testation entre français, Jugement étranger-Turquie: Naturalisation sans autorisation du gouvernement-Documents internationaux, Traités conclus par la France avec les puissances étrangères en 1887, etc.-Faits et Informations-Algérie: Naturalisation de pêcheurs étrangers-France: Etrangers employés dans les établissements de l'Etat, Etrangers condamnés en France, Réclamations contre le Venezuela-Roumanie: Protégés étrangers.

Bulletin de la Société de Législation Comparée. 19o Année. 1888. Nos. I-2. Paris.

Etude sur l'impôt sur l'alcool en Prusse et la nouvelle législation de l'empire d'Allemagne (Guérin)-The Bishops in the House of Lords (Weil)La question des langues en Autriche sous le Ministère Taaffe (Preux)-Proceedings-Notes-Reviews.

Revue Internationale du Droit Maritime. 3o Année. Nos. 7-8. 1887-8. Paris.

Seizure and Sale of Ships, II (Vidal-Naquet)-Reports of French, Brazilian (Autran), American (Putnam), and Greek (Matesi) Cases-Documents and Enactments.

Annales de Droit Commercial. 2ème Année. No. 1. 1888. Paris: Arthur Rousseau.

Quelle est la nature juridique de l'engagement du capitaine envers l'armateur (Charvériat)-Du droit allemand sur les conflits de lois en matière de lettres de change (Beauchet)-Italian Commercial and Industrial Law, 1886-7 (Franchi)-The like, Luxembourg, 1885-7 (Simonis)-NotesReviews.

Annales de l'Ecole libre des Sciences Politiques. 3o Année. No. 1. Paris.

Les Attributions de l'Etat (E. Beaussire)-La politique coloniale de l'Allemagne, fin (L. Delavaud)—De l'organisation des partis politiques aux Etats-Unis (M. Ostrogorski)-Chef du cabinet du sous-secrétaire d'Etat des Colonies: Le protectorat en Tunisie (E. Meyer)-La mission du marquis d'Eguilles en Ecosse auprès de Charles-Edouard, 1745-1746, fin (G. Lefèvre-Pontalis)-Le compte du patrimoine dans la comptabilité publique italienne (Campagnole)-Analyses et comptes rendus-Chronique de l'écoleMouvement des périodiques.

Zeitschrift für das Privat- und Oeffentliche Recht der Gegenwart. Vol. XV, Part 2, 1888. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.

Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte und vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft (Köhler) -Civil- und Criminalprocess (Zucker)-Das Kirchliche Bestattungsrecht und die Reichsgewerbeordnung (Friedberg)-Die Naturalobligationen des österreichischen Rechts (Unger)-Zur Lehre von den Juristischen Personen (Karlowa)-Reviews.

Centralblatt für Rechtswissenschaft. Vol. VII, No. 4. Stuttgart: Ferdinand
Enke.
Reviews.

Beiträge zur Erläuterung des Deutschen Rechts. Vol. XXXI (Supplemental
Number, containing Reports only). Vol. XXXII. No. 1.
Franz Vahlen.

1887-8.

Berlin :

Prozessualische Fortbildungs- und Reformvorschläge (Köhler)-Ueber die Rechtstellung des Gläubigers für fremde Rechnung (Dungs)-Die

Rechtsregel des § 35 A. L. R. I. 3 (Herbst)-Zur Anfechtung erlangter Befriedigung aus § 23 der Reichs-Konkursordnung (Hassenpflug)-Das Autorrecht an Briefen (Fuld)—Reviews.

Zeitschrift für die gesammte Strafrechtswissenschaft. Vol. VIII. Parts 2-3. 1888. Berlin and Leipzig: J. Guttentag.

Der Begriff des Rechtsguts im Strafrecht und in der Encyklopädie der Rechtswissenschaft (Liszt)-Der Wucher auf dem Lande (Lilienthal)-Der Forstdiebstahl (Ziegner)-Hypnotism and Criminal Law (Rieger)-Criminal Statistics in Austria (Beurle)-Reviews.

