AN ENGLISH STEAM VESSEL is boarded by a pilot, outside of Sandy Hook. "Captain" says the pilot, "you will have to stop those wheels at your sides when you get within our waters." "Why so?" asks the captain. "Because the State of New York has granted to Livingston and Fulton the exclusive right of navigating in its waters by steam." Sir," resumes the captain, "I care nothing for the laws of the State of New York. I know of no laws or regulations of a particular State, in regard to trade and commerce. I claim the privilege of entering the harbor of New York, under the laws of the United States, and the treaty of amity and commerce subsisting between them and my Sovereign. I insist upon my right of entering your waters as I please; and if your State authorities or any one acting under them, should prevent me, the King, my master, will know how to enforce the rights of his subjects. "Patience, patience, good captain," replied the pilot, "let your head and your boiler cool; no one means to prevent your entering into our waters. Only stop your machinery, and hoist those sails you have carried between this port and Liverpool, and I'll answer for it, we shall be along side of the wharf as soon as yon vessel that you see bound inwards, with all her canvas spread." This is the extent of the prohibition-the Deo dignus vindice nodus. When the case occurs of a vessel navigating across the Atlantic, without sails, the question may be discussed whether it be a violation of the laws of Congress, that she be required to fit herself to the harbor, by providing herself with sail. Fortunately the great JOHN MARSHALL did not so think and the State law was held of no validity: see Gibbons v. Ogden, (1824), 9 Wheat., 22 U. S. 140, seq. RUFUS CHOATE once happened to have alongside of him, George Ticknor, the well-known authority upon Spanish Literature. Choate was bending his brows over a bit of his own manuscript which he evidently found it pretty hard to decipher. "Mr. Choate," the other said, "I have a manuscript at home of which the writing closely resembles yours." "Ah," Mr. Choate responded; "who wrote it?" "Philip the Second of Spain." "Ah!" said Mr. Choate again; "great man, Philip the Second." Then he added, with that twinkle in his eye which was so irresistible, "Great man ; much in advance of his time."-San Francisco Argonaut. AN ORIGINAL PACKAGE CASE in Nova Scotia has just been decided by the Quebec Superior Court, as follows: Present: The Hon. Mr. Justice Belanger, James Moir, petitioner, v. The Corporation of the Village of Huntingdon, respondent, and Hon. A. Turcotte, esqualite, intervenant. The Court having heard the parties in this cause by their respective attorneys, as well upon the merits of the petition of the petitioner in appeal of the by-law, herein mentioned, examined the proceedings, the said by-law, the other exhibits produced, and also the proof made, and upon the whole deliberated. Considering that it is proved that the petitioner is, and was at the date of the said petition in appeal and of the signification thereof on the said respondent, duly qualified as an elector in and for the municipality of the corporation of the village of Huntingdon, in the district of Beauharnois, and as such is and was duly qualified to bring the appeal in this cause; Considering the petitioner has furnished and produced the security by law required in such cases; Considering that, at a general session of the Municipal Council of the village of Huntingdon, held at the said village of Huntingdon, on the 8th day of April, 1890, the said Municipal Council passed a by-law, No. 105, in the following terms, in the English language: "A by-law to prohibit the sale, by retail of intoxicating liquor within the limits of this municipality and the granting of license therefor: Sec. 1st, on, from and after, the coming into force of this by-law, the sale of intoxicating liquors in quantities less than two gallons imperial measure at one and the same time, within the limits of the municipality of the village of Huntingdon, and the granting of any license or licenses therefor, shall be and is hereby prohibited;" which by-law has been subsequently promulgated, in conformity with the provisions of the municipal code of this province for municipal by-laws, in the manner authorized by said code; Considering that the said by-law was so passed and adopted by the said municipal council under the authority of Art. 561 of Municipal Code as amended (the said article 561) by Chapter 29, Sec. 6, of the statutes of the Legislature of this province, passed in the fiftyfirst and fifty-second years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria ; Considering that the Legislature of said province has not and had not, in virtue of the powers conferred on it by the "British North America Act of 1867," any authority to restrain and limit the traffic and commerce in intoxicating liquors by prohibiting the sale thereof or in part, to wit, by wholesale or retail, such power belonging exclusively to the parliament of Canada. Considering that the said Article 561 of Chapter 68 of the Acts of the Province of Quebec, passed in the 34th year of Her Majesty the Queen, as amended by Chapter 29, Section 6, of the Acts of the legislature of the said province in the fifty-first and fifty-second years of the reign of Her Majesty, has the effect of conferring upon Municipal Councils the power of restraining and limiting the traffic and commerce in intoxicating liquors by permitting them to prohibit