that may be thus put, and to ask permission to continue to its end an argument upon the case actually to be now decided, and which you are prepared to maintain by a definite and matured chain of reasoning, the worth of which it will be for their Lordships to determine when they have heard it, but expressing a hope that they will hear it without interruption. Such an appeal will not fail you may be sure, if urged in a tone of deference and respect; but then it is the more incumbent upon you to adhere rigidly to your argument - to incumber it with no useless words, nor with cases not in point to preserve the order of your discourse, and thus to show the court that you have something to say, and that you desire not unduly to trespass upon its time and attention in the saying of it. If you sit long in Westminster-hall you will be condemned to hear inconsequential reasonings, pointless cases, and entangled arguments, which will convince you how it has happened that the judges have fallen into this habit of interpellation, first provoked by feebleness and fallacy, and then insensibly extended. Take you care that you give no cause for it, and then you may venture to deprecate, and I doubt not to prevent, its inconvenient application to yourself. The Advocate, by E. W. Cox.

It is reported, we know not if from authority, that the projected Rifle Corps of the Inns of Court is likely to prove a failure. We are not surprised at this, nor must it be looked upon as the result of any lack of patriotism on the part of the members of those societies. The fact is that the great majority of them are non-resident for the larger part of the year. The Barrister lives in or out of town, and not in the Temple -the student is migratory. During the long vacation the corps could not practise, because most of its members will be scattered over the face of the globe, habitable and uninhabitable; during term they are too busy; and during the short vacations they are at sessions or on circuit. In practice those who find leisure for soldiering will prefer to join some of the corps that are being formed in the neighborhood of London, and we believe it to be the fact that they have already done so. Hence the paucity of recruits for the projected Inns of Court corps.

The Solicitors ought to have been more successful, but they have failed too, or rather negatived the proposition. Their occupation, instead of scattering them over England during three-fourths of the year, and over the Continent during the other fourth, rather keeps them at home for all but about six or eight weeks through the whole year; and that which would be an extreme inconvenience to the Barrister, would be to the solicitor a recreation conducive to health and pleasure. We trust, therefore, that the alleged failure at Lincoln's inn has not disheartened the promoters of the movement in Chancery lane. The cases are quite different, and the cause of failure in one does not exist for the other.

The obstacles that appear every where to impede the projected training of the whole people in the art of self-defence, show, in a shape calculated to alarm the thoughtful how the progresss of wealth and civilization has wrought upon the habits of the people and how incompatible are our pursuits with warlike tastes and studies.

And if we look back into history we shall find that thus it was that nations have fallen into decrepitude and decay. We are not likely to be exceptions from what would seem to be a law of nature. Still there is no need yet to despair of the lawyers. A second meeting will be held to-day in Lincoln-inn Hall, to promote the organization of the Bar Rifle Corps. The establishment of such a body having been considered at the previous meeting, it is expected that the second will be constituted of members of

the Inns who intend to take part in the movement, either by subscribing to the fund or by bearing arms. The committee appointed provisionally will now resign their powers into the hands of the meeting, which will make elections and adopt resolutions necessary to complete the arrangements. The general expenses of the learned corps will be met out of the fund contributed by the veterans, whose patriotism will most conveniently exhibit itself in that shape. The personal expenses of the riflemen will be borne by themselves. No time can really be more opportune than the long vacation for surmounting the difficulties of drill; and if an agreeable camp ground were chosen, it might have charms even to detain tourists at home. A bivouac on the Surrey Hills would combine the military duties with the rural pleasures of the autumn. A strong position, too, might be taken up there. The access by rail to Caterham, for instance, is easy. Whether any such proposition be viewed seriously or not, it is certain that soldiering, like everything else, must be made a matter of business, if it is to be done well. If it be not done well, it will be a delusion, should the great cause of v. England come to a hearing.

(BEFORE MR. BARON BRAMWELL.) SCOTT v. BISHOP. SCRUPLES OF A JURYMAN. DOCTRINE of Grace.

The jury was about to be sworn in this case (which was an uninteresting question of account,) when one of them held up a small Testament, saying, I cannot take the oath, my Lord, for this word is so explicit against it.

BRAMWELL, B.- That is your notion. Do not say it is; say you think it is. The great majority of the people who have taken the trouble to consider the question are of a different opinion. It is only a few I must say wrong-headed people, who of course are entitled to every respect for their conscientious opinions, who differ from them. Don't say therefore, it is; but say you think it is. You cannot take the oath, of course, for if a man

believes anything to be wrong, it would be wrong for him to do it.

