CAMBRIDGE, near BOSTON, July 27, 1843.

MY DEAR SIR, I owe you many thanks for your kind present of your new book on the Law of Shipping. It seems to me very thorough & exact, & in all respects worthy of your pen. I have read it with very sincere satisfaction & no little instruction. Some matters respecting the statute law of England as well as of the common law, which lay loosely in my mind before, you have made very clear & intelligible. Although the work is professedly addressed to English readers, I can assure you that there is much in it very applicable to the Law of Shipping in America, & which will be hailed here as a real accession to our present stores of learning. There are one or two topics of a general nature discussed in it, upon which I have entertained for a long time doubts whether the decisions are perfectly right. One is the question, when the right of property vested in a ship in building, which is to be paid for by instalments as the work advances. Upon this subject I am not entirely satisfied with the reasoning in Wood v. Russell & Clarke v. Spencer. The former case seems supportable upon its own particular circums; but not as I should incline to say upon its preferred grounds of reasoning. The opinion of Mr. Justice Williams in the latter case is very able, & puts the true doctrine before us in a satisfactory manner. But I confess to you upon his very reasoning I should have arrived at an opposite result as to the judgment in that Mr. Baron Parke in Laidlaw v. Burlinson puts the doctrine as I should desire to put it; but do the two former cases come truly within it?

case.

The other point is as to the representations of the state & condition of the ship made to induce the purchaser to buy, but not afterwards embodied in the written agreement or bill of sale. I should put it as a matter of intention, whether the representation constituted the basis of the purchase or was designed to be merged or waived in the subsequent agreement. If the former, why should not the seller be bound by his representation, whether it was fraudulently made or not? If the latter, then undoubtedly the purchaser buys at his peril. I confess myself of the same opinion as Lord Tenterden on this point, "That a person ought either to be silent, or to speak the truth; in case he speaks at all, he is bound to disclose the real facts." I add, — If his representation misleads the other party, the seller ought to be the suf ferer, if it is untrue. Has not the doctrine that all representations are merged in the subsequent written agreement or bill of sale been carried too far?

You perceive that I write to you as a friend & author, & am not speaking judicially, & no one better than yourself knows that I may feel bound by authority, when I am not convinced by its reasoning.

I have received Mr. Tidd's most kind & flattering letter, & also his

present of his works. Nothing could have been more welcome to me in all respects. I equally venerate the author & his works. And although I have not been his pupil, as you were, I have been instructed by his learning through the whole course of my life. I have addressed a letter to him, & shall ask his acceptance of my "Miscellaneous Writings" in a single volume, as a reminiscence of my deep respect for him.

Believe me with the highest respect,

JAMES J. WILKINSON Esq.

Truly yours,

JOSEPH STORY.

I exceedingly like your dedication to Lord Ch. Justice Tindal. It is valuable for its truth, as well as its beauty.

Rev. MORTON DEXTER, having been called on to give some account of the commemoration of the founding of the University of Glasgow, at which he was the representative of the Society, spoke extemporaneously as follows:

Mr. President, and Gentlemen, - When I reached Glasgow last June, to attend the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the University, I appreciated even more than before the privilege which you had conferred upon me in inviting me to represent this Society. It is seldom that any occasion assembles so large a number of men of world-wide reputation in their various departments of learning as those who gathered there.

The celebration was opened on Wednesday, June 12, by a solemn religious service of commemoration in Glasgow Cathedral, Rev. Dr. McAdam Muir preaching an historical sermon. In the afternoon of the same day was held what perhaps was the most picturesque and striking of all the meetings, the reception of the hundreds of delegates and their congratulations. Although the ceremonies were simple, to me they were most impressive, and you may like to hear about them a little in detail. Early in the afternoon we were called together in one of the smaller halls of the University, and there we were drawn up in national groups. In the group representing the United States there were about forty. We were mar

1 William Tidd, born in London in 1760, died in 1847, was a very eminent and influential writer on legal topics. Among his pupils were Lord Chancellors Lyndhurst, Cottenham, and Campbell and Lord Chief Justice Denman. - See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. lvi. p. 382.

shalled in a definite order, and each group was in charge of an usher with robe and wand of office.

When this classification had been completed, these groups were led successively into Bute Hall, the great auditorium of the University, which was crowded by a waiting audience. As our group entered, the audience rose and cheered us and the organ played one of our national hymns, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," a large chorus of students also singing the same hymn with much spirit while we marched to our seats. A similar reception was given to each of the other groups.

