IN the cholera visitation of 1866, the proportion of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants in the principal cities of Europe was as follows: London, 18; Dublin, 41; Vienna, 51; Marseilles, 64; Paris, 66; Berlin, 83; Naples, 89; St. Petersburg, 98; Madrid, 102; Brussels, 184; Palermo, 197; Constantinople, 738. THERE were 48,930 blind people in the United States in 1880, and 33,880 deaf mutes. IT is estimated that the number of insane persons in the United States is 168,900. Causes of Insanity.-Hereditary, 24 per cent.; drink, 14 per cent.; business, 12 per cent.; loss of friends, 11 per cent.; sickness, 10 per cent.; various, 29 per cent. This result is the medium average arrived at by Mulhall on comparing the returns for the United States, Engand, France and Denmark. NO FEWER than 1,326 editions of the Bible were published in the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was translated and published in many languages by the polyglot press of Propaganda Fide at Rome. In the nineteenth century the English and American societies have printed, in the Protestant version, 124,000,000 copies of the Bible or of the New Testament, viz: British, 74,000,000; American, 32,000,000; other societies, 15,000,000 copies. THE King James version of the Bible contains 3,566,480 letters, 773.746 words, 31,173 verses, 1,189 chapters, and 66 books. The word and occurs 46,277 times. The word Lord occurs 1,855 times. The word Reverend occurs but once, which is in the 9th verse of the 11th Psalm. The middle verse is the 8th verse of the 118th Psalm. The 21st verse of the 7th chapter of Ezra contains all the letters of the alphabet except the letter J. The 19th chapter of II Kings and the 37th chapter of Isaiah are alike. The longest verse is the 9th verse of the 8th chapter of Esther. The shortest verse is the 35th verse of the 11th chapter of St. John. There are no words or names of more than six syllables. Some of Nature's Wonders. The human body has 240 bones. The musical scale was invented in 1022. Man's heart beats 92,160 times in a day. A salmon has been known to produce 10,000,000 eggs. Some female spiders produce 2,000 eggs. 000 eggs in a season. A queen bee produces 100, There are 9,000 cells in a square foot of honeycomb. It requires 2,300 silk worms to produce one pound of silk. B LACKSTONE defines law as the rules of human action or conduct, but what is commonly understood by the term is the civil or municipal regulations of a nation as applied to a particular country. The forms of law which govern civil contracts and business intercourse are distinguished as statute and common. Statute law is the written law of the land, as enacted by State or national legislative bodies. The common law is grounded on the general customs of England, and includes the law of nature, the law of God, the principles and maxims of the law and the decisions of the superior courts. It overrides both the canon and the civil law where they go beyond or are inconsistent with it. To the man involved in litigation the best advice is to go to the best lawyer he can find. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the purpose of the following pages is to furnish the ounce of prevention. Knowledge is power in nothing so much as in business law, especially since the law presumes that no man is ignorant of the law. Business Law in Brief. Ignorance of the law excuses no one. It is a fraud to conceal a fraud. The law compels no one to do impossibilities. Signatures made with a lead pencil are good in law. A receipt for money paid is not legally conclusive. The act of one partner binds all the others. The seal of a party to a written contract imports consideration. A contract made with a minor cannot be enforced against him. A note made by a minor is voidable. A contract made with a lunatic is void. A contract made on a Sunday is void. Principals are liable for the acts of their agents. Each individual in a partnership is liable for the whole amount of the debts of the firm. A note which does not state on its face that it bears interest, will bear interest only after due. A lease of land for a longer term than one year is void unless in writing. An indorser of a note is exempt from liability if notice of its dishonor is not mailed or served within twenty-four hours of its non-payment. In case of the death of the principal maker of a note the holder is not required to notify a surety that the note is not paid, before the settlement of the maker's estate. Notes obtained by fraud, or made by an intoxicated person, are not collectible. If no time of payment is specified in a note it is payable on demand. An indorser can avoid liability by writing "without recourse" beneath his signature. A check indorsed by the payee is evidence of payment in the drawer's hands. An outlawed debt is revived should the debtor make a partial payment. Want of consideration-a common defense interposed to the payment of negotiable paper-is a good defense between the original parties to the paper; but after it has been transferred before maturity to an innocent holder for value it is not a defense. Negotiable paper, payable to bearer or indorsed in blank, which has been stolen or lost, cannot be collected by the thief or finder, but a holder who receives it in good faith before maturity, for value, can hold it against the owner's claims at the time it was lost. Sometimes the holder of paper has the right to demand payment before maturity; for instance, when a draft has been protested for non-acceptance and the proper notices served, the holder may at once proceed against the drawer and indorsers. If a note or draft is to be paid in the State where it is made, the contract will be governed by the laws of that State. When negotiable paper is payable in a State other than that in which it is made, the laws of that State will govern it. Marriage contracts, if valid where they are made, are valid everywhere. Contracts relating to personal property are governed by the laws of the