enriched the work of his predecessors by the citation of "more than four hundred additional cases. Criminal Law R ports: being Reports of Cases determined in the Federal and State Courts of the United States, and in the Courts of England, Ireland, Canada, &c. With Notes by N. ST. JOHN GREEN, formerly Lecturer on Criminal Law at the Dane Law School, Harvard University, and now Lecturer on Criminal Law at the School of Law of Boston University. New York: Published by Hurd & Houghton. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1874. WITH this volume Mr. Green inaugurates a series of criminal-law reports, in which, at the rate of one volume a year, he intends to present, as they are decided, all criminal cases of the least importance. The natural acuteness of his mind, and the attention which he has given to the study of criminal law, fit him admirably to edit such a series; and the notes which he appends to cases, in which he discusses the principles involved in the decisions and collates the authorities bearing on the subject, will give his reports a value as authority which will make them of great use to the profession. We have examined this volume with great interest. Aside from the intellectual pleasure which any one who has ever studied the criminal law must take in the clearly defined but nice distinctions in which it abounds, distinctions, too, which rest on a solid foundation of reason, and are not the mere quibbles which the laity are inclined to deem them, there is a personal interest in the records of crime which every novel-reader or novel-writer recognizes. No romance can be more interesting than the report of Dr. Webster's trial. No writer of stories ever invented a tale as strange as that of the Tichborne claimant. Nothing can illustrate the infinite variety of human action better than the fact that, although the principles of criminal law are as well settled as any principles can be, cases enough, involving new applications of those principles, can be found in every year to make a volume as large as this first of Mr. Green's. The importance of such a series of reports is obvious. Every year it is becoming more evident that no lawyer can master all branches of his profession, and more practitioners are content to adopt some specialty. Fifty years ago Chancellor Kent said: "To attain a competent knowledge of the common law in all its branches has now become a very serious undertaking, and it requires steady and lasting perseverence, in consequence of the number of books which beset and incumber the path of the student." Then there were about six hundred volumes of reports, including American and English; now the American reports alone fill nearly twenty-five hundred volumes. It is clear, therefore, that the tendency to adopt specialties is not likely to decrease, and the demands of specialists must be recognized. We have already series of Patent Reports, of Bankruptcy Reports, and of Admiralty Reports. The criminal law is as distinct a branch of the profession as either of these, and its practitioners are quite as likely to appreciate the advantage of separate reports. We regret that this volume was received at so late a day that we are unable to discuss its merits at any great length. Mr. Green has collected in it a large number of cases; and in itself, with his notes, it is quite a complete hand-book of criminal law. The arrangement of cases, however, seems perhaps susceptible of improvement. Indeed, we do not discover what principle Mr. Green has adopted in making up his volume. The decisions are not placed in chronological order, nor are those taken from the same volume, or the same state, kept together. To a certain extent, those bearing on the same subject are grouped, and this would, in our judgment, be much the most convenient arrangement; but Mr. Green has not followed this consistently. This, however, is a defect which a good index makes of small practical consequence. The mechanical execution of the volume is admirable, and as a specimen of printing and binding it will compare favorably with the best American law-books. A Treatise upon the Law of Extradition, with the Conventions upon the Subject existing between England and Foreign Nations, and the Cases decided thereon. By EDWARD CLARKE, of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister at law, and late Tancred Student. Second Edition. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1874. THE learned author of this work, having been engaged as counsel in several of the recent cases of extradition in England, was led to give special attention to the subject, and has embodied the result of his studies in the present convenient and concise review of the history of the law in different countries, and of the decided cases. The law, as at present enforced by treaty, is of very recent origin, though the history of the Roman Empire affords instances of the demand for and surrender of fugitive offenders, always political, and though attempts were made in early times in England, France, and other countries of Europe, to establish the practice on the ground of international comity. The modern law has its origin in the provisions in the Constitution and laws of the United States for the rendition of fugitives. In 1794, the first treaty referring specially to the subject was made between Great Britain and the United States, providing for the surrender of persons charged with murder or forgery only. This treaty, however, expired by limitation in twelve years; and none other relating to the subject was thereafter, made till the Ashburton treaty of 1842, which is now in force, and has been supplemented by acts of Congress and of Parliament. Under this treaty the list of offences is extended to include, besides those mentioned, assault with intent to commit murder, piracy, arson, robbery, and utterance of forged paper. We learn, by a note on page 46, that in 1859 the United States proposed to Great Britain to amend the treaty, by adding to it the offences of coining, uttering false money, and embezzlement, and that Great Britain assented thereto; but that our government then desired to limit embezzlement to that of public moneys, and that from the disagreement on this point, and some others, the negotiations were abandoned. It is very much to be regretted that these amendments, as originally contemplated, were not made. We should advocate also the addition to the list of fraudulent bankruptcy, which is found in the