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all powers necessary for the advancement of the social well-being of the state or nation." The newer reforms seek to strike from the limbs of governmental authority the fetters imposed by an eighteenth century political philosophy. The popular initiative and referendum, the recall, the reorganization of municipal government on the commission plan, and particularly the short ballot movement are expressions of this new attitude. The doctrines of limited state functions, of the separation of powers, of checks and balances are giving way to the idea that government should be based on the principle of concentrated authority under strict responsibility. While it is too early to speak with certainty regarding the ultimate success of these particular reforms, there can be no doubt that, in seeking to attain the ideals of democracy by a more direct method, they mark an epoch in the political evolution of the country. Government by able and responsible men is being substituted for government by an intricate and complex system of restrictive laws. The evils of dispersion of authority and weakness and inefficiency of action are being overcome by concentrated power under adequate control.

While not containing much that is novel or unfamiliar to students of politics, Professor Elliott's little book embodies in very interesting and convincing form the facts and conclusions relating to recent general tendencies in the political life of America. As a study in political dynamics, it will doubtless be of very considerable value.

THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF MUNICIPAL HOME RULE. BY HOWARD LEE MCBAIN, Associate Professor of Municipal Science and Administration in Columbia University. New York: Columbia University Press. 1916. The question of municipal home rule has in recent years become one of the most vital and important in the entire field of governmental organization. It constitutes one of the principal causes for demands for revision of state constitutions. In twelve states, through constitutional provisions some or all cities enjoy the power of framing their own charters. The subject, therefore, deserves the comprehensive and authoritative treatment which this volume presents.

By "Municipal Home Rule" the author means the vesting in cities, by constitutional provision, of powers of government, and particularly of the power to frame and adopt their own charters. "Powers thus conferred by the people of a state through the medium of their fundamental law create for the city constitutional rights which may, like the similar rights of private persons, be defended in the courts against invasion by the legislative arm of the government." Wherever such constitutional rights exist, numerous difficult questions have arisen which have entailed litigation, and as a result there is a large number of cases which already constitute a distinct and important branch of state constitutional law. These cases and the law which they embody are reviewed and analyzed in Professor McBain's work. While thus of great value to the lawyer, this treatise will probably prove of even more importance to the student of politics, the municipal reformer, and the layman interested in public questions.

The book is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the "Origin and Development of the Home Rule Problem;" the second, and much larger, with "Home Rule in the States Which Have Granted Charter Making Powers to Cities." In the first part, after an introductory chapter in which are discussed the general principles of local self government, legislative supremacy, and the rights of protection which cities enjoy under the Federal constitution, the author discusses the history of the gradual growth of limitations upon legislative bodies whereby the original principle of complete legislative supremacy has been modified. These restrictions were in large measure the result of legislative abuses during the years between 1850, when cities were beginning to assume much importance, and 1875. Exploitation of municipalities for the benefit of special interests was no uncommon experience. Clauses guaranteeing the right of local selection of city officers; prohibiting the . appointment of special commissions in control of municipal affairs; relating to the financial powers of cities; prohibiting cities from aiding public improvement corporations; and prohibiting legislative interference with streets and street franchises were inserted in a number of constitutions. The cities also received protection from general constitutional limitations on the power of the legislatures to enact special laws, particularly special acts of incorporation.

