may be in all or any of their warehouses, cellars, granaries, or the like, at a certain port or in a certain city. (Bell's Prin. 517. See Donaldson, March 2, 1836, 14 S. 601; Dalgleish, Jan. 17, 1854, 16 D. 332.)

1811. The insured is allowed to sue on such a policy for the loss of the property of his customers, as well as his own, if he can show that by contract, or usage, or the course of dealing, he is liable for the goods. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. vol. i. p. 501.) He will be entitled, however, to apply the sum received to extinguish his own loss in the first instance. (Dalgleish v. Buchanan, Jan. 17, 1854.)

1812. The policy must be written on stamped paper. It stipulates that payments of premium shall be made within fifteen days from the day limited in the policy; and that no insurance shall take place till the premium is paid. An application presented and agreed to is thus no insurance until the stipulated deposit has been made. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. i. 502; Christie v. North British Insurance Co., Feb. 10, 1825.)

1813. The same general principles as to fairness in disclosing circumstances material to the risk, which we stated under marine, apply to fire insurance.

1814. Here also a warranty is part of the contract, and if not true, destroys the insurance, even though it should not be material to the risk.

1815. Mere increase of heat, though injurious to property, will not entitle the insured to recover,-there must be ignition. (Ib.; Austin, 4 Camp. 360, 2 Marsh, 130; Tarlton, 5 T. R. 695.)

1816. The policy covers all damage and injury incident to fire; such as that caused by water used in extinguishing the fire, and even reasonable charges for removing the articles which have escaped the fire altogether. (Johnston, Nov. 25, 1828, 7 S. 53.) It has been held in England that a fire policy covers injury by the explosion of a neighbouring gunpowder magazine.

(Bell's Prin. 510.) Buildings separated by a stone or brick gable are usually insured separately, and not in cumulo. But in fire insurance, though a sum less than the value of the subject be insured, and a partial loss occur, the insured recovers his whole loss, without contribution as for the value uninsured.

1817. Loss occasioned by want of occupancy of the premises destroyed, or loss of rent, is not covered by the policy, unless there be a special insurance to that effect. This point has been so decided both here (Menzies v. North British Insurance Co., Feb. 13, 1847; Wright v. Pole, 1 Adol. and El. 621) and in England, contrary to the opinion of Mr. Bell. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. i. 503.) The English decision was held to be of equal authority with a Scotch one, in a department in which the laws of the two countries do not differ; but the Court held their view to be strengthened by the fact, that in the Scotch case the insurance company had reserved to itself the right of reinstating the buildings in place of paying the money. was thus a loss which could be repaired by building.

The loss

1818. On the occurrence of a fire, the insured is bound to give the most satisfactory proofs he can be expected to possess of the amount of injury.

1819. He must also give notice of any other insurances effected, so as to afford an opportunity to the office claimed against to call for contribution. These and other conditions are generally inserted in the printed proposals. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. 504; Marshall, 788.)

1820. There is no abandonment as in a total loss in marine insurance, and the settlement is always on the principle of an average loss. Option is frequently left to the insurer to pay the loss or reinstate the insured. If he select the latter, the impossibility of doing so subsequently emerging is no defence. (Guthrie's Bell's Prin. 515; Nicolson's Ersk. 739.)

1821. The loss is generally settled by arbitration,-a clause of reference being very generally inserted in policies.

1822. By 19 Vict. c. 22, all insurances effected by foreign companies in Great Britain are subjected to the same duties as if made by British companies; and all persons who, as agents, receive proposals for insurance by companies out of the United Kingdom, are deemed to be persons keeping an office for fire insurance, and are required to take out a licence and give security for payment of duties under a penalty. (Secs. 1, 2, 3.)

LIFE INSURANCE.

1823. Life insurance is scarcely a contract of indemnity, like sea and fire insurance; but it may be viewed as a contract of mutual risk, as a means by which the insurer protects his family against the accidents which might occur to their fortune either from his death or his improvidence, or simply as an artificial mode of investing money. (Bell's Com. i. 629; Bell's Prin. 518; Marshall, 770; Park, 641. See Rose, Nov. 25, 1848, 11 D. 151.)

