Q. What is a profit and loss account, and what is shown by it? A.-I answered that the account should show the profit or loss of the business. The receipts in the shape of profits being shown on one side of the account, and the office expenses, losses, &c., on the other, the balance giving the net profit or loss.

Q. What is a bills receivable and bills payable book, and what are its uses? A.-I answered the book should show when the bill was drawn, by whom, and when payable or receivable and that a separate part of the book was used for bills payable and receivable. That it should show at a glance when the bills were due, and thus enable the party to present the bill at the proper time or provide for its being paid.

Q. What does a ledger contain? A.-I answered a ledger contained a number of debtor and creditor accounts, showing the parties' position with whom he did business, as well as his own position upon certain private accounts.

Q. What is an account current, and what should it show? A.-I said an account current was simply a copy of an account from the ledger; it was kept in a debtor and creditor form, showing the receipts on one side and the payments on the other, and the balance, if any, due on it.

COMMON-PLACE BOOKS.

(Continued from p. 214.)

WE fear we have not made ourselves understood in the previous articles on this subject, inasmuch as it appears to be thought that we have recommended a particular plan of common-placing, whereas our object has been to place before our readers the plans of those persons who have propounded them rather than to recommend them; in fact, leaving readers to make their own selection with the aid of the hints given for their guidance. It will be seen by a communication elsewhere inserted that a correspondent has favoured us with his views, and as they may be useful to some readers we have thought it right to give them insertion. We resume the subject immediately under consideration by remarking that a common-place book, if properly and methodically kept, will be found a useful auxiliary to the student. But, for the most part, students are content to copy from the works they are reading, and look more to the quantity than the quality of the matter. This is extremely erroneous, as it induces a habit of merely copying, and is not of the slightest use to the student. Indeed it is absolutely injurious, as the time wasted

in this process might be devoted to a proper and useful course of reading. The labour of copying is really as great as it would be to learn the work. If any of our readers (and we know from some of them that such is the case) are in the habit of thus filling their note-books, we trust that we have said enough to induce them to desist from such a practice. What course, then, it will be asked of us, do you advise to be pursued? The answer to this, as we have before said, will depend much upon the diligence and aptitude of the student himself; but as a course likely to be suitable to most students, we beg to recommend the following plan, which will be found to combine a common-place book, a regular index, a scientific analysis, and a general course of study. We adopt, merely for convenience, Blackstone's Commentaries, to illustrate our remarks. In reading a work such as Blackstone, the first thing a student should do is to get a general view of the bearings of the subject he is reading. Thus, suppose he is about to read the chapter on "Prescription," he should see what connection it has with what precedes, and then with what follows. Then he should read cursorily the whole chapter, marking such passages as appear to contain the principles of the subject. Then he should re-read the chapter, observing whether or not the examples support the principles. Having satisfied himself of this, he should then make in a book, having an alphabetical index, such entries as would give a correct idea of the contents of the chapter. This will serve to fix the matters in his mind, and it will be all the better if he do this in his own language. These entries will serve as an index to the work the student is reading, and will be extremely useful in refreshing his memory, and when he proceeds to read other works, and comes to the same subject, he will be enabled to add other references, so as to complete his index. But an example will best explain our plan. The following is taken from Blackstone's Commentaries, chapter 17; the parts between brackets are additions obtained from other sources

Plan of Index.

"PRESCRIPTION." 2 Black. Com. ch. 17, pp. 263–266.

A difference exists between custom and prescription. [Burt. Comp. s. 1038.]

Custom is a local usage.

1 Lev. 176.

Prescription is merely a personal usage. Co. Litt. 113.

What things may be prescribed for?

Incorporeal hereditaments only. Doct. and Stud. Dial. 1, ch. 8; Finch's Law, 132. [Wilkinson v. Proud and others. 12 L. Journ. Rep., N.S., Ex. 227.]

What estate necessary to support a prescription?

Estate in fee. 4 Co. Rep. 31, 32. [Com. Dig. tit. "Prescrip

tion" (H); Smith v. Morris, Fort. 340; English v. Burnell, 2 Wils. 258.]

A thing cannot be prescribed for if the grant of it would have been invalid. 1 Ventr. 387. [This seems to be the meaning;

and see Arkwright v. Gell, 5 Mee. & W. 203.

The above is taken from a portion only of the chapter, that being sufficient for our purpose.

When the student has completed such an index of the whole subject of prescription, he should next proceed to examine the authorities of his author, for the various propositions there laid down. Here the student will find a deficiency of books a great impediment. We will suppose we are addressing ourselves to two classes of students, viz., one having a great number of books, and the other scarcely any. The former class should turn to the works quoted by Blackstone, and compare the parts referred to with what he states, with a view to ascertain how far he has given a correct representation of the subject. This will be found to be a valuable means of studying with effect. It will, to a real student, be also a pleasing task. In many instances the student will find that Blackstone has almost created what he writes, at least, so it will appear compared with the obscurity of his reference. In other cases he will find, though not frequently, that he has mistaken his author. However this may be, it cannot fail to be a very useful lesson to the student, but one demanding the full exercise of all his faculties. By this means the student may be said to seek the sources rather than follow the stream, a mode of proceeding which Lord Coke urgently insists on. Nor let it be thought that this is too great a labour for the student, or one impossible to be accomplished. We remember to have read of a learned Judge who was said to have consulted every reference in Comyn's Digest, and to have acknowleged that from that labour he derived the greater part of his knowledge. And this he accomplished, too, amidst the arduous exertions of his profession. We will now give one or two quotations of Blackstone's authorities for the positions laid down in the chapter on prescription, and mentioned in our plan of an index. For the proposition that incorporeal hereditaments only can be prescribed for, he quotes Finch's Law, 132, and Doctor and Student, dial. 1, chap. 8. It is a misfortune for the student that, in consequence of there being so many editions of works, it seldom happens that the student is assisted by a reference to the page of the work; such is our case with respect to the reference to Finch, for in our edition (a folio of 1613) there is nothing about prescription at page 132. It is a pity that some better expedient is not adopted for references; it is better to refer to the chapter than to the page, though it causes a little more trouble to the writer. The reader will bear in mind that Blackstone's propo

