Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-04-11
GIVING UP PARCHMENT.
Order of Court Forbids Its Use in
Enqland--Reasons Why.


Sir Francis Jeune on Monday last
pronounced judicial separation be
tween probate lawyers and parch
ment. There is not an absolute di.
vorce, because, although grants and
ENDORSEMENTS in the probate division
will be on special paper instead OF
parchment, the latter time-honored
material for legal documents may be
used If it is particularly desired 1t
is well that this permission is at
tached to the injunction, for the mind
recoils from the idea of any branch of
the law being entirely disassociated
! from parchment.
Precisely what the object of this
change may be is not quite clear. 1t
is stated that the public will save
something like $4,000 a year. This
sum would buy considerable guam
tity of parchment in the ordinary
way, but perhaps things are different
in the legal market A sheet of parch-
ment would cost threepence or four
pence from a stationer, but when 1t
finds its way into lawyers bill of
The special paper would cost about a
penny sheet it remains to be seen
what its legal value will be. Possibly
claimants Tor probate may have a bet
ter idea of the value of paper than
they have of parchment.
The question, however, arises
whether the public will regard paper,
special cs it may be, as a satisfactory
substitute for parchment Grants in
probate are, of course. not like leases
of estates, deeds and other classes of
legal document. and are not often re-
CURED to withstand the effects of
time to the same degree. Still the
public prefers to have it's law docu-
ments in an enduring form; and, al
though it may save $4,000, the indi-
vidual will probably save only a few
Shi'lings, and would rather have the
NJ fe expensive but more lasting ma
tefiai. Fiction writer's would often
be hard put to it If they could not
produce musty parchment documents
OF ancient date proving that the poor
but honest hero is entitled to the
family estate. But, in hard fact, the
value OF endurance in the material of
legal documents has too often been
shown to lead the public to p'.; faith
readily in anything but parchment.
Still special paper has been used for
some time now for affidayits and
memorials for the registry of deeds.
Perhaps the time may come when
there VIII be special kinds of mater a,
Tor different kinds of documents. ac.
cording to the period over which thew
are 10 endure, ranging from veIlum
Tor leases of estates to tissue paper
Tor promises in love letters
An explanation Of the change which
mas been given in one quarter is that
Somerset House whence issue the
grants and engrossmt pts, is at odds
with nature. Somerset House wants
stout parchment of a uniform thick.
ness Nature refuses to supply II II
results from this provision that the
parchment cut from one part of an
animaPs hide is thicker than that
from another. and 1t cannot be made
UNIFORM. His majesty's stationery of.
nee acting, of course, on intimations
from Somerset House. wants all the
stoutest parchment; but the manu-.
facturers would then be left to dis
pose OF the thinner material to pri.
Vate customers, who naturally grum-
pie Moreover, the stationery Office
does not wish to pay higher price
Tor the privilege of taking the best.
The manufacturers of parchment
are not greatly disturbed by Sir
francis Jeune's decree. The probate
grants and ENDORSEMENTS are only a
part of the vast number of legal
documents. and people will still go on
acquiring parchment by the more or
iess expensive ways of law for more
years than one can foretell.-London
Talagranh