In Part II, after discussing the principle of federalism as it exists in the relation of the states and the Union, and its applicability to the relationship of cities to the state, the author takes up in order the constitutional provisions, and the questions and cases arising thereunder, in the several states which have granted charter-making powers to cities. These are Missouri, whose constitution of 1875 originated the idea of the freeholders' charter, applied to cities over 100,000; California, which introduced the provision in 1879, and made it applicable to all cities over 3,500; Washington, which came into the Union (1889) with a constitution providing for freeholders' charters in cities over 20,000; Minnesota (1896), where any city or village may draft its own charter, the board of freeholders in this case being, however, appointed by the judge of the district court instead of being elected; Colorado (1902), where the usual principle applies to cities over 2,000; Oregon (1906), where for any town or city a new charter may be submitted by the council, or by petition of fifteen per cent of the voters; Oklahoma (1908), where for cities over 2,000 the usual provision for a board of freeholders exists; Michigan (1908), where in any city or village a charter commission may submit a new charter; Arizona (1912), where in cities over 3,500 the usual provision obtains; Ohio (1912), where for any city or village a board of electors is the agency used; Nebraska (1912), where for cities over 5,000 the usual board of freeholders is employed; and Texas (1912), where for cities over 5,000 a charter commission is the instrument for submitting a new charter. The numerous questions which have arisen in these states relate chiefly to the extent of the legislature's power to regulate home-rule cities by general laws, and the conflicts between state statutes and municipal charters. The decisions are

in many instances difficult or impossible to reconcile, but are discussed by the author with a remarkable wealth of knowledge and a lucidity which leaves nothing to be desired. In a concluding chapter a number of general conclusions upon the moot questions in this most interesting field of public law are stated.

Viewed as a whole, this work must be recognized as a most satisfactory, solid and authoritative treatment of the entire problem of municipal home rule. Toward the solution of this problem, whose great importance none can fail to perceive, it will doubtless constitute a very substantial contribution.

A TREATISE ON LIMITATION OF ACTIONS AT LAW AND IN EQUITY. BY H. G. WOOD. 4th Ed. Revised and enlarged by DE WITT C. MOORE of the New York Bar. 2 Vols. Matthew Bender & Co. Albany, N. Y.

This is the fourth edition of a well known work which has won the favorable opinion of the profession ever since the appearance of the book, nearly twenty-four years ago. The present editor has much enlarged the original treatise and has given parallel citations to the official and unofficial reports, a very necessary addition to every textbook at this day when the unofficial reports are more used by the lawyer in his daily practice than the official ones. The subject is of course a most important one and the two bulky volumes before us contain everything which a law treatise can give on the topic.

THE ENFORCEMENT OF DECREES IN EQUITY. BY CHARLES A. HUSTON, S. J. D. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Mass. 1915.

The object of this monograph is to urge an enlargement of the equity powers of American Courts so that they can give real effect to their decrees; to transfer titles directly, for example, instead of ordering a litigant to make the transfer. Such powers exist today in some of the states, but in others and notably in the Federal Courts it is lacking. The author gives a very learned and interesting sketch of the development of remedial procedure in rem and pleads for the enlargement of the remedial power of our Courts "to make their administration of relief more accurate and more effective than is possible now, when specific relief either reparatory or preventive is regarded as on the whole merely auxiliary to the substantial relief of damages." The Essay is dedicated to Dean Pound of the Harvard Law School.

FEDERAL EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT, Practitioners' Manual. By JOHN A. WALGREN. T. H. Flood & Co. Chicago. 1916.

In one hundred and thirty pages Mr. Walgren prints the different sections of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, a digest of the decisions covering it up to date and a number of forms of pleading in suits brought under its provisions—a convenient manual for the lawyer who has occasion to sustain or defend a claim of this character.

EARLY DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. By WILLIAM R. MANNING, Adjunct Professor of Latin-American History in the University of Texas. (The Albert Shaw Lectures on Diplomatic History, 1913.) The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. 1916.

In view of the present relation between the United States and Mexico, any contribution to their earlier diplomacy is timely. In this volume under review, the author has undertaken to give a comprehensive history of American diplomatic relations with Mexico previous to 1830. No particular crisis is described as the theme of central interest. No group of related diplomatic episodes leads up to a final logical conclusion. Indeed the volume is simply the discussion of several rather unrelated incidents, each of which is fairly complete in itself. Perhaps after all the author intended nothing more than this, for in the preface he designates which of the chapters had appeared previously in print in various publications, indicating at once the topical treatment he has followed. This treatment may add interest to the separate chapter, but it detracts from the unity and coherence of the work as a whole. Were it not for the first and rather unimportant chapter, the volume might be entitled with equal propriety, "Joel Poinsett's Mission in Mexico." This title would at least indicate the only unifying factor common to all the episodes described.

