The Legal World Remarkable as it may seem, some of the biggest legal mistakes in drafting wills have been made by lawyers. Judge Bacon, whose property was valued at £l 18,403, wrote his legacies on a sheet of court paper, but, though he was an expert in law, he forgot to sign his own alterations to his will. An affidavit from a solicitor and an official of the Bloomsbury Court was necessary before matters were set right. Lord St. Helier and Lord Grimthorpe both failed to make proper wills. The latter's will was a document of over 11,000 words, but
in the matter of lengthy wills this was beaten by Edward Bush, a Gloucester engineer, who re quired 26,000 words before he was satisfied with his provisions. He had an estate of .£114,813. At the other end of the scale is the 12-line will of Lord Russell of Killowen, who in that space set his seal on £150,000. Lord Brampton took 400 words to dispose of £142,000, while Lord Mansfield used only half a sheet of note paper, and a good second was Alphonse Henry Strauss, who bequeathed £296,221 in 43 words. — Dundee Advertiser.
The Legal Monthly There Analysts seem to of have Leading been Legal few impor Events tant developments lately in the field of procedure, or the administration of jus tice generally, though these matters figure prominently in discussion and enlist the attention of legislatures. Thus far we have learned of little legislation of importance, directly affecting the courts and the bar, which has been enacted in the legislative sessions of 1913. Social legislation has occupied a large share of the attention of the state legis latures this year. The number of state workmen's compensation acts, has been raised to almost a score. Many of the new systems are pseudo-elective, elec tion being presumed in default of written rejection, this principle being applied in the statutes of West Virginia, Oregon and New York. Ohio has provided for a compulsory state insurance fund to perfect its elective law. According to late reports other statutes were at the point of passing in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Texas. Widows' and mothers' pensions are perhaps the most important subject of social betterment legislation before the
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state legislatures. Ohio has enacted a pension law by which mothers without husbands to support them will draw $15 a month, with an additional $7 for each child more than one. Pension laws are now on the statute books in Wisconsin, New Jersey and several other states, and Massachusetts has been seriously con sidering the project. A bill regulating marriage along health lines has been re-introduced in a modified form into the New York legislature and has the active support of many organi zations. "That it should be possible to introduce such a bill," says the Medical Record (New York), "is a healthy sign. Even if many of the schemes brought forward are unworkable, at least they show that steps are being taken to endeavor to save the race from deterio ration, and with the aid of those best qualified to grapple successfully with the problem some practical plan may possibly be evolved." Aside from social legislation, mention may be made of a number of "blue sky" laws passed in Ohio and other states, ostensibly for the protection of inves tors, of the passage of the jury reform measure in New Jersey so persistently
