WHEREAS application has been made to the Court by the said Owner for an Order, pursuant to Section 14, Subsec. 1, of the "Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887," that the amount of the advance sanctioned in this Matter, in respect of sales to the tenants of the Lands of Bally. buck North, and Ballybuck South, in the Barony of Kiltarton, and COUNTY OF GALWAY

(or parts thereof), less the amount of such of the guarantee deposits as are not being lodged in cash, be paid into the Bank of Ireland to the account of the Irish Land Commission and to the credit of this Matter, and that the claims of all persons (except the tenants or persons claiming under them) who are interested in the lands sold, whether as incumbrancers or otherwise, shall attach to the purchase-money of such lands in like manner as immediately before the sales they attached to the lands, and shall cease to be of any validity against the lands.

And whereas the said owner claims to be seized of the said lands in fee-simple, subject only as is mentioned in the Originating Statement in this Matter, filed the 20th day of December, 1889.

Let all parties Take Notice that the said application will come on for hearing before Mr. Commissioner LYNCH, at his Court, Upper Merrionstreet, aforesaid, on Monday, the 13th day of October, at Eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when a Final Order will be made, and all persons are at liberty to inspect the said Originating Statement at my Office, and any person for any valid reason objecting to such Order being made, may enter an appearance in the Matter, and file an Affidavit of Cause against the said Order being made, and appear on the hearing of such application.

And Further Take Notice, that immediately on the making of such Order the Court will proceed to vest the several holdings in the purchasing tenants thereof, and to charge the said holdings with the annuities in respect of the said advances.

Dated this 6th day of September, 1890.

PUBLIC NOTICES:

JAMES KEOGH,

TAILOR

(Late of J. B. JOHNSTONE),

36 WELLINGTON-QUAY,

Tweed Suits from

DUBLIN.

Worsted, Vienna, or Twill Suits, from

Dress Suits, Silk-lined, from

£3 0s. Od.

£3 78. 6d.

£4 48. Od.

ESTABLISHED OVER HALF A CENTURY

Boots madefor Weak Ankles, Deformed Feet, and Surgical purposes of every description.

All Workexecuted on the Premises under my personal None but first-class Workmen employed in either Making or Repairing

superintendence.

GIVEN ON GOOD HOUSE PROPERTY. Rate of Interest, 6 per cent. per annum.

Loans also issued repayable by annuity.

Deposits received, Present Rate of Interest 24 per cent.
Special Rates for Fixed Deposits.
ADDRESS-A. H. MERCER, Secretary,

RISH CIVIL SERVICE BUILDING SOCIETY,

52 LOWER SACKVILLE-STREET. Advances already made exceed One Million Sterling.

WANTS :

171

SOLICITOR. An Assistantship wanted in a Dublin

Office by a Solicitor having a good knowledge of the Dublin practice, and also a good knowledge of Conveyancing, drawing Costs, and preparing Abstracts of Title, &c.; can be well recommended. Address" P. R. LEX." Office of the IRISH LAW TIMES, 53 Upper Sackville-street, Dublin.

136

SOLICITOR (35), sound Lawyer, seeks a Conveyancing and General Clerkship. Will give usual covenant. Highest testimonials. Address-X Y Z," Office of the IRISH LAW TIMES, 53 Upper Sackville-street, Dublin. 135

MANAGING CLERKSHIP. A competent Assis

tant of experience seeks re-engagement; would take charge of a department; first-class references. Address-LAW," Office of the IRISH LAW TIMES, 53 Upper Sackville-street, Dublin.

AND

VOL. XXIV.

JOURNAL.

SECRET PROFITS MADE BY AGENTS IN RELATION ΤΟ CONTRACTS BETWEEN PRINCIPALS AND THIRD PARTIES.-II. THE October number of the Law Journal supplies another instructive decision on the subject in hand, further illustrating the efficiency of the doctrine under notice, and the tendency to extend its operation, so as to protect a principal who has been victimised by surreptitious dealings between his agent and a third person. Not alone has the principal a right of action against his agent to recover secret profits obtained by way of bribes or commission, as has been shown, but he may have a distinct and separate cause of action against the third person individually, or jointly with the agent, to recover damages for fraud, as unanimously resolved in The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of Salford v. Lever; nor would the plaintiff be under any obligation, in such case, to give credit for such bribes, if disgorged by the agent, in reduction of damages, unless, indeed, he knew of their being taken and allowed his agent to take them. As to whether an action would lie, also, in form for money had and received to the plaintiff's use, the Judges differed in opinion, under the particular circumstances of the case; and an important feature of the decision related to the effect of a composition between the principal and agent as a joint tort-feasor with the defendant.

