order on the warehouseman for goods in a bonded warehouse, and decides that the giving of such an order, though it be accepted by the warehouseman on presentation by the purchaser, will not constitute a sufficient delivery and acceptance to satisfy the statute of frauds. This latter decision rests on the ground that the warehouseman is the agent of the government, and not the bailee of the importer. The reporter's work is well done, though even in the index to a head-note such statements as "Rule in W. v. C. denied," which we find on p. 286, afford little clew to the nature of the decision. The curious are informed that " W. v. C." means Waugh v. Carver, 2 H. Bl. 235, which is stated in the body of the note. The other defects in Mr. Sawyer's method, which we pointed out in our notice of his first volume, have been in great part, if not entirely, corrected. Lectures on the Early History of Institutions. By Sir HENRY SUMNER MAINE, K.C.S.I., LL.D., F.R.S., author of "Ancient Law" and "Village Communities in the East and West." New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1875. EVEN if space permitted, it would be no easy task to give a tolerably adequate idea of the purpose and result of this work without a somewhat extended mention of the two other celebrated works by the same author, Ancient Law and Village Communities. The present volume consists of thirteen lectures, delivered at Oxford, and is "an attempt . . . to carry farther in some particulars the line of investigation pursued by the author in an earlier work on Ancient Law." Sir Henry Maine supposes throughout a familiar acquaintance on the part of the reader with the various theories and speculations embodied in his former works. This will, perhaps, prevent the book from having as wide a circulation, at least in this country, as his former writings have had, though probably, in view of the audience before whom they were delivered, it did not interfere with the effectiveness of the lectures. 66 The last three lectures are somewhat disconnected with those that precede, though falling within the general scope of the work. Lecture XI. is an inquiry into the early history of the settled property of married women. This subject, though new to the English and American lawyer, is one which has continued to occupy the human race from a very early period. Lecture XII. is upon Sovereignty." The author here expresses an opinion with which, we think, all who have given any attention to the subject must agree, that there is need not only of a new history, but of a new philosophy, of law. If he had said that as far as the English language and law are concerned, there is at present neither history nor philosophy, the assertion might be suffered to pass without challenge. Lecture XIII., which is in a manner a continuation of the former, is upon Empire and Sovereignty. These last two lectures deserve to be read with Bentham's Fragment on Government and Austin's Province of Jurisprudence determined. They unite the rare qualities of being both profound and lucid. The remaining lectures are based upon old Irish Law. The Irish government are publishing translations of the Ancient Laws of Ireland. Three volumes have already been published. These laws are known as the "Bre hon Laws." The Brehons, the authors of the laws, are supposed to have been an hereditary class of professed lawyers. The laws themselves consist of an ancient code, with an appendage of later glosses and commentaries. They are thought to have been compiled from old customs in the tenth century, although some of them profess to have been compiled during the life and under the personal supervision of St. Patrick. They are partly in verse, and, in Sir Henry Maine's opinion, are authentic monuments of ancient Aryan institutions. As Ireland lay without the pale of Roman conquest, they have been affected but slightly by Roman influence, and resemble much the Hindoo law. The date of the existing manuscripts is unknown, though one from this indorsement upon it, written by a member of the family to whom it belonged, is proved to be as old as the fourteenth century: "One thousand three hundred two and forty years from the birth of Christ till this night; and this is the second year since the coming of the plague into Ireland. I have written this in the twentieth year of my age. I am Hugh, son of Conor McEgan; and whoever reads this, let him offer a prayer of mercy for my soul. This is Christmas night, and on this night I place myself under the protection of the King of Heaven and Earth, beseeching that he will bring me and my friends safe through the plague. Hugh wrote this in his own father's book, in the year of the great plague.” ... The laws are upon a great variety of subjects. One matter is treated with curious minuteness; it is that of dog-fights. "Four pages .. are concerned with injuries received from dogs in dog fights, and they set forth in the most elaborate way the modification of the governing rule required in the case of the owners; in the case of the spectators; in the case of the 'impartial interposer;' in the case of the 'half interposer,' i.e., the man who tries to separate the dogs, with a bias in favor of one of them; in the case of an accidental looker-on; in the case of a