the laws of Texas relating to conveyance of lands, will pass the title to land conveyed as between parties thereto : Hervey v. Edens, S. Ct. Texas, December 13, 1887.

BANKS AND BANKING.

Stockholder of a national bank is liable to its receiver for a subscription which he made for new stock, on a proposed increase to $500,000, notwithstanding the fact that when he found at a subsequent meeting the increase was only $450,000 he refused to vote on the stock. The stockholder was held to have ratified the increase, because he retained the certificate issued to him on his subscription to the new stock: Butler v. Aspinwall, U. S. C. Ct. Dist. Mass., December 13, 1887.

BILLS AND NOTES.

Acceptance was validly made when the drawee wrote across the face of the draft the words "excepted Sept. 18, L. B. M.," and parol evidence was admissible to explain the words: Cortelyou v. Maben, S. Ct. Neb., January 5, 1888.

Accommodation indorser has the right to show that the payee indulged the maker for three years after the maturity of the note on an agreement for the employment of the payee's son by the maker: because a surety will be discharged by an extension of time, upon a valid consideration, suspending the right to enforce the payment of the debt entered into without consent of the surety: Powers v. Silbersteen, Ct. of App. N. Y., January 17, 1888.

Lost note, being the cause of action and to be proved, the trial court, and not the jury, must determine from the evidence offered at the trial whether the note was indorsed at the time of the loss; then secondary evidence of the contents of the note may be given to the jury: O'Neill v. O'Neill, S. C. Ill., January 19, 1888.

Maker is not discharged when guarantor pays on account with express promise of payee that the note should be kept alive for the benefit of the guarantor: Granite N. Bank v. Fitch, S. Jud. Ct. Mass., January 6, 1888.

Not negotiable, if the words " and attorney's fees" are inserted, because the sum to be paid is rendered uncertain: Altman v. Rittershofer, S. Ct. Mich., January 19, 1888.

Payment of balance due on a note is not presumed from acceptance of new note by the same maker for the balance: Granite N. Bank v. Fitch, S. Jud. Ct. Mass., January 6, 1888.

BILL OF LADING. See Railroads.

COMMERCIAL TRAVELER. See License Tax.

CONSIGNEE. See Railroads; Replevin.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

See Insurance; Interstate Commerce Law; License Tax; Liquor Laws; Negligence; Nuisance; Sunday Laws; Telegraphs.

Amendment of an existing law may be made by citing the title without inserting the act in full, as § 17, Art. III, Const. N. Y. (providing that "No act shall be passed which shall provide that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall be made or deemed a part of said act, or which shall enact that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall be applicable, except by inserting it in such act"), does not apply to an act purporting to amend existing laws: People v. Squire, Ct. App. N. Y., January 17, 1888.

Constitutionality of an act cannot be called in question by a party whose rights are not affected by its enforcement: County Commismissioners v. State ex rel., S. Ct. Fla., January, 1888.

Local act, in fact, but in terms prescribing that "all telegraph *** cables used in any incorporated city of this State having a population of 500,000 or over shall hereafter be placed under the surface," is not a local bill, forbidden by § 16, Art. III, Const. N. Y.; it applies to all cities of this class, and such classification is not rendered unconstitutional by reason of the limited number of such cities: People, etc., v. Squire, Ct. App. N. Y., January 17, 1888.

Manner of performing an act when prescribed in the Constitution is in effect a prohibition against the passage of a law directing a different manner of doing it: State ex rel. v. Barnes, S. Ct. Fla., January, 1888.

One subject only is embraced by Chap. 499 (N. Y. Laws of 1885), entitled, "An Act providing for placing Electrical Conductors under ground in cities of this State and for Commissioners of Electrical Subways," and the act is not obnoxious to § 16, Art. III, Const. N. Y., providing that "No private or local bill shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title." People, etc., v. Squire, Ct. App. N. Y., January 17, 1888.