Juryman (holding up the Testament.) - This word is very explicit. BRAMWELL, B. As you are in a great minority you had better take the trouble to reconsider the question. But what is your precise objection to taking the oath? What do you propose to do? Do you wish to affirm anything in any other shape?

Juryman. I could not conscientiously act as a juror.

BRAMWELL, B. Why not? What is your objection?

Juryman. I do not think it according to the doctrine of grace. BRAMWELL, B. - Grace, indeed. This is not tolerable. I thought your objection was to the oath, itself, to being sworn,

Juryman.

That was my first difficulty.

BRAMWELL, B.- What has grace to do with earthly matters? Do you think it is predestined a man should have a verdict for or against him, and that, therefore, it would be wrong for you to interfere?

Juryman.

We are told in the fifth chapter of Matthew, that we should suffer evil, and not resist evil.

BRAMWELL, B.-Then suffer the evil the law imposes upon you, and become a Juryman. It is downright nonsense, and nothing else. The only common-sense view of the case is, that a man with such ideas in his head is not fit to be a juryman.

Phinn.- Counsel on both sides quite agree, my lord.

BRAMWELL, B.- Beally it is childish. You had better leave the box, sir, but you shall not make a holiday of your nonsense. leave court.

You must not

The conscientious juryman then left the box, the learned judge directing the associate to call his name every morning. On his name being called on Wednesday morning he did not answer, and the judge said he should fine him 201.

On which "Jurator" writes as follows to the Law Times:

"JUDICIAL OATHS. The unseemly colloquy between an ignorant but conscientious Juryman and Baron Bramwell, reported in your paper of the 20th inst., induces me to ask you at this leisure time to spare me space to direct the special attention of your readers, and through them of the public in general, to the real nature of the oath administered according to the laws of this realm, believing, as I do, that it is not only not contrary to, nor forbidden by, the Word of God, but, when solemnly and reverently taken, the pledge of the true religious feeling of the deponent. Let us, then, see what the oath is, putting it as if uttered entirely by the deponent in the first person. "The evidence I will give to the court," &c., "shall be truth," &c. "So (or thereto) help me God!" The first part, a solemn avowal of desire and pledge on the part of the deponent to testify the truth; and the second a devout prayer to God, without whose aid we cannot think, say or do anything that is good, that he will help the treacherous memory (the tablet of the mind) and the trembling heart faithfully to call to mind, and without fear of favor to enunciate the truth. Viewed in its true sense, what conscience of Turk, Jew, Christian, Protestant or Papist, can demur to take the oath ?"

"Jurator's" explanation of the nature of an oath, would give one the idea that "ignorant and conscientious jurymen" are not so uncommon in England.

THE

MONTHLY LAW REPORTER.

JANUARY, 1860.

RIPARIAN AND LITTORAL RIGHTS.

We gave in a former article, vol. XXI., p. 1, under the head of Flats and Alluvion, a translation from Denisart, of the title "Atterissement."

Some of the doctrines involved in that article are more fully discussed and their application extended in the case of Bates v. Illinois Central Railroad Co.,* where the legal rights of riparian owners, and the effects of accretion and decretion upon those rights came before the court, and has, we understand, been carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, upon exceptions. The case presents a question of great interest, both as to the principles of law governing the rights of the owners of land bordering upon inland navigable lakes, and the application of those principles to a somewhat novel and peculiar state of facts.

The common law principles, applicable to the ordinary accretions and diminutions of land bordering on water courses, sometimes called alluvial rights, have been much discussed in the courts, and are now pretty well developed and settled, both in this country and England.

But in order to determine the rights of owners of land bordering upon a sea or lake, much advantage may be derived from the continental and civil law.

And Mr. Wills, in his very ingenious, learned and able

* Report of the evidence in the case of George C. Bates v. Illinois Central R. R. Co. In the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Hon. John McLean, Presiding Judge; Hon. Thomas Drummond, Associate Judge. October Term. George C. Bates v. Illinois Central R. R. Co., Ejectment; Messrs. N. C McLean, E. C. Larned, J. A. Wills. T. Hoyne, S. A. Goodwin, for Plaintiff; Messrs. James F. Joy, J. M. Douglas, D. Stuart, C. Beckwith, for Defendants. R. R. Hitt, Reporter. Chicago, 1859. 8vo, pp. 263. Argument of J. A. Wills, of Counsel for Plaintiff. Detroit, 1859. Svo, pp. 77.