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unfrequently, when drawn, purely artificial. It depends a good deal upon the point of view from which a particular question is approached, whether it be one of Public or Private Law. Many cases of private interest might yet truly have it said of them "Ad statum Reipublicæ spectant." Take, eg., the U.S. "Trade Mark cases" (U.S. Reports, 100). They were, in themselves, cases of private interest, but they were not decided without involving very grave questions of Public Law, including the powers of the President under the Constitution of the United States, and the consequent validity or invalidity of Treaties between the Federal Government and Foreign Powers. We think, therefore, that text-writers who make Private International Law their principal subject, should, nevertheless, always bear in mind this unavoidably close connection between. the two branches. Mr. Westlake has given to his new work the character of a Digest of the Law on questions of Private International Law decided in the English Courts, rather than that of a Treatise on the Principles of that branch of Law. He has, as a rule, adhered to brevity so closely that his text could not possibly have been more compressed without ceasing to be intelligible. We should often have been better satisfied had the text been fuller, and we could have dispensed with the names of the Judges, which are appended to their decisions, an innovation that does not entirely command our sympathy. But whether Mr. Westlake is collecting judicial decisions, or commenting upon them, and speaking his own mind, he is sure to be listened to with interest on all questions connected with the Conflict of Laws.

Mr. Guthrie's book is of value alike from the eminence of the profound Jurist, Savigny, whose teaching he sets before us, and from the interesting commentary which he appends throughout by way of notes. By this means the book is brought down to the present day, and the principles of Savigny can be studied in their agreement with or divergence from modern judgments or dicta. In the same way reference is made throughout both to the more recent editions of Continental writers cited by Savigny, and to English, Scottish and American cases, or text-books illustrating the subject. Thus we meet with Le Sueur v. Le Sueur, Sottomayor v. De Barros, Simonin v. Maillac, and other well-known" modern instances," and we are referred to appropriate passages in the works of Lord Fraser, who now so fitly adorns the Bench of the Court of Session, Mr. Westlake,

Mr. Dicey, Mr. Foote, &c. Sometimes we should have been glad if Mr. Guthrie had given us a little insight into his own attitude towards his great master's teaching. For instance, it would seem at pp. 95-6, that there must have been some difference between Savigny's view of the constitution of Caracalla, extending Roman citizenship throughout the limits of the Roman world, and the view taken by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. Savigny certainly seems to make rather light of the edict, while Sir Henry unquestionably attributes to it a great and far-reaching influence. Is this divergence apparent rather than real, and does it arise from the special point of view from which each writer was regarding this constitution? Or does it indicate a real divergence, into the causes and importance of which it would be interesting to make a closer investigation? Perhaps, in a future edition, Mr. Guthrie will turn his attention to some of the at least apparent antinomies of these and other masters of modern Juridical Thought.

Mr. W. E. Hall is a new candidate for public favour as a text-writer on International Law, though already known by several pièces de circonstance which showed him to be working out for himself solutions of questions of importance in international relations. Mr. Hall has read widely and thought deeply on these questions, and the result is before us in a volume which ought to be read and considered by all who take an intelligent and scientific interest in the Law of Nations. It is not the least of Mr. Hall's merits that he criticises freely both doctrines and their upholders. We do not by any means always agree with his criticisms, but they give a freshness and a point to his book which entitle it still more to our attention. Sometimes Mr. Hall introduces a new, or, at least, unfamiliar terminology. Thus, where most writers speak of "territorial waters," he speaks of "marginal seas." There are objections to the former epithet not shared by the latter, which purely states a fact. But bearing in mind the questions connected with this particular epithet, we think the form introduced by Sir Travers Twiss in our own pages, "jurisdictional waters," is better than either. And in his criticism of the various doctrines on this point, Mr. Hall does not note the employment of this phrase by Sir Travers, subsequent as it is to the latest edition of his Law of Nations. We may remark, obiter, that we fail to apprehend the exact meaning of Mr. Hall when he says in his critical note, p. 126, that the rights of sovereignty or jurisdiction belonging

to a State, are, in all cases (except piracy), "indissolubly connected with the possession of international property." The general stand-point of Mr. Hall may best be judged by his opening statement, that he regards the rules of International Law "simply as a reflection of the moral development and the external life of the particular nations which are governed by them." In his Appendices there will be found an interesting summary of the author's view of the Formation of the Conception of International Law, and also a useful précis of the enactments of the chief States which have legislated on the still complicated question of Nationality, besides other documents of practical utility for reference.

We shall hope to continue in our next issue the consideration of some of the many important topics covered by the works named at the head of this review.

Principles of the Criminal Law. By SEYMOUR F. HARRIS, B.C.L., M.A. Second Edition. Revised by the Author and F. P. TOMLINSON, M.A., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. Stevens and Haynes. 1881.

