saving clause," unless a contrary intention appear by the will; though some rules are much stronger than others, and require a greater force of intention in the context to control them. "On the other hand, a rule of law is not a rule of construction (as the rule in Shelley's case, the rules as to perpetuity, mortmain, lapse, &c.); acts independently of intention, and applies to dispositions of property in whatever form of words expressed. This distinction is fundamental, and lies at the root of the subject." The enigmatical intentions of testators are construed according to the general rules which from time to time have been laid down by the judges. Mr. Hawkins has bestowed much labour in collecting them together from the reported cases, and in illustrating their application. To give some idea of the manner in which the author deals with the subject, we give the following analysis of the Chapter on Residuary Bequests and Devises :

"Rule. A general residuary bequest carries lapsed and void legacies." (This rule is explained by brief extracts from four leading cases, Leake v. Robinson, 2 Mer. 393, &c.)

"Rule. A general residuary bequest, contingent on terms, carries the intermediate income which is not undisposed of, but accumulates." (Trevanian v. Vivian, 2 Ves. sen. 430.)

"Rule.-In wills made or republished on or after Jan. 1, 1838, real estates comprised in devises which fail or are void, passes under the residuary devise in the will, unless an intention appears to the contrary." (Illustrated by several cases.)

"Rule.-A gift of the testator's residuary real and personal estate (blending, though contingent in terms), carries the intermediate rents and profits of the real estate, as well as the income of the personal estate. (Stephens v. Stephens, Forest, 228; Genery v. Fitzgerald. Jac. 468, &c.) Thus, if the real and personal estate be given to an unborn person, the rents and profits of the real estate do not descend to the heir till the birth of the person entitled, but accumulate."

Every chapter bears evidence of discrimination and good judgment. There is no surplusage. From the nature of the materials, being chiefly isolated judgments, the chapters are necessarily more or less disconnected. A certain want of congruity is perhaps unavoidable in a system of construction elaborated by a succession of judges, some inclining rather to the grammatical or literal, others to the logical or inferential interpretation of testamentary instruments. Those who have not got the last edition of "Jarman on Wills," will find this volume, as regards rules of construction, a very excellent substitute.

Events of the Quarter.

ALMOST the only event in the Parliamentary Session which can be called interesting or important in a legal point of view, is the passing of the Statute Law Revision Bill, and the remarkable speech of Lord Chancellor Westbury on that measure. This speech has been published (edited by Mr. Macqueen), and is not only a lucid exposition of the need for the revision of our law, statute and unwritten, but, what is far more important, it shows how the great work may be done, and is an earnest that it will be done.

The seventh annual meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science will commence at Edinburgh on the 7th of October, and continue for one week. Lord Brougham is the President; Lord Curriehill takes the chair of the Jurisprudence Department, and will, we are informed, address the Association on the transfer of land. Professor Muirhead and Mr. Campbell Smith are the Local Secretaries for the Department.

Some time since we stated that a movement had been commenced at Berlin to found an institute in memory of the illustrious Savigny, which had already received support in various countries of the Continent. Since the publication of our last number a corresponding committee has been formed in London, under the presidency of Lord Brougham, and with the view of drawing attention to its objects, we insert at length the minutes of its first meeting

At a meeting held at 3, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, on Wednesday, the 17th of June, 1863, present the Right Honourable Lord Brougham in the chair, letters were read from Sir F. H. Goldsmid, Bart., Q.C., M.P., Charles Austin, Esq., Q.C., Professor Cairns," W. Forsyth, Esq., Q.C., M. D. Hill, Esq., Q.C., Professor Muirhead, expressing their approval of the objects of the meeting.

It was moved by Sir Erskine Perry, and resolved unanimously

That a committee be now formed in aid of the Fund of the Savigny Institute, and that such committee consist of the following gentlemen, with power to add to their number :

Lord Brougham, Lord Neaves, Lord Mackenzie, Sir F. H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P., Sir Fitzroy Kelly, M.P., Sir Erskine Perry, Sir Robert Phillimore, Mr. M. D. Hill, Q.C., Mr. Charles Austin, Q.C., Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., Mr. Thos. Webster, F.R.S., Mr. Joseph Parkes, Mr. G. W. Hastings, Mr. Westlake, and Mr. Wendt.

It was moved by Mr. E. E. Wendt, and resolved unanimouslyThat Lord Brougham be requested to act as chairman, and

Mr. G. W. Hastings and Mr. Westlake as honorary secretaries to the committee.

Mr. Wendt made the following financial statement of the Savigny Fund :

£2,849 5s. have been subscribed and paid in to the present time; £2,445 were invested on 12th February, 1863, in Pomeranian Provincial Bonds, bearing 4 per cent. interest.

The three academies have consented to act under the statutes. The executors of Savigny have assigned to the institute the whole copyright in Savigny's works.

The subscriptions have been received from almost every country of Europe; the King of Portugal has given £40.

It was moved by Mr. Westlake, seconded by Sir Erskine Perry, and resolved unanimously

That in order to secure the practical and efficient working of this committee, it is resolved as follows:

1. That the gentlemen who have kindly undertaken to act as honorary secretaries to this committee, viz., G. W. Hastings, Esq., and John Westlake, Esq., are hereby authorized to issue an appeal to the public through the daily press and such periodicals as they may think fit, stating this day's proceedings, and inviting all those who take an interest in the works of the illustrious Savigny to testify the same by liberal contributions.

2. That E. E. Wendt, Esq., is hereby authorized to act as treasurer to this committee, to cause the amounts received in favour of this institute to be paid in at the bank of Sir Charles Price, Bart., Maryat and Price, to the credit of an account to be opened there under the title, Committee of Savigny Institute;

3. That the cheques to be drawn against any balance of this account must bear the signatures of the treasurer and two members of this committee;

4. That the subscriptions received-less the expenses of this committee, to be defrayed out of the same—are to be held at the disposal of the council of the Savigny Institute in Berlin, and are to be applied in conformity with their statutes as sanctioned by H. M. the King of Prussia.