youth under age; and in the case of an idiot." Sir Henry Maine thinks this Irish law "is a very remarkable body of archaic law, unusually pure from its origin;" that by it we can connect the races at the eastern and western extremities of the world, the Hindoos and the Irish. The subjects treated of in these laws afford our author abundant opportunity, in the first ten lectures of the book, for plausible conjecture and ingenious hypothesis in support of new positions as well as of old ones before maintained by him in his other works. Sir Henry Maine in all his works is a bold speculator; in our opinion, he shows a tendency to make sweeping inductions from insufficient data. A few isolated facts, having an appearance, it may be a false one, of analogy, do not warrant a universal conclusion. In his writings, too, we sometimes meet with absolute point-blank statements which surprise us. Let us instance one of some half a dozen we have noticed in the present volume. On page 343 we find this statement: "Bentham seems to be exclusively known in France and Germany as the author of an unpopular system of morals." Now, when we know that the four of Bentham's chief works upon Jurisprudence were published in French, and at Paris, because the Continent furnished a market for them when England did not, we confess we doubt the statement. Moreover, we have frequently seen references to and citations from these works in French writers upon jurisprudence, and it is only the execrabie habit which Frenchmen have of publishing without an index, which, joined to a want of time, prevents our citing author and page where such citations and references occur. How it may be in Germany we do not know, being unfortunately unacquainted with the German language; but an extract from Borrow's The Bible in Spain may serve to answer for that country. Borrow had been arrested at Cape Finisterra, and was brought before an alcalde, when the following dialogue took place: Alcalde. I see that you are an Englishman, and my friend Antonio here informs me that you have been arrested at Finisterra. Myself. He tells you true; and but for him, I believe, I should have fallen by the hands of those savage fishermen. Alcalde. The inhabitants of Finisterra are brave, and are all liberals. Allow me to look at your passport? Yes, all in form. Truly, it was very ridiculous that they should have arrested you as a Carlist. Myself. Not only as a Carlist, but as Don Carlos himself. Alcalde. Oh! most ridiculous; mistake a countryman of the grand Baintham for such a Goth! Myself. Excuse me, sir, you speak of the grand somebody. Alcalde. The grand Baintham. He who has invented laws for all the world. I hope shortly to see them adopted in this unhappy country of ours. Myself. Oh! you mean Jeremy Bentham. Yes! a very remarkable man in his way. Alcalde. In his way! in all ways. The most universal genius which the world ever produced, -a Solon, a Plato, and a Lope de Vega. Myself. I have never read his writings. I have no doubt that he was a Solon, and, as you say, a Plato. I should scarcely have thought, however, that he could have ranked as a poet with Lope de Vega. Alcalde. How surprising! I see, indeed, that you know nothing of his writings, though an Englishman. Now, here am I, a simple alcalde of Galicia, yet I possess all the writings of Baintham on that shelf, and I study them day and night. Myself. You doubtless, Sir, possess the English language. Alcalde. I do. I mean that part of it which is contained in the writings of Baintham. I am most truly glad to see a countryman of his in these Gothic wildernesses. Stay, I think I see a book in your hand. Alcalde. Why do you carry such a book with you? Myself. One of my principal motives in visiting Finisterra was to carry this book to that wild place. Alcalde. Ha, ha! how very singular! Yes, I remember, I have heard that the English highly prize this eccentric book. How very singular that the countrymen of the grand Baintham should set any value upon that old monkish book! Now it is evident that the alcalde knew Bentham as a writer upon jurisprudence, and that even his system of morals was not unpopular with him, whatever it may have been with the Englishman who had never read his writings. Mr. Borrow tells this as a pleasant story at the expense of the alcalde; but the alcalde must have laughed inwardly, when, in answer to Borrow's suggestion that he read the English language, he said, glancing at the French editions upon his shelf, for the writings upon jurisprudence had not at that time been translated into English, “I do. I mean that part of it which is contained in the writings of Bentham.” The New York Supreme Court Reports. Cases determined in the Supreme Edited by ISAAC Albany: John D. In the October, 1874, number of this Review, we briefly noticed Volumes II. and III. of this series, which brought the cases down to June, 1874. The volume before us contains the decisions of the five succeeding months, and is published with commendable despatch. It contains more than an average number of cases, is closely printed, and does not show any padding on the part of the editors. We may as well, however, express our entire dissent from the principle adopted by the judges of this court, of writing several opinions