George Eliot Birthday Lucheon: The Toast to The Immortal Memory

As a local historian I have been thinking to what extent did George Eliot portray Nuneaton - more especially in her most local book Scenes o/Clerical Life - and how good a historian was she in this work. Essential dates, first of all. George Eliot was born in 1819 and wrote Scenes in 1857- 58. She sets the events of Amos Barton and J and s Repentance some 25 years before the date of writing; that is roughly 1830 when she was a young girl of some eleven years of age. Mr. Gilfil\u27 s Love Story starts in 1820 but really deals with events of the late 1780s. It is perhaps noteworthy that this is the least local of the three short novels, possibly reflecting her unsureness of events which happened long before her own life. Though the main part of the story takes place at Cheverel Manor (Arbury Hall) and the Newdigates are minutely observed, the Hall is far removed from Shepperton where Gilfil takes his heart-broken and ailing young wife. What picture then does George Eliot give of her own village and its neighboring town in the other two novels? First Shepperton: A flat ugly district this; depressing enough to look at even on the brightest days. The roads are black with coal-dust, the brick houses dingy with smoke; and at that time - the time of the handloom weavers - every other cottage had a loom at its window where you might see a pale sickly-looking man or woman pressing a narrow chest against a board, and doing a sort of tread-mill work with legs and arms. Milby also was a dingy-looking town, with a strong smell of tanning up one street and a great shaking of looms up another. And Paddiford Common - a dismal district where you heard the rattle of the hand-loom and breathed the smoke of the coal pits

Law of Oil and Gas

The questions heretofore considered are general in their scope, and were treated for the purpose of providing a background for the more intensive study upon which we must now enter. While commentators refer to this branch of jurisprudence as the Law of Oil and Gas, it is more exact to say that .we are dealing with the law pertaining to oil and gas leases. This is true because the oil and gas lease characterizes and distinguishes the subject throughout. For reasons which inhere in the very nature of the business a lease yielding the lessor a royalty on the quantity of oil or gas produced creates the relation between the landowner and the operator which is best adapted to the practical aspects of the enterprise. Accordingly, it is the almost universal custom to develop lands for oil and gas under leases rather than through the ownership of the fee. It\u27follows as a logical consequence that the subject-matter of nearly all of the oil and gas cases is the oil and gas lease. In these circumstances the problem of paramount importance to us is to determine the nature and legal effect of this instrument

Law of Oil and Gas, IV

This clause follows the grant, and is one of the most distinctive features of the modern oil and gas lease. Occasionally the duration of the lease is fixed by the granting clause; some times by a miscellaneous provision appearing therein. But generally speaking, the habenduin defines the term of the present-day oil and gas lease. At any rate a discussion of the legal effect of the habendum clause which now characterizes these instruments will involve the treatment of every important question which arises under this heading. At the outset we should observe that the clause is the direct result of a natural evolution in the methods and customs of the business. Also that the provision owes its present form to two compelling considerations. The first deals with the situation of the lessor and the second with the situation of the lessee. Manifestly a landowner is reluctant to encumber his land for an indefinite time with an unproductive lease. This statement does not imply that every lease, or even a substantial proportion of the leases taken, must be developed. The industry could not survive if such were the requirement. What is meant is that the lessee shall have a reasonable period for exploration, and if within this interval no wells are drilled or if the wells drilled prove to be nonproductive, then the lease expires, leaving the lessor free to make such disposition of his land as he will. Therefore in formulating a provision fixing the duration of an oil and gas lease the obvious self-interest of the lessor must be taken into account. On the other hand, the sole risk of the venture rests with the lessee. He must enter upon a precarious and uncertain undertaking attended by great financial hazard. In such circumstances the duration of the lease must be sufficiently inviting to induce him to devote his energies and capital to a business wholly speculative in character. Clearly the answer to the predicament of the lessee is this: If he find production within the exploratory period then he should have the enjoyment of his lease during its profitable life. Founded upon these basic considerations the .industry finally has evolved the following habendumn clause: \u27To have and to hold said premises for the purposes aforesaid to and unto the lessee, its successors and assigns, for the term of five years from date hereof and as nuch longer therealt,,r as oil or gas shall be produced therefrom in paying quantities.-* It is to be noticed that this clause performs a double function. First of all it provides that the lease shall expire at the end of a limited term of reasonable duration unless the lessee at that time is producing oil or gas in paying quantities. Thus far the provision, is for the exclusive benefit of the lessor. Supplementing this, however, is a provision whereby the lessee is vested with the right to hold the lease as long as oil or gas is found in paying quantities upon the condition that the lease is made productive during the fixed term. Therefore the clause serves the peculiar interest of the lessee also. In order to grasp the exact significance of the clause in the economy of our subject we must review the conditions which brought it to its present form

Reflections on Key Issues of the Professional Responsibilities of Corporate Lawyers in the Twenty-First Century

This essay addresses various questions concerning corporate governance and ethical issues. The paper gives particular attention to state corporation law, standards of conduct, the business judgment rule, fiduciary duties, director independence, as well as issues of federalism