THE EXAMINATIONS.

by the University of Cambridge should be relieved from the preliminary examination under the Judges' orders; and the council having made their suggestions on the subject, the Judges, by an order dated the 6th June last, directed that the second regulation in the Orders of July 26, 1861, should not extend or apply to persons who had successfully passed one of the local examinations established by the University of Oxford, or one of the non-gremial examinations established by the University of Cambridge. A copy of this order has been transmitted to every attorney and solicitor.

As the subject of the examinations is one of great interest to our readers, we here add an extract from the speech of Mr. Shaen at the late meeting of the Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association. That gentleman said :-"At the time we met at Worcester, in October last, we were only in possession of the first set of rules issued by the Judges, and dated the 26th of July, 1861. Upon those rules we made two or three criticisms. I will now refer to two only-one because it has been remedied, and the other because I think it still requires remedy, and because the expression of the opinion of such a meeting as this will do something towards securing the desired result. As you know, the preliminary examination is divided into two parts and the Judges have provided that there shall be a certificate for each of those parts. Now the certificate that the candidate has passed the first part only should say so; but it does not. It says, "We certify that A. B. has been examined in general knowledge by us as required by the rules and regulations of the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, &c., and we So that certify that he has passed a satisfactory examination.' under Part I. the candidate gets a certificate which, on the face of it, appears final, and then he goes into Part II., for which he gets a separate certificate. When we met last year I pointed out that verbal inaccuracy. Since then the Judges have issued a supplementary set of rules, dated the 26th of November, 1861, in which they have repeated the rule, and the blunder, adding only the date of the certificates. This matter only requires a suggestion on the I know it has part of the council, and I am sure it will be cured. already been observed by the officers of the Incorporated Law The Act of Society. The other point is rather a curious one. Parliament provided that persons who had passed certain examinations which should be established in any university should not be required to go into the preliminary examinations. When the first draft of the rules was prepared by the council they desired to grant this exemption to those who passed the middle-class examinations of Oxford and the non-gremial examinations of Cambridge, and they worded the rule the examinations respectively established by the universities,' instead of established in the universities,' as it

is in the Act of Parliament. When it came before our committee, they said the rule had better follow the wording of the Act, and, though it would then standas established in the universities,' we were of opinion that it would include the examinations intended to be included, because they were established 'in' though conducted out of the universities. When the council re-considered the matter they considered the objection was fatal and struck out these examinations altogether; so that in the rules issued those who had passed the Oxford middle-class and the Cambridge non-gremial examinations found themselves compelled to pass the preliminary examinations also. We discussed this matter in an interview we were favoured with by the Master of the Rolls, and since then a supplemental rule has been made by the Judges to include these examinations. But the Judges have not done it in the way we proposed. They have taken advantage of another clause in the Act, which, as it appears to me, did not give them any power to do it at all. First of all the Act stated that a general rule, to be signed by the chief Judges, was to say what examinations would entitle the candidate to exemption, and then there was a proviso made that, under special circumstances, the Judges, or any one or more of them, might dispense with compliance with the rule so made. But I take it that that clause never intended that the Judges or any one or more of them should have power to alter the General Rules made by the chiefs. The provision clearly referred to the special circumstances of individual cases—any young man, in fact, who could show just cause, was to come up for a Judge's order to have his examination dispensed with. However, the three chiefs and the Master of the Rolls have made the supplementary rule under that proviso, and it does include the two examinations of which I have spoken, and we therefore practically have what we wanted, although we could wish it had been done under the proper section of the Act. The Judges themselves, it is true, are the final Court of appeal in this matter, and if anybody says a young man has not properly passed, the question will come before them, and they will doubtless support their own rule. As it may be interesting to this meeting to know what has been actually done under our new system of examination, I have obtained a statement up to the present time. With regard to the preliminary examinations, they are very liberally provided for so far as places are concerned, for there are twenty-four towns in which they may be conducted. The first preliminary examination took place on the 10th and 11th of February, 1862, at three different places-London, Liverpool, and Cardiff. London there were seventeen candidates, of whom fourteen passed, and three were postponed; at Liverpool there were four candidates, of whom three passed, and one was postponed through illness; and at Cardiff there were two, both of whom passed. So that, out of

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THE EXAMINATIONS.