sition is "that nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be claimed by prescription." Finch (book 2, chap. 4, p. 31, folio ed.) says, "In all but land itself; for in land prescription gives no right [ne fist ascun droit]. But in rent or profit out of the land a man may prescribe against another, that is to say, to make a good title, if he and his ancestors, time of which, &c., have had that," &c. This passage is a little obscure, which arises from the orginal being in Law French, but chiefly from the plan on which the work is written. In order to show this latter, we give the above extract in its original, premising that it was intended by the author that those parts which are in roman type (that is, the present type) should read on continuously, if the student pleased, the part in italics being passed over, or that the whole, viz., the roman and italic type, should be read on without any intermission, the parts in italic entering more into the minutiae of the subjects.

The extract, then, reads thus: "En touts forsque terre mesme ; car en terre prescription ne fist ascun droit, mes en rent, ou profit hors del terre, un homme poet prescribe vers auter, cestassavoir, faire bone title sil et ses auncesters temps dont, &c., ont ew ceo," &c. We come now to Blackstone's other authority, viz., The Doctor and Student. In dialogue 1, chapter 8 (p. 27, Ed. Muchall), it is said, "also there is a maxim that no prescription in lands maketh a right. Also, that a prescription of rents, and profits à prendre, out of land, maketh a right."

It will have been observed by the studious reader that the proposition of Blackstone, that nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be claimed by prescription, is scarcely supported by the authorities he refers to; or, at least, that few or none of our readers would, from the extracts we have given, have deduced that proposition. And in the case of Wilkinson v. Proud and others, 12 Law Journ. Rep., N. S., Excheq. 227, it was said by counsel in argument, that the proposition which has been cited from Blackstone's Commentaries, "that nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be prescribed for," is not borne out by the authorities which are there referred to, and on which it seems to have been founded, viz., Doctor and Student, dial. 1, c. 8, and Finch, 132, for those authorities only say "that no prescription maketh a right in lands." The true rule seems to be that a right by prescription can only be set up of such things as lie in grant. In truth, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter, the proposition of Blackstone, that "nothing but incorporeal hereditaments can be prescribed for," is identical with another proposition, viz., "that a prescription cannot be for a thing which cannot be raised by grant." ." For in a subsequent part of the Commentaries (vol. 2, ch. 20, p. 317), it is said, speaking of grants, that they are "the regular mode by the common law of transferring the pro

perty of incorporeal hereditaments, or such things whereof no livery can be had. For which reason all corporeal hereditaments, as lands and houses, are said to lie in livery; and the others as advowsons, commons, rents, reversions, &c., to lie in grant." Coke (1 Inst. 9'), expressly says, "Grant is properly of things incorporeal which (as hath been said) cannot pass without deed," and at page 172 he says, grant is in the common law a conveyance of a thing that lies in grant, and not in livery, which cannot pass without deed; as advowsons, rents, services, commons, reversions, &c." We must, however, observe that we do not think that Blackstone meant to say that a prescription could be for anything that lies in grant, but rather that a prescription could not be good, if a grant of the things in respect of which a prescription was set up could not be sustained. We leave the student to judge on this point for himself, and he should also compare the other propositions of Blackstone with each other, with a view to ascertain whether they are consistent or clash with one another.

We now complete the plan of an index, before commenced, from Blackstone, under the title of "Prescription."

What is to arise by matter of record cannot be prescribed for, but must be claimed by grant entered on record. Co. Litt. 114,. [Com. Dig. tit. "Franchises " (A. 1); " Prescription" (C. and D.); " Waife" (B. C. D.).]

[In other words, as the thing to be acquired arises only from matter of record, it could never be said to accrue from a grant, and, therefore, cannot be prescribed for.]

Mode of prescribing :—

1st. In a que estate, i.e., in a man and those whose estates he hath. 4 Co. Rep. 32.

What things so claimable.

Things incident, appendant, or appurtenant to lands.
Litt. s. 183; Finch's Law, 104.

2nd. In a man and his ancestors.
What things so claimable.

4 Co. Rep. 32.

Whatsoever lies in grant. Litt. s. 183; Finch's Law, 104. Descent of estates gained by prescription.

1st. In a man and his ancestors.

To the blood of that line of ancestors in whom the prescription is made.

2nd. Que estate.

In the same manner as the estate in which the prescription is laid will do.

Limitations, Statute of.