A limited partnership which succeeds to the business of a former firm may use its name with the consent of its members. A special partner may withdraw six per cent. interest on his capital out of the profits, without liability to refund the same, if it does not impair the capital of the partnership. In case of renewal of a limited partnership, the amount contributed by the special partner must be stated, and his original capital, if impaired, must be made good. Non-compliance with the provisions of the law regulating limited partnership subjects the members to the liabilities and entitles them to the rights of general partners. The employer is made liable to the employee for any defect in his, the employer's, works, arising from negligence of the employer himself, or of an employee charged with supervision; also for negligence of any superintendent in the employer's employ; and for negligence of any employee in control of any signal, switch, locomotive, engine, or train upon a railroad. The legal representative of the employee may recover in case of death, or in case of instantaneous death, the employee's widow; or if no widow, the next of kin, provided such next of kin were dependent on the employee's wages for support.

Damages are limited to $4,000, or in case of death to $5,000. The employer cannot rid himself of liability for defects in his works by contracting with an independent contractor. No recovery can be had where the employee, knowing of the defect or negligence causing the injury, failed within a reasonable time to inform his employer or superior thereof. A certain set-off is allowed when the employer has contributed to an insurance fund from which the employee has benefited. This act does not apply to domestic servants or farm laborers.

Acts in reference to labor and capital are numerous, and in their general nature are as follows:

An act to procure sanitary provisions in factories and workshops;

An act against the employment in factories of children

under the age of fourteen in the cleaning of machinery in motion, or of any machinery in dangerous proximity thereto;

An act to secure the proper ventilation of factories and workshops;

An act to secure uniform and proper meal-time for children, young persons, and women employed in factories and workshops, and in an enumerated class of factories;

An act respecting the employment of minors and women in manufacturing and mechanical establishments, and regulating the number of hours of employment, and limiting over-time employment in case of stopping of machinery;

An act to regulate fines for imperfect weaving; and an act to secure weekly payments of wages by corporations.

Contracts for convict labor have been prohibited, and competition between such labor and free labor is practically forbidden.

For two hours after the opening of the polls, no person entitled to vote in a National or State election, and asking for absence, is to be employed in any mechanical or mercantile establishment, except such as may conduct its business on Sunday.

A penalty is imposed upon every owner or superintendent of a mechanical or mercantile establishment who directly or indirectly employs therein, except during the vacation of the public schools, a minor under the age of fourteen who cannot read and write the English language, and upon every parent or guardian who permits such employment; also upon every person directly or indirectly employing a minor of fourteen who cannot read and write the English language; provided, such minor, since the age of fourteen, has resided for one year in a city or town in the State wherein public evening schools are maintained, and is not a member of a day or evening school. This last provision may be suspended by the School Committee of the place in which the minor resides if they are satisfied that the labor of the minor is necessary to the support of the minor's family.

Clubs distributing or selling intoxicating liquors are made common nuisances, except in cities and towns where licenses are granted, when the licensing board in its discretion may grant a club license.

The sale of intoxicating liquors in time of riot or great public excitement may be prohibited by the Mayor of a city or Selectmen of a town. Any license under the statutes relating to intoxicating liquors is forfeited by a conviction for violation of any such statutes. Implements and furniture used in the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors may be seized. Any sign of whatever character designed to announce the keeping of intoxicating liquors for sale is to be prima facie evidence of such keeping. The maintaining of a United States tax receipt as a dealer in intoxicating liquors, other than malt liquors, is to be prima facie evidence of keeping for sale.

Self-registering ballot-boxes are to be used in registering ballots in voting on the question of license in a city or town. The sale of intoxicating liquors by retail druggists and apothecaries is regulated and limited.

The Sunday law has been amended; one is no longer subject to a fine for being present "the evening next preceding the Lord's Day" at a "game, sport, play, game, sport, play, or public diversion" given without a license. The number of works ranking as works of "necessity and charity" has been enlarged. Steam, gas, and electricity may be manufactured and distributed for purposes of lighting, heat, or motive power; water distributed for fire or domestic purposes; the telegraph and telephone used; drugs, medicines, and surgical appliances sold; horses, carriages, yachts, and boats let; steam ferry boats on established routes and horse cars run; newspapers printed and sold; milk delivered and butter and cheese made; public bath-houses kept open, and before ten in the morning and between four and half-past six in the evening bread and other food usually dealt in by bakers, made and sold. The Board of Railroad Commissioners may

authorize the running of such steamboat lines and trains as the public necessity or convenience requires. Traveling on the Lord's Day, on errands other than those of necessity and charity, continues no longer subject to a fine of ten dollars for "each such offense." Children under thirteen years of age, unless accompanied by a person over twenty-one years of age, are not to be admitted to any licensed place of amusement.

The insurance laws have been amended and codified in an act of one hundred and twelve sections. A law has been passed for the punishment of habitual criminals which is similar to the statute of Connecticut respecting the punishment of incorrigible criminals; also a law for the punishment of unnatural and lascivious acts. Provision has been made for the suppression of contagious diseases among domestic animals, and for the extirpation of pleuro-pneumonia in cooperation with the United States. Commissioners of wrecks and shipwrecked goods have been created and their duties defined; the examination of railroad bridges by the Railroad Commissioners once in two years has been ordered, and the use of common stoves in passenger cars has been prohibited, as well as the use of any heater or furnace not approved by the Railroad Commissioners; finally, the honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who served in the Army and Navy of the United States during the Civil War, are exempted from the operation of the Civil Service Act.

MICHIGAN.

A law has been passed in Michigan making it unlawful to celebrate a marriage without a license, and providing for the registration of marriages.

Divorce has been rendered more difficult by a law which declares that no divorce shall be granted unless the marriage shall have been solemnized in the State, or unless the complainant shall have resided therein one year preceding the commencement of suit. If the cause for divorce occurred out of the State the complainant must have resided in the

State two years, and no testimony can be taken in a divorce suit until four months after the petition has been filed, except where the cause of divorce is desertion or the testimony is taken to perpetuate it.

It is made the duty of the officer before whom the witnesses are examined to propound to each witness the following question: "Do you know any fact, matter, or circumstance which will in any way tend to weaken complainant's case for divorce?"

The bill of complaint must set forth the names and ages of all children of the marriage under fourteen years of age. A copy of the subpoena must be served upon the prosecuting attorney of the county where the suit is commenced, whose duty it is, when in his judgment the interest of the children or the public good so requires, to introduce evidence and oppose the divorce. The court in granting the decree may provide that the defendant shall not marry again within a specified time, not to exceed two years.

A child under ten years of age is permitted to testify on a promise, instead of an oath, to tell the truth if the judge is satisfied that the child has sufficient intelligence and sense of obligation to tell the truth.

The Supreme Court is authorized at any time and in any suit to call before it the parties or any witness to testify orally in open court.

No appeal is allowed from any order of the Probate Court removing an executor, administrator, guardian, or trustee for failure to give a new bond, or to render an account in pursuance of law.

If any minor has property sufficient for his maintenance and education in a manner more expensive than his father can reasonably afford, the Probate Court may order the expenses of education and maintenance to be paid out of the income or the principal of the minor's property.

Any person claiming title to land, whether in possession or not, may institute suit against another person not in posses