twenty-three presenting themselves, nineteen passed, and four were postponed; and in comparing this result with the result of other examinations, such as those at the Universities, the per centage of those postponed shows that our examinations provide a substantial The next test of ability. The rejected amount to 17.39 per cent. examination was held on May the 12th and 13th, at London, Birmingham, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The per centages were, London, 51 candidates, 23:53 rejected; Birmingham 9, rejected 33.33; Bristol 14, rejected 28.57; Exeter 12, rejected 41.66; Leeds 10, rejected 400; Liverpool 10, rejected 400; and Newcastle-on-Tyne 7, rejected 57.14. The total result was 113 candidates, 77 passed and 36 rejected, showing a per centage of rejected 31-85. The last examination took place in August, at London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, NewThe per centages were, London, castle-on-Tyne, and Plymouth. 57, rejected 19.30; Birmingham 4, rejected 750; Bristol 8, rejected 125; Leeds 6, rejected 16,66; Manchester 11, rejected 36.36; Newcastle 5, rejected 200; and Plymouth 5, rejected 200. The total result of this examination was, 96 candidates, 74 passed and 22 rejected, showing a per centage of 22-91. Taking the result of all these examinations, there were 232 candidates-passed 170; rejected 62; per centage of rejected, 26.72. I have also the results of the intermediate examinations for testing the knowledge of articled clerks when they are half-way through their articles. The kind of examination will be shown by the subjects which have been appointed for 1863, which are Book-keeping, the second book of Stephen's Commentaries founded on Blackstone,' comprising the Rights of Property, 4th edition, 1858; F. O. Haynes' Outlines of Equity,' 1858; and J. W. Smith's Elementary View of an Action at This examination first came Law,' 7th edition, by Prentice, 1860. into operation in Easter Term last, when four candidates presented themselves, all of whom were graduates, and all passed; and in Trinity Term twelve presented themselves, and eleven passed. Of these twelve four were graduates and eight were ten-year clerks, and I confess I am happy to say that the one postponed was not a graduate. It may strike you that, considering the large number of towns where the preliminary examinations may be held, the number of those where examinations have been held is small; and I believe that in consequence of the expense of conducting these examinations, the council have felt themselves obliged, when from any town only one or two candidates apply to be examined, to arrange that the candidates shall go to the nearest town where an examination has been arranged. And this brings me to another point, and that is, the expense of these examinations, a subject I approach with some difficulty, being myself a

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London solicitor. When we have been pressing upon the council this system of country examinations, we have always assured them of the cordial co-operation of the country solicitors. Now, in London the examiners have to draw up lists of papers, to conduct the examinations, to read through the answers, and state the result. -In fact, a London examiner has four or five days of such labour as entirely interferes with the ordinary business of his office. That labour is conducted entirely gratuitously. The examinations in the country do not entail half the trouble. The papers are sent down to men of established character and reputation in the profession, and all they are required to do is to come into such a room as this, to hear the young men read, to dictate a few sentences, and to see that there is no copying going on while they are writing the answers to their papers. They have no judgment to exercise as to the relative merits of the different papers, but just to send them back to London again. There is not much trouble about it, and it would not materially interfere with business. Of course you cannot see clients, but you may settle drafts, and read and write letters. For this service the council from the first decided to pay a fee, but I feel sure that if it had been put fairly before the country solicitors the work would have been done gratuitously as readily as it is in London. I could point out solicitors from all parts of England, now in this room, who would, I am certain, be only too happy to render such assistance, but unfortunately they were not asked. The council made a resolution to pay the examiners a fee of three guineas each per day. It is true this fee has been declined in some instances, but as a rule it remains as a liability; and the result is that each examination is considered to cost the Incorporated Law Society about fourteen guineas, and as the candidates only pay £2 each, it becomes in many cases a positive loss to the funds."

THE DECLARATION OF TITLE (CAP. 67) AND TRANSFER OF LAND ACTS, 1862 (CAP. 53).

(25 & 26 Vict. c. 67, 53.)

THESE are the two important Acts by which, especially the latter one, it is hoped, by some sanguine persons, that the profession may receive a fatal wound, by having the profits of conveyancing reduced to next to nothing, and certainly if the parties have been as cunning as they are malicious they will have effected their object. At present, however, it is extremely doubtful whether the viper has not bitten a file, and that, at any rate, a fresh attack will be necessary before giving

the fatal bite which is to cause the death of the lawyers through the medium of that which is to them life and the extinguishment of their profits on conveyancing business. There have been some General Rules and Orders issued for "regulating the manner of registering land, the examination of titles, the transfer and transmission of titles, the entry and withdrawal of official notes and caveats," &c. It is impossible for us to state the provisions even of the statutes in full; we assume that most readers will purchase some book containing them and the rules, but the following short account of the Acts may not be unacceptable, the Land Transfer Act being the more important Act, being more fully stated.

The Declaration of Title Act proposes to effect its object by giving a judicial declaration of title, which declaration may be accepted by a purchaser as the root of the title, and as conferring an indefeasible estate upon its possessor. A conveyance need only recite that a vendor is possessed of property, as appears by a judicial declaration of title and certificate, and the contract for sale and purchase, and the price agreed, and convey the same in a concise form to the purchaser. The covenants for title now usual will be unnecessary, and expense will be lessened in future dealings with the property. In all future purchases of considerable amount a stipulation for a judicial title will probably not be considered unreasonable, and it is impossible to deny the benefits of such a system both to the profession and to the public.

The professional adviser will be relieved from the risk of having to make good to his client the value paid for an estate in case of loss owing to a bad title having been accepted, for an unimpeachable title will be deduced, and the purchaser can afterwards, without any further investigation of antecedent dealings with the land, refer to his purchase deed and the certificate of judicial title as sufficient evidence against all the world. If the purchaser so desires he may have the judicial declaration and certificate placed upon the land registry provided by the Land Transfer Act, and it will then become subject to the provisions of that Act. The mode of proceeding prescribed is simple. On a petition the Court, if a prima facie title is shown, is to make an order to investigate the same, which will probably be done in the same manner as on a reference under a decree for specific performance, and upon a certificate of the result the Court is to make a declaratory order nisi.

This order, together with a description of the land, is to be served upon every adjoining landowner, and is then to be advertised, and if no cause is shown by some rival claimant to the land an order absolute is to be made. A certain time is then to elapse to give any person interested time to appeal, and if there is no appeal a certificate is to be issued, stating the fact and the title. To meet the case of