Bell, J.

1. The learned advocate for the plaintiff has conducted the case of his client with great ability and has said everything that could possibly be said in circumstances which, as I have already said in Appln. No. 2346 of 1943, were made extremely difficult for him by the way in which the defence was altered from time to time. I am afraid, however, that I have no alternative but to accept the submission of the defendants a submission of which little more than a hint was given to the plaintiff up to within a week of the trial. The point taken is that the contract on which the plaintiff sues was illegal ab initio, that therefore the -plaintiff cannot succeed and that his suit must be dismissed with costs. The words of Lord Mansfield in Holman v. Johnson (1775) 1 Cowp. 343, cited at p. 602 in Harry Parker Ltd. v. Mason (1940)2 K.B. 590, apply to this case:

The objection that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff and defendant sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of the defendant. It is not for his sake, however, that the objection is ever allowed; but it is founded on general principles of policy, which the defendant has the advantage of contrary to th