place where made, except those relating to real estate, which are governed by the laws of the place where the land is situated. If negotiable paper, pledged to a bank as security for the payment of a loan or debt, falls due, and the bank fails to demand payment and have it protested when dishonored, the bank is liable to the owner for the full amount of the paper. Agreements and Contracts. A contract or agreement is where a promise is made on one side and assented to on the other, or where two or more persons enter into engagement with each other by a promise on either side. In a written contract assent is proven by the signature or mark. In verbal agreements it may be given by a word or a nod, by shaking of hands, or by a sign. The old saw, "Silence gives consent," is often upheld in law. The conditions of a contract, as applying to individuals, are: 1. Age; 2. Rationality; and 3, as to Corporations, the possession of general or special statutory powers. Persons under age are incompetent to make contracts, except under certain limitations. Generally such persons are incapable of making binding contracts. As to rationality, the general principle of law is that all persons not rendered incompetent by personal disability, or by considerations of public policy, are capable of making a contract. Corporations have powers to make contracts strictly within the limits prescribed by their charters, or by special or general statute. The first step toward a contract is the proposition or offer, which may be withdrawn at any time before it is agreed to. When the proposition is verbal, and no time is specified, it is not binding unless accepted at once. To give one the option or refusal of property at a specified price, is simply to give him a certain time to make up his mind whether he will buy the property or not. To make the option binding he must accept within the time named. The party giving the option has the right to withdraw it, and sell the property to another, at any time previous to its acceptance, if the offer is gratuitous, and there is no consideration to support it. If a letter of acceptance is mailed, and immediately after a letter withdrawing the offer is received, the contract is binding. An acceptance takes effect from the time it is mailed, not from the time it is received; it must, however, be in accordance with the original proposition, for any new matter introduced would constitute a new offer. When the offer is accepted, either verbally or in writing, it is an express assent, and is binding. A contract made under a mistake of law is not void. body is presumed to know the law. This, however, applies only to contracts permitted by law and clear of fraud. Every A refusal of an offer cannot be retracted without the consent of the second party. Once a proposition is refused, the matter is ended. And no one has the right to accept an offer except the person to whom it was made. The consideration is the reason or thing for which the parties bind themselves in the contract, and it is either a benefit to the promisor or an injury to the other party. Considerations are technically divided into valuable and good, and it sometimes happens that the consideration need not be expressed, but is implied. A valuable consideration is either money or property or service to be given, or some injury to be endured. A promise to marry is considered a valuable consideration. A good con sideration means that the contract is entered into because of consanguinity or affection, which will support the contract when executed, but will not support an action to enforce an executory contract. Whether a consideration is sufficient or not is tested by its being a benefit to the promisor or an injury to the other party. If it has a legal value, it makes no difference how small that value may be. The promisor need not always be benefited, as, for instance, the indorser of a note, who is liable although he gets no benefit. But if a person promise to do something himself for which no consideration is to be received, there is no cause of action for breach of the contract. There are several causes which void contracts, first among which is fraud. Fraud is defined to be "every kind of artifice employed by one person for the purpose of willfully deceiving another to his injury." No fraudulent contract will stand in law or in equity. The party upon whom the fraud has been practiced must void the contract as soon as he discovers the fraud, for if he goes on after having knowledge of the fraud he cannot afterwards avoid it. But the one who perpetrates the fraud cannot plead that ground for voiding it. Contracts in restraint of trade are void, as also are contracts in opposition to public policy, impeding the course of justice, in restraint of marriage, contrary to the insolvent acts, or for immoral purposes. Any violation of the essential requisites of a contract, or the omission of an essential requisite, will void it. DON'T enter into an agreement on a Sunday unless it is ratified on a week day. DON'T make a contract with a person of unsound mind or under the influence of liquor, or otherwise under restraint of liberty, mind or body. Use caution in making contracts with an illiterate, blind or deaf and dumb person, and see to it that witnesses are present. DON'T put a forced construction on a contract-the intent of the parties is a contract. DON'T suppose that you can withdraw a proposition made in writing and sent by mail after the party to whom it was made has mailed an unconditional acceptance. DON'T suppose that a conditional acceptance of a proposition is binding on the party making the proposition. DON'T forget that the courts will construe a contract according to the law prevailing where it was made. DON'T forget that the law says, "no consideration, no contract," and that the courts will not enforce a contract which is too severe in its provisions. DON'T sign an agreement unless you have carefully weighed its provisions, which should all be fixed and certain. |