in so many of the reported cases. So seldom is it that the different judges arrive at the same result by different courses of reasoning, and therefore so apt are the several written opinions to be little more than repetitions of one another, that on behalf of the profession, and especially also on behalf of the editors and reporters, we desire to protest. The notion of a system of judiciary composed of two or three graded courts of from five to ten judges each, grinding out their respective grists of reports, with several opinions. in support of, and several against the finding of the majority of the court in each case, would, we think, paralyze even the vigorous industry of the editors of the volume before us. We recommend, as we have hitherto done, this series above all previous ones of the reports of this court. We notice, among other cases of general interest, Carroll v. Weiler, p. 131, which holds (1) that where several dogs kill sheep together the owner of each dog is liable only for his own dog's damage, and a joint action will not lie against all; (2) that evidence that a dog had at another time been seen in company with a dog proved to have been one of the sheep-killers is admissible to show that the dogs knew each other, as a "basis for the presumption that when a feast was to be had on plaintiff's sheep they would enjoy it together." Reports of Cases in Law and Equity determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa. By EDWARD H. STILES, Reporter. Vol. XV., being Volume XXXVI. of the Series. Ottumwa Published by the Reporter. 1874. ACCORDING to the announcement by Mr. Stiles in the last volume of his Reports, the concluding volumes of his series are to follow each other in quick succession. The one before us closes with the adjudications of the June term, 1873, which is not in accord with the demand of the profession for early reports of decided cases. Among cases of general interest we notice Mulligan v. Illinois Central Railway Co., p. 181, which decides the much-litigated question whether a railroad company, which receives goods marked for a destination beyond its own terminus, is bound to deliver them at that point. The court hold that in the absence of any agreement limiting its liability, the company is liable for a failure to deliver at the point of destination. The court also hold that the receipt, by the shipper of goods from the carrier, of a bill of lading which contains a limitation of the carrier's liability is conclusive on him, and he cannot be allowed to show ignorance of its contents. In McElfresh v. Kirkendall, p. 224, it is held that in Iowa the common-law rule is still in force, that a husband is liable for the torts of his wife, although he is not liable under the statutes for her separate debts. In Graves v. Graves, p. 310, it is decided that where a wife is separated from her husband on account of misconduct on his part justifying such separation, alimony will be decreed under the equity powers of the court, although no divorce is sought, and the action is for alimony alone. This is further than most of our courts have gone. In Fitzpatrick v. Fitzpatrick, p. 674, the court hold that parol evidence is not admissible to show that when a testator devised the west half of the northeast quarter, he never owned that, but intended to devise the east half of the south-west quarter. This case follows exactly Kurtz v. Hibner, 55 Ill. 514, which was severely condemned by Judge Redfield, in the February, 1871, number of the American Law Register. We notice some evidences of careless proof-reading, and would suggest an endeavor to condense the matter of these Reports into a smaller compass in future volumes. Reports of Cases determined in the Supreme Court of the Stale of Nevada, during the year 1873–74. Reported by Alfred HeLM, Clerk of Supreme Court, and THEODORE H. HITTELL, Esq. Volume IX. San Francisco: Frank Eastman, Printer, No. 509 Clay Street. 1874. THIS book makes, with the rules of court and the index, a volume of 450 pages. It embraces all the cases determined down to and including the October term, 1874, amounting in all to some fifty-seven cases, of which eighteen are criminal, and many are of merely local interest and importance, depending as they do on the construction of laws peculiar to the State of Nevada, or being only the exercise of appellate jurisdiction in supervising the action of the court below in its judgment on facts; as, for instance, Marye, Appellant v. Martin, p. 28, which determines that under a given state of facts respondent was justified in believing a certain person to be appellant's attorney. The reporting is carefully and on the whole well done, and the press-work is creditable. We are prevented by want of space from giving a more extended notice. Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. Volume X. JOHN F. TOвEY, Reporter. New York: Published by Hurd and Houghton. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1875. THIS volume contains a number of cases of general interest; of which perhaps the most important is Stafford v. Providence, bearing as it does upon the evidence to be presented to a jury in land-taking cases, which now involve larger amounts of money than any other class of cases. The judges do not |