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Evening Star, Issue 3271, 14 August 1873, Page 2

The case of Hutchinson v. Oxenhojjld and another, a full report of which will bo seen elsewhere in our columns, is only another instance of the hasty and inconsiderate manner in whinh we are all more or less prone to rush into contracts, and of the unfortunate consequences which invariably result. To exercise care and forethought in making our agreements, above all to mark oat with precision the terms of those agreements, are the lessons taught us by his Honor’s judgment, lessons of which our Oxenboulds~and their name is legion—are sadly in need. The policy of our law is to prevent agreements being entrusted to the “slippery memory” of men, and to require that their terms shall be clearly and definitely settled ; but the policy of those, of whom the law prevents us from averring that they are ignorant of the law, is invariably to take a directly opposite course, and give as much trouble and incur d? as possible. Their own carelessness them into the meshes of the law, and, as a natural sequence, into heaping maledictions on the law itself and its votaries. The judgment, we hope, will be a wholesome lesson to all Oxenboulds. Want of care and precision, they will see, in defining the terms of their contracts, in other words the nature of their rights, and deify in exercising those rights, will give rise, if not guarded against, to unpleasant consequences, to say the least. We recommend these remarks and the reported case to their foripus consideration and careful perusal. .