Proviso of Penna. Act (May 14, 1874, P. L. 158), entitled, "An Act to Exempt from Taxation Public Property used for Public Purposes and Places of Religious Worship, Places of Burial not Used or Held for Private or Corporate Profit, and Institutions of Purely Public Charity," is worded as follows: " Provided, that all property, real or personal, other than that which is in actual use and occupation for the purposes aforesaid, and from which any income or revenue is derived, shall be subject to taxation except where exempted by law for State purposes, and nothing herein contained shall exempt same therefrom," is void; it is an attempt to impose taxation without indicating the intention in the title, as required by § 3, Art. III, Const. Penna., which provides that "No bill, except general appropriation bills, shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title:" Sewickley v. Sholes, S. Ct. Penna., January 3, 1888.

A treaty which is self-executing and a statute are on the same footing, and when inconsistent, the latter in point of time will prevail: Whitney v. Robertson, S. Ct. U. S., January 9, 1888.

VOL. XXXVI.-27

CONTEMPT OF COURT.

Criticism by an attorney, neither made in the presence of the court nor during its session, but during an altercation with the court clerk and opposing counsel, which criticism extended to the general manner of transacting the court business, is not a contempt of court even if of an unprofessional character: Watson v. People, S. Ct. Col., January 4, 1888.

CONTRACTS. See Railroads.

Dissolution of a contract to put up a gas machine and pipes is worked by the destruction of the building by fire, but an action can be maintained for the labor and materials furnished on account of the contract before the fire: Gilbert & Barker Mfg. Co. v. Butler, S. Jud. Ct. Mass., January 10, 1888.

Statute of Illinois, forbidding wheat deals, does not prevent a partner from requiring an account from his partner for the use made of the proceeds of a wheat deal after the same had been successfully completed: Wells v. Mc Geoch, S. Ct. Wis., January 10, 1888.

Time spent in going to and from work cannot be charged as overtime where the plaintiff agreed to work for the defendant at $2.50 for a day's work of ten hours and twenty-five cents for every hour of work done over and above the said ten hours: Wilson v. Lyle, S. Ct. Penna., February 6, 1888.

Waiver of the conditions of the contract is a defense to an action for breach of the contract and the burden of proof of this defense is on the defendant: Treacy v. Barclay, Ct. App. Ky., January 12, 1888.

CONVEYANCE. See Nuisance.

Particular exception to a general description of land in the granting clause is good and restrains grant accordingly: Witt v. St. Paul, etc., R. Co., S. Ct. Minn., January 10, 1888.

CORPORATIONS. See Banks and Banking.

Directors occupy the relation of trustees toward the corporation and its property: Sweeney v. Grape Sugar Co., S. Ct. App. W. Va., November 19, 1887.

Subscription to corporate stock cannot be collected from a bona fide purchaser of a stock certificate without notice of any sum being due: West Nashville P. M. Co. v. Nashville S. Bk., S. Ct. Tenn., January 9, 1888.

ERRORS AND APPEALS.

Citation must issue where the affidavit does not state appellant's interest in judgment but opposing affidavit does show such value: the question of jurisdictional amount must be left to the Supreme Court: Davie v. Heyward, U. S. C. Ct. W. Dist. S. C., December, 1887.

Dismissal refused when taken to a decree of the inferior State court, where the appellant had, after the decree and before appealing, instituted a suit in the U. S. C. Ct. in this State and suffered an adverse decree upon the pleadings and evidence: Guaranty T. & S. D. Co. v. Buddington et al., S. Ct. Fla., January, 1888.

Rulings of a circuit court made during a trial without a jury are not reviewable in the Supreme Court when there has been no written stipulation (waiving trial by jury) duly signed and filed: Dundee M. & T. Co. v. Hughes, S. Ct. U. S., January 9, 1888.

EVIDENCE.

