purpose, but themselves kept a vigilant lookout for books of a dangerous or improper tendency, as may be seen by the record of their vote in May, 1669 (4 Mass. Col. Rec. 635):—
"The Court being informed that there is now in the press, reprinting, a book, title Imitations (sic) of Christ, or to that purpose, written by Thomas à Kempis, a Popish minister, wherein is contained some things that are less safe to be infused among the people of this place, do commend it to the licensers of the press [for] the more full revisal there of, and that in the mean time there be no further progress in that work."
Land-stealing has been reduced to a fine art in the Western States. One of the habitual methods of this class of criminals is to get a deed from somebody, conveying something, duly acknowledged, and then to make a fraudulent alteration of the deed, and then have the deed recorded, and then conveniently lose the original. On proof of the loss of the original, the instrument as recorded is admissible in evidence; and thus a great many people have lost their titles to their lands. The only preventive which we have heard suggested for this species of fraud is to require the recorders of deeds to scan carefully the written portions of every deed which is offered for record; and where there is a suspicion of an alteration, to impound the original. Indeed, it does not appear why, under a proper recording system, the originals of deeds admitted to record should not be impounded in all cases. The vaults in which original deeds are kept should, of course, be in a different building from those in which the record books are kept, so as to diminish the risk of both being involved in the calamity of a single conflagration. A further consideration of our system of conveyancing and recording instruments of transfer of title may serve to convince us that some system like that in vogue in France, by which a conveyance is executed in the presence and through the agency of an officer of the government, and by which the government becomes the repository of the instrument itself, is necessary to secure property rights and uproot frauds of the character of which we are speaking.
The "Pall Mall Gazette" gives the following amendment as having actually been proposed in Parliament by an eminent Queen's counsel: "Dogs trespassing on enclosed land—Every dog found trespassing on enclosed land unaccompanied by the registered owner of such dog, or other person, who shall, on being asked, give his true name and address, may be then and there destroyed by such occupier or by his order." And this definition from the Darlington Improvement Act (1872) is about as bad: "The term 'new building' means any building pulled or burnt down to or within ten feet from the surface of the adjoining ground."
An early Nebraska statute, regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors, contained the following important provision: "For the violation of the third section of an act to license and regulate the sale of malt, spirituous, and vinous liquors, $25; and on proof of the violation of said section, or any part thereof, the justice shall render judgment for the whole amount of fine and costs, and be committed to the common jail until the sum is paid."
Recent Deaths.
Judge William Johnson Bacon died at his home in Utica, N. Y., on July 3. He was born in Williamstown, Mass., Feb. 18, 1803, and was graduated from Yale in 1822. His college bestowed upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1854, and for over thirty years he had been one of the trustees of that institution.
S. L. M. Barlow, a noted railroad lawyer, died suddenly at Glen Cove. L. I., July 10, at the age of sixty. Mr. Barlow was born at Granville, Mass., in 1829, and had been prominent in New York political and legal circles for nearly forty years, being especially noted as a railroad lawyer. The firm of Bowdoin, Larocque & Barlow was formed in 1852. After the death of the two seniors, in 1868 and 1870, Joseph Larocque was taken into the firm, and in 1873 Judge Shipman joined it. Judge Choate was added in 1881, forming the present firm. Mr. Barlow was particularly active during the litigation over the Erie Road, in behalf of the Corporation, and it was said that his conduct of the case cost Jay Gould upward of $9,000,000. His own fees in the case aggregated $250,000. He was a member of the Union and Manhattan clubs. His library of early American history is one of the most extensive in existence. In connection with Henry Harrison, he edited "Notes
