extremely easy, and we know of no work of the kind which contains within the same limited number of pages, and consequently at the same moderate price, so extensive a collection of forms readily applicable to the various exigencies of the draftsman.

Mr. Housman, moreover, has not encumbered his pages with foot-notes, but has added to his volume an appendix containing practical notes, which, with the exception of a good gloss of considerable length on bills of sale, have reference principally to the provisions of the statutes of Lords St. Leonards and Cranworth.

We believe that this volume will soon, and deservedly, occupy a high place among collections of precedents in conveyancing.

The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III., 1760-1860. By Thomas Erskine May, C.B. Vol. I. London: Longman and Co., 1861.

THE great merits of this work, and the importance of the subject of which it treats, render it necessary that we should devote a larger space to it than we can afford in the present number; we therefore reserve our observations upon it for a future occasion.

The Law of Nations considered as Independent Political Communities. On the Rights and Duties of Nations in Time of Peace. By Travers Twiss, D.C.L., Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford, and one of Her Majesty's Counsel. Oxford: at the University Press. London: Longman and Co.

THIS is the first part of a treatise on the Law of Nations, and is devoted to the rights and duties of nations in time of peace. The second part will embrace the rights and duties of nations in time of war. This work is, like the last, reserved for future and fuller comment.

A Treatise on the Law of Inland Carriers. By Edmund Powell, Esq., Inner Temple. London: Butterworths, 1861.

THERE are not many treatises devoted exclusively to the exposition of this branch of the Law of Bailments. The earliest we have been able to find was that written by Mr. Jeremy, in the beginning of this century. The second, of which Mr. George Frederick Jones was the author, appeared in the year 1827, twelve years after the issue of Mr. Jeremy's book. These productions, whatever merit they may have possessed, and however valuable they may have proved at the time, are inadequate to meet present wants. There are only two English text-books on this subject which can now be considered of any value to the practitioner or to the public; we mean "the Law of Carriers," by T. Chitty and L. Temple, published

five years ago, and Mr. Powell's treatise, which, curiously enough, bear the same date of publication. The latter has had the good fortune to pass into a second edition. The two chapters on the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1856, are quite new, and the recent cases under the provisions of that statute are analysed in lucid language. Being confined to the law of Inland Carriers, many topics are omitted, which may be found expounded at length in the modern work to which reference has been made, and still more elaborately in a large octavo volume written by Mr. Joseph Angell, the American author. In concluding this brief notice we may observe, that some of the judges have exhibited an inclination to depart from the established legal meaning of the term common carrier, and to remove from it the ingredient of insurance, which by the Common Law is considered to be its prominent and differential quality. "I deny," observed Maule J. in Crouch v. London and North Western Railway, 14 C. B. 255, “ that a man who is not an insurer of goods is therefore not a common carrier. A common carrier who makes no stipulation, and gives no notice with respect to the insurance of goods, is no doubt liable as an insurer of the goods, but a common carrier, who by notice limits his liability, still remains in all other respects a common carrier and even in that respect he is a common carrier; because, although the incident of being an insurer does not apply to him, that is simply because it is especially provided for." Considering that the Common Law idea owes its origin to a state of public insecurity and primitive modes of transit, almost unknown to this age, it may be a question whether a common carrier ought not to be placed on the same footing as other bailees, and, in the absence of a special contract, be liable only for negligence.

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The Magisterial Formulist; being a complete Collection of Forms and Precedents for practical use, in all Cases out of Quarter Sessions and in Parochial Matters, by Magistrates, their Clerks and Attorneys; with an Introduction, Explanatory Directions, Variations and Notes. By George C. Oke, Assistant Clerk to the Lord Mayor of London, Author of the "Magisterial Synopsis," &c. &c. Third Edition, enlarged and revised. London: Butterworths, Fleet Street, 1861.

WHAT Chitty's Archbold is to the Common Law practioner, what Daniell's Practice was to chancery men, what Davidson's Precedents are to conveyancers, such are Mr. Oke's works to those engaged in magisterial duties. Can we use higher praise? If we could we would, because a really genuine book of practice is beyond price. This, the third, edition is destined, we doubt not, to be swallowed up with the same avidity as is usual with this author's publications. The "Formulist" will save much waste of brain tissue to the practitioner and some costs.

Stone's Practice of Petty Sessions, &c. By Thomas Bell and Lewis W. Cave, of the Inner Temple, Esqs., Barristers-at-Law. London: V. & R. Stevens and Sons.

THIS portable, compact, and well-written volume has also met with decided success. The seventh edition differs from the last in the addition, first, of the section upon stating a case for the opinion of a superior court of law under the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 43; second, of the Chapter on the general mode of procedure in cases not falling within 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43; third, of sections on the practice under the Juvenile Offenders Acts and the Criminal Justice Act 18 & 19 Vict. c. 126; fourth, of a list of summary convictions.

