law; finding, as the town clerk of Ephesus said long since, that for them the law is open, and there are deputies, they implead one another whenever opportunity arises; all forgetting that " the only certain thing about litigation is its uncertainty " — and its costs. A few years ago a farmer in the Parish of St. Jude, whose land extended into the Par ish of St. Ours, refused to pay the taxes claimed by the latter municipality. It was only forty-one and a half cents that he was asked for; but he was a genuine "village Hampden." He resisted a legal action and won the first round, we mean, judgment. The costs were $400. The fight continued, there was an appeal by the corporation; the first decision was reversed, and the poor farm er was badly punished, as the costs came to $1,200 or $1,500. The farm was sold to satisfy them, and we doubt whether the tax was ever paid. Such people are more profit able to the practitioner than even the men who make their own wills. (Miss Mary Felton's action against Postmaster Teal of Syra cuse, N. Y., over the postage on a newspaper, was perhaps a little more absurd. This went from the justice's court to the Supreme Court of the United States, troubling the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Appeals by the way.) The other day Mr. Walter Wilshire sued the corporation of the village of Cote St. Louis du Mile End because a lot of his rose trees died for lack of water, and more roses and other plants nearly died, and he had been to the expense of drawing water to keep the life in those that did not die; and Judge Pagnuelo of the Superior Court gave him a verdict for $2,500. It seems that the muni cipality had given to the Montreal Water & Power Co. the exclusive right of supplying water to the people of the village; the com pany failed to supply, according to contract, Mr. Wilshire's greenhouses and nurseries with sufficient water. Judgment was given against the village in favor of the injured
florist, but the village was to be indemnified by the company. Perchance, however, this may be only the beginning of this struggle. In Indiana a somewhat similar case has been before the Supreme Court, which has just de cided that where a gas company, which had a monopoly of furnishing the people of a town with natural gas, through negligence failed to furnish gas when fires were necessary, and the consumer cannot obtain other fuel, and so his children sicken and die, the company is liable in damages for such death. A few years since Mr. Tache entered into a contract with a well-known firm of book sellers in Montreal, Cadieux & Derome by which they were to fill all orders for books he should send them. He obtained them orders for a number of Victor Hugo's works, and then they refused to supply them (although his books had been specially men tioned at the time of the agreement), alleging that Hugo's works were on the list of pro hibited books. Tache then sued for $1,400 damages. Evidence was given pro and con as to the morality and immorality of this celebrated author's writings. One ecclesi astical critic thus said :" Victor Hugo's works may be placed in three categories : some are passably good, some are positively danger ous, and some are simply obscene. Les Miserables and Notre Dame de Paris and, I think Les Chansons des Rues et des Bois, are on the Index Librorum Prohibitornm. The Council of Trent directed the publication of an Index, especially for the prohibition of Protestant books against the Roman Catholic religion, and also philosophical works containing gross errors. A bookseller importing prohibited works would fall under censure, he would be re fused the sacraments. In the United States, where the Canon law is not in force and where the decrees of Trent have not been promulgated, they have more liberty. But in the Province of Quebec that law obtains." Judge Davidson (a member of the Angli can Church) had to decide this question of
