o'clock. Alexander Asher, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Wm. Hamilton Bell, Clerk.

Bill Chamber Rotation of Judges. From Monday, 21st July, to Saturday, 26th July, Lord Mackenzie; from Monday, 28th July, to Saturday, 9th August, Lord Shand; from Monday, 11th August, to Saturday, 23rd August, Lord Benholme; from Monday, 25th August, to Saturday, 6th September, Lord Ormidale; from Monday, 8th September, to Saturday, 20th September, Lord Mure; from Monday, 22nd September, to Saturday, 4th October, Lord Gifford; and from Monday, 6th October, to the meeting of the Court for the Winter Cession, Lord Mackenzie.

Box-Days in Vacation. -Thursday, August 28th, and Thursday, September 25th.

Obituary.

WILLIAM POLLOCK, Esq., Solicitor and Agent for the City of Glasgow Bank at Ayr, died at Springvale, Ayr, May 24, in the 60th year of his age.