any such Order is made, a draft of it must be sent to the local authorities of the area which it affects, and the draft Order is not to be submitted to the Queen until after an address by Parliament praying that it may be made. The effect of the Order is to give the military authorities power within the area to which the Order applies to pass over, encamp, and construct temporary military works and execute military manœuvres on any "authorised" land, and to supply themselves with water from any "authorised" sources of water. The authorisation is to be given by a Military Manœuvres Commission consisting of representatives of county councils and of owners and occupiers of land. There are provisos against any interference with dwellinghouses, places of worship, schools, business premises, farmyards, etc., and the officer in command is to take care that there is no interference with earthworks, ruins, or other remains of antiquarian or historical interest, or with any picturesque or valuable timber, or other natural features of exceptional interest or beauty. Power is given to two justices to close roads for a time not exceeding forty-eight hours whilst the manoeuvres are going on. Compensation for damage, unless settled by agreement, is to be assessed by a compensation officer appointed by the Military Manoeuvres Commission with the concurrence of the Treasury, and is to be made out of public money. There are penalties for unlawfully obstructing the manoeuvres and similar offences.

Weights and Measures.-The Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act, 1897 (c. 46), legalises the use of metric weights and measures in trade, provides for the keeping of metric standards, and enables the Queen by Order in Council to make a table of metric equivalents.

Dangerous Performances. The Children's Dangerous Performances Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict., c. 34), imposed restrictions on the employment of children under fourteen in certain dangerous performances. The Dangerous Performances Act, 1897 (c. 52), extends these provisions to boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen.

Congested Districts. The Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897 (c. 53), establishes a body of Congested Districts Commissioners, and constitutes a Congested Districts Fund, which may be applied for the improvement of congested districts in the highlands and islands of Scotland. The money may be applied for aiding and developing agriculture, dairy-farming, and the breeding of livestock and poultry, providing seed potatoes, seed oats, and implements and dairy utensils, and machinery or appliances for the making of butter or cheese for crofters and cottars, providing land for subdivision among them or for enlargement of the holdings of crofters and cottars, aiding migration of crofters and cottars, aiding and developing fishing, aiding the provision or improvement of lighthouses, piers, or boat-slips, public roads, and bridges, etc., and aiding and developing spinning, weaving, and other home industries, and, with Treasury consent, aiding the provision or improvement of harbours.

Water. The Metropolis Water Act, 1897 (c. 56), empowers the Railway Commissioners to hear and determine complaints against the Metropolitan. Water Companies.

The District Council (Water Supply Facilities) Act, 1897 (c. 66), enables a landowner, with the consent of the Board of Agriculture, to charge his land with the cost of supplying water to a village.

Infant Life Protection.-The Infant Life Protection Act, 1897 (c. 57), supersedes and re-enacts with modifications the Infant Life Protection Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict., c. 38), which was directed against the abuses of baby-farming. It requires notice to be given by persons who receive for hire infants for the purpose of maintenance, provides for the appointment of local inspectors, enables the local authority to fix the number of infants which may be retained by the same person, and provides for the removal of infants improperly kept, and for proper notice to coroner of the death of any infant.

Factories. The Cotton Cloth Factories Act, 1897 (c. 58), gives the Secretary of State further power of making regulations for the protection of health in cotton cloth factories.

Merchant Shipping. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1897 (c. 59), enables ships to be detained for being undermanned in like manner as they may be detained for being unsafe.

Chaff-Cutting Machines.-The Chaff-Cutting Machines (Accidents) Act, 1897 (c. 60), requires the feeding mouths of chaff-cutting machines to be fitted in such manner as to secure safety, and their fly-wheels and knives to be securely fenced.

Prison-made Goods.-The Foreign Prison-made Goods Act, 1897 (c. 63), enables the Commissioners of Customs to prevent the importation of goods proved to their satisfaction by evidence tendered to them to have been made or produced wholly or in part in any foreign prison, gaol, house of correction, or penitentiary, unless they are goods in transit or not imported for the purpose of trade, or are of a description not manufactured in the United Kingdom.

Land Transfer.-The Land Transfer Act, 1897 (c. 65), has made extremely important alterations in the real property law of England.

Part I. of the Act, which came into operation on January 1st, 1898, establishes a "real representative," by providing that real estate shall, like personal estate, pass on death to the executor or administrator, instead of passing directly to the devisee or heir. The new law does not, however, alter the devolution of a beneficial interest in land, so that in cases of intestacy real estate will continue to devolve according to the law of primogeniture and not in accordance with the Statutes of Distribution.

Part II. of the Act makes several important amendments in the Land Transfer Act, 1875, which provides for the registration of title to land.

S. 6 adapts the machinery under this Act to the registration of settled land.

S. 7 provides for the indemnification of persons suffering loss by reason of any error or omission in the register, or of any entry made or procured by or in pursuance of fraud or mistake. The person in possession is not to be dispossessed, but the register is to be rectified, and the person suffering loss from the rectification is to be indemnified. For the provision of indemnity payable under the Act there is to be established (s. 21) an insurance fund, to be raised by setting apart at the end of each financial year such portion of the receipts from fees taken in the Land Registry Office as the Lord Chancellor and the Treasury by order determine. The solvency of this indemnity fund is guaranteed by the Consolidated Fund.

S. 12 deals with the controversial question as to how far title by possession is to prevail against a registered title. It enacts that a title to registered land adverse to or in derogation of the title of the registered proprietor is not to be acquired by any length of possession, and the registered proprietor may at any time make an entry or bring an action to recover possession of the land accordingly. But where the effect of the Act is to prevent a person from obtaining a title by possession he may apply for an order for rectification of the register. And there is a proviso that the section is not to prejudice, as against any person registered as first proprietor of land with a possessory title only, any adverse claim in respect of length of possession of any other person who is in possession at the time of the registration.

