Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/354

332 P A E P A 11 name of one or more of the partners. A descriptive firm does not introduce the name of any of the partners. The former may sue and be sued under the company name ; the latter only with the addition of the names of three at least (if there are so ninny) of the partners. A consequence of this view of the company as a separate person is that an action cannot be maintained against a partner personally without application to the company in the first instance, the individual partners being in- the position of cautioners for the company rather than of principal debtors. The provisions of the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856 (19 & 20 Viet. c. 60, 8), do not affect the case of partners. But, though the company must first be discussed, diligence must necessarily be directed against the individual partners. Heritable property cannot be held in the name of a firm ; it can only stand in the name of individual partners. Xotice of the retirement of even a dormant partner is necessary. The law of Scotland draws a distinction between joint adventure and partnership. Joint adventure or joint trade is a partnership confined to a particular adventure or speculation, in which the partners, whether latent or unknown, use no firm or social name, and incur no responsibility beyond the limits of the adventure. In the rules applicable to cases of insolvency and bankruptcy of a company and partners, Scots law differs in several respects from English. Thus a company can be made bankrupt without the partners being made so as individuals. And, when both company and partners are bankrupt, the company creditors are entitled to rank on the separate estates of the partners for the balance of their debts equally with the separate creditors. But in sequestration, by 19 & 20 Viet. c. 79, 66, the creditor of a com pany, in claiming upon the sequestrated estate of a partner, must deduct from the amount of his claim the value of his right to draw payment from the company s funds, and he is ranked as creditor only for the balance. (See Erskine s Inst., bk. iii. tit. iii. ; Bell s Comm., ii. 500-562; Bell s Principles, 350-403.) In the United States the English common law is the basis of the law. Most States have, however, their own special legislation on the subject. Partnership is defined by Chancellor Kent to be " a contract of two or more competent persons to place their money, effects, labour, and skill, or some or all of them, in lawful commerce or business, and to divide the profit and bear the loss in certain proportions" (3 Kent s Comm., lect. xliii.). The defi nition of the Xew York Civil Code, art. 1283, runs thus : " partnership is the association of two or more persons for the purpose of carrying on business together, and dividing its profits between them." The most striking feature of the law in the United States is the existence of limited partnerships, correspond ing to the societes en. commandite established in France by the ordinance of 1673. The State of New York was the first to introduce this kind of partnership by legislative enactment. The provisions of the New York Act have been followed by most of the other States. In many States there can be no limited partnership in banking and insurance. In this form of partnership one or more persons responsible in solido are associated with one or more dormant partners liable only to the extent of the funds supplied by them. In Louisiana such partnerships are called partnerships in commendam (Civil Code, art. 2810). In New York the respon sible partners are called general partners, the others special partners. Such partnerships must, by the law of most States, be registered. (In 1880 a bill providing for the legislation of such partnerships in the United Kingdom was introduced in the House of Commons, but failed to become law r . ) In Louisiana universal partnerships (the socictates univcrsorum bonorum of Roman law) must be created in writing and registered (Civil Code, art. 2800). In some States the English law as it stood before Cox v. Hickman is followed, and participation in profits is still regarded as the test of partnership, e.g., Leggett v. Hyde (58 New York Rep. 272). In some States nominal partners are not allowed. Thus in New York, where the words "and Company" or "and Co." are used, they must represent an actual partner or partners. A breach of this rule subjects offenders to penalties. In most States claiins against the firm after the death of a partner must, in the first instance, be made to the survivors. The creditors cannot, ,as in England, proceed directly against the representatives of the deceased. The law. as to the conversion of realty into personalty on the administration of the estate of a deceased partner in some States agrees with English law, in others does not. (See 3 Kent s Comm., lect. xliii.; Story, On Partnership; Troubat, On Limited Partnership; and Angell, On Private Corporations.) (J. Wf. ) PARTRIDGE, in older English PERTRICHE, Dutch P<ttrijs, French Perdrix, all from the Latin Perdix, which word in sound does not imitate badly the call-note of this bird, so well known throughout the British Islands and the greater part of Europe as to need no description OF account of its habits here. The English name properly denotes the only species indigenous to Britain, often now adays called the Grey Partridge (to distinguish it from others, of which more presently), the Perdix cinerea of ornithologists, a species which may be regarded as the model game-bird whether from the excellence of the sport it affords in the field, or the no less excellence of its flesh at table, which has been esteemed from the time of Martial to our own while it is on all hands admitted to be wholly innocuous, and at times beneficial to the agri culturist. It is an undoubted fact that the Partridge thrives with the highest system of cultivation; and the lands that are the most carefully tilled, and bear the greatest quantity of grain and green crops, generally produce the greatest number of Partridges. Yielding perhaps in economic importance to the Red Grouse, what may be called the social influence of the Partridge is greater than that excited by any other wild bird, for there must be few rural parishes in the three kingdoms of which the inhabitants are not more or less directly affected in their movements and business by the coming in of Partridge- shooting, and therefore a few words on this theme may not be out of place. From the days when men learned to "shoot flying until some forty years ago, dogs were generally if not invariably used to point out where the " covey," as a family party of Partridges is always called, was lodged, and the greatest pains were taken to break -in the " pointers " or " setters " to their duty. In this way marvellous success was attained, and the delight lay nearly as much in seeing the dogs quarter the ground, wind and draw up to the game, helping them at times (for a thorough understanding between man and beast was necessary for the perfection of the sport) by word or gesture, as in bringing down the bird after it had been finally sprung. There are many who lament that the old-fashioned practice of shooting Partridges to dogs has, with rare exceptions, fallen into desuetude, and it is commonly believed that this result has followed wholly from the desire to make larger and larger bags of game. The opinion has a certain amount of truth for its base ; but those who hold it omit to notice the wholly changed circumstances in which Partridge- shooters now find themselves. In the old days there were plenty of broad, tangled hedgerows which afforded per manent harbour for the birds, and at the beginning of the shooting-season admirable shelter or "lying" (to use the sportsman s word) was found in the rough stubbles, often reaped knee-high, foul with weeds and left to stand some six or eight weeks before being ploughed, as well as in the turnips that were sown broadcast. Throughout the greater part of England now the fences are reduced to the narrowest of boundaries and are mostly trimly kept ; the stubbles mown, to begin with, as closely as possible to the ground are ploughed within a short time of the corn being carried, and the turnips are drilled in regular lines, offering inviting alleys between them along which Partridges take foot at any unusual noise. Pointers in such a district and to this state of things all the arable part of England is tending are simply useless, except at the beginning of the season, when the young birds are not as yet strong on the wing, and the old birds are still feeble from moulting their quill-feathers. Of late years there fore other modes of shooting Partridges have had to be employed, of which methods the most popular is that known as "driving"- the "guns" being stationed in more or less concealment at one end of the field, or series of fields, which is entered from the other by men or boys who deploy into line and walk across it making a noise. It is the custom with many to speak depreciatingly of this proceeding, but it is a fact that as much knowledge of the ways of Partridges is needed to ensure a successful day s " driving " as was required of old when nearly every thing was left to the intelligence of the dogs, for the course