5. That this committee hereby delegates the authority for auditing the account of the treasurer to their following members, viz., Sir Fitzroy Kelly, M.P., Sir Erskine Perry, and Sir Robert Philli

more.

The Law Amendment Society has held its twentieth anniversary, and from the report presented on the occasion we make the following extracts:

66

Law-Reporting. - The important subject of our law reports has, during the present session, again engaged the attention of this Society. The subject of law-reporting was originally brought before the Society by Mr. Alexander Pulling, fourteen years ago. The many evils and inconsistencies of the existing practice of recording and making public those dicisions of our courts which serve as precedents in the administration of the law, are pointed out

in two able reports of committees of this Society in 1849 and 1853; and in these papers are contained some valuable suggestions for an amended system of promulgating the law expounded in Westminster Hall. At a meeting of the Society held on the 2nd March last, Mr. C. F. Trower moved the following resolutions :—

“1. That it is highly expedient that the reported decisions of our superior courts of law in England and Ireland, from the earliest to the present time, should be forthwith expurgated and consolidated, and their undue accumulation for the future be, if possible, prevented.

"2. That to this end a Royal Commission should issue to inquire and report what are the best means of effecting such expurgation and consolidation, and of preventing such an accumulation, and generally, of improving the present system of law-reporting.

"3. That a deputation of this Society do forthwith wait on the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Home Secretary, to lay the views of this Society before them, and urge upon them the immediate adoption of these resolutions.

"The meeting, approving of the principle of the resolutions moved by Mr. Trower, referred the same to a committee to report to the next meeting, as to the best mode of proceeding thereon. The committee so appointed recommended that a deputation should wait on the Lord Chancellor in reference thereto; and this recommendation having been sanctioned at the next meeting of the Society, a deputation was duly formed, and had the honour of two interviews with the Lord Chancellor on the subject. They explained to his lordship the views adopted by the Society, and asked the aid of his lordship in carrying them out. An able pamphlet, subsequently published by Mr. Daniel, Q.C., contains some practical suggestions for an amendment of our law-reporting system. The masterly exposition of the whole subject by the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, on the 12th June inst., in connexion with his lordship's plan for a consolidation of the law, is yet fresh in the public mind. The proposal for an immediate official inquiry into the subject of our law reports, gives to the Society sanguine hopes that at no very distant period our present practice of law-reporting may give way to a system under which the law laid down by judicial decisions may be communicated to the public in a form equally authentic with that prescribed by the legislature."

"Suitors' Conciliation Bill.-Lord Brougham, in the memorable speech of 1828, on Law Reform, animadverted upon the great expense to which litigants were subjected, and recommended the adoption of Courts of Reconcilement for the cheap settlement of disputes. Since that time his lordship has repeatedly invited the attention of Parliament to the subject, and the Bill of the present session is the last of a series of efforts to carry a measure upon which this Society has long ago pronounced a favourable opinion. While the more difficult questions of law and fact will always find their way to the higher tribunals, notwithstanding the unavoidable expense attending such proceedings, there remains a large class of VOL. XV.-NO. XXX.

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cases where law and fact are simple, and where both might be disposed of satisfactorily without the expensive aid of an elaborate judicial inquiry. The third section contains the pith of the Bill. It enacts that it shall be lawful for the judge of any County Court to sit in chambers at any place within the district of the court, for the purpose of deciding any disputes, or arranging any difference that may have arisen between persons willing to refer their disputes to his amicable decision; and on hearing such persons and other witnesses, if any, summarily and finally to decide the matter of dispute, or refrain from adjudicating on the same, as to him might seem fit."

On Saturday, the 4th of July, the annual dinner of the Society took place at Greenwich, with more than usual success. Lord Brougham, in proposing as a toast, "the Amendment of the Law," said, he was old enough to remember the time when, if a person spoke of amending the law he would be called a destructive. Though there were many good things in our law, there were also many defects. It was gratifying to him to have lived to see so many solid practical improvements in the law itself, as well as in the administration of it. He was sorry to say that the session now approaching its close was almost a blank as far as regarded any measures of legal improvement. Within the last twelve months, however, the initiative had been taken of a substantial reform; he alluded to the great project of courts of reconcilement or conciliaation, which he thought had now a fair chance of being ultimately realized. In his opinion it would be wise to make such a measure voluntary in the first instance, believing that when its advantages were felt it would in effect become compulsory. Another proposed improvement was the extension of the law which allowed the evidence of the principals in civil cases to criminal proceedings as well. He would not, however, advocate a compulsory examination, as in France, where a system of mental torture was sometimes resorted to in order to compel the accused either to confess or forswear himself; but he would desire to see our criminal law so amended that in the event of the defendant voluntarily presenting himself for examination in public court, his evidence should be received. amendment of our criminal law had been strongly advocated by Jeremy Bentham, Sir Samuel Romilly, and Lord Chief Justice Denman. He congratulated the Society upon the extension of their principles into France, Belgium, and Holland, and also on the success which had attended the literary department connected with the amendment of the law during the last twelve months, referring in terms of commendation to a work on the Discipline of the Bar, by Mr. Lefevre; also to another work by Mr. Phillips, upon prudence. But of all those works, the most agreeable and valuable was Mrs. Austin's progress in the completion of the invaluable work of Mr. John Austin. The noble Lord next called attention to the valuable measure amending the law relating to the transfer of land which had been devised and carried into law in the colony of South Australia, and had subsequently been adopted in the other

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Juris