by themselves, they are contrasted with those of the Common law. Accordingly Mr. Barbour has prefaced his main thesis with a brief review of the history of the Common law, which purports to be nothing more than a summary of the work of previous writers. None the less it is an admirable piece of work. Mr. Barbour's contribution to original research, however, is to be found in his treatment of the petitions in Chancery. The Chancery proceedings from the reign of Richard II to that of Richard III number no less than 100,000 pieces. Plunging into this mass of materials, Mr. Barbour has collected a sufficient number of instances upon which to frame his conclusions as to the average methods of Chancery in trying contract cases. We join with Professor Vinogradoff in hoping that Mr. Barbour will follow up his researches by giving us the results of an inquiry into the connection between the views held by the Chancellors and the doctrines of Canonists and Civilians.

Mr. Coopland commences his monograph upon the possession of the Monastery of St. Bertin with a late Carlovingian Survey, the Breviatio of 850. From this he is enabled to give with some fulness the economy of those villas, which formed part of the estate of the Abbey, as units of rural exploitation. Founded in 640, the Abbey gradually acquired landed property of considerable area lying between Étaples, on the Somme, to Poperinghe, near the Scheldt, and from the Channel coast, near Blanc Nez, to Thèrouanne, south of St. Omer. It is with the villages lying within a radius of fifteen miles from the latter town, known as the Sinus Itius or Gulf of St. Omer, that this monograph is concerned. It is the economic history of a district partly reclaimed from the sea and partly from a state of decay, by the action of a great ecclesiastical institution and by the advent of peasant settlers, who had to pay various dues and to render diverse services, but who eventually acquired a tenantright almost as secure as ownership. Mr. Coopland's intimate knowledge of the topography and natural conditions of the district, united with laborious research work into the archives of Northern France, has enabled him to trace the stages of this process with the exact details demanded in the successful exposition of the true factors in social development. It is by studies of this kind that, as Professor Vinogradoff declares, precise knowledge, and well-founded generalisations may be substituted for the hazy outlines hitherto furnished by historians of the agricultural proletariate.

Philosophy of Law. By JOSEF KOHLER. Translated from the German by ADALBERT ALBRECHT. With an Editorial Preface by ALBERT KOCOURCK, with Introductions by ORRIN N. CARTER and WILLIAM CALDWELL. Boston: The Boston Book Company. 1914.

Edited by the Editorial Committee of the Association of American Law Schools, this book forms Vol. XII of the Modern Legal Philosophy Series. In noticing the earlier volumes of this remarkable series, we stated that the chief purpose of the Committee is to present to the Anglo-American race the most representative views of modern writers in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. Professor Kohler was born at Offenburg in 1849. He is said by an eminent American writer to be unquestionably the first of living jurists. With an incomplete knowledge of his works, we naturally hesitate to accept this high valuation, but the most cursory examination of this volume will be found sufficient in placing Professor Kohler in the first flight of the legal writers of the age. The leader of the neo-Hegelians, Kohler's creative fertility has been extraordinary. The Index of his writings contains no less than 526 separate titles, and this amazing proof of industry is equalled by the quality of his contributions. "A pioneer in comparative legal history, he has," says Mr. Roscoe Pound, the American writer above referred to, "made himself an authority, not merely upon the general subject, but upon more than one special branch and upon the legal history of more than one primitive people. At the same time, he has made himself an authority upon such specialised subjects of dogmatic law as the law of bankruptcy and patent law; has made important contributions to modern criminalistic; has written a text-book of the German Civil Code, and has taken the lead in the most active and most widely accepted movement in the modern philosophy of law. No one else has come so near to taking all legal knowledge for his province. No one, therefore, is so well prepared to reduce all legal knowledge to a system." And record does not end here. In many other fields of specialised effort Kohler is accepted as an authority. On such diverse subjects as folk-lore, music, painting, poetry and history Kohler has left his mark. The volume here rendered into English is the Lehrbuck der Rechtsphilosophie, published in Berlin in 1909. It does not however disclose a complete statement of Kohler's philosophical position, nor indeed is such a statement to be found in any of his works. Anything like a self-contained metaphysical system is entirely absent,

since he accepts Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit as the basis of his philosophy. But although Kohler bases his system, so far as it is a system, upon the fundamental provisions contained in the Hegelian doctrine, he does not do so blindly. He appropriates the essence of Hegel's ideas without taking over the dry form of his too abstract methodical process. And although he names Hegel as his master, he only does so with qualifications. The illustrious ideas of Hegel, he says, can only be accepted "with proper correction." Thus, what in Hegel is too abstruse or too artificial he discards. The dominating factor in Kohler's system is evolution. He energetically rejects a fixed standard of justice as applicable to all people at all times. There is no such thing as eternal law. The philosophy of law, he says, is a branch of philosophy, dealing with man and his culture. Culture is the control of nature by science and art, and every culture must be provided with its corresponding and appropriate system of law. This has been defined as "cultural progression." After this introduction to philosophy of law, Kohler deals with the law of the individual and the body politic. Under this he considers the law of persons and the law of property. Family law is a division of the former. Property law is divided into the law of ownership and of obligations, and a third division, "property as a whole" is added, under which the law of inheritance is specially treated. The law of the State and of Nations falls under the division of the law of the body politic. In the Appendices will be found two criticisms, one by Professor Adolf Lasson Kohler's Philosophy of Law, and the other by Professor J. Castillejo y Duarte, Kohler's Philosophical Position.

