The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-31 00:00:00

SURNAMES.

The following conclusions are proved by Thomas
Falconer in his recent treatise " On Surnames and
the Rules of Law affecting their Change :"

1. That in the year 1735, when the question of the man-
ner in which Surnames could be changed was before the
House of Lords,*no notice was taken of any supposed pri-
vilege of the Crown to grant licenses on such occasions.
2. That any person may take any Surname, and that
the law recognises the new name when assumed publicly
and bona fide.—(Chief Justice Tindal, Lord Stowell, &c.)
3. That a man may assume what Surname, and as
many Surnames as he pleases.—(Sir Joseph Jekyll, M.R.)

4. That where both Christian and Surname have been
changed, the law will recognise the assumed names.— (Lord
Ellenborough and the Court of King's Bench.)
5. That no Act of Parliament, or Royal Licence, is
needed in order to sanction a change of name, unless a new
name is directed by a donor of land or money, to be as-
sumed by the donee, with such or some other particular
sanction, and subject to the forfeiture of the donation if the
name should not be assumed in the manner directed by the
terms of such conditional donation,—(Lord Chief Justice
Tenterden and the Court of King's Bench.)
6. That when a name is assumed by Royal Licence, it is
so assumed by the act of the person taking the name, and
the name is not conferred by the licence.—(Lord Chancellor
Eldon.)

7. That the effect of .a Royal Licence is merely to give
publicity or notoriety to a change of name.—(Ch'ef Justice
Tindal.)

8. That when, by any Act of Parliament, Judges have
the control of a particular Roll of Names, they will, on a
change of name, when the change is publicly and bona fide
made, direct the new name to be added to the Roll, though
such name has been assumed without a Royal Licence, and
by the mere act of the person whose name is on the Roll.—
(Court of Exchequer, &c.)
9. That when any person has legally assumed a name by
his own act, it is compuls'ry on Courts of Law to recognise
the legal act.---(The King v. the Inhabitants of Billing-
hurst, and Luscombe v. Yates.)

BLACK DIAMONDS.—Not every lady, says a con-
temporary, would care, after a long walk on a fruit-
less quest, to be encouraged by a workman's remark,
" Niver mind, it'll do you good, straighten your legs a bit."
Kindness was meant, however, just as there was real kind-
ness in the heart of the blacksmith of whom our authoress
inquired concerning his wife's health. " Nowt ails her :
whoy, she's nobbut gotten a babby I she's not ill, bless
thee I" Soon after the baby died, and the blacksmith had
to be asked whether ho had taken the advice of a doctor.
" Yees I he wor fetched, not that I see ony good wi' doctors.
Ho ordered me to clap a leech on bairn, and put it i' hot
waater, but it deed all the same." " You have the comfort
of having tried the remedies," was the lady's remark.
" Nay ! I had leech put on to please Missus, but I said I
wearn't have bairn bothered wi' hot waater, and it worn' t."
—Life Amongst the Colliers.

DISTRESS IN LANCASHIRE.—It may now be said
that there is scarcely a single British possession
abroad of any considerable extent the inhabitants of which
have not forwarded contributions in money to alleviate the
distress, either to the Mansion-House committee or the
central one at Manchester, accompanied by expressions of
sympathy. Of late this has been particularly the case
with respect to Canada. Not only have the citizens of Que-
bec and Montreal sent grants of money, and more than
once, but in many of the smaller towns and scattered settle-
ments in the backwoods the inhabitants have manifested a
strong feeling of commiseration towards the distressed
people. The manner in which this feeling is expressed is
occasionally somewhat touching. For instance, in a letter
received yesterday by the Lord Mayor from Mr. Adams,
the Mayor of Sarnia, Canada West, enclosing a subserip•
tion, the writer says
c, Owing to the I.osition of Sarnia
:
as a small frontier town, dependent to a very great extent
upon
neighbouringc Republic, and to this
trade of the rl.ade
being its t trade dv e e
ry withm much
he
curtailedin consequence
de-
plorable war now raging in the United States, our people
find themselves very poor, and unable to contribute as
much as they desire; but out of our poverty as a people we
send this contribution as an expression of our profound
ryoueli e
fbe o
fktihned
deina ot
ruega
she
dt oe hp
ea
rvaet
itvhei
es
sympathy for the distressed people of Fatherland. Will
institmhe
anpipalnieudfatcotwuna.rndgs
dtihse.
tricts, and to acknowl d • •
e ge its receipt in the Times news-
paper ?"