Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 14th August 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 821

Page 821
Page 29
29 of 32

On this page

  • Text (2)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Legislation".—Cheques And Companies. The...

      duties how ever , on other species of commercial paper cheques -were recognised as payable to bearer , and then the crossing making the cheque , virtually payable to a particular person , was in opposition to legal technicalities . When the Government pat a tax on drafts payable to order , the opposition to the law assumed the a-ppearance of an evasion of a tax ; and an occasion arising f » t an appeal to the courts , they ruled that the payment of a cheque drawn to bearer could not be restricted by a crossing to a particular person . Tims , a little u nthinking legislation , not so intended , and the ruling of the courts of law , more attached to legal quiddities than useful practises , deprived the cheque of some of the qualities for which it had been invented and for which it vra 3 prized .

      It could not be borne that the law should unintentionally destroy such a useful instrument , and an act was hastily passed in conformity . with the practice , requiring a banker , on whom a cheque was drawn and crossed only , to pay it to some other banker . But this law T , egot a new legal difficulty - As long as the bankers had only to deal with their clients the two could and did , practically and mutually , make suitable regulations for their own business ; but under this lav , a cheque was stolen , the crossing was effaced , the banker paid it ,

      and was sued for paying a crossed cheque otherwise than through a banker , t hough the crossing was not perceptible . Another alteration of the law thus made injurious to bankers became necessary , and in the late session the Attorney-General introduced a bill , making the crossing of a cheque , when issued , a material part of the document , and requiring the banker on whom it is drawn only to pa } ' it to the banker to whom it is crossed , or to a banker if the crossing be not specific and only to " and——"

      The legal meaning of the word issued necessarily limits the power of crossing to the drawer . It is impliedly done before being issued , which again deprives the cheque of some of its useful properties by preventing any one who receives an uncrossed cheque from crossing it . To meet this difficulty the law further enacts that any lawful possessor of an uncrossed cheque may cross it , and the banker on whom it is drawn must not pay it except to the banker with whose name it is crossed . The law makes it a felony to obliterate or alter that crossing with the . intent to defraud . To this part of the act the bankers objected while it was yet in the condition of a bill , as giving to the casual li older of

      a cheque , " with whom the banker has no privity , the same power of crossing it as the drawer has who is connected with him ; and the bankers got a clause inserted , exonerating them from responsibility for the payment of any cheque . which on being presented does not plainly , appear to be or to have been crossed , unless he acts with , negligence or muUiJide . So the law , as passed in the late session , now stands ; it docs not settle the practice , and it leaves the questions doubtful—What is to be considered negligence on tlie part of the banker ? and whether he be not bound , as ho has the cheques fabricated , to take all kinds of precautions to make it impossible to obliterate or alter a crossing ?

      The distinction between Avhat the banker , in prosecuting his business , may find out and do to secure himself against damage from any perversion whatever of the groat inducement of his business , is very different froni what the law can effect , which is necessarily ignorant of the banker ' s power of invention . He may be safely trusted to take care of himself , and so may his clients , while the law which attempts to prescribe his practices can only do mischief , as it has already done whenever it

      has interfered with them . We learn , too , from a letter published in the Times , which we can have no hesitation in ascribing to a high authority in Lombard-street , that the law , as now existing , ao interferes with practises tliat it must be violated . It requires that a cheque crossed to a particular banker shall bo paid only to him , so tliat cheques on a London banker crossed to a country banker , which arc numerous , cannot be paid to his London agent ; not but it is the practice to pay them , and , in violation of the law , this practice must t > 2 continued .

      The third act concerns joint-stock banking companies , which were expressly excluded by the " Limited Liability Act" from its provisions , and which may now bo included in them on fulfilling certain conditions . Banks issuing notes arc still excluded , and subjected , in respect to > such Usue , to unlimited liability ; for the whole amount of tho issue , in addition to the sum for which they would bo Ruble as shareholders of a limited company registration , must be effected in the terms of the act , and heavy penalties arc imposed on ench director of a bank for neglecting : to place in the registered office of the company , ami covreot it twice a year , a statement of the bank

      of the number of shareholders , the liabilities , tho number of deposits , r . nd all the particulars of its condition . Such complicated and onerous regulations impede enterprise without promoting honesty . They only stimulate ingenuity to evade them . Wo are unable to understand why persons should not be as completely at liberty to form joint-stock bunking companies as engage hi any other of tlio multifarious enterprises which are necessary to food , clothe , and lodge society ; and wo are © very session of Parliament made thoroughly «> varo tluit alftho legislation lutlu'ito attempted on tbia subject from 182 G to 18 f > K Inn been unsuccessful . It perpetually require !) revision , and the object proposed—a

      satisfactory system of banking—is never attained . In fact , no part of the essential business of societv seems more imperfect and more unsatisfactory , as compared to cotton-spinning or iron-smelting , than banking , which here and abroad has been the special object of legislative eare . After much experience to the con trary , it seems still to be supposed that legislation and paternal prosperity are identical , and that it is only necessary to make laws for trade to keep it healthy and ensure its success . The reverse is the truth . Ever since 1822 , when the removal of commercial restrictions was begun , we have gone on removing them one after anotM || w-ith unvarying and unhoped for success , and , neverfneless , every year like the last . ^ New regulations are made and new restrictions are imposed on trade , as if it would perish were it not hourly taken care of by Parliament . The