Busch's Archiv.

Vol. 48, No. 2. 1888. Berlin: Carl Heymann.

Increase of Capital in Companies (Hergenhahn)-Decisions on Maritime Law and Marine Insurance (Martin)—Autor-, Patent- u. Industrierecht (Köhler)-Reviews.

Archivio Giuridico. Vol. XXXIX. No. 4. 1887. Nos. 5-6 [will be noticed in July No.]. Pisa.

The Study of Italian Civil Law (Cuturi)-I celeres (Tomassia)-Un caso di colpa aquiliana (Cogliolo)-Review of Criminal Cases (Castori)— Reports of Cases-New Books.

Rivista Italiana per le Scienze Giuridiche. Vol. IV, Nos. 2-3. Rome: Ermanno Loescher & Co. 1887.

L'ambitus e il paries communis nel diritto romano (Brugi)-Il deposito nei magazzini generali (Vivante)-Oppunti sulle locazioni (Polacco)Reviews.

Il Filangieri. Part I, Anno XII, No. 12, 1887. Vol. XIII, Nos. 1-2. 1888 No. 12. Note sul carattere economico e sociale della enfiteusi (Cagnola)— Theophilus and Gaius (Segrè)—Valore penale delle qualifiche nel tentativo (Filosa)-Il conato nelle lesioni personali (Manduca)-Sull' azione in manutenzione fra condomini (Romeo)-Index and Table of Contents of Vol. XII.

No. 1. Gli studi processo penale (Nulli)-Sull' uso delle due maxime: Ubi eadem ratio legis, ibi eadem legis dispositio; cessante ratione legis, cessat lex ipsa (Malagoli)-Brevi note alla legge 14 luglio 1887 sulla emissione, in caso di perdita, dei duplicati dei titoli rappresentativi dei depositi bancarii (Vidari) Reviews.

Giornale Giuridico dell' Italia Centrale. Vol. II, 1888. No. 1. Jesi (Marche).

L'art. 432 Codice Civile-Reviews.

Giornale Giuridico dell' Italia Centrale. Vol. I, 1888. Nos. 1-2.
Reports of Cases, Civil and Penal.

La Legge Monitore Giudiziario e Amministrativo del Regno d' Italia. Anno XXVII. Series IV, Vol. 1, Nos. 24-26, 1887. Anno XXVIII, Nos. 1-10. 1888. Rome.

Se contro gli enti giuridici e in ispecie contro i Comuni, siano esperibili le azioni negotiorum gestorum e de in rem verso? (Salvioli)-Quali diritti competono al marito, o suoi eredi, nel caso di restituzione di dote inestimata costituita in fondi stabili per le spese su questi fatte dal marito constante matrimonio? (Salvioli)-Le formalità legali prescritte per la constituzione delle società commerciali, ed effeti giuridici della loro inosservanza (Giriodi). La fideiussione considerata nei rapporti del codice civile, coi principi del diritto romano, colla dottrina e colla giurisprudenza (Corsi)-Il possesso di

rendita al portatore può costituire censo per l'elettorato amministrativo? (Putzolu) Danni-interessi, interesse moratorio e prescrizione (Bertolini)— Reports-Reviews, etc.

Themis. Vol. XLIX, No. 1, January, 1888. The Hague.

The constitution of the 'Raad van State' (Breukelmann)-Treatment of apparently insane offenders under the Dutch Penal Code (A. de la Porte)A question of guardianship (Hoogvliet)-Het Presidiaal verlof tot het leggen van arrest onder derden (Van Aalten)-Dwangmiddelen in het rekeningproces (Eijssell)-De vindex bij de in ius vocatio (Prof. Naber)-De Rijkspensioenfondsen (Heemskerk)-Reviews.

Rechtsgeleerd Magazijn. Vol. VII. Nos. 1-2. Haarlem. 1888.

