appeared; Signor Mancini, Deputy of the Italian Parliament, former Minister, professor of International Law in the University of Rome, one of the founders of the National Italian School of Jurists; and M. Rolin-Jacquemyns, the editor in chief of the Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée, published at Ghent. All the members of the Conference agreed in recognising the possibility and urgency of constituting a free association without any official character, which might serve as the centre of a scientific movement to promote both public and private international law. The first and chief business they had was to draw up and pass the rules of the association. The task they accomplished on the 10th Sept., and from that time the Institute dates its existence. Little more than this preliminary work could be accomplished, but the founders of the institution did not separate until they had taken steps to settle what was to be done for future meetings. Geneva was fixed upon for the next Conference, which will be held on the 31st Aug. 1874. The members of the Institute did not believe in the possibility of framing a code of International law in the present stage of development of that branch of jurisprudence, but they nevertheless appointed eight of their members as delegates to meet the jurists and publicists of the Brussels Conference on the 10th October, to express sympathy with them, to share in their labours, and aid them as far as possible in attaining the objects they have in view. The promoters of the Brussels Conference are Americans. The movement originated at New York on the 15th May last. The following persons, David Dudley Field, LL.D., Theodore Dwight Woolsey, D.D., LL.D., Emory Washburn, LL.D., William Beach Lawrence, LL.D., and the Rev. James B. Miles, D.D., were, at a meeting held on that day, appointed a committee to invite publicists from different nations to meet at a time and place to be agreed upon for consultation upon the best method of preparing an international code, and the most promising means of procuring its adoption. The resolutions passed were as follows:- "That we have heard with great satisfaction the Rev. Dr. Miles' account of his mission to Europe on behalf of international justice, and that we express our cordial conviction of the wisdom of the principles and the reasonableness of the plans which he has communicated to us; that the movement of affairs, the studies of thoughtful men, and the tendencies of public opinion, call for a new and earnest consideration of the usages and laws of nations especially in regard to war, and for a new international code especially in respect to arbitration; that in the opinion of this meeting the establishment of an international code, containing among its provisions the recognition of arbitration as the means of settling international disputes, is an object of the highest interest and importance; that with the view to the formation of such a code, it is expedient that a meeting should be called for consultation upon the best method of preparing it, and the most promising means of procuring its adoption; that such a meeting be held at a time and a place to be hereafter agreed upon, to which publicists from different nations shall be invited, and that a committee of five be appointed to act for this country in the issuing of invitations and in making arrangements for the meeting, which committee shall have power to add to their number." We could not expect much practical outcome from a meeting so composed, and professing such large and exuberant hopes and designs. We may note, however, that the subjects of discussion were-1. Discussion on the principle of the codification of the law of nations, and examination of the best system to be employed in the preparation and editing of a code of the law of nations; 2. Discussion on the principle of international arbitration, the foundation of courts of arbitration, procedure to be followed, means of securing the execution of decrees arbitral; 3. Classification of subjects to be considered, the formation of committees intrusted with the study of the questions to be decided, and the appointment of reporters. The duty of Sheriff's to examine into the state of the Public Registers. A little incident at the Autumn Circuit at Inverness suggests a piece of useful employment for those Sheriffs whose alacrity in availing themselves of the new privilege of being absent from the Parliament House and cultivating their farms, and perhaps their minds, has lately been so remarkable. The Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland (Mr. Thoms), who is not one of the Sheriffs who have so withdrawn, brought the state of the public records at Lerwick before the notice of the Lords of Justiciary last year, when a remit was made to the Lord Clerk Register. Again, this year, the learned Sheriff reported on the subject, and the newspaperreport bears: сар. 42) "The returns by the Sheriffs (i.e. under 49 Geo. III. were examined by the Judge and found correct. Last year, he said, the Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland had very properly drawn attention to the state of