Pollock is to reduce the law into the smallest possible compass, and one of the means they adopt is rigidly to exclude all merely collateral topics. No doubt this would be the right method if each of these Digests were a chapter in a systematic Code. Each chapter should have its subject, and should be confined to its subject; and no subject should be expounded twice. But in books which are merely tentative, and which are meant to show practical men that there is something in the method, this theoretical symmetry might perhaps have been dispensed with. We have a habit of looking for collateral topics in text books dealing with special subjects, and we are disappointed when we do not find them. And, in point of fact, Mr. Pollock, in some cases, has been compelled to break through his rule. "In the third part of this Digest," he says, "entitled 'Of Procedure and Administration,' I have relaxed these limits on grounds of practical convenience, but have endeavoured not to lose sight of them, and have abstained, for instance, from stating rules which are simply part of the general law of Bankruptcy."

Of the execution of the work, we can speak in terms of the highest praise. The language is simple, concise, and clear; and the general propositions may bear comparison with those of Sir James Stephen. The writer of a digest, we should suppose, must be often tempted, like the Alabama Commissioners, to get over a difficulty by using terms of intentional ambiguity or vagueness. There is no fault of this sort about Mr. Pollock's writing; when the law is doubtful, he says it is doubtful; where it is clear, he gives it in plain, unqualified terms. On one point we think Mr. Pollock has improved on the method of his master. He says all that he has to say on any subject in one place, instead of dissipating our attention by constant references to an appendix.

Mr. Pollock's book is, of course, founded on Mr. Justice Lindley's treatise, although it is by no means a new abridgement of that great work; and we cannot imagine a better preparation for the study of the larger treatise, or a better way of refreshing the memory for those who have studied it already, than a careful reading of Mr. Pollock's digest. It states the substance of this most important branch of the law in just eighty-two not very long articles, containing altogether, we should think, not very much more than that number of sentences.

Mayne's Treatise on Damages. Third Edition. By JOHN D. MAYNE, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law; and

LUMLEY SMITH, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Stevens and Haynes, 1877.

During the twenty-two years which have elapsed since the publication of this well-known work, its reputation has been steadily growing, and it has long since become the recognised authority on the important subject of which it treats. The second edition was issued in 1872, under the able editorship of Mr. Lumley Smith. Since then, the great changes of procedure introduced by the Judicature Acts have rendered it necessary to thoroughly revise the whole work, and in the performance of this task Mr. Lumley Smith has had the valuable collaboration of the author of the Treatise. The editors have evidently expended much thoughtful labour in the preparation of this recension, many parts of the former edition, now out of date, being omitted, and their place supplied by new matter, while other parts have been entirely recast. All the English, and the most important Irish, decisions on the Law of Damages appear to have been carefully noted up by the Editors. think it a pity that the reference to American cases, which constituted a feature of the original work and was continued in the second edition, should now have been discontinued (as regards cases decided since 1872), on the ground of the small increase in the bulk of the volume, which would have been thereby incurred. Still, to the English practitioner, this new edition of an old friend, accompanied, as it is, by a full analytical index, cannot fail to be very welcome.

But we

By

Oke's Handy Book of the Game Laws. Third Edition. J. W. WILLIS-BUND, M.A., LL.B., Barrister-at-Law. Butterworths, 1877.

In this new edition of a well-known manual, Mr. Willis-Bund has given the County Magistrate, the Land-owner, and the Tenant, the means of readily ascertaining the existing state of the law on a subject very important to each of those classes of society. The frequency of the necessity for reference to some such work was ample reason in itself for a fresh recension brought down to date. Our own Select Cases (no less than our Digest) bear testimony to the fresh points that are apt to arise under the Game Laws. Some of the Acts passed since Mr. Oke's death, such as the Sea Birds Preservation Act, the Wild Birds Protection Act, and the Wild Fowl Preservation Act, have

aroused a good deal of interest in various quarters, and it was absolutely requisite to the continued usefulness of Mr. Oke's book that the changes introduced by these Acts should be noted. It is not a little interesting to compare the Resolutions of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Game Laws, in 1846, with the suggestions which Mr. Oke's long experience in Magisterial Law authorised him to make, with a view to the amendment of the Game Laws. The memorial of the Chief Constables of England and Wales, in 1861, seems less worth reprinting, except, perhaps, as affording a certain amount of evidence in favour of some amendment of the Law. Mr. WillisBund states that he has been much assisted by Mr. W. P. G. Boxall, and we think both gentlemen may be congratulated upon the general success of their united labours in the elucidation of a branch of law whose sanctions are constantly being enforced by the unpaid magistracy of the United Kingdom.

The Law Relating to Trustee and Post Office Savings Banks, with Notes of Decisions and Awards made by the Barrister and the Registrar of Friendly Societies. By URQUHART A. FORBES, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Hardwicke and Bogue.