Mr. Seymour Harris, already well-known for his several useful institutional treatises, has seized an opportune moment for the issue of a revised edition of his Criminal Law. The new legislation in regard to Summary Jurisdiction occupies a separate Book of the present edition, in which various minor alterations have also been made, tending to the greater convenience of the student. The annotations embrace terse statements of law or opinion from the works of Sir James Stephen, and of the distinguished American Criminalist, Mr. Bishop. But we do not observe that Dr. Wharton, a leading text-writer on this subject in the United States, has been consulted as we should have expected. The Table of Offences and Punishments has been already remarked upon both by ourselves and by foreign critics as a feature adding to the value of the book. Such a Table, if extended by Mr. Seymour Harris to the relative punishments of Continental States, would be an interesting study in comparative legislation in a future edition. Perhaps, by that time, the Criminal Code Bill may have become law. It sleeps just now, but it must awake ere long.

The Law of Railway Companies. By J. H. BALFOUR BROWNE, of the Middle Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Registrar to the Railway Commissioners; and H. S. THEOBALD, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Stevens & Sons.

1881.

There are two ways of compiling such a work as that which Messrs. Browne and Theobald have given to the public-the chronological and the topical. That the system of grouping the Acts according to their subject-matter is the right one we think few will be found to deny. The authors themselves admit the disadvantages of the chronological method, but while abstaining from pointing out any virtues which may attach to it, have yet thought it "best, on the whole," to adopt it. This regretable decision has had the effect, in our opinion, of materially detracting from the usefulness of the book. Until, however, a work of equal merit with this one, but arranged on the better system, shall have appeared, there can be no doubt that the book under review offers to the practitioner an almost indispensable aid in all cases of Railway Law and its kindred topics. No less than 75 Acts, from the Carriers Act (1 William IV., c. 68) down to the Employers Liability Act, passed on the 7th September, 1880, are set forth in chronological order. Between the sections are intercalated notes-often lengthy, though concisely worded-setting forth the effect of all the decided cases to November, 1880. The labour of compilation and digestion must in this part have been very considerable, and so far as we have been able to test it, appears to have been conscientiously and accurately performed. In addition to the Acts and Notes of Cases, the volume also contains much useful ancillary information, such as a list of the documents required to be sent to the Board of Trade previously to the opening of a railway; the Orders under the Railway Companies Act, 1867; the General Orders made by the Railway Commissioners under the Act of 1873; the Orders in Council under the Explosives Act, 1875, so far as they affect Railway Companies, and the bye-laws under that Act approved by the Board of Trade. In an appendix are the material portions of the Standing Orders of the House of Commons 1878-9, and the bye-laws approved by the Board of Trade for regulating the conveyance of passengers upon railways. The index, for which Mr. Montague Lush is responsible, is full and well executed; and facility of reference is aided by a complete marginal analysis. Credit

is due to the publishers and printers for the manner in which their share in the work has been executed; and we note with approbation that the edges are cut, a practice which, as respects books for business men at least, we trust will soon become universal. The loss of time involved in cutting open with a paper-knife the pages of a bulky treatise ought never to be inflicted by publishers upon their customers.

A Digest of the Law of Partnership. By FREDERICK POLLOCK, M.A., Hon. LL.D., Edinburgh, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. (Second Edition, with Appendix and the Partnership Bill, 1880, as amended in Committee.) Stevens and Sons. 1880.

In this very seasonable re-issue of his able and scholarly work, Mr. Pollock (whose merits, we are glad to see, have won him fresh Academic honours) has re-modelled some of his text, and has added a very practical Commentary in the shape of the Partnership Bill, 1880, originally drafted by himself. Pollock's employment of Sir James Stephen's system of expounding the law in short propositions, divested as far as possible of technicalities, and supported by illustrations from decided cases, is too well known by this time to need more than incidental mention. His present subject is one which specially needed the care he has given it, and the revised edition of his Digest will, besides being very acceptable to all who are in any way concerned in the vast net-work of interests covered by the word Partnership, also, we hope, hasten the progress of legislation. It seems to us, as far as we can judge, that the proposals of the Bill of 1880 with regard to the registration of Limited Partnerships (clause 79, p. 148), which, as we understand, did not meet with the approbation of the Board of Trade, bear a considerable resemblance to two similar proposals which have engaged the attention of several successive Ministries in Italy.

Coote's Law of Mortgage. Fourth edition. By W. WYLLYS MACKESON, Esq., of the Inner Temple, one of Her Majesty's Counsel. Stevens & Sons. 1880.

Coote's Law of Mortgage, which, despite its somewhat excessive verbosity, obtained a considerable reputation, had, during the thirty years now past since the issue of its third

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