Turning to the separate topics treated, one finds the more interesting ones to be those relating to Cuba, the Santa Fé trail, commercial relations, and the boundary issue. In the first of these discussions (Chapter IV, "Cuba Saved to Spain"), much is said about American relations with England, France, Spain, and Russia, about Cuba, Mexican relations being of secondary importance. Indeed one wonders why this chapter was included in the volume, unless to fill up space. It is practically the same as chapter V of J. M. Callahan's "Cuba and International Relations" (extra volume XXI of the Johns Hopkins University Studies). It must be pointed out, however, that Professor Manning's chapter contains a wealth of citations to authorities, being in this respect free from the great defect of Professor Callahan's work.

Chapter V, on "Diplomacy Concerning the Opening of the Santa Fé trail," describes the attempt of the United States to secure the co-operation of Mexico in the survey of a road from Missouri to Santa Fé. Following the passage of an act by Congress early in 1825, the United States undertook to mark out this road to the Arkansas river (generally recognized as the international boundary). This work commenced July 17, 1825 (instead of "June 17"), and was completed the following September. The negotiations to secure Mexican construction of the road from the Arkansas river to Santa Fé ended in failure.

The chapter on "Obstacles in the Way of Concluding a Commercial Treaty" (Chapter VII), might be interesting were it boiled down. The author takes forty-seven pages to say that the chief obstacle was Mexican dilatoriness. The negotiations leading to the treaty (never ratified) are described with wearisome detail,-which, however, might be justified

were the treaty with an important commercial nation and were it finally ratified.

Chapter IX on "Texas and the Boundary Issue" is one of the chief contributions of the volume. The boundary treaty, like the commercial treaty, remained unratified when Poinsett left Mexico.

The authorities from which Professor Manning has gathered his material are fully described in chapter XI. They include many manuscripts from the archives of Mexico and Washington, as well as the chief published documents and the various secondary works. Constant reference to these is made in his foot-notes. It may be said, however, that while the volume is apparently based chiefly upon source material, part of which has been little used in previous studies on the same topics, little of importance has been unearthed which was unknown before. Perhaps it is well to know that this new material does not change the conclusions heretofore generally accepted.

TREATIES, THEIR MAKING AND ENFORCEMENT. Second Edition.

By SAMUEL B. CRANDALL, Ph. D., of the Bar of New York and of the District of Columbia. John Byrne & Co., Washington, D. C. 1916.

The first edition of this work appeared in 1904, in the Columbia University Studies on History, Economics and Public Law. In its present form not only have recent events and developments been taken fully into consideration, but many of the topics treated have received a much more elaborate discussion, and there has been added as an appendix a digest of decisions of American courts construing treaties, arranged by countries and treaties, which will prove of great value to the investigator. This edition contains thus approximately twice as much matter as the original. In an introductory chapter the general principles of treaty-making are presented, the discussion of the sanction of treaties being one of the clearest and best that the reviewer remembers to have seen. The body of the work is then divided into three parts. Part I relates to "The United States," and is subdivided into the period "Prior to the Constitution," and that "Under the Constitution." This latter is again divided into a number of chapters on "The Making of Treaties," and others on "The Execution or Enforcement of Treaties." Part II deals with "Foreign States," and Part III to a general discussion of "The Operation of Treaties as between States." Much the larger portion of the work has to do with the United States. The special problems which our federal system and the constitutional requirement of the Senate's ratification of treaties present are fully discussed and the rules worked out by the courts are clearly stated. There is a mass of historical information which must prove of considerable utility to the student of diplomatic history. The work is done in a thoroughly scientific and scholarly fashion, and evinces a profound study and familiarity on the part of the author with the entire subject. The references to cases as well as to the writings of publicists are copious and fortify the author's conclusions at every point. As a work of reference it will doubtless long remain a principal authority in this field.

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