the records in his district, and a remit had been made on the subject to the Lord Clerk Register. Sheriff Thoms stated that the Lord Clerk Register had not reported, and the matter has again been remitted to him. The Lerwick registers, it appears, are kept in a wooden press, along with the current processes and other documents, in the Sheriff Clerk's office, which is situated in an old tenement, called the County Buildings, in Lerwick. No arrangement for the safety of the registers has ever been made in Shetland, and Sheriff Thoms regretted to say that the efforts of the county gentlemen to obtain a Court-house, with accommodation for their safe-keeping, had hitherto been unsuccessful, in consequence of the requirement by Government that not more than £1900 should be spent in the erection of the contemplated buildings. Yet Government had sanctioned an expenditure of £4500 for the erection of such buildings in Orkney, and in Shetland the expense of buildings was a third higher. A sum of £1900 was quite inadequate to procure the necessary accommodation in Lerwick. Sheriff Thoms added that the Commissary Court records in Shetland had always been kept in the private office of the commissary clerk. Meantime the Kirkwall records are in a condition similar to those at Lerwick. The remit of last year was renewed both as regards Orkney and Shetland." As the Sheriffs who have permanently retired to their country houses may not have a good edition of the Statutes at their command, we quote for their benefit (for we cannot believe that in their eagerness to get away from the world they have omitted to order the Journal to be sent to them), the following section of the statute under which their annual reports are to be made : "Section 10. The Sheriffs-depute and Stewarts-depute of the several shires and stewartries, or their Substitutes, shall at least once in every year carefully examine into the progress and state of all the different records framed and kept by the respective Sheriff-clerks and Stewart-clerks, and shall prepare exact reports in writing setting forth the result of their examinations, and particularly specifying the state and situation of the buildings in which the records of their respective shires and stewartries are kept, and how far the laws and regulations relative to the several records have been faithfully and punctually executed and obeyed: and the Sheriffs-depute of the several shires of Edinburgh, Haddington, and Linlithgow, or their Substitutes respectively, shall in the month of November in every year present such reports, duly authenticated, to the Lords Commissioners of Justiciary at Edinburgh; and the Sheriffsdepute and Stewarts-depute of the other shires and stewartries, or their Substitutes respectively, shall present their said reports, duly authenticated, to the Lords Commissioners of Justiciary at the Circuit Courts that shall be holden within their respective bounds in the autumn of every year: and the said Lords Commissioners of Justiciary are hereby empowered to make such orders thereon, or direct such further inquiries to be made, as may appear to them to be necessary, and direct their clerks to enter the same in the Minutes of the Court, and thereafter to transmit the several reports, with a certified copy of the orders that may have been made by them thereon, to the Lord Clerk Register, at whose instance it shall be competent to present to the Lords of Council and Session summary complaints against any of the Sheriff-clerks or Stewart-clerks or their deputies, on account of any neglect or malversation in the business of the several records committed to their care, and for redressing and punishing the same according to law." to We hope that Mr. Thoms will persevere in his praiseworthy efforts to bring the present illiberal Government a sense of its duty. We can testify from our own knowledge to the utter insufficiency of the Court-house at Lerwick, and to the miserable and unsafe nature of the premises in which the records of the county are kept. The country would certainly not grudge a grant sufficient to provide proper accommodation in these respects for a district which is so little able to provide it for itself, but which in many respects is so important and so interesting a dependency of the empire. Perhaps if the Shetlanders could contrive to tow their wild and picturesque rocks a few hundred miles to the south, and moor them off the coast of Connaught, they would have their petitions more readily granted. The Law Agents Act. - We regret that there is no possibility of the Act of Sederunt relative to this Statute being passed in time for our present publication. The Parliament House Book for 1873-74.