It appeared that Lever, the defendant, was a coal merchant, and had obtained contracts from the municipal corporation of Salford, the plaintiffs, through the intervention and on the advice of Hunter, their gas manager, for the supply of coal to them at prices in excess of the current market price to the extent of 1s. per ton a percentage which at last arrived at the respectable aggregate of £2,329-which the defendant agreed to pay (and did in part pay) to Hunter by way of secret commission or bribe in order to procure his recommendation to the plaintiffs of the defendant's tenders for various contracts entered into accordingly. On the plaintiffs discovering the fraud, they entered into an agreement with Hunter, ambiguous in terms, but the general nature of which was that, on Hunter depositing securities for £10,000 in a bank-an amount taken to be equivalent to the sums received by him from the defendant and other contractors as bribesthe plaintiffs would bring such actions against the defendant and the other contractors, at the expense of Hunter, as the latter might direct, and that the amounts recovered in such actions should be paid into a bank, and when they amounted to £10,000 Hunter should receive back his securities and obtain a full discharge from the plaintiffs. This action was then brought, claiming £2,829 either by way of damages for the defendant's fraud, or alternatively as a liquidated sum wrongfully in

No. 1,238

his hands; and the defence was that the agreement between the plaintiffs and Hunter prevented the maintenance of the action. Lever and Hunter, it was contended, were joint tort-feasors, and the agreement amounted to payment or satisfaction by one of them, and therefore was an answer to an action against the other. Charles, and Denman, JJ., were of opinion that the agreement, being in respect of the plaintiffs' cause of action against Hunter to recover the bribes, did not discharge the distinct and separate cause of action against Hunter and the defendant in respect of their joint tort; the bribe was a gift to the agent with reference to which the plaintiffs, so far as their corporate duty allowed, might make what arrangement they pleased with him, without prejudicing their right to recover from the contractors the full price paid. But Vaughan Williams, J., construing the agreement as discha ging Hunter from all claims both in respect of the bribes and of the joint fraud, held that the agreement was illegal, ultra vires, and of no effect; and that though its illegality had not been pleaded, this did not prevent the Court from refusing to give effect to it as an illegal agreement. "I think," he said, "that the agreement was illegal and ultra vires because the corporation have no right to present to Hunter the amount he had received in bribes on account of the corporation; and I further think that an agreement to present an intended witness with moneys proportioned to the effect of his evidence is an immoral agreement, and void as against public policy." In either view, however, the defence failed; and the Court unanimously held that the defendant was liable to an action for damages in respect of the fraud, two Judges further holding, but one denying, that he was liable to an action for money had and received, in reference to the sums, if exactly ascertained before action, fraudulently received by the defendant for the purpose of covering bribes to Hunter.

In Smith v. Sorby (3 Q. B. D. 252, n.) it was held that, where a secret gratuity is given to an agent with the intention of influencing his mind in favour of the giver of the gratuity, and the agent, on subsequently entering into a contract with such giver, is actually influenced by the gratuity in assenting to stipulations prejudicial to the interests of his principal, although the gratuity was not given directly with relation to such particular contract, the transaction is fraudulent as against the principal. And in Harrington v. The Victoria Graving Dock Co. (3 Q. B. D. 548), it was held that, when a bribe is given or a promise is made to a person in the employ of another by some one who has contracted or is about to contract with the employer, with a view to inducing the person employed to act otherwise than with loyalty and fidelity to his employer, the agreement is a corrupt one, and is not

enforceable at law, whatever the actual effect produced on the mind of the person bribed may be. In the case of The Mayor, &c., of Salford v. Lever the action was said to have been founded on Smith v. Sorby, but, while the principle acted on in that case was itself carried further in Harrington v. The Victoria Graving Dock Co., it can no longer be contended, as it was here, that there is no authority for the contention that a principal can maintain an action for damages against a third party for such a transaction between the third party and an agent. See, further, on the subject of secret profits made by agents, in connection with joint-stock company transactions, 21 Ir. L. T. 401.

