to the bank, is not such certification as is forbidden by the Act of Congress. Thompson vs. St. Nicholas Nat. Bank, Ct. App. N. Y., April 16, 1889.

BILLS AND NOTES.

Acceptance of Draft drawn upon the acceptor as executor of a will, under which the drawer is a legatee, and indorsed by him as executor, does not charge the acceptor personally when he shows that the understanding of all the parties was that the draft was to be paid only out of the drawers interest in the estate, and that the acceptance was intended to bind the acceptor only in his official capacity. Schmittler vs. Simon, Ct., App. N. Y., ad Div., April 23, 1889.

Accommodation paper may be rescinded at any time before passing into the hands of a third party for value, and if an accommodation indorser notifies a person who is about to purchase the note which he has indorsed, that he withdraws his indorsement and will not be responsible upon the paper, and the latter, notwithstanding such notice, purchases the note, he cannot hold the indorser upon its nonpayment. Second Nat. Bank of St. Paul vs. Howe, S. Ct. Minn., April 24, 1889.

Negotiability of a promissory note is taken away by a stipulation making the instalments of interest, and the principal, when due, payable at a certain place, "with exchange on New York," as it cannot be known until the times of payment arrive what the rates of exchange will be, and the amount necessary to discharge such note is, therefore, uncertain. Windsor Savings Bank vs. McMahon, U. S. C. Ct., S. D. Iowa, April 6, 1889.

CORPORATIONS.

Contract with a de facto corporation can not be repudiated by one who has received

the benefit of such contract, upon the ground that the corporation was never legally organized, or that the law under which it was organized was unconstitutional. Winget vs. Quincey Building and Homestead Asso., S. Ct. Ill., April 5, 1889.

DAMAGES.

Loss of both legs by a young boy through the negligence of a railroad company will not warrant a verdict of $30,000; such damages would be excessive. Heddles vs. Chicago and N. W. Ry. Co., S. Ct. Wis., April 25, 1889.

GIFTS CAUSA MORTIS-PROMISSORY NOTES.— A promissory note made without consideration in anticipation of and shortly before the maker's death, and intrusted by him to a third person, with directions not to deliver it to the payee, the maker's son, until six months after the makers' decease, is not good, either as a bequest or as a gift causa mortis, and is unforceable.-Sanborn vs. Sanborn, N. H. 18 Atl. Rep. 223.

LIBEL-List of discharged employes of a railroad company giving the reason for their discharge, and placed in the hands. of persons whose duty it is to employ servants on behalf of the company, is a privileged communication. Missouri Pacific Ry. Co. vs. Richmond, S. Ct. Tex., April 26, 1889.

MORTGAGES.—AGREEMENT FOR SECURITY.— A written agreement for security on certain property for the payment of a debt is in equity a mortgage, and will be enforced as such against all parties to the agreement and those who have notice of it. Gest vs. Packwood, U. S. C. C. Oreg., 39 Fed. Rep. 525.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.-DEFECTIVE SIDEWALKS.-A city tore up a sidewalk at the intersection of two streets, excavating

under it, and making a portion of it a part of one of the streets. Plaintiff slipped on the place where the sidewalk formerly was, and fell into the excavation and was injured. Held, the city was liable if, after removing the cross walk, it did not make the descent into the excavation safe, or protect it, if dangerous, by lights or barriers.

When the city tore up the sidewalk and by the excavation, made it a part of the street and allowed it to remain so, they became liable to plaintiff if his fall was caused by such acts and he was without fault. Alexander vs. City of Big Rapids, Mich., 42 N. W. Rep. 1071.

PARTNERSHIP.-Defendants, as partners, leased certain land of plaintiff for three years, and made cash payments thereon at different times. Some three months thereafter one of the partners, W, retired, and the two remaining partners assumed all liabilities, and notice thereof was duly published. At the end of the first year a balance of $1,896 was due on the rent,

for which the new firm gave their note, but nothing was said about W, and no release given as to him by plaintiff. At the end of the second year the new firm gave up the land, being unable to pay the rent, and plaintiff rented it to a third person. Held, that W was not discharged from his liability for the rent by the acceptance of the note of the new firm until the surrender of the land by plaintiff's consent. White vs. Boone, Tex., 12 S. W. Rep. 51.

PERFORMANCE.-Where a building contract provided that if the contractor failed to comply with the conditions thereof, the architect should be entitled to take possession of the building. Held, that this right did not depend upon the mere arbitrary discretion of the architect, but, in an action for damages by the contractor for such interference by the architect, the issue whether he had so fulfilled his contract was one which he was entitled to have tried. White vs. Harrigan, Minn., 43 N. W. Rep. 89.

HUMORS OF THE LAW.

Penitentiary Visitor-"My poor man how did you come to be in here?"

Prisoner "For selling fraudulent goods and thereby getting money under false. pretenses."

Visitor-"I hope you'll become an honest man here, and be a good citizen when you are released. What are you employed at by the State!"

Prisoner "" Making warranted solid leather soles for boots and shoes out of pasteboard.".

It was a constable who remarked pleasantly that he had an attachment for his victim.

Some cases of comparatively recent occurrence will serve to illustrate the defects of the coroner system. The following is reported: "Inquisition held on the body of Holmes, deseasts December 8, 1853. We of the said jury, by being summoned and qualified, and hearing the evidences, and making true and dilligous resentments over the said body of said

deseasts, twelve men met, and, being duly sworn into the case, believes that he come to his death by some fit or other apoplexy. Doctor being duly sworn by myself, coroner, states that the lobis membrane of the spinal disease was affected to considerable extent."-Forum.

In an amusing law sketch, written by Professor Amos, we come across some of the former subtleties of homicide. Accidental homicide, if it arose out of the doing of a lawful act, was held excusable; if it arose out of a trespass, not a larceny, was manslaughter; but if it arose out of a larceny, was murder. Hobbs, the philosopher, living in Hale's time, expressed the law in this form: "If a boy be robbing an apple tree, and by some chance fall therefrom, and break the neck of a man standing underneath, the crime consists in a trespass, to the damage, perhaps of sixpence. Trespass is an offence, but the falling is none, and it was not by the trespass, but by falling that the man was slain; yet Coke would have him hanged for it, as if he had fallen of malice prepense."

The idle subtleties that have been spent by criminal lawyers upon the subject of theft, could scarcely be seen to more advantage than in the consideration of that element in thieving, which consists in carrying the stolen thing away; or as the

books call it, asportavit Thus it was held that if a prisoner removed a package from the head to the tail of a wagon, the asportavit was complete; but if he moved it only by lifting it up where it lay, and standing it on end, for the purpose of ripping it open, the asportavit was not complete, because every part of the package was not shown to have been moved. The central point of it might be exactly where it was before.-Household Words.

In a recent examination before the Supreme Court ot Iowa a student was asked whether the State Legislature of Iowa can pass an act granting a divorce. Having answered in the negative, he was requested to give his reason. He replied that the Constitution of the United States forbids the State Legislatures from passing any act impairing the obligations of a contract. Green Bag.

If the above is true it must have been an Iowa student, at present studying at Columbia, who not long since on being asked in class the origin of uses and trusts, declared that they were invented "in order to elude the statutes of eminent domain." And it may have been the same man who amused us all on one occasion last year by giving, after some moments' reflection, as an example of choses in action "rolling stock on a railway."