A Century of English Jttdicaturc. of the Albert Insurance Company. This company was the final result of various financial transformations, and many of the claims against it turned upon the doctrine of novation. Cairns took an advanced posi tion with respect to the assent of the debtor
445
As a law reformer he was a worthy suc cession of Westbury. Although the Judica ture Act of 1873 was passed under Lord Selborne's chancellorship, public opinion had been aroused and the main outlines of the reform suggested by Cairns, who was
LORD JUSTICE KNIGHT BRUCE.
to novation, justifying his position by con siderations drawn from the rapidly changing nature of commercial transactions in the present day. (See Cairns' Decisions in the Albert Insurance Company Arbitration. i87O-'72, particularly Kennedy's case, p. 5.)'
chairman of the first Judicature Commission of 1866. It was he who influenced the modi fication of the act so as to retain the final appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords. Among his other legislative achievements are the Conveyancing Act, the Vendors' and
'Following is a full list of Cairns' most important opinions : Company law — Erlanger v. Phosphate Co., 3 A. C. 1234; Ashbury Ry. Co. v. Ritchie, 7 E. & I. App. Cas. 663; Peek v. Gumey, 6-402; Reese Mining Co.. v. Smith, 4-77; Houldsworth r. Evans, 3-263; In re Reese
Silver Mining Co., 3-604; Gardner v. London, C. & D. Ry. 2 Ch.App. 201; Hoole r. Cït. Western Ry. 3-262; Princess of Reusse v. Bos. 5 E. & I. App. 199; Erans v. Smellcombe, 3-249; Gillespie v. Glasgow Bank, 4 A. C. 636.