THE NEW SETTLED LAND ACT. The Settled Land Bill has become law exactly in the form in which it was brought from the House of Loris to the House of Commons. The new Act (53 & 54 Vict. c. 69) received the Royal Assent on the 18th Aug. and is now law. It is well worth while to examine the addition to, and the alterations in, the previously existing law which the new Act effects. We may premise that the Act is largely due to the exertions of The Incorporated Law Society, at whose instance the Bill was originally prepared. It was introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Herschell, and in the House of Commous by Mr. C zens-Hardy, Q.C. It will now be read and coustrued with the Settled Land Acts, 1882 to 1889, and we have the sheaf of Settled Land Acts from 1882 to 1890.

The first matter with which the new Act deals (sect. 4) is a comparatively unimportant one. By sect. 50 of the Act of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 38) the statutory powers of a tenant for life are not capable of assigument or release, and remain exercisable by the tenant for life notwithstanding any assignment of the estate or interest of the tenant for life under the settlement. In this section the term "assignment" includes an assignment by way of mortgage, and any partial or qualified assign. meut, and any charge or incumbrance. It will not in future include any marriage settlement or deed of family arrangement. For, by sect, 4 of the new Act,

"(1.) Every instrument whereby a teuant for life, in consideration of marriage or as part or by way of any family arrangement, not being a security for payment of money advanced, makes an assignment of or creates a charge upon his estate or interest under the settlement is to be deemed one of the instruments creating the settlement, and not an instrument vesting in any person any right as assignee for value within the meaning or operation of section fifty of the Act of 1882,

"(2.) This section is to apply and have effect with respect to every disposition before as well as after the pas-ing of this Ac', unless inconsistent with the nature or terms of the disposition."

The next section (5) gives power for the creation of easements upon the exchange or partition of settled lands, On an exchange or partition any easement, right, or privilege of any kind may be reserved or may be granted over or in relation to the settled land or any part thereof, or other land or an easement, right, or privilege of any kind may be given or taken in exchange or on partition for land or for any other easement, right, or privilege of any kind,

As the law has hitherto stood, there has, except in the case of contracts for leases or other contracts made under the Act, been no express power for a successor to execute the conveyance necessary to give effect to a contract entered into by a predecessor in title. When the successor could not himself make the contract, a vestig order has been necessary. This will no longer be needed, as by sect. 6 of the new Act power is given to complete a predecessor's contract.

"A tenant for life may make any conveyance which is necessary or proper for giving effect to a contract

entered into by a predecessor in title, and which if male by such predecessor would have been valid as agaiust his successors in title."

A more important part of the Act is that concerned with leases. Power is now given to grant leases for terms not exceeding twenty-one years without notice to the trustees, and to make the reut reserved in mining leases vary according to the price of minerals. By sect. 7:

"A lease for a term not exceeding twenty-one years at the best rent that can be reasonably obtained without fine, and whereby the lessee is not exempted from punishment for waste, may be made by a teuant for life

"(i.) Without any notice of an intention to make the same having been given under section forty-five of the Act of 1882; and

"(ii.) Notwithstanding that there are no trustees of the settlement for the purposes of the Set led Land Acts, 1882 to 1890; and

"(iii.) By any writing under hand only containing an agreement instead of a covenant by the lessee for payment of rent in cases where the term does Dot extend beyond three years from the date of the writing."

And by sect. 8:

"In a mining lease

"(.) The rent may be made to vary according to the price of the minerals or substances gotten, or auy of them;

"(ii.) Such price may be the saleable value, or the price or value appearing in any trade or market or other price list or return from time to time, or may be the marketable value as ascertained in any manner prescribed by the lease (including a reference to arbitration), or may be au average of any such prices or values taken during a speci fied period."

Power is also given by sect. 9 to reserve a rentcharge on a grant in fee simple..

"Where on a graut for building purposes by a tenant for life the land is expressed to be conveyed in fee simple, with or subject to a reservation thereout of a perpetual rent or rentcharge, the reservation shall operate to create a rentcharge in fee simple issuing out of the land conveyed, and havi g incidental thereto all powers and remedies for recovery thereof couferred by section forty-four of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, and the rentcharge so created shall go and remain to the uses, on the trusts, and subject to the powers and provisions which, immediately before the conveyance, were subsisting with respect to the land out of which it is reserved." One of the rocks upon which the B ll nearly foundered was that of the mansion-house and park. By the wellkuown sect. 15 of the Act of 1882, the principal mansionhouse on any settled land, with the demesues thereof and the other lands usually occupied therewith, cannot be sold or leased by the tenant for life without the consent of the trustees of the settlement or an order of the court, This provision has given rise to much difficulty, and has been construed to include farmhouses and town houses. It has therefore been repealed by sect. 10 of the new Act, and in future no farmhouse and no house with park and pleasure grounds less than twenty-five acres in extent (the original proposal fixed the limit at a hundred acres) will be deemed a principal mausion-house for the purposes of sale, exchange, or lease, The law on this subject is now comprised in two sentences:

"(2.) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Act of 1882, the principal mausion-house (if any) on auy set led land, and the pleasure grounds aud park and lands (if any) usually occupied therewith, shall not be sold, exchanged, or leased by the tenant for life without the consent of the trustees of the settlement or an order of the court.