      Attornev-General , the Solicitor-General , and other professional bill drawers , imagine themselves infinitely wiser than our greatest statesmen . They acknowledge the failure of their predecessors , and propose to remove restrictions from the statute-book because thej > - have become absolute nuisances . Nevertheless , with something like infatuation , they persist year after year in encumbering commerce with new restrictions . It seems to quiet observers as if the professional framers of laws felt themselves affronted by society prospering as restrictions have been removed , and bound to- take every opportunity of revenging themselves by hastily making new ones whenever some petty evil induces fretful impatient people to demand or to bear them . Or it may be that their professional importance is threatened by society prosperingin spite of them , and they labour continually to keep it within their thrall .

      As in the case of crossed cheques , no sooner is some little evil experienced , though it be caused by their interference with the natural course of trade , than they set to ^ work to correct , and are sure to increase , the evil . Cheques are naturally the instruments of the banker ' s business , as ploughs are of the farmer's an 4 axes of the carpenter ' s , and it is for those who use them- — bankers and their clients—to settle between them the conditions on which they shall or can be used . For their convenience they are issued crossed or uncrossed , and it is for them to determine how they shall be dealt with . The whole of the plague experienced on this subject during the last two years has clearly been caused by professional bill framers undertaking to direct bankers

      and their clients how they are to manage their own instruments . When disputes arise , and an appeal to the courts is made , the courts ought to ascertain the practice of bankers and their clients , and judge accordingly , not prescribe the practice . But this humble usefulness does not satisfy the lofty aspirations of attorney-generals , judges , and legislators , and they continually cause an immense deal of evil by prescribing regulations for a growing business of which they know nothing . They are ambitious to do good ; but in making laws for particular branches of business , they do mischief . Commerce is regulated by its own laws , and it is a part of our duty , as free-trade journalists , to remonstrate against all ignorant interference with them .

      « Stj Ho Ron Other Species Of Commercial...

      No « 438 , ArfrTJSTJ . 4 ,, 1858 / j THE LEAD ER . 821

      The Meteorological Department Of The Boa...

      The Meteorological Department of the Board of Tkade . —A report from the meteorological officer of this department of the Government , Mr . E . Fitzroy , wa 3 published on Friday week . It is dated the 22 nd of June , 185 S . It states that better wind ami current charts , for all parts of the world , for eacli month of the year , and for considerably smaller spaces of ocean , are much required . Much information lias been recently collected from various seas , from many foreign stations on land , and from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans . By very numerous trials the spechic gravity of nearly nil the oceanic surface has been ascertained , and it is believed tliat these results will render further observations of the kind unnecessary , except in peculiar and limited localities , for some special object . Distilled water being taken as 1-000 , the specific gravity of oceanic water is found to be nearly 1 * 027 . The lowest temperature 1

      hitherto recorded ( between 2300 and ' 2-500 fathoms below the surface ) has been 35 deg . in the North Atlantic , South Atlantic , and Indian oceans , and 8 C deg . tho highest temperature anywhere at sea on the surface . The total pressure of the barometer varies so little throughout the year within certain limits of latitude near the equator , or rather at about 5 deg . of north latitude in tho Atlantic , that ( allowing for tho six-hourly change ) any ship crossing that part of the sea may actually compare her barometer with a natural standard , invariable within those small limits of 2-lO 0 ths to 0-lOOths of an inch , llygrometric huuiiries nro Btaadily , though slowly , proceeding . Magnetism has not occupied much thought , because it is zealously attended to in other departments of tho Government . Tlie report nit her gives a general idea of what is being done than the actual results of the labours of the department . — Times .