When at length all had been conducted to their places, and after brief opening exercises, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Story, the Chancellor being absent because of illness, delivered an appropriate address of welcome to the delegates and of thanks for the congratulations about to be offered, and then occurred the formal reception. As each nation in turn was called upon, its particular body of delegates was led up to the platform, the audience again rising and the organ and chorus again rendering its national hymn. Then the roll of the institutions within that country represented by the different individuals was called, and each delegate upon the announcement of his name advanced and bowed to the Vice-Chancellor, uttered a few sentences of felicitation, handed up his parchment or volume containing the same felicitations more fully and formally expressed, bowed again, and passed to the other side. When all had thus presented themselves, they were marshalled back to their seats and the next nation in order was summoned.

This ceremony, simple although it was, was exceedingly impressive, and it had the merit of informing the audience. clearly what university or society was being called upon and who its representative was. Moreover the scene itself was memorable for its brilliancy. Most of the delegates wore robes, and many of these were very picturesque. Those of some of the Frenchmen, for instance, were of bright yellow silk. Others were red, purple, blue, or green. The diversified academic hoods which abounded and the military or naval uniforms scattered through the audience also added patches of vivid color in all directions. No description can convey more than a faint impression of the scene.

One of the other important gatherings was an immense evening reception, for which the whole university was thrown open, and which more than four thousand persons attended. Another was the meeting at which an actual shower of honorary degrees fell upon the University's guests. And to many of us the banquet given in the City Chambers, or Guildhall, by the Lord Provost and the Corporation, was in interest the supreme event of the celebration. The chief speakers were such men as Rt. Hon. J. A. Campbell, the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, Lord Reay, the Earl of Glasgow, Lord Kelvin, Prof. Sir Richard Jebb, Count Goblet d'Alviella, General Sir Archibald Hunter, and Lord Strathcona. One rarely sees such an assemblage of distinguished men from many lands touching elbows around the tables. Throughout the week also there were concerts, receptions, garden-parties, and other minor festivities too numerous to be mentioned, as well as several learned addresses by such men as Lord Lister and Lord Kelvin. The University also took the opportunity to open its new botanical buildings with special ceremonies.

I did not receive any pronounced impression of the great age of the University. Its buildings are dignified and even stately, but comparatively modern, and nothing suggests to the eye the fact of its hoary antiquity. But I did appreciate its spirit of intense earnestness and energy, and its desire to be equal to all the demands of what we call the "new" education. It is claimed to have been the first institution in Great Britain, if not in the world, to establish a school and a professorship of engineering, and the first to provide itself with chemical laboratories where students might experiment. But within the last fifteen or twenty years it has been outstripped by other institutions in Great Britain, Germany, and especially the United States, and it is facing the problems of the present and the future with some real concern. I heard frequent allusions to its comparative poverty, much in the same vein as that in which the officials of so many of our own colleges or universities often speak.

In regard to Mr. Andrew Carnegie's recent gift to the Scotch universities, there seemed to be a decided difference of opinion. So prominent a man as Vice-Chancellor Story - who is as positive and outspoken as he is eminent expressed himself strongly as regretting the gift, and fearing that it may tend to

diminish the enthusiasm for learning of the Scotch student, and to render him less earnest and self-sacrificing. But most of those who made allusion to the matter evidently had no such fear, and believe that Mr. Carnegie's beneficence will have only useful results.

I would like to add a concluding remark about an incidental matter, which nevertheless has its importance. When the reception of delegates and the presentation of congratulatory addresses were about to be held, I discovered that most of the others were provided with elaborate documents handsomely inscribed upon parchment, and in some instances with elegant and costly volumes. The only provision for this occasion with which I had been furnished-such is our democratic simplicity of method was a half-sheet of letter-paper bearing the heading of the Society and eight or ten typewritten lines officially signed. Had there been time, I should have assumed the responsibility of providing myself with a more suitable document, but it was too late. Although matters fell out, fortunately, so that my lack did not become conspicuous or even evident, I could not help feeling that, in view of the dignity and influence of our Society, pains should be taken hereafter to have its credentials and communications upon such important occasions clothed in a more becoming form.

Hon. WINSLOW WARREN, who returned from Europe in the same steamship with the President and Mr. Dexter, having also been called on, said:

I assume, Mr. President, that I am asked to speak of the feeling in England towards this country largely in consequence of our discussions upon the subject while upon our trip home, and from your knowledge that I hold an entirely different view of the subject from that which you have so ably and elaborately stated in the interesting paper just read. It may be that your more extensive acquaintance in English official circles has somewhat colored your view of the matter, and that my two months' travelling in England and Scotland has brought me more in contact with those whom Lincoln termed "the plain people," and enabled me better to get at the real sentiment of England. During my travels I made it a special