The Chancery of Lancashire Practice, containing the Statutes, Orders, Rules and Regulations affecting the Jurisdiction and Practice of the Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Lancaster, with Notes. By JOHN BENNETT, M.A. Manchester: Sherratt & Hughes. 1914.

At what precise moment Lancashire became a county, and when it acquired palatinate jurisdiction has still to be determined. Although apparently the county of Lancaster, as distinguished from the honour, did not come into official recognition till about 1194, the honour enjoyed some of the attributes of royalty under William shortly after the conquest and probably under his predecessor. With the charter of 1351, however, the palatine jurisdiction in all its fulness was conferred by Edward III. From this period, as the records of the Palatine Courts now in the record office, commencing

with the first Palatinate of Henry Duke of Lancaster show, the Chancery of the County Palatine dates.

This Court, which must be distinguished from that of the Duchy Chamber of Lancaster to which appeals lay, has exercised jurisdic tion as a Court of Equity since 1351. It followed the High Court of Chancery in its development of equitable principles, and framed its procedure largely on that of the High Court. With the extension of the powers of the High Court of Chancery similar powers were conferred by the Chancery of Lancaster Act 1850 upon the Court, and its jurisdiction enlarged by subsequent Acts. In spite of this attempted co-ordination, or rather perhaps in consequence, differences in the extent of the jurisdiction and in certain respects in the practice of the two Courts arose, which have rendered it impossible to rely entirely on the books dealing with the practice of the High Court. It was to meet this want that the present work was planned and in part written, by Mr. J. Herbert Cunliffe, K.C., who, upon taking silk, handed over his MS. and material to Mr. Bennett for completion and publication. The Introduction contains a short and interesting sketch of the origin of the Court's jurisdiction and a description of the present jurisdiction and practice. This is followed by the full text of the Chancery of Lancaster statutes annotated, whilst Part III sets forth the Orders and Rules of the Palatine Court. Part IV contains Forms; Part V, Orders as to Court Fees and Solicitors' Costs, etc.; and Part VI deals with Rules issued under particular Statutes. In those cases where the Rules of the Palatine Court are the same as the Rules of the Supreme Court, no note is appended to the Palatine Rule, but a reference is given to the corresponding Rule in the Rules of the Supreme Court. Where, however, the Rules or practice differ, notes are given. The notes of the cases decided by the late ViceChancellor Hall were personally revised by him and approved. It is curious to note the provisions for a trial by jury.

Bowstead's Forms and Precedents. By W. BOWSTEAD and M. R. EMANUEL, M.A., B.C.L. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1914.

The numerous precedents which make up the two volumes of this work, would, with the well-known collections on Conveyancing and Company law, constitute a library adequate to meet the demands, in all except practice forms, which are likely to be made on any practitioner. They are not merely selections, but are an array which

is nearly exhaustive over a range which extends from bills of lading to separation deeds, and even to the forms which an auctioneer could require in any of the multifarious things which are transferred by the fall of the hammer. And they are not merely skeletons, but full forms. So that they afford to the inexperienced the wealth which long experience has garnered. The work is undoubtedly a conscientious, painstaking, and thoughtful production.

The Annual Practice 1915. By J. B. MATTHEWS, K.C., R. WHITE, and F. A. STRINGER.

The A. B. C. Guide to Practice 1915. By F. R. P. STRINger. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

The White Book for 1915 makes its appearance at the earliest possible moment under the same able managers who have been so long associated in the editorial department. New Acts and new rules have made necessary many important changes, and these have been effected with considerable skill. For instance, the Bankruptcy Acts from 1883 onward have been almost wholly repealed and consolidated by the new Act of 1914. But as this repealing Act does not come into operation till the 1st of January of next year, the old Acts retain, throughout this year, their full force, and are therefore referred to in the text by their old titles and sections. But any inconvenience which this might occasion before the White Book of 1916 is issued, is excellently met by the numbers of the substituted sections of the new Act being printed on the margin wherever the old Acts are cited. This will be a point of great advantage. Another instance of difficulty surmounted is in the insertion of the rules under the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act 1914. Some of these rules were not obtainable till after the book had been printed. Space seems therefore to have been left for them at the end of Part I, and the paging of Part II proceeded with after an allowance of room for the expected matter, and as the allotment of space for the unknown rules was more than sufficient, a lapse occurs after page 1364; for the next page is 1401. The urgent" rules passed on 17th July of this year, relating to the long vacation, are of course subject to alteration before the coming of next long vacation. The traditional accuracy of the work seems, from all searches which time has permitted, to be fully sustained. The mechanical parts are not less commendable. The Table of Cases and the Index have been revised, and the colouring of the front page edges afford a swift access to any part sought for.