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them advancing. The same watchman was obliged, likewise, to blow his horn on an alarm of fire; and that these people might be vigilant day and night, both in winter

and summer, the council supplied them with fur cloaks, seven of which, in the abovementioned year, were purchased for ten florins and a half.

LONDON LEGAL LETTER. To the American lawyer getting up his case who has constant occasion to consult the English Law Reports, it may be of interest to know how these reports are compiled. It should first be stated that while there are four different sets of reports covering prac tically the same ground, published every few years in England, viz., the Laze' Reports, the Law Times Reports, the Law Journal Reports, and the Times Law Reports, the first named aione are quoted as the Reports. They are all reliable, but the Reports is quoted much more frequently than all the others put to gether, and is the only one that is not pub lished by private enterprise. The Times Law Reports occupies an unique field, as it is a carefully-edited compilation of the reports of the different courts made by qualified bar risters. For this reason these reports are cited with authority and received as such by the judges, and being published daily in the Times newspaper, and in weekly parts, they are naturally kept closer up-to-date than is possible in the volumes of the other reports, although these, too, are published in parts. The Law Reports are published by the In corporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. This council consists of three ex-officio members, vis., the Attor-

AUGUST, 1904. ney-general, the Solicitor-General and the President of the Law Society; two members from each of the four Inns of Court; two members appointed by the council on the recommendation of the General Council o£ the Bar, and two members appointed by the Law Society, which is the organization rep resenting the solicitors' branch of the profes sion. The reports are edited by Sir Frederick Pollock, and seven volumes are produced each year, vis., one of Statutes, one of the Appeal Court, two of the Chancery, two of the King's Bench, and one of the Admiralty, Probate and Divorce Court. The interesting fact is, that over £22,000 a year is received for subscriptions for the reports; that the trading account shows a profit of £2649 Ior 1903, and that the Council has an accumu lated reserve and contingency fund of over £50,000. The subscription for the seven volumes is four guineas a year. It is not improbable that a distribution of the fund may soon be made to the subscribers in the way of an abatement of the subscription price, and if this occurs English lawyers will enjoy a cheaper issue of the reports of the courts than can probably be obtained in any other English-speaking community. STUFF GOWN.