Handwriting of a decedent may be proved by the evidence of one who had never seen him write but had seen many letters and addresses on newspapers coming from the decedent: Tuttle v. Rainey, S. Ct. N. C., December 5, 1887.

Revocation of a continuing guaranty is effectual when the surrender of the written guaranty, for the purpose of revocation, is requested four months before the liability in suit is claimed to have occurred: Tischler v. Hofheimer, S. Ct. App. Va., December 31, 1887.

INSURANCE.

Arbitration of amount of loss when agreed to is a waiver of written notice of loss but not of the provision in the policy which requires assured to state his knowledge of the origin of the fire and title and interest of the owners: Nelson v. Bound Brook M. F. I. Co., Ct. Errors and App. N. J., June Term, 1887.

Constitution of the United States (Art. I, § 8, cl. 4) does not apply to the issuing of a policy of insurance by a company in one State to a person domiciled in another, as such a transaction is not commerce within the constitutional sense of that word: List v. Commonwealth, S. Ct. Penna., January 3, 1888.

Doubtful policies are to be construed against the insurer and in favor of the insured: Id.

Permanent occupation is meant where the policy provides for its termination on an increase of the risk by occupation of neighboring buildings or other means within the control of the insured: Id.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW.

Discrimination must consist in the doing for or allowing to one party or place what is denied to another; it cannot be predicated of action which is of itself impartial. But a regulation which is general and uniform is the opposite of discrimination, and if the result be favorable to some localities and unfavorable to others, it is not obnoxious to the act: Crews v. Richmond & Danville R. R. Co., The Commission, February 15, 1888.

LICENSE TAX.

Commercial traveler selling by sample, not liable to the penalties of the Texas statute, which is unconstitutional as being a regulation of interstate commerce: Ex parte Stockton, U. S. Dist. Ct. E. D. Texas, December 6, 1887. (See contra, Ex parte Asher, S. Ct. Texas, ante, page 77.)

Peddling produce or merchandise in Pennsylvania cities of the second and third class without a license was prohibited by Act of June 10, 1881; this was not a tax on a particular class of occupations but merely a police regulation, and not obnoxious to § 1, Art. IX, Const. Penna., providing that "All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects." *** Kneeland v. Pittsburgh, S. Ct. Penna., November 11, 1887.

Peddlers may be classified and taxed at different rates by the municipal authorities under the provisions of the above act: Id.

LIQUOR LAWS.

Classification of all liquor dealers within five miles of a town at one rate of license, and keepers of wayside inns at another rate, is uniform and within the power of the legislature: Territory v. Connell, S. Ct. Ari., January, 1887.

Georgia statute, requiring the consent of a certain number of freeholders (except in incorporated cities or towns) before a liquor license may be granted, does not deny to liquor dealers outside of such cities or towns the equal protection of the laws, in violation of the Const. U. S.: U. S. v. Rowan, U. S. C. Ct. S. Dist. Ga., November 7, 1887.

Rhode Island Public Statute (Chap. 634, May 4, 1887, § 1) prohibiting any person from keeping any intoxicating liquors for the purpose of sale, is not in conflict with Art. I, § 8, Const. U. S., which confers upon Congress the exclusive power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, even if it should incidentally interfere with foreign or interstate commerce: State v. Fitzpatrick, S. Ct. R. I., January 7, 1888.

Territorial governments can license and regulate liquor dealers by virtue of their police powers: Territory v. Connell, S. Ct. Ari., January, 1887.

MALICIOUS PROSECUTION.

Probable cause a question for the jury when there is a substantial dispute over the facts from which it is inferred: Bell v. Matthews, S. Ct. Kan., December 10, 1887.

Probable cause is wanting, prima facie, on discharge from an arrest made by the authority of U. S. Commissioner: Jones v. Finch, S. Ct. App. Va., November 17, 1887.

MASTER AND SERVANT. See Negligence; Railroads.

Discharge of a servant before end of term for which he was en