196
NOTES.
HIRING a house in England is not the simple, straightforward process which it is in America. So many and deep are the pitfalls of the law, that the unwary are sure to fall into one before long if they trust to their own devices. There is a useful member of society here called the family solicitor. He will do almost anything short of buying tooth-brushes for the family. He is so clever that he can generally, by dint of a vigorous correspondence with the real estate agent, or owner of the house, reduce the demands of the landlord, and secure the property for his client at a much smaller figure than that originally named. Even then the affair is not at an end; the draw ing of the lease is a solemn and complicated per formance, involving considerable expense. In it the lessee engages to paint the house every few years, and to pay a certain rent; or he pays what is called a " premium," and takes over a long lease, sometimes for as much as ninety-nine years, so that, having bought the lease, he virtu ally owns the house during his life, and can will it away to his heirs. — Harper's Bazar.
A MEMBER of the Kansas Legislature has taken the revised version of the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus and incorporated them in the form of a legislative bill, which he wishes to have made part of the Criminal Procedure of that State. The preamble to the measure is as follows : — PREAMBLE. AN ACT то GIVE STATUTORY FORCE то THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Whereas, The men of the present generation have become doubters and scoffers; and, Whereas, They have strayed from the religion of the fathers; and, Whereas, They no longer live in the fear of God; and, Whereas, Having no fear of punishment beyond the grave, they wantonly violate the law given to the world from Mount Sinai.
The bill which follows is composed of ten sec tions, each of the Commandments constituting a section, and as our readers have the Decalogue by rote, it is not necessary to reproduce it. Section 11 of the bill provides for the punish
ment of violators of the Commandments. The penalties are visited on men only. They are : — For having another God, fine .... £1,000. For making a graven image, one year in the peniten tiary, and a iine of ?i,ooo. For taking the name of the Lord in vain, and for not observing the Sabbath day, fine . . . $500. For not honoring father or mother, six months in the penitentiary, and a fine of .... $500. For committing murder, hanged by the neck until dead. For adultery, penitentiary for life. For stealing, tine or imprisonment in the discretion of the Court. For bearing false witness, imprisonment in the dis cretion of the Court. For coveting thy neighbor's house, his wife, his ser vant, his maid or his ass, fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the Court.
Section 12 provides that "this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its publica tion in the statute book." — Ex. IN a case in the Circuit Court, city of St. Louis, in an action to quit title, a rule to show cause was directed to be issued and served on one of the defendants in the cause, who was then thought to be resident near the central part of Missouri. It was accordingly sent to the sheriff of the proper county with request to make personal service on the gentleman in question. The sheriff made the following unique return : " Executed the within writ on the 1 4th day of November, 1896, by not finding ' A. B.' in my county. BILL SMITH, Sheriff" A RECENT trial in France brought to light some curious details of the capital that maybe made in attacking capital, and of the good things that even a corrupt and bourgeois society may afford to its fiercest denouncer and enemy. It was a suit in which the profits of Rochefort from the Intransi geant, in the seven years 1889-1896, were put in evidence. When he went to Belgium with Bou langer in 1889, he left his paper in charge of M. Vaughan, with whom he has since quarrelled, and who has sued him for services rendered. An accounting was demanded, and from it it appears that Rochefort in the seven years mentioned re ceived a salary of $ 20,000 a year besides dividends amounting, all told, to $200,000 more — or nearly $50,000 a year. This was not bad for a paper