"(3.) Where a house is usually occupied as a farmhouse, or where the site of any house and the pleasure

grounds and park and lands (if any) usually occupied therewith do not together exceed twenty-five acres in extent, the house is not to be deemed a principal mansion-house within the meaning of this sectiou."

The raising of money is perhaps the most importaut subject with which the new Act is concerned. The lucorporated Law Society pointed out that in many counties land is unsaleable, and improvements urgently needed, which co ld be effected if the trustees happened to have capital money in band, but not otherwise. Until yesterday there was no authority to raise funds by way of mortgage, except for the purposes of sale or partition. Power is now given to tenants for life to raise money by mortgage for any of the purposes to which capital money arising under the Settled Land Acts is authorised to be applied. By sect. 11:

(1.) Where money is required for the purpose of discharging an incumbrance on the settled land or part thereof, the tenaut for life may raise the money so required, and also the amount properly required for payment of the costs of the transaction on mortgage of the settled land, or of any part thereof, by conveyance of the fee simple or other estate or interest the subject of the settlement, or by creation of a term of years in the settled laud, or any part thereof, or otherwise, and the money so raised shall be capital money for that purpo-e, and may be paid or applied accordingly.

"(2.) Incumbrance in this section does not include any annual sum payable only during a life or lives or during a term of years absolute or determinable."

This should prove a very useful power. The list of twenty improvements authorised out of capital trust money by the Act of 1882, which has been extended by the Acts 48 & 49 Vict., c. 72, and 50 & 51 Vict., c. 30, is now further extended to include

of;

"(iv.) The rebuilding of the principal mansion-house on the settled land: Provided that the sum to be applied under this sub-section shall not exceed one-half of the annual rental of the settled land." With the experience of the seven years which have ran since Lord Cairns' Act became law, it is difficult to conceive that there can be any other form of improveluent in at all general use which it is desirable to effect with capital trust money. The power to put the settled land and buildings in such coudition as to enable them to be let to the best advantage is unquestionably valuable. Capital money, in court, muy now, by sect. 14 of the new Act, be paid out to the trustees of the settlement for the purposes of the Settled Land Acts, 1882 to 1890; and power is given to the court by sect. 15 to authorise in proper cases the application of capital money towards payment for improvements, notwithstanding that a scheme was not, before the execution of the improvement, submitted for approval, as required by the Act of 1882, to the trustees of the settlement or to the court. This new rule will obviate the difficulty which was found in Re Hotchkin's Settled Estates (56 L. T. Rep. N. S. 244; 35 Ch. Div. 41), where the work was done without any scheme being submitted either to the trustees or to the court. See also Re Bulwer Lytton's Will: Knebworth Settled Estates (59 L. T. Rep. N. S. 12; 38 Ch. Div. 20). A large discretion will be given to the court to sanction improvements ex post facto, and it is rarely found that a judge's discretion is unwisely exercised. Lastly, as to dealings as between the tenant for life and the estate, the rule is now to be (sect. 12):

"Where & sale of settled laud is to be made to the tenant for life, or a purchase is to be made from him of laud to be made subject to the limitations of the

settlement, or an exchange is to be made with him of settled land for other land, or a partition is to be made with him of land an undivided share whereof is subject to the limitations of the settlement, the trustees of the settlement shall stand in the place of and represent the tenant for life, and shall, in addition to their powers as trustees, have all the powers of the tenant for life in reference to negotiating and completing the transaction."