the sale thereof by retail, that is to say, in a quantity less than two gallons imperial measure, or one dozen bottles, each containing not less than one pint imperial measure, and that by so doing the said Legislature of Quebec has conferred upon said Municipal Councils as a power which it does not possess itself, and which it cannot, validly and legally transfer to Municipal Councils, the said article 561 being ultra vires of the said legislature. Considering that the said municipal council, in passing said bylaw, has, in consequence of the illegality of the said article 561, amended as aforesaid, acted without valid power or authority, and for such reason the said by-law is null, without legal value and ultra vires; Doth dismiss the answer of the said respondent, the said corporation of the said village of Huntingdon, with costs against the said respondent; declares the said petitioner well-founded in his said. petition; declares the said by-law of the 8th of April last as aforesaid by the said municipal council of the said village of Huntingdon ultra vires, null and without effect, and doth, in consequence, break annul, and met a neant the said by-law, and doth condemn the said respondent, the said corporation of the village of Huntingdon, to the costs of the said petition, distraction whereof is granted to A. E. Mitchell, Esq., attorney for the said petitioner. (Signed) L. BELANGER, J. S. C. The effect, in brief, of this decision is, that provincial legislatures have no power to pass laws restricting the sale of liquor or authorizing any bodies under them to restrict the sale of liquor. Speaking of the decision the Montreal Gazette says: "It nullifies practically all the legislation that has been had in recent years in the province, looking to the restriction of the liquor traffic, and will have for its result, it would appear, to compel the granting of a license to every applicant prepared to pay for it.. Judge Belanger's decision is not based on any new idea. A judgment of the privy council can be quoted in its favor. The defunct Dominion license law was based upon it. But the law, the most advanced temperance measure the country ever had, was declared unconstitutional by a later judgment of the same judicial body, and the inference is that, if any appeal is now made, the principles laid down in the latter case will still hold. Meantime, however, Judge Belanger's decision stands, and not only Huntingdon, but every other municipality in the province, is liable to be called on to grant licenses to whoever asks for them." One good that must inevitably result from this decision is that the license question must once more be taken before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in such a form as to compel that body to reconcile, if possible, its decision on the Scott Act with its decision on the Dominion License Act. At present we have what are apparently two conflicting judgments from that court,-the one affirming that the Dominion parliament alone possesses the power of regulating the traffic in intoxicating liquors; the other affirming that the dominion parliament can only prohibit-not regulate. We shall now probably have a re-argument and re-consideration of the whole question, and it is possible that their lordships of the privy council may be able to fix the precise point at which the dominion' power ends, and the province's begins.-Halifax (N. S.) Herald. LAWYERS who are either young, or not yet Vanderbilts, and who desire to have their library shelves well filled with Law Books, in order to properly impress their clients with the fact that they are old practitioners, can do so by buying of us a bill of "Legal Fillings." Such a bill consists of a number of second-hand volumes of our odds and ends of Text Books, Reports, Digests, Statutes, Law Periodicals and Reporters, some of which we sell at ten cents, some at fifteen cents, some at twenty-cents a volume. Favor us with a trial order for 50 or 100 volumes, and leave it to our discretion to see that you have no duplicate volumes sent you, and we are sure will be satisfied. Order a large number, as they could go by freight at small expense. This is an opportunity that does not often occur; take advantage of it.-The Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Co. you HON. C. W. WALTON, of Deering Maine, was qualified on May 24th for his fifth term as Justice of the Supreme Court of that State, having served since 1862. THE more thou searchest, the more thou shalt marvel. II Esdras, 4. It is usual to dispose of the weather by a remark in opening conversation or in salutation, but this winter, justice cannot be done to the subject, except by a full discourse on the subject, or at least, a long prelude, for, as will be shown, there has been nothing like it for at least two generations. We think you will be interested in our presentation of some facts, even if you do not accept our conclusions. Examining the temperature for the five cities of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Buffalo, and Chicago, as published in the Coal Trade Journal last July, for the six coldest months of each year, taken from the records of the Signal Service, a close resemblance will be found between them. The variations shown at any one place will match those of any other, so that the temperature of one CHART No. 1. No. 1. AVERAGE MEAN TEMPERATURE FOR SIX MONTHS, NOVEMBER TO APRIL IN- DARK LINE.-Average for Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Buffalo and Chicago. |