meanings, an unfortunate use of the word; and the phrase "to make relations," is so bewildering that we are tempted to suppose that by "them," in the last line, is meant not "relations of measures" but "measures." To "make measures" is not a more. uncommon phrase than "to make relations." Again, the qualification expressed by the words "as such," requires some little reflection before its meaning becomes apparent. We venture to say that few people, even with the help of the illustrations, will think that the meaning of the whole sentence is brought out as clearly as it might be. Verbal criticism of this kind is justified by the great importance of keeping clear, in such a book as the Digest, of all difficulties created by the mere form of the expression.

Mr. Stephen promises, if this undertaking should be favourably received, to apply the same process to some other branches of the law. We welcome the promise most heartily, but we may be allowed to suggest to Mr. Stephen a doubt whether he ought to undertake the work single-handed. Why not gather round him a few competent men who will treat other portions of the law, under his general direction, as he has treated the Law of Evidence? He has an example in the success of similar undertakings in History and Science, to which men almost as distinguished as himself have lent a hand. With a good staff of subordinate workers Mr. Stephen might soon give us a series of Digests, covering the entire field of the law. Even as a publisher's speculation such a scheme ought to be a success.

The Law and Practice in Bankruptcy. Second Edition. By ROLAND VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-atLaw; and WALTER VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, Esq., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. Stevens & Sons. 1876.

This is a new edition of the authors' book on Bankruptcy which, we are glad to see, has had a satisfactory amount of success. The first edition was published shortly after the Act of 1869 came into operation, and proceeded upon the plan of setting forth in juxtaposition the new law and the old cases applicable to the same subject-matter. The authors did not profess to give all the authorities, but only the result of the authorities, so that the reader might be able to resort to the reports without having always to turn to treatises on the Law of Bankruptcy as it existed previous to the Act of 1869. To this modest design the authors remain faithful in their new edition, but they have of course a large accession of new cases to work into the substance of the book. In addition to the Bankruptcy Act, the Debtor's

Act, the Bankruptcy Repeal and Insolvent Court Act of 1869, with the related Rules and Forms, are printed in full. The book is thus, in form at least, rather an edition of the Act of Parliament than a treatise on the Law of Bankruptcy. There is a good deal to be said for this arrangement in a subject which is so completely governed by statute as Bankruptcy; and, at any rate, it saves us the trouble of constantly referring to the Act of Parliament in an Appendix. On the other hand, one loses the instructive history of Bankruptcy legislation, as it is presented in more systematic treatises, such as that of Robson. Inasmuch as Bankruptcy still contains many unsettled problems, it would be well perhaps to keep the main objects and leading difficulties of Bankruptcy Law, as a whole, more vividly before the eye of the reader than is possible in a mere edition of the Act.

In the book before us, however, great care has been taken to point out the changes effected by successive statutes. The legislative history of each section has been given, so far as it has a history-sometimes in great, but not excessive, detail. Along with the section of the new Act, we have a statement of the old law on the same subject, pointing out the mischief aimed at by the enactment, and the reason for the change. Some of these notices are little treatises in themselves. The note on the 15th section (descriptions of bankrupts' property divisible among creditors) fills about sixty closely printed pages. The first of the exceptions (property held by the bankrupt on trust for any other person) alone occupies about fourteen pages, and the "reputed ownership' clause occupies nearly thirty. The last note contains a comparison between the doctrine of reputed ownership and the principles of the Bills of Sales Act, which seems to us to be, in completeness and conciseness, a very good specimen of editorial workmanship. It would be more correct, in view of the carefulness and copiousness of some of these notes to sections, to describe the book as a treatise on Bankruptcy, following the order of the latest statute on the subject, than as a mere edition of the statutes with notes. Not only are the statutory changes carefully recorded, but the legal history of doctrines and phrases receives a good deal of attention. No matter how complete may be the system created by statutes like the Bankruptcy Act of 1869, they will always be found to take for granted principles, and to make use of phrases, which require to be explained by reference to the general law. In this respect "Williams on Bankruptcy" is quite satisfactory-the more so, perhaps, as the authors have wisely. not attempted to give all the old authorities, even where the aw seems unchanged, but rather the result of those authorities.”

Internationalism, by His Excellency DON ARTURO DE MARCOARTU, Ex-Deputy to the Cortes, with Prize Essays on International Law, by A. P. SPRAGUE, Counsellor-at-Law, U.S.A., and PAUL LACOMBE, Advocate at the French Bar. Stevens & Sons. 1876.

It is not a little curious, and perhaps somewhat unfortunate, that Don Arturo de Marcoartu, whose aim is peaceful, and whose Prizes had for their object the promotion of International Arbitration and Codification, should have chosen a title which is suggestive of subversive ideas. Yet it must be admitted that "Internationalism," in the natural sense of the phrase, is the dominant characteristic of a work in which a former Deputy to the Spanish Cortes, and an American and a French Jurist give us their views on the possibility of constituting an International Tribunal of Arbitration to decide the disputes, and a Common Code to regulate the relations, of the Civilized Nations of the World.

