Scottish judge (Sheriff Brown, of Aberdeen) has insisted on having the ancient Latin tag quoad ultra put into Eng lish in an indictment. He seems to have hurt the feelings of the Sheriff-Clerk by so doing. And no wonder; for in every Scottish legal document in which it is possible to say quoad ultra it has always been said. While a hundred other Latin forms of the days of Peter Peebles have disap peared, quoad ultra has survived, like quoad saera, a sort of symbol and motto of a profession. The question comes, Can it l-e got rid of, and that by a mere Sheriff? Sheriff Brown made the Sheriff-Clerk write that Peter Riley plead guilty to assault, ' otherwise not guilty,' instead of 'quoad ultra not guilty.' Now ' otherwise ' is not an exact trans lation of quoad ultra; and if an unlearned clerk were to take it as such he might make a sad mess of the good old formula ' quoad ultra denied ' in an ' answer to conde scendence.' After all it might be well to leave quoad ultra alone. Like bona fide and ultra vires, and a few more old friends, it tills a place in the order of things; and it is a venerable and harmless monument of antiquity."
197
Mother's Right to Guardianship. — After a good deal of backing and rilling on the part of the Legislature of New York in respect to this subject, the mother's right to a voice jointly with the husband in appointing her child's guardian has been at last statutorily declared. By the original Married Women's Acts of 1848, etc., the father could not appoint without the mother's written consent. Some twenty years ago, probably to fit some special case, this was abrogated, and by several later changes the mother's right has been gradually restored, until now it stands as it ought. The original repeal was a curious instance of the evils of special legislation.
office cat. Whittington had some kind of a cat. And now con1es Subzer, the leader of the Tammany Democracy in the New York Assembly. Several years ago we picked him out for distinction. We saw the shadow of a laurel hovering over his brow'. The first we ever heard of him he made a great speech in the Assembly against Codification, rilled with such asseverations of the mischief which "ex perience " showed that this measure had wrought, and such vaticinations and personal pledges of woe should it prevail, that we were led to inquire about this patriarchal sage and prophet, and ascertained that he was bowed by the weight of some thirty summers. Then we marked him for Fame. Subzer, we said, is " one of the few, the immortal names that were not born to die." (By the way, it seems indisputable that a thing that is immortal cannot die. But we must not quarrel with " Marco Bozarris.") Now Subzer has vindicated our forecast. He has procured the enactment of a law for the protection of Cats in the city of New York. As a Tammany man, he is naturally partial to the Cat, being mind ful of its far-away Tiger ancestry. Perhaps he hopes to become, like Whittington, Lord Mayor by reason of his Cat. We can imagine his speeches on this high occasion . Perhaps he even treated the Assembly to the popular topical song, in which it is asserted : "I love my little cats, I'm very fond of thats." All that we can learn of this law is that it provides that cats in the metropolis shall wear collars, and that each shall bear a name (cat's or owner's, or both?) and be registered. The enforcement of the Statute is put into the hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The "Troy Times" says that " The position of official registrar and regu lator of cats will be an important one, and there will be rich purrquisites in the way of cat pelts and fur "; and that "Tammany will be sure to have one or more cat inspectors as well as a superintendent of registered felines." These are very unfeline remarks. We cannot believe that the humane author of this meas ure had any such unhandsome ulterior motives. But as he has displayed such tenderness toward Cats, we invoke his better consideration of Codification. They both begin with C. Let Subzer be decorated with a Maltese cross.
Subzer AND His Cats. — Another name must be added to the list of great men who have been fond of cats. Montaigne draws an alluring picture of him self dangling a garter to amuse his cat, and Bozzy tells us how the great Ursa Major fed " Hodge, his cat," with oysters. Mr. Dana is said to possess an
Accident Insurance — External Violence. — In American Accident Co. v. Reigart, Court of Appeals of Kentucky, September, 1893 (21 L. R. Ann. 651), it was held that death caused by choking on food, which, in an attempt to swallow it, accidentally
In the State of New York the old Latin phrases have been ostracised for more than forty years. But they prevail to an amusing extent in Pennsylvania, at least in civil pleading, and so do the old French phrases. It is in the Pennsylvania reports that one reads of nil debet, trespass guare clausum fregit and vi et armis, nul lid corporation, etc., or rather, and so forth. Really it is time to banish all that lingo. It is well enough perhaps to keep up Magna Charla and Habeas Corpus. " Great Charter" would do just as well for the former, but " Produce the Body," we must confess, would sound queer. But it would be better to send all the other foreign phrases to Lord Cole ridge's Yellowstone Park of Special Pleading.
NOTES OF CASES.