Reform of bankruptcy law (Polenaar)-The Sachsenspiegel in the Netherlands (Baron de Zeer van Jutphaas)-Responsibility of engineers, etc. in execution of their works (Baron van Ittersum)-'Retentie-recht' (Gratama) -Eigendom van servituutswerken (Moens)-Reviews, etc.

The Editor cannot undertake the return or safe custody of MSS. sent to him without previous communication.

THE

LAW QUARTERLY

REVIEW.

No. XV. July, 1888.

A

A NOTE ON THE FACTORS ACTS.

S a bill for the consolidation or codification of the Factors Acts is in preparation, it may not be amiss to direct attention to one or two points of some importance which present themselves on a consideration of those statutes. Almost all the provisions contained in the several Factors Acts, 1823, 1825, and 1842, deal with cases where a person intrusts goods or the documents of title to a factor or agent for sale, and such agent disposes of them without the authority or in excess of the authority given to him by his principal and the effect of the enactments is to give, under certain circumstances, a good title to the person to whom the agent has so disposed of the goods or documents.

There are however three sections of the Factors Act, 1877, which deal with cases of a very different kind and to which very different considerations apply:

6

The third section of that Act relates to the case of the owner selling the goods and himself afterwards disposing of them to another person before the first purchaser has obtained possession of the goods or documents of title. The section is in the following words: Where any goods have been sold and the vendor or any person on his behalf continues or is in possession of the documents of title thereto, any sale, pledge or other disposition of the goods or documents made by such vendor or any person or agent intrusted by the vendor with the goods or documents within the meaning of the principal Acts as amended by this Act so continuing or being in possession, shall be as valid and effectual as if such vendor or person were an agent or person intrusted by the vendee with the goods or documents within the meaning of the principal Acts as amended by this Act, provided the person to whom the sale, pledge or other disposition is made has not notice that the goods have been previously sold.'

VOL. IV.

This enactment, it is well known, owes its origin to the judgment in Johnson v. The Crédit Lyonnais (3 C. P. Div. 32), and was intended to overrule or do away with that decision. It is evident however that the section has a far wider effect. It applies not only to the case where the documents of title are left by the purchaser in the vendor's possession, but also to the case where the vendor has got possession of them after the sale: it applies not only to the case where the second purchaser has the documents transferred to him at the time of his purchase, but also to the case where he may be even unaware of their being in the vendor's possession. Such being the scope and extent of this enactment, there seems no reason why it should not be still further extended to every ease in which the goods are left in the vendor's possession, instead of being confined, as it appears to be, to the case of the documents of title being in his possession.

Moreover, there is no doubt the section is very imperfectly framed. It could never have been intended to apply (although literally construed it does so apply) to a case where the second purchaser has not obtained possession of the goods or documents of title, for in such case there is no reason whatever why he should be preferred to the first purchaser: on the contrary, it is manifest that he ought to have no such preference.

From these considerations it seems to follow that instead of this third section it should be in substance enacted that the title of a purchaser who does not take possession of the goods or documents of title should be postponed to that of a person who has lona fide obtained possession of such goods or documents.

As regards the fourth and fifth sections of the Factors Act, 1887, on a careful perusal of them it will be found very difficult exactly to ascertain for what purposes they were introduced. For the fifth section covers the case provided for by the fourth section, and indeed it is not easy to conceive any other case which it can embrace. It will therefore be sufficient to re-enact in substance the fourth section and to leave out the third altogether.

As regards all the other provisions of the Factors Acts, 1823 to 1877, relating to the disposition of goods by factors or agents, they have been held to apply only to agents intrusted with them for the purpose of sale. It may, however, be well worth while for lawyers. and merchants to consider whether those provisions should not be extended to the case of agents intrusted with goods or documents of title for the purpose of obtaining advances on them, and who obtain such advances in the usual course of business.

I believe the general opinion of merchants and bankers would be strongly in favour of such an alteration in the law. I have also no