It ouly remains to notice some improvements in machinery which are effected by the new Act. First, as to trusteeship for the purposes of the Acts. In the event of there being no trustees of a settlement within the meaning of the Settled Lands Acts the trustees of any other land subject to the same limitations, or trustees who have a future power of sale, are made trustees within the meaning of the Acts without the necessity of any application to the court. In other words, persons authorised by the settlement to receive capital, whom the court would appoint as a matter of course, are constituted trustees within the Act. Sect. 16 lays down that, where there are for the time being uo trustees of the settlement within the meaning aud for the purposes of the Act of 1882, the following persous shall be trus tees of the settlement, viz.:

"(i.) The persons (if any) who are for the time being under the settlement trustees, with power of or upon trust for sale of any other land comprised in the settlement and subject to the same limitations as the land to be sold, or with power of consent to or approval of the exercise of such a power of sale, or, if there be no such persons, then

"(ii.) The persons (if any) who are for the time being under the settlement trustees with future power of sale, or under a future trust for sale of the land to be sold, or with power of consent to or approval of the exercise of such a future power of sale, aud whether the power or trust takes effect in all events or not."

Another useful innovation is the application by sect. 7 of the provisions of the Convevancing Act, 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 41), with reference to the appointment of new trustees and the discharge and retirement of trustees, to trustees for the purposes of the Settled Laud Acts, 1882 to 1890, whether appointed by the court or by the settlement, or under provisions contained in the settlement. This section is retrospective, but is not to prejudice any appointment, discharge, or retirement of trustees already effected, otherwise than under the Conveyancing Act. It will be remembered that by sect. 11 of Lord Salisbury's Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 72), facilities were given for sales, exchanges, and leases of land in pursuance of the Settled Land Act, 1882, when made for the purpose of the erection on such land of dwellings for the working classes. And the improvements upon which capital money may be expended, enumerated in sect. 25 of the Act of 1882, are, in addition to cottages for labourers, farm servaut, and artisans, whether employed on the settled land or not, to include any dwellings available for the working classes, the building of which in the opinion of the court is not injurious to the estate. Power was also given to bodies corporate holding laud to dispose of it for the purpose of the erection of buildings for the working classes. The expression "working classes" is now, by section 28 of the new Act, to include all classes of persons who earn their livelihood by wages or salaries. It will therefore cover salaried partners and bauk managers. But the section is only to apply to buildings of a rateable value not exceeding £100 a year. Finally, by sect. 19, the registration of a writ or order affecting land may be vacated pursuant to an order of the High Court or any judge thereof. It will be seen that the Act of 1890 introduces several important changes in the law of settled land. These are, without exception, changes for the better. They are the changes which ripe experience has shown to be necessary. The Act is a well-considered measure, aud its draughtsmanship is excellent. We are glad to be

able to congratulate the Incorporated Law Society on the successful result of their efforts in the direction of reform.-Law Times.

MARRIAGES IN FOREIGN EMBASSIES.

The recent Act to amend the law relating to the marriage of British subjects outside the United Kingdom is one which should not escape the attention of our country lawyers at home in these days when people travel abroad so much without making long sojourns in foreign parts, and in many cases return from an autumn holiday provided with a wife from the land of the stranger, or engaged to return for the purpose of carrying out a contract of marriage. The Act, being the 58 & 54 Vict. c. 47, received the Royal assent on the 18th August, and is shortly entitled the Marriage Act, 1890. The object of it, as stated by Lord Granville in recommending the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords, is to apply the principle of the Consular Marriage Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 68), to embassies aud to men of war, and to make some other amendments in the law. The Act is to come into operation on the 1st Jannary, 1891. As the law now stands until the commencemeut of the Act British subjects can only be married at an embassy according to the rites of the Church of England, while at the consulates they can avail themselves of the services of any other minister, and they may even have a civil marriage performed by the consul himself. But this Act provides by the 2ud section that every marriage between parties, of whom one at least is a British subject, solemuized at the house of any British ambassador or minister residing in the country to the court of which he is accredited, is to be valid if solemnized in accordance with the Act; and by the 2 d section the procedure in cases of such marriages is to be regulated by the Consular Marriage Acts of 1849 and 1868, as amended by this Act. The 4th and 5th sections make similar provisions as regards marriages on board one of Her Majesty's ships on a foreign station. The position of these provisions in the system of our law is easily ascertained. They relate solely to the form of marriage, Mr. Dicey, in his valuable work on Domicil, sums up the theory of the law as to the capacity of the parties being decided by their lex domicilii, whilst the validity of the forms is governed by the lex loci contractus in the following passage :-" A marriage is valid when each of the parties has, according to the law of his or her respective domicil, the capacity to marry the other, and if the marriage be celebrated in accordance with any form recoguised as valid by the law of the country where the marriage is celebrated." But this does not mean that marriages not conforming to the requirements of the place of celebration in matters of ceremony and form are invalid in all cases, for the same learned author goes on to point out that the marriage is not invalid "(a), where the parties enjoy the privilege of exterritoriality, and the marriage is celebrated in accordance with any form recognised as valid by the law of the state to which they belong; or (b), where the marriage (being between British subjects) is celebrated in accordance with the requirements of the English common law in a country where the use of the local form is impossible; or (c), where the marriage is celebrated in a country not being part of the British dominions in accordance with the provisions of and the forms required by 4 Geo. 4, c. 91; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 68, or any other statute applicable to the case." It is in this last alternative exception that the present statute finds its place as a "satute applicable to the case." It repeals and entirely supersedes the whole Act 4 Geo. 4, c. 91, 80 far as it relates to any marriage solemnized after the 1st January, 1891, in the chapel or house of any British ambassador or minister, or in the chapel belonging to any British factory abroad, or in the house of any British subject residing at such factory. It also repeals the whole Act 4 Geo. 4, c. 67, intituled, "An Act to declare valid certain marriages that have been solemnized at St. Petersburg since the abolition of the British factory there," so far as such Act relates to any marriage