The editors, strictly adhering to the original design of the work, have struck out several sections which appeared in former editions. Those sections treated in a cursory manner of certain special subjects, arbitrarily selected, and it was wisely decided, that in a small volume of 600 pages, such imperfect notices had better be altogether omitted. For the magistrate's study at home this will not supply the place of Oke, Burns, or Archbold. It is what it professes to be, a mere manual: and as a manual it is quite complete. A number of forms are supplied in the Appendix, sufficiently copious to enable a magistrate to transact the ordinary business of a justice of the peace, but in unusual cases some more elaborate work, like the Magisterial Synopsis, must be consulted. The plan-first thought of, we believe, by Mr. Oke-of making a tabular arrangement of offences and their penalties, has met with general approbation, and is now partially carried out in Mr. Stone's work.

A Treatise on Facts, as Subjects of Inquiry by a Jury. By James Ram, Esq., Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. London: William Maxwell.

THIS Treatise, professedly written for the assistance of juries, contains a mass of heterogeneous matter, disposed with curious incongruity. It exhibits the industry and, perhaps, scholarship of the author rather than his good judgment. Two or three old stories are well told; and the incidents taken from State Trials will be found interesting to those who may not have read them before. We defer further criticism till our next Number.

An Essay on Professional Ethics. By George Sharswood. Second Edition. T. & J. W. Johnson and Co., Philadelphia, 1860. WE learn from the preface that Mr. Sharswood's Essays were originally published under the title of "A Compend of Lectures on the Aims and Duties of a Professor of the Law, delivered before the Law Class of the University of Pennsylvania." Each page of the Essay bristles with topics which interest lawyers. We cannot discuss them

in this Number, and we decline to say one word now lest we should be betrayed into writing a whole essay. Some recent cases, and others still pending at the English Bar, and the too frequent scandals in the other branch of the profession, make the subject of Mr. Sharswood's little volume of peculiar interest.

The Law of Sales of Personal Property. By Francis Hilliard, Author of "the Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Real Property," "The Law of Torts," &c. Second Edition, greatly enlarged and improved. T. & J. W. Johnson and Co., Philadelphia, 1860.

MR. HILLIARD is an author not unknown in England. He has here executed an elaborate work, and it is due to him not to attempt to pronounce upon it dogmatically without at least having first discussed it critically. It must, however, like other men and books, bide its time.

The General and Commercial Law, as recognised in the Jurisprudence of the United States. By William O. Bateman. Counsellor-at-Law. T. & J. W. Johnson and Co., Philadelphia, 1860. We shall probably take up this volume for the purpose of more minute study and comment. The subject, of course, is of the first importance; and, as we are inclined to believe, judging from the investigation which we have already been able to extend to the book itself, it merits consideration at the hands of the jurist.

Events of the Quarter.

THE EVENTS PARLIAMENTARY are, so far as we are directly concerned, not very extensive. The Bankruptcy Bill while we write is "under consideration." It has been a good deal worried on the horns of the two Legislative Houses. We will say of it now, as a gentleman at a festive party at Greenwich lately remarked of a fish-bone in his throat at an early age of the entertainment; "It really can't stop where it is now, nor under any circumstances will it satisfy the cravings of nature."

The statutes of the session will in due course receive our notice. A good deal of popular rubbish has been carted about of late with regard to the great talk and small action of Parliament. Having respect to much which the Statute Book contains, we affirm boldly that the House is as a general rule much more innocuously occupied in talking than in passing Bills. Ministerial explanations, official declarations and returns, present a multitude of suspicious newspaper mystifications, and foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient, The recess will bring to the newspaper press, "Correspondence," "Our own Correspondence," "Our special Correspondence." &c., which, to say the least, may occasionally be allowed to give place to columns of parliamentary proceedings. People may grumble at M.P.s talking excessively; but they would revolt if they were silent, nor would leading articles then satisfy their want.

LAW AMENDMENT SOCIETY.-The seventeenth anniversary festival of the Law Amendment Society, which was celebrated at Greenwich on the 13th July, was more than usually interesting. Lord Brougham, at the conclusion of an admirable speech on the different measures of law amendment which had been introduced into Parliament during the session, adverted to the defective state of the criminal law in continental countries, and to the improvements which had been effected in France of late years. He then spoke of his friend M. Berryer, as one of the first lights of the law in that country; a man of great diligence and extraordinary eloquence, whose powers as an advocate, and whose unsullied honesty and integrity to his clients, at all hazards to himself, were such that he could only be compared to our own illustrious Erskine. Lord Brougham stated that M. Berryer had yielded to his, Lord B.'s urgent request that he would publish some of his celebrated speeches. He mentioned also that he had some hopes that M. Berryer would attend the Social Science Congress at Dublin, in August, and was quite certain that he would be in London for a week at the beginning