The other amendments contained in this part of the Act of 1875 are of comparatively less importance.

Part III. of the Act enables the Queen by Order in Council to make registration of title to land compulsory in any county or part of a county. The effect of the Order is to prevent any person from acquiring by any subsequent conveyance on sale the legal estate in any freehold land in the area to which the Order applies, unless or until he is registered as proprietor of the land. Before any such Order is made six months' notice must be given to the council of the county to which it is proposed to apply the Order, and if a majority at a meeting of the county council, at which two thirds are present, pass a resolution against the making of the Order, it is not to be made. An Order has been made under this section making the registration of title to land compulsory on sale in the county of London. The Order is to come into operation gradually. It is to apply in Hampstead, St. Pancras, St. Marylebone, and St. George's, Hanover Square, as from September 1st, 1898, but is not to apply to the city till July 1st, 1900.

Supreme Court.-The Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) (No. 2) Act, 1897 (c. 66), provides for the fusion and amalgamation of the Exchequer Division and Probate and Matrimonial Division of the High Court in Ireland

with the Queen's Bench Division, and for the union and consolidation of the Court of Bankruptcy with the Supreme Court in Ireland.

1. ISLE OF MAN.

[Contributed by SIR COURTENAY ILBERT.]

Seven Acts of Tynwald appear to have been passed in 1897.

Married Women.-The Married Women's Property Protection Act, 1897, adopts with modifications the provisions of the English Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act, 1895 (58 & 59 Vict., c. 39).

Clergy. The Clergy Residence Act, 1897, repeals the Act against non-residence which was passed by the Court of Tynwald in July 1697, and makes further provision against absenteeism by incumbents of benefices.

By another Act the Legislature has amended the Ecclesiastical Residences and Dilapidations Act, 1879.

Advertisements. The Advertising Rate Act, 1897, authorises the appointment of an "advertising committee," with power to administer "advertising funds," for the purpose of giving increased publicity to the advantages of the island as a pleasure and health resort. The rate for the purpose of this fund is to be raised, oddly enough, as part of the lunatic asylum rate.

II. BRITISH INDIA.

1. ACTS OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL. [Contributed by SIR COURTENAY ILBERT.]

Acts passed-16.

Criminal Tribes.-The Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, gave large powers of controlling, breaking up, and otherwise dealing with the criminal tribes of Northern India, such as the Meenas, who live by the practice of dacoity and other crimes. This Act is confined in its operation to Bengal, the North-West Provinces with Oudh, and the Punjab. The Criminal Tribes Act Amendment Act, 1897 (No. 2), amends this Act in certain particulars— e.g., by enabling the children of criminal tribes to be removed from their parents and placed in reformatories-and gives power for the local Government, with the approval of the Government of India, to extend the Act to other parts of British India. It was stated in the discussions on the Bill that provisions of this kind were much needed in Sindh.

Epidemics. The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (No. 3), is, as its name

indicates, a plague measure. Under it the Government of India, if satisfied that India or any part of India is visited by, or threatened with, an outbreak of any dangerous epidemic disease, and if of opinion that the ordinary provisions of the law are insufficient, may take or authorise the taking of such measures, and prescribe by public notice such temporary regulations as may be deemed necessary to prevent the outbreak or spread of disease, and may determine the mode in which the consequential expenses are to be defrayed. These measures and regulations may deal with the inspection and detention of vessels and their passengers, and the inspection and segregation of railway passengers. The powers exercisable under the Act may also be delegated to local Governments.

Fisheries. The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897 (No. 4), prohibits the destruction of fish by means of explosives or by poisoning of waters.

Statute Law Revision.-The Repealing and Amending Act, 1897 (No. 5), is a measure of the same kind as those known in England by the name of Statute Law Revision Acts. It repeals in similar terms enactments which have been superseded or have otherwise become obsolete.

Negotiable Instruments.-The Negotiable Instruments Act Amendment Act, 1897 (No. 6), illustrates the reciprocal action of the English and Indian Legislatures. The English Bills of Exchange Act, 1882,-a measure of codification of which Mr. Chalmers (now law member of the GovernorGeneral's Council) was the draftsman,-was suggested by the Indian Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, and the Indian Act has since then been amended more than once to bring it into closer conformity with the English Act. The object of the Act of 1897 is to effect this assimilation with respect to a single point-namely, the case where the bank on which a cheque is drawn fails. Mr. Chalmers has suggested that it might be for the convenience of the mercantile community simply to adopt the English Act, which has been adopted as part of the mercantile law in many parts of the British Empire.

Emigration. The Indian Emigration Act Amendment Act, 1897 (No. 7), makes a small amendment in the Indian Emigration Acts for the purpose of facilitating emigration to Sarawak.

Reformatory Schools.-The Reformatory Schools Act, 1897 (No. 8), repeals and re-enacts with a few modifications the Reformatory Schools Act, 1876.

Provident Funds.-The Provident Funds Act, 1897 (No. 9), deals with provident funds-that is to say, funds in which the subscriptions or deposits of any class of employees are received and held on their individual accounts,--by facilitating payments on death, and by protecting from attachment by courts of justice compulsory deposits in any Government or railway provident fund.

Interpretation.-The General Clauses Act, 1897 (No. 10), supplies another instance of the interaction of English and Indian legislation. The provisions