1824. The premium in consideration of which the insurer agrees to pay a certain sum on the death, or a certain annuity during the life of the insured, is proportioned to his age, health, and other circumstances.

1825. As in marine and fire, so, for still more obvious reasons, in life insurance, there can be no insurance where there is no interest. (14 Geo. III. c. 48.) The name of the party to be benefited must appear on the policy, and no more can be recovered by him than the amount or value of his interest.

1826. A creditor has an insurable interest in his debtor's life, but not if the debt be a gaming debt. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. 505; Lindsay, Feb. 19, 1851, 13 D. 718; Shand, May 31, 1859, 21 D. 878.)

1827. It is said (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. i. 505) that a father has no insurable interest in the life of his son; but this is doubtful, and such insurances are quite common: a father has

no other way of covering loss of outfit, purchase of a commission, or of a business. A wife or children have a sufficient interest to entitle them to open a policy on the life of the husband or father. (See Wight, 1849, 11 D. 459.) The same rules as to representation and warranty prevail as in the other insurances. 1828. The general declaration, that the person whose life is offered for insurance has "no disorder tending to shorten life,” implies not that he is free from disease, which in every form has this tendency, but that he is in a reasonably good state of health, and has no known disease likely to lead directly to his death. (Ross v. Bradshaw, 1 Black, 312; Willis v. Poole, Park, 650, Marsh, 771; Hutcheson, Feb. 21, 1845, 7 D. 467.)

1829. In most life policies, death abroad or at sea is excepted; but unless excepted expressly, it is covered by the policy. (Bell's Prin. 523.)

1830. Death by suicide, duelling, or by the hand of justice, is fatal to an insurance even when effected by creditors. (Bell's Com., Shaw's ed. i. 507.) In the case of the Amicable Society v. Bolland, it was held in the House of Lords, reversing the decision of the Court below, that the policy effected by Fauntleroy, who was executed for forgery, was forfeited, though there was no exception as to death by the hand of justice. (4 Bligh, N. S. 194.) It has been decided in England that a policy is not due where the insured killed himself while mad. The question is open in Scotland.

1831. The full sum in a life policy must always be paid as in a total loss.

1832. Life policies are constantly assigned in security for debt. A policy thus assigned reverts to the original holder when the debt is paid, and may be made the means of credit on another occasion. Assignment in sequestration, or under a commission of bankruptcy, carries a policy of life insurance.

1833. By 16 and 17 Vict. c. 34, sec. 54, it is provided, that persons who have made insurance, or contracted for a deferred

annuity on the lives of themselves, or their wives or children, shall be entitled to deduct the amount of the annual premiums paid for such insurance, or the annual sum deducted from their salaries or stipends, from the income tax for which they are liable. But no such abatement can be made beyond one-sixth part of the whole amount of profits and gains; nor does such abatement entitle any one to claim total exemption on the ground of his profits or gains being reduced below the assessable

amount.

1834. This Act has been extended for a limited time by subsequent Acts.

CHAPTER XII.

COPYRIGHT.1

1835. The earliest statute by which an attempt was made to extend to published literary works that protection which, in some imperfect measure, they had enjoyed, by means of special licences and patents, and the practice of printers and booksellers as far back as the time of Elizabeth, but which it has been found, both here and in England, that the common law does not afford them, was 8 Anne, c. 19 (1709).

1836. In Scotland "it was customary for the Lords of Privy Council to grant exclusive right to print and vend books for certain terms. . . . Most generally this right was given to booksellers and printers, and bore reference rather to the mercantile venture involved in the expense of producing the book than to any idea of a reward for authorcraft." (Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. iii.)

1837. In this statute, which extended to Scotland, it was

1 As to the legislation of different countries on the subject of copyright, see Traité des droits d'Auteurs, par M. Charles Renouard, Paris 1838; and Curtis on the Law of Copyright, London and Boston, 1847.