The events of which Eastern Europe has been the theatre since the adjudication of M. De Marcoartu's Prizes, at the Brighton Congress of the Social Science Association, may seem at first sight almost entirely to negative the possibilities of which Mr. Sprague and M. Lacombe treat in the volume now before us. But our authors, and those who think with them, would doubtless meet such a view by the not unreasonable plea that it is the very want of such a Code and such a Tribunal as they argue for which has brought International relations in Europe to such a pitch of confusion. There are probably many who would admit that there is no little justice in this plea, though they may be unable to see their way to applying the suggested remedy, and may think that even if applied it would not prove a panacea. Mr. Sprague's language seems to indicate that he fully recognizes these difficulties, and that he does not expect that wars would cease on the adoption of the scheme which he advocates, but that he does expect the frequency of war would be greatly lessened, and the complications of Diplomacy diminished. As between Codification and Arbitration, Mr. Sprague is a partisan of the latter, though, as he points out, practically some sort of Codification would be implied by Arbitration. And on Arbitration itself he appears to accept the view taken of it by Mr. Mountague Bernard and Professor Bluntschli, at the Foundation Conference of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations, at Brussels, in 1873, quoting Mr. Bernard's opinion, by an odd misprint (p 96), under the name of " Professor

Montague." M. de Marcoartu seems to think that a Plébiscite alone should be declaratory of Peace or War, and that this would be a great safe-guard. But the course of events both in 1870 and at the present moment does not favour that view. Anyone who recalls the universal enthusiasm that raised the cry "à Berlin," in 1870, and who believes the declaration, so often repeated within the last few months, that it is the Russian people who have been urging war upon an unwilling Czar, will have grave doubts as to the value of this mode of lessening the chances of war. Would that species of "Staatenbund" which appears to be the ideal of M. de Marcoartu and Messrs. Sprague and Lacombe be a more valuable mode? It seems to us that in the instances which they adduce in favour of the principle there was an antecedent force tending to closer union which is wanting among the Nations as a whole. "Italianism," as M. de Marcoartu calls it, was "the political realization of the geographical expression of Italy." Turning to Germany, we find that the "Zollverein, conceived by Prussia, prepared the present evolution of Germanism." Besides these there are to be reckoned Scandinavism, Iberianism, and not the least potent just now, Panslavism. All these, which M. de Marcoartu considers as "forms assumed by Internationalism during the ages," seem to us more properly described as forms or expressions of the idea of Nationality, a theory of much less wide scope than "Internationalism as conceived by our authors. It may, indeed, be questioned whether the two are not to a certain degree, antagonistic. We have at the present moment before us the newest claimant to the expression of what we prefer to call the National feeling in the idea of Panslavism, which is one of the forces underlying the complications in Eastern Europe. But all these various national expressions of brotherhood fall short of that universal brotherhood which "Internationalism" would seem to inculcate, and which Mr. Sprague would embody in the "Association of Nations," receiving the International Code, and acknowledging the force of the decrees. of the "High Court of International Arbitration." In the midst of wars and rumours of wars, this autumn, which has seen the Centennial of the United States of America celebrated in the City of Brotherly Love, has also seen the re-assembly of the American International Code Committee. We may, at least, give our friends across the Atlantic credit for indomitable perseverance in a good cause, and we doubt not that it is a perseverance which will ultimately reap its reward; though not necessarily on the lines laid down by the authors of "Internationalism." If

such a High Court had been in existence now as is sketched outby Mr. Sprague and M. Lacombe, the affairs of the Slavonic populations in the Turkish Empire would no doubt have been submitted to it. But we doubt whether the Court would have found the settlement of the question much more easy and free from the pressure of conflicting political interests than the Chancellors, and Foreign Secretaries, Ambassadors, and Consuls who are at present engaged in trying to untie, or in the last resort to cut, this Gordian knot of State-craft. "L'heure a sonnée," wrote M. Lacombe," de réaliser la dernière venue de ces idées [viz., Arbitrage et Codification]." And the same writer starts from this point, as containing within it "la médication de la guerre," to advance, if possible, still further. We are not sure that there would not have been a certain "médication de la guerre " in the case now absorbing so much of the attention of Europe, if the rules of Neutrality ordinarily prevailing among Nations had been laid down distinctly by such a Court as Mr. Sprague supposes his Association of Nations to establish. The authors of "Internationalism" evidently wrote under the impression that an era of universal Peace was approaching. So men thought in 1851, and so they will doubtless think again, but only to be yet again undeceived. Still it is much that men of goodwill towards Peace should continue to study whatever in Law and Philosophy may tend most to that end. For a long while their own work will seem to be but weaving ropes of sand. So it is, to all appearance, at the present moment, with the plans sketched out by Mr. Sprague and M. Lacombe. But whatever in their theory is based upon Scientific and Philosophical Truth will outlive the accidental forms in which they have clothed it. We cannot yet decide what will be taken and what will be left. Meanwhile, we may offer to Mr. Sprague as a specially apposite encouragement, the words of Henri Ahrens, "Par une heureuse inspiration les Etats Unis ont adopté pour leur fédération la belle bannière dans laquelle ne figurent plus de bêtes sauvages symboliques, mais qui brille d'autant d'étoiles qu'il y a d'états-membres de l'Union. Une telle bannière est le vrai symbole fédératif.”

Leading Cases on the Law of Torts, determined by the Courts of America and England. With Notes. By MELVILLE M. BIGELOW. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1875.

Mr. Bigelow has deservedly achieved a high reputation as a legal writer on the other side of the Atlantic, and we have