A'OTES. 239 right of the matter" to immaterial points. But pleaders of inferior and slovenly mental disposition suffered themselves to be misled, deliberately it is to be feared, by their more acute brethren ; and the popular mind came to consider the whole system a mere series of traps and pitfalls for the unwary, — an impediment to justice that must be abolished. In truth, even these evils might well have l)€en remedied by allowing free liberty of amendment, and reducing to a moderate sura the costs payable on the grant of such privilege. Those concerned in reform movements, however, often lose sight of their real object in a feverish anxiety to " cut deep " and at once ; and this explains why the system for bringing a cause to trial in convenient and exact form was discarded. There can be no question that the study of common law pleading affords refined and keen intellectual exercise, and those who believe that *' order is Heaven's first law " will insist, with Sir Montague Crackenthorpe, that it is still of practical benefit. The Selden Society. — If the plan should meet with sufficient encour- agement and support, the Selden Society may undertake a complete edition of the Year Books. The Secretary and Treasurer for the United States, Mr. Richard W. Hale, of to Tremont Street, Boston, would be glad to receive any expressions of American opinion on the subject which might help in determining the course of the Society. Proofs of parts of the Society's volumes on Early Equitable Records and Admiralty records (the second volume on the latter subject) are already on this side of the water ; but it is difficult, as usual, to fix any certain date for final publication. Some of the early equity cases show a curious resemblance to the recent use of injunction proceedings in the demands which are made on the chancery power for the preservation of the peace. In a case of a. d. 14 10, the petitioners allege " that the said William Ralph and Thurston [defendants] and others of their assent and covin have so seriously menaced the said suppliants from day to day of life and limb that they dare not pass their town nor work in the office that they have to do to the use of our said Lord the King nor about their own business for fear of being killed or murdered by the said evildoers." This is of course nothing new about early equity, but it comes at a time when the comparison naturally occurs to one. There is also a bill to en- join a libel against a clergyman on the (seeming) ground of irreparable evil to the Holy Church. Among the Admiralty proofs may be found a plea of deviation to a policy of insurance in 1547. There is every indica- tion of two interesting volumes. Physical Suffering Resulting from Mental Shock. — A decision of high authority has recently been added to the controversy started by the case of Victoria7i Railways Commissio?iers v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222, concerning what is generally and improperly known as '* mental suffer- ing." Last June the English Court of Appeal held that a plaintiff who became physically incapacitated for work through mental excitement and fright could recover under the terms of a policy insuring him " absolutely for all accidents, however caused, occurring ... in the fair and ordinary discharge of his duty." Pugh v. Lojidofi, Brighton,, and South Coast Rail- way Co., [1896] 2 Q. B. 248. Lord Esher, M. R., expressly distinguished the Coultas case {supra)^ and properly, in so far as that was an action 32