treaties of most European nations. We have referred particularly to the treaties between Great Britain and the United States; but it is to be under stood that the work before us presents, with more or less fullness, the provisions of the existing treaties on the subject between all nations. In administering treaties and statutes so new, and so constantly changing, there is not unnaturally some conflict in the decisions; but Mr. Clarke's work bears evidence to the general intent, on the part of governments and magistrates in all the principal countries, to give full faith to the treaty obligations, and to decide each case strictly on the law, as well as to the general uniformity of the adjudications. No extradition cases, perhaps, excited more attention and censure in this country, at the time, than those decided by the Canadian courts during our late war; of which the proceedings against the St. Albans' raiders were the most famous. In all of these, the courts refused to give up the fugitives, on the ground that their acts were hostile expeditions, authorized by the Confederate States, and carried out by commissioned officers, and so not within the provisions of the treaty. Yet, it seems to us, upon a careful review, as we were in fact impressed at the time, that these decisions were right; and we doubt very much whether, if the raiders had been given up, our own courts would have convicted them of robbery and murder, any more than they would have convicted the prisoners from Lee's army in Pennsylvania. In reference to the practice under the extradition act, we may remark, that Judge Lowell has recently held, in the case of Peter Kelley, in the United States Circuit Court, that the warrant of the court for the arrest of the fugitive may and should issue before the executive mandate, which is the reverse of the practice as established by Judge Nelson in the Second Circuit. In Judge Lowell's learned opinion, he cites with commendation this treatise of Mr. Clarke. The New York Supreme Court Reports. Vol. II. Albany: John D. Parsons, Jr., Publisher. 1874. The same, from March, 1874, to June, 1874. Vol. III. IN noticing the first volume of this series, -8 American Law Review, 599, we took occasion to express our gratitude to the editors, and our sense of the thoroughness and value of their work. A substantial recognition of the services of a man, who taking the New York reports where they were a year or so ago, has thus elevated and cleansed them, should be accorded by the profession who reap the benefit of his labor. "Blessed is he who, passing through the valley of Baca, maketh it a well." We find in these reports, simply as reports, much to praise and little to condemn ; but in comparison with their predecessors, they are much more praiseworthy. The well meant but badly directed efforts of the Bar Association of New York would seem to be entirely supplanted, as far at least as the reports of this court are concerned, by the good judgment, promptness, and executive ability of the editors of this series, which, in the volumes before us, brings to the profession the cases down to June, 1874, and by that token probably contains later adjudications than are to be found in any other reports in the United States. We regret that we received these books at so late an hour as to be unable to review the reported cases, among which a casual examination shows many of interest and importance. A Treatise on the Law of Trusts and Trustees. By J. W. PERRY. Second Edition. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1874. We welcome a new edition of Perry on Trusts. The first edition was printed in 1872, in one volume of nine hundred and thirty-eight pages: it appears now in two volumes, with the total addition of several hundred pages. It ought, however, to be said that this growth in bulk is mainly owing to certain typographical changes; the size of the printed part of the page is reduced, and the spacing is more liberal; the advantages which are thus gained involve an addition of nearly one-fourth to the number of pages, and of course increase the cost of the work in a still larger proportion. For our own part, we regret this change. Similar transformations, as we remember, have been wrought upon other works where the first edition, in a single volume, was a model of compact book-making, but all its worth in this particular disappeared in the second edition. It is not necessary to restate the merits of Mr. Perry's excellent treatise. For the American practitioner it is distinctly the most valuable book on the subject. The author had especially in view the wants of the practising lawyer, and states it as his purpose to cite all the cases. The changes in this edition consist, so far as we have observed, in additions. The newer cases, and also considerable fresh contributions of original matter are found in the notes, while large additions are made to the text, especially in the twentieth chapter; thirty-three new sections and as many pages are added here, on the subject of "Trusts under deeds to secure particular debts, and under power of sale mortgages." Important additions will also be found under the heads of "Implied," Resulting," "Constructive," and Executory Trusts,” “ Perpetuities,' "“Trustees for Sale," and elsewhere. The whole work gives evidence of a continuance of that same research and care, clear-headed, intelligent, and honest, which gave this book in its first edition an enviable fame. 66 66 The Canadian Monthly and National Review. Toronto. The Forum, Law Review. Baltimore, Md. The Monthly Western Jurist. Bloomington, Ill. La Revue Critique de Législation et de Jurisprudence du Canada. Montreal. Pittsburgh Legal Journal. Pittsburgh, Pa. The Central Law Journal. St. Louis, Mo. The Law Times. London, Eng. The Albany Law Journal. Albany, N. Y. The Publishers' Weekly. New York, N. Y. The Law Magazine and Review. London, Eng. The Chicago Legal News. Chicago, Ill. The American Law Times and Reports. New York, N. Y. Legal Gazette. Philadelphia, Pa. The Legal Intelligencer. Philadelphia, Pa. The New York Medical Journal. New York, N. Y. Pacific Law Reporter. San Francisco, Cal. The National Bankruptcy Register Reports. New York, N. Y. The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter. London, Eng. The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal. New York, N. Y. The Legal Chronicle. Pottsville, Pa. The American Law Register. Philadelphia, Pa. The Lower Canada Jurist. Montreal. |