réchauffé, utterly void of originality, thoroughly
wearying; the manner was that fatal sing-song
generally indulged in by the English clergy,
interspersed with constant desk-smitings, and
with perpetual eye-reference to the gallery,
where there was no one to respond. The effect
upon the audience was tremendous: the
Chinchilli-headed man, more crushed than ever, made
a perfect St. Denis of himself, and had nothing
mortal above the collar of his coat; the light-
whiskered man cut his nails to the quick in an
agony of nervousness, and his black-bearded
opposite scalped himself in despair; the pretty
girl went to sleep, and was roused at intervals by
parasol thrusts from her savage aunt; the "liner"
shut up his note-book and amused himself by
reading some of his previous productions on
flimsy paper; the shoemaker glared indignantly,
first at the lecturer, and then at any one whom
he could seduce into an eye-duel; and the old
Abernethy eater betook himself to repairing a
rent in his camlet cloak with a needle and
thread. As for myself, I bore it patiently as
long as I could, then I yawned and fidgeted,
and at length taking advantage of my proximity
to the door,! rose up quietly and slipped out,
the last words echoing on my ear being, " This
theory is that of Browne, and for further
particulars I refer you to his work on Intellectual
Philosophy;" a work which, it struck me, was
doubtless to be found on the book-shelves of all
the audience.

As I walked home, I pondered on the fitness
of these things, and wondered whether, in the
strange course of events, the law would ever be
able to comply less with the letter, and more
with the spirit, of the intentions of a good and
great man, and if so, whether instead of an
unintelligible Latin lecture, and a preposterous
English one, it would ever provide really good
intellectual and moral culture gratis for London
citizens, as was undoubtedly intended by the
brave old Sir Thomas Gresham.

THE LAST OF VERY COMMON LAW.

To resume, and dismiss, the subject of Life
Assurance.

A condition which was introduced into a
proposal, and which stated that the person
was in a " sound and perfect state of health,
had not been afflicted with, and was not
subject (among other diseases) to fits," was not
deemed to be broken, although the proposer
had previously been attacked by an epileptic
fit in consequence of accident. " The
interpretation which I put upon a clause of this
kind," said Lord Abinger, " is not that the
party never accidentally had a fit, but that he
was not, at the time of insurance, a person
habit ually or constitutionally liable to fits from
some pecul iarity of temperament either natural, or
contracted from some cause or other, during life."

The mere fact also of a person eventually
dying of a disease he may have had before
effecting the policy, does not, in the eye of
the law, afford sufficient proof that he was
suffering at that time from a disease "tending
to shorten life" within the meaning of the
condition. In one instance where this question
was raised, we find that the insurer had been
troubled with, and eventually died from, dyspepsia;
but this was not held to be a disease tending
to shorten life in the legal, however much it
might be in the medical, acceptation. "All
disorders," Mr. Justice Chambre observed,
"have more or less a tendency to shorten
life, even the most trifling. Corns may end in
mortification. That is not the meaning of the
clause. If dyspepsia was a disorder that tended
to shorten life within the exception, the lives of
half the members of the profession of the law
would be uninsurable."

Apart from all hygienic considerations, there
are other conditions attached to life insurance
which we must not omit to notice. There is the
payment of the annual premiums, for example. It
has been held that if the premiums be not paid in
the manner stipulated, the policy will be lost;
and this although a country agent may have
received the money and given a receipt, after the
expiration of the time allowed for payment.
If any company, however, acquiesces in the
acts of its agent, it then becomes bound by what
he has done. A country agent, we find in one
instance, received and transmitted to his office
the annual premiums upon an insurance which
was in fact voidable in consequence of the
insurer at the time residing in Canada: he informing
the person paying the premiums at the same
time that this was of no consequence. On the
falling in of the life, the policy was disputed, but
ineffectually. The Lords Justices, before whom
the matter came for trial, were of opinion that
the forfeiture was waived, and Knight Bruce,
who was one of them, said, " I think that
whether the agent did or did not inform them of
the true state of the circumstances in which the
premiums were paid to him, the directors
became, and are, as between them and the plaintiff,
as much bound as if he had paid them the
premiums to themselves. The directors taking the
money were and are precluded from saying that
they received it otherwise than for the purpose
and in the faith in which the insured paid it."

It is the common practice, we know, for
insurance-offices to allow so many days of grace
for the payment of the premiums, after they
have become actually due. Supposing, then,
that Mr. Blank, having effected his insurance,
were to die within the days of grace, but before
payment of the premium, what would be the
consequence? It is a momentous consideration,
and unfortunately has never received any direct
judicial decision. We have, however, the dictum
of Mr. Justice Willes on the point, given casually
in a case when it was not absolutely necessarv
that he should allude to it; and we shall do well
to weigh his words carefully: " On this" (he was
speaking of the condition that a policy should be
void if the premiums were not paid within thirty
days) "there is a question which parties would do
wisely not to raise: whether that condition has
reference only to a policy for future years, or whether,