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Theory of Compound Interest and Annuities, with Logarithmic Tables. By Fédor Thoman (of the Société Crédit Mobilier of Paris). London: Lockwood & Co., Stationers' Hall Court, 1859.

THOSE who are able to apply logarithms to the multifarious questions of compound interest, annuities, reversions, &c., will find this small volume of great use. The editor of M. Thoman's work remarks, that "numerical tables have been for some time in the hands of the public, and have rendered many valuable services, but, owing to their limits, they are only applicable to elementary transactions. Wherever the questions, although of daily commercial occurrence, are more intricate, numerical tables are of little use, as common arithmetic is inadequate to solve them. Consequently, most authors have not failed to commend the application of logarithms; and the arduous labour which is implied in the computation of logarithmic tables, appears to have been the only reason for preventing their being generally adopted."

The enormous financial business now carried on either by individuals, companies, or governments, all over the world, has rendered the information which M. Thoman affords particularly necessary. M. Thoman himself, be it observed, is connected with one of the greatest financial speculations of modern times-that of the Société Crédit Mobilier of Paris.

The Logarithmic Tables in this book are printed with remarkable clearness, and do credit to the printing-press whence they emanate.

We reserve for future notice, the Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider the plan for consolidating, arranging, and revising the general Statutes of Massachusetts. This large and important work, published at Boston (William White, printer to the State, 1858), demands careful examination and review.

We purpose, on an early occasion, to discuss the subject entered upon by Mr. T. W. Flower, in his letter to the Chancellor upon the Suitors' Fund in Chancery. We have also other works before us, notice of which we must defer.

Mr. Shelford has printed, as an addendum to the new edition of Crabb's Conveyancing, Lord St. Leonard's recent act, "To further Amend the Law of Property, and to Relieve Trustees" (22 & 23 Vic., c. 35), which was passed a few weeks too late to be incorporated in the body of the work. The author has given in the sheet now issued, "references to those parts of the work which have relation to, or are affected by, the respective enactments of the above-named statute.

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Events of the Quarter,

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

THE annual meeting of this Association has been held this autumn, as our readers know, at Bradford. That it has been eminently successful is universally acknowledged. Men of thought and men of action, interested in the most important subjects of the day, have been brought together; the expression of opinions, the interchange of ideas, and the comparison of experience, have produced corresponding advantages. Early next year the transactions of the Society will be published, which will afford us a more favourable opportunity for reviewing its progress and proceedings generally, than the fullest report with which we are now furnished permits of.

When Lord Brougham inaugurated this society at Birmingham two years ago, he set a stamp upon it which it has happily retained. This year at Bradford, even as at Liverpool in 1858, we found his active spirit pervading the society in all its departments. Real genius, we must fain believe, knows no old ageone of its peculiar attributes is activity. The spark received from heaven, must, from its nature, ever communicate the fire to all which surrounds it. This law (so strikingly evinced in the history of Titian, who, having nearly passed a century of years, still worked; of Michael Angelo, and of Humboldt) is again illustrated by Brougham, whose untiring efforts at Bradford, demonstrate with what energy he does that which his hand findeth to do. The men of Yorkshire, we were glad to find, knew how to welcome their own old member, whose great election formed an important crisis in the popular history of that day, as well as "the proudest circumstance" in his long successful career, as he has himself since declared When a member for

the county, Henry Brougham was triumphantly asserting great political principles, and now we find him not less usefully engaged, in insisting upon the great truths, and aiding in the investigation of those questions which are included within what has been termed "social science."

The vice-president of the department of jurisprudence was Sir W. P. Wood, V.C., and to the proceedings of this section we will briefly draw attention, premising that it is to the zeal and talents for organisation and arrangement of Mr. Hastings, aided by the other officers of the Association, that we owe the success attending upon the general and harmonious management of the business of the meeting.

One of the most important subjects discussed in the department of jurisprudence, was that mooted by Sir W. P. Wood, on charitable trusts. This touches a principle in "social" questions, which has disturbed many, and which is by no means free from difficulty. What is property, and what are its rights? were points with which the English "socialists" a short time since much disturbed themselves and others. The power of making absurd bequests, referred to by Sir W. P. Wood, is one of those rights, the denial of which will frighten many an honest proprietor of goods, and meet with a storm of disapproval on the part of the interested and ignorant. But it cannot be too strongly maintained, that whatever may be the rights a man may possess by the "social contract," and the policy of civilized states during his life; yet after he has enjoyed all these rights, and is obliged by the great law of Death to quit the world and its wealth, he can have no possible claim to reverse the laws of nature, by demanding still to have control over the dispensation of terrestrial affairs. But there are multitudes who cannot see this; they confound the limited authority given, for good reasons, by the law to a man to bequeath lands and estates, with an inherent right to control their disposal for evermore. It is too easy, we fear, to shock the prejudice and alarm the minds of people on these subjects; but Sir W. P. Wood seems to have run the risk of being held a "dangerous man," and has raised the question in relation to charitable trusts.

After some introductory remarks upon the rights of property as affected by law, and especially with regard to the limitation of posthumous control of the owner over his property for what was called charitable purposes, the Vice-Chancellor said, "The purpose of his paper was to call the attention, first, to the present policy of the law upon the subject; secondly, to its inconsistency and incompleteness in reference to its policy; and thirdly, to the necessity of revision. The law allowed a testator to select his charitable object at his own discretion, instead of confining him to an existing life or lives, and twenty-one years afterwards, as was the case with regard to other bequests." He mentioned instances of the absurd and preposterous bequests, called charitable, which had been made. In one case, a testator divided a considerable property into two equal portions, half of which was to be given to the fifteen young women, between the ages of sixteen and twenty, who should be the prettiest in the parish, and the ⚫most constant in their attendance at church, and the other half was to be distributed amongst spinsters of fifty years of age, possessing the same qualifications. The bequest was singularly absurd, and showed the necessity for some legal interference. Again, there were the doles of bread, coals, &c., which were said to amount to near £87,000 a-year in value, and which, under the present system, were productive of evil rather than of benefit. He contended that it was most unreasonable to allow any man to fix for ever the future disposition of his property, and that posthumous charity should be very strictly regulated. He briefly sketched the remedies which he suggested, the principal of which would render contributions of a charitable nature subject to the control of the Charity Commissioners, under certain conditions. "They must, at all events, put an end to absurd bequests such as he had referred to; and, instead of checking benevolence, he believed that such limitations would increase all real and sound benevolence."

We trust that the suggestion here made by the ViceChancellor will not be allowed to remain inoperative. We foretell a storm of imbecile objections to making a due reform

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