solemnized after 1st January, 1891. The most important of the other provisions of the Act, not already referred to, is the 10th section, which provides that nothing in the Act is to confirm or impair or in any wise affect the validity in law of any mariage solemnized beyond seas otherwise than as herein provided, aud also that this Act is not to extend to the marriage of any of the Royal family. Marriages of members of the Royal family remain subject to the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act, 12 Geo. 3, c. 11, which was held in the Sussex Peerage Case, 11 Cl. & F. 85, to extend to prohibit the contracting of marriages, or to aunul any already contracted in violation of its provisions, wherever the same may be contracted or solemnized, either within the realm of England or without it.

As to the other sectious not already referred to, the 6th section relates to the registration of marriages solemnized under the local law. It enacts that where a consul is satisfied in accordance with regulations made under the Act, that a marriage between parties, of whom one at least is a British subject, has been duly solemnized in accordance with the local law of the country, he may register the marriage, and thereupon subject to the said regulations the Consular Marriage Acts shall apply as if the marriage had been solemnized in pursuance of those Acts. This enactment affords a convenient means of putting such marriages on record and of furnishing due evidence of their celebration, which will be of advantage in many cases. In connection with the subject of marriages according to the local law the important and recent case of Brinkley v. The AttorneyGeneral, 62 L. T. 911, should be borne in mind. It was there decided that the marriage of a British subject, domiciled in the United Kingdom but temporarily r-sident in Japan, with a native of that country, according to the laws of the same, which recognised monogany as the basis of the matrimonial contract, was valid.

The seventh section is aimed at one point which is a very natural object of jealously, viz., the danger of clandestine marriages, or of such marriages as are usually repudiated. It was one of those clauses in the bill which the Attorney-General acting for the Foreign Office on behalf of Her Majesty's Government drew up for the particular purpose of meeting that objection. It amends sections three, six, and nine of the Consular Marriage Act of 1849, by making the period of publication of the notice before marriage the same in case both of marriage by license and of marriage without license, and by requiring an affirmation or declaration in the case of marriage without liceuse as well as in the case of marriage by license.

Section eight extends the hours for the solemnization of the marriage from eight in the forenoon to three in the afternoon, instead of from eight to twelve in the forenoon. This amendment brings the law as to the bours of such marriages into accordance with the law as to the hours of marriages in England under the Marriage Act, 1886, 49 Vict. c. 14.

The ninth section gives power to make regulations by Order in Council for objects enumerated therein with some particularity. It is another instance of the mod ⚫rn practice of legislation by orders and regulations. However convenient this practice may be for avoiding obstruction to legislation in either House of Parliament, it makes it extremely difficult even for the trained lawyer to keep himself abreast of the law. In general the "Gazettes are the only means by which it is possible to clothe the modern skeleton statutes with the flesh and blood of practical law, and in many cases the rules and regulations which, by the statutes, all kinds of Government Departments and officials have power to make, never even present themselves to the public eye in the "Gazettes." The legal journals do what they can to remedy this inconvenience, but they cannot supply all the necessary information in every case, nor is it their proper function. To the official mind, the blot is covered by the common form clause which is repeated at the end of the ninth section of this Act, viz., "all such regulations shall be published under the superintendence of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, aud