Savings Banks first had legal recognition in 1817; but the jurisdiction of the Registrars in their capacity of Barristers, dates from the Act of 1828, by which it was provided that, in case of dispute, if the Arbitrators between the parties failed to bring the matter to a settlement, the decision of the Barrister should be conclusive. Under this Act, in the year 1830, the important case of Crisp v. Bunbury was decided (and the decision has been unhesitatingly followed in numerous subsequent cases), which established that the jurisdiction of the Courts of Law and Equity are ousted in respect to Savings Bank disputes, and, by consequence, in respect to disputes in Friendly Societies, Building Societies, and Industrial and Provident Societies, which are regulated by similar enactments. By an Act of 1844, the appellate jurisdiction of the Barrister was converted into an original jurisdiction, but it was still provided that his decisions should be conclusive and without appeal. The office of Registrar in England is now impersonal, and exercised by a Central Office under its seal.

Mr. Forbes has had access to such records as exist of the decisions made by the Registrar under this peculiar, but very summary, inexpensive, and useful jurisdiction, and has availed

himself of the opportunity in a manner which shows how many interesting points may arise even out of so small a matter as that of determining the right to ownership of a Savings Bank deposit. For example, whether the infant widow of a depositor can give a discharge to the trustees (p. 68); whether a deposit can be made the subject of a donatio mortis causâ (p. 82); whether Savings Bank deposits are naval assets within 28 & 29 Vict., c. iii. (p. 88); and several interesting questions under the Married Women's Property Acts and Divorce Acts (pp. 131, 160-165) are noted as having had to be considered and determined.

When it is borne in mind that the number of deposit accounts in Trustee and Post Office Savings Banks exceeds 3,000,000, and the amount to their credit exceeds £60,000,000 sterling, the usefulness of a ready and inexpensive method of settling disputes will be understood.

Mr. Forbes has rendered to officers of Savings Banks, and through them to the general public, the service of giving them a handy compendium of the law, and of the principles upon which it is and has been administered, with the full text of the Savings Banks Acts, and of other Statutes incidentally useful to them.

A Compendium of Roman Law (founded on the Institutes of Justinian), together with Examination Questions set in the University and Bar Examinations (with Solutions), and Definitions of Leading Terms in the words of the principal authorities. By GORDON CAMPBELL, M.A. Oxon. and Cantab., and of the Inner Temple. Stevens and Haynes. 1878.

The title of Mr. Gordon Campbell's work sets forth the chief points in which it differs from other books of the same class. It is an analytical résumé of the salient features of the Institutes, and of those authors on Jurisprudence, such as Maine and Austin, whose books are used by students as commentaries on Roman Law. It does not, so far as we can see, aim higher than the pass student, but to such an one its brief epitomes, its tabular classifications from Austin, Poste, and others, will, no doubt, be of great assistance. We might complain of a certain appearance of baldness, if it were not inseparable from the method adopted. But the quotations are apt, and are such as the student is likely to remember. It is much to be hoped, however, that he will still read his Maine and his Austin, and reserve Mr. Campbell's volume to act as a précis whereby to refresh his

memory before examination. It would have added to the general scientific interest of the collection of questions given in the Appendix, if the reader had been informed which are taken from Papers set at the Universities, and which from the Inns of Court examination, particularly as they occupy nearly a hundred pages of the entire work. The typographical execution is excellent, and does justice to the name of the "Elzevir

Press."

Thring's Criminal Law of the Navy, with an Introductory Chapter on the Early State and Discipline of the Navy, the Rules of Evidence, and an Appendix comprising the Naval Discipline Act and Practical Forms. By THEODORE THRING, of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law; and C. E. GIFFORD, Assistant-Paymaster, R.N. Second Edition. Stevens and Sons, 1877.

We are glad to see that Mr. Thring's interesting and useful work has reached a second edition. It contains much historical matter of general interest, not only in the Introductory Chapter, but also in the Appendix, which opens with the "Instructions" issued by Robert Blake, George Monk, John Disbrow, and William Penn, Admirals and Generals of the Fleet, set forth by Authority of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, and for the defence of the same." It also contains, in a compact form, and in clear language, a Digest of Naval Law, with concise statements of the rights and obligations arising under it, whether affecting the Courts Military held in Her Majesty's Fleet, or the persons arraigned before those Courts. Mr. Thring gives a very careful account of the position and duties of the important office of the Judge-Advocate, who combines, or may combine, in his own person, the functions of Public Prosecutor and Judge, and legal adviser of the Court Martial, and whose opinion may be given, whether asked by the Court or not, and, when given, "must be considered conclusive upon any point of law or procedure which arises upon a trial at which he officially attends." Mr. Thring criticises the custom, which has obtained in the procedure of Courts Martial, of the Judge-Advocate reducing to the form of a written interrogatory every question which it is proposed to put to a witness. This appears to him, not unreasonably, to be a needless waste of the time of the Court, and one, he contends, "neither directed by Statute nor by the Queen's Regulations." Several questions of Constitutional Law are incidentally touched upon by Mr. Thring in the course of his