      IIualth ov London . —Twelve hundred deaths were registered in London in tho week ending Saturday , August tho 7 th . In tho ten years 1 B 1 S-67 , the average number of deaths in corresponding wecka was 1172 ; but as the deaths now returned occurred in ft population which hns annually increased , they can only bo compared with the average after tho latter is raised in

      proportion to the increase , a correction which will make 16 1289 . It is necessary , however , to remark that the series of weeks from which the average is drawn comprises two weeks—viz . ore in 1849 , another in 1854 , when the cholera -was epidemic and caused excessive mortality : and if the comparison ia made only witli seasons not so distinguished , it will appear that the mortality of last week was not low , but rather exceeded the average . It is satisfactory to observe that the deaths from diarrhoea , which had risen from 127 to 168 in the last week of July , declined again last week to 130 . The corrected average for ten corresponding weeks is 172 ; and , in the first vreek of August last year , the number from this complaint rose to 25 S . Fifteen , deaths were reported in the previous return from cholera ; the

      number now returned is only 5 , two of which are those of adults , a brewer who died from " [ English cholera" in Bermondsey , and a labourer in Woo ' lwich Arsenal , who died of cholera after a few hours' illness . Scarlatina appears to be increasing ; the deaths from it in the List three weeks were 58 , 7 S , and 86 . Mr . Simpson , the Registrar of St . Giles ' s Xorth , registered 5 deaths from scarlatina last week ; he states that it is much on the increase in his sub-district , and mentions a hou . * e ( 2 J , High-street ) where three fatal cases of the disease have occurred within a week . —Last week , the births of 7 f > . 5 boys and 75 S girls , in all 1553 children , were registered in London . In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 18-18-57 , the average number was 1505 . —From the ReysiU-aT-CeneraVsWeeMii Return .

      Modekx Legislation . —Anew act is scarcely passed before it becomes necessary to pass another either to explain or amend it . The mass of useless legislation that is thus accumulated is a standing discredit to the le ^ al ability which is presumed to be called into operation before an act becomes . law . Here we have two amendment acts , on two acts that have hardly come yet fairly into operation . The New Divorce AcT .- ^ -The Act to amend the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act of last session is printed . In the new statute there are 23 sections . The Judge Ordinary may sit in chambers , and the Treasury is to provide proper chambers . The registrars are to do . . all acts heretofore done by surrogates . The evidence on

      which a divorce has been obtained prior to the new law may be used in support of a petition under the new law-Some altenitioiis are made with respect to wives . It is provided that -wives deserted by their husbands m / iy apply to the judge for an order to protect property acquired by them with additional powers . The provisions respecting property of a wife are to extend to property vested in her as executrix , & c . The order of protection is to state the time when the desertion occurred . Corporations are indemnified for making payments tinder orders afterwards reversed . The following provision has reference to a well-known cause , which has been adjourned-: — "In all cases now pending , or hereafter to bo commenced , in which , on the petition of a husband for a divorce , the alleged adulterer is made a co-respondent , or

      in which , on the petition of a wife , the person with whom the husband is alleged to have committed adultery is made a respondent , it shall be lawful for the Court , after the close of the evidence on the part of the petitioner , to direct such co-respondent or respondent to be dismissed from the su . it if it shall think there is not sufficient evidence against him or her . " Persons who administer oaths under the 20 th and 21 st of Victoria , cap . 77 , are to administer oaths under the tiOth and 21 st of Victoria , cap . 85 . The bills of proctors and attorneys , arc to be subject to taxation , and power is given to enforce a decree for costs . Affidavits may now be sworn before different persons . It is declared to be felony for any person to forge the seal or signature to any document of the Court .

      The New Probate Act . —Tho Act to amend tho Probate and Letters of Administration Act of last session has been issued . There are 38 sections in the new statute . Tlie Judge of tho High Court of Admiralty and the Judge of tho Court of Probato may now sit for each other . Serjeants and barristers " shall bo entitled from and after the passing of this Act to practise in all causos and matters -whatsoever in the Court of Probate . " The Jud } , r c may sit in chambers , and proper chambers aro to he provided . An additional registrar may be appointed . Articled clerk a may he admitted proctors in tho court . The Act provides that where tho personalty i 3 uiidw 200 / . the County Courts arc to have jurisdiction . Al ! non-contentious business depending in any Ecelesiastieu Court at tho time when the Probato Act came into o \ ie ration is to bo transferred . There are clauses witl

      respect to afhuavits and the duties of executors , as als a provision for the absence of any of the officers of th court . Tho Judge of tho court is to have and oxerci « over proctors , solicitors , and attorneys practising in tli court , tin like authority and control as arc now exorcise by tho judges of any court of equity or common la \ overpevsons practising therein . Further , tlioro is a pro vision in tho Act for tho expenses of indexing , & i * . documents required to bo removed uiuKr rcquiailioi The present Act is to bo cited as " Tlio Court of Proli . u Act , 1858 , '' «» ' ! the former Act , now imn'iulcd , as " Tli Court of Probato Act , 1857 . " Tho senior reymtmr i . n I have K 50 M , tho second 1100 / ., the third , L 200 L , and tli fourth , 1000 / . a year .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1858, page 821, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_14081858/page/29/