- We have received the 49th publication of Mr. Burness's valuable compilation. We have so often expressed our profound sense of its merits that we have this year nothing to add, except that we hope its publisher will benefit by the passing of the Law Agents Act and the consequent desire of many country practitioners to become familiar with the mysteries of Court of Session practice. Such knowledge, we may assure them, can be got in no more satisfactory way than from the pages of this book, and of Mr. M'Laren's collection of the statutes relating to procedure (published by Messrs. T. and T. Clark). Correspondence. OFFICERS OF SCHOOL BOARDS UNDER THE CAN a member of a school board be legally appointed to be and act as treasurer, clerk or officer of the board of which he is a member, and receive remuneration out of the school rates for his services as such! The Education Act is silent on the subject. But it may be said a member of a school board holding these appointments is the autocrat of his own views. He is also in a somewhat similar position to a town councillor, who cannot be appointed to and hold the office of town-clerk. In regard to remunerating a member of a school board for services to the board for any office held by him under the board, there appears to be some analogy between his position to the ratepayers and that of a law agent who is a trustee under a gratuitous trust, and who cannot charge for his professional services in the trust. 10th October 1873. LAW AGENT. [The Board of Education has intimated its opinion (Circular, 8th April 1873, Tod's Handbook, p. 220, fifth edition) that "it is not expedient that any member of a school board should be appointed to any of these offices, and especially when a salary is assigned for the discharge of the duties thereof." Probably the board might have gone further, had it been authorized or able to give a legal opinion, and have adopted the views expressed by our correspondent, with which we are inclined to agree. The case of a director or trustee entering into a contract with the body for which he acts is also parallel. See Blaikie v. Aberdeen Railway Company, 20th July 1854, 1 Macq. 461. So, while it is not perhaps absolutely settled that a Town Councillor may not be appointed Town Clerk (Munro v. Forbes, 1785, 3 Pat. App. 23), we have never heard it suggested that, after such an appointment, he could retain his seat in the Council. Ed. J. of J.] Obituary. KENMURE MAITLAND, Esq., Sheriff-Clerk of Midlothian, died at Edinburgh, October 1st. Mr. Maitland, who was cut off at the untimely age of forty-eight, was the son of Mr. John Maitland, a gentleman who after acting for some time as managing clerk to the firm of Walker, Richardson, and Melville, W.S., became a Parliamentary agent in London, where he died two or three years ago. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Kenmure Maitland was early apprenticed to the legal profession in the office where his father was engaged. While acting there as conveyancing clerk, he was appointed by the late Sheriff Gordon to assist in taking the census of 1851. This led to his being placed in a subordinate post in the Sheriff Clerk's office, from which he was by and by promoted to the position of Sheriff-Clerk depute. In 1859 the principal Sheriff-Clerkship became vacant through the retirement of Mr. John Archibald Campbell, and the Conservative Government then in power bestowed the appointment on Mr. Maitland, whose commission bore date 11th June in that year. The Scotsman says:-"As a public official, Mr. Maitland would seem to have won golden opinions from all sorts of people. Kind and considerate with his subordinates, he was courtesy itself towards all with whom business brought him into contact. Thanks to his buoyant temperament, the burden of official life sat lightly on him, and while discharging his public duties with the utmost efficiency, he had always a reserve of time and energy for the enjoyment of congenial society and the indulgence of a racy humour. Mr. Maitland, in point of fact, has long been known as one of the most brilliant of our Edinburgh beaux esprits. The most generous and self-forgetting of men, he was loved for his simple goodness of heart no less than he was admired by all who knew his rare mental endowments. In general society he might have been thought reserved; but set him among a few chosen friends, and he gave free scope to a spirit of fun almost boyish in its innocent exuberance, but dignified by the manifestation of a keen intellect and sparkling wit. His conversation was all alive with dexterous puns and piquant bons mots; and even in his last illness the irrepressible gaiety of spirit would ever and anon keep manifesting itself under the severest physical depression. Among the wide circle of friends who will mourn his loss, special mention may be made of the members of the Edinburgh Angling Club. A skilful and enthusiastic fisher, he was long a leading member of that association, and many a jovial night at the "Nest" has been enlivened by his genial presence. At these suppers of the gods he would now and then entertain his friends with humorous songs and ballads, some of which, as well as other jeux d'esprit produced on various occasions, have been printed for private circulation. It is no news, we daresay, to many of our readers that Mr. Maitland was author of the last two pantomimes produced at the Theatre Royal. Never were pantomimes more successful than "Aladdin" and "Tom Thumb," and it will be a sad reflection to many amid the gaieties of Christmas that the deft hand which ministered so skilfully to our fund |