conceptions and institutions, under a debt of gratitude. The Welsh laws or customs, commonly called the "Laws of Howel the Good," have not until recently received the attention which their importance, as sources of information on the political, social, and economic condition of Western Britain in past time, deserves. Howel the Good was a prince who flourished in the first half of the tenth century, and died in 950. He ruled over a very large part of the area which in English Statutes is called the "Dominion," or "Principality of Wales," and Welsh tradition asserts, in the words of Caradoc of Llancarvan, that he "constituted and gave lawes to be kept through "his dominions which were used in Wales till such time. "as the inhabitants received the lawes of England in "the time of Edward I and in some places till long "after."

A considerable number of MSS., purporting to contain laws or customs of the Cymry, have come down to us. The preambles prefixed to the fullest and the more important MSS., though not in identical words, record in substance that Howel summoned a Convention of the leading ecclesiastical dignitaries, and six laymen from each cantref in his dominions, to Ty Gwyn (supposed to be Whitland, in Carmarthenshire), and that, as a result of the deliberations of the wise men there assembled, the laws of the Cymry were set down in writing and promulgated with Howel's authority. The law-book so produced is referred to in one MS. as "the old Book of the White House," and in another it is said that Howel "ordered three law-books to be made: one for the daily Court to be always with him; another for the Court of Dinevwr; the third for the Court of Aberffraw; so that the three divisions of Cymru, to wit, Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth, should have the authority of the law amongst them at their need, always, and read."

The earliest edition in print of these laws is the Cyfreithieu Hywel Dda or Leges Wallicae, compiled by Wotton assisted by Moses Williams, and published in 1730. This work was, however, superseded by the more authoritative compilation edited by Aneurin Owen for the Record Commissioners, and published in 1841 under the title Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales. In neither of these books is any one of the Welsh MSS. reproduced and printed just as it stands. Wotton treated the MSS. as so many recensions of one body of law applicable to all Wales. Owen made the discovery that the Welsh MSS. fell into three classes, setting forth respectively the rules and customs in force in three several districts of the Principality. These he identified as Gwynedd (Venedotia), Dimetia (South Wales), and Gwent (an ancient Gwlad or patria situate in the extreme south-east of Wales). He accordingly classified these bodies of law into what he called the Venedotian, Dimetian, and Gwentian Codes. Instead, however, of taking one MS. of each class and treating it as typical, he formed the text of each so-called code by blending the MSS. of each class together in such a way as to make it somewhat difficult to trace to its source any particular rule or sentence or passage. His task was very

skilfully done, and something may be urged for his method: still we agree with Mr. Wade-Evans and other critics that the result is not satisfactory. In the work before us a better way is followed. It is its distinctive merit that we have here presented for the first time an exact reproduction of one of the best of the surviving MSS.-the Harleian MS. 4353 (MS. V)—which is printed "page for page, line for line, and error for error, except where it was found more convenient to relegate notices of errors to the palæographical notes." (Preface, p. 1.)

The reasons that dictated the choice of this particular MS. are not stated. Mr. Wade-Evans simply says he adopted it on the recommendation of Dr. Gwenogfryn

Evans (a high authority on palæography) "who regards it as the oldest and best of its class." It is not, however, by any means the oldest MS. of these laws. The earliest Latin MS. is that known as Peniarth MS. 28, which is printed in Owen's compilation. The earliest Welsh MS. is Peniarth MS. 29, written about 1200 (according to Dr. Gwenogfryn Evans), which Owen calls MS. A, and made. the basis of his text of the Venedotian Code. We cannot help thinking it would have been better if Mr. Wade-Evans had chosen this MS. A for treatment. It is not only the earliest of the codices, but relates to a part of Wales which was independent till 1282, and the laws of which cannot have been substantially modified at the time of its transcription by Norman or English influences. However, the fact that he did not take this course does not diminish the utility or value of his present work, and we gladly recognise the scholarly manner in which he has performed the task he set himself. We hope that he may be able before long to publish the Peniarth MS. 29, which is now deposited (we are informed) in the new National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, and therefore more easily accessible to research students than heretofore.

In an Introduction (pp. i-lv) Mr. Wade-Evans gives a clear and scholarly description of the MSS. of these laws, states the facts known about Howel's life and reign, and adds a slight but suggestive sketch of the history of postRoman Wales down to the tenth century. He agrees with Owen's classification of the MSS., but rejects his view that the MSS. of the third class applied to Gwent, over which Howel did not, so far as appears from the evidence, ever hold sway. In so doing, Mr. Wade-Evans is undoubtedly right, and he is probably right also (though this is not certain) in suggesting that it was to Powys or part of that kingdom that this third class of MSS. applied. He discards Owen's misleading use of the word "code," and proposes,

in lieu of that author's designations, to call the three kinds of law-books, the Book of Gwynedd, the Book of Blegywryd, and the Book of Cyvnerth. Blegywryd (we may remark) was the "scholar" whose name is mentioned as having assisted Howel at the Ty Gwyn assembly, and Cyvnerth ab Morganeu was a Welsh lawyer whose book is referred to in some of the MSS. The Harleian MS. 4353, which forms the text of the book before us, is the earliest of the Book of Cyvnerth class. We cannot here discuss the historical questions raised in this Introduction, but we may say in passing that we are not convinced that Cunedda and his sons and the "Gwyr y Gogledd" (Men of the North) of Welsh literature came into Wales by sea, even if Mr. Wade-Evans be right in his view that the "History" commonly attributed to Gildas "formerly constituted a distinct book known as the Excidium Britannia." It may be so, but as we interpret the "History" the "Britain" referred to in chapter 14, on which his argument is based, does not seem to mean the smaller Britannia composed of the provinces of Britannia Prima and Secunda formed under the Diocletian re-arrangement, but the whole of Roman Britain, i. e., the diocese of Britain, created by that re-arrangement of the empire. Mr. Wade-Evans, however, asserts that the Excidium Britanniæ was "considerably 'edited' by someone who ignorantly or deliberately misunderstood it," and if we assume this to be the case, he may be right, though in that case something more than "editing" was done by the unknown "someone referred to so vaguely by Mr. Wade-Evans.

We note with satisfaction his avoidance of the use of the term "tribal system" throughout the work, and his adhesion to the view of Cymric history, adopted by modern scholars, that it exhibits "a steady and unbroken development of Cymric nationality from the day that Cunedda and his sons established themselves in Wales at the commencement of the fifth century," instead of the convulsive

struggles of a beaten and decadent race. The translation (based on that of Aneurin Owen) appended to the Welsh text is excellent; and the glossary of the principal technical terms which is added is much superior in every respect to those of Wotton and Owen, while the explanations and information it contains are derived from and supported by reference to the best and most recent authorities. A useful map of pre-Norman Wales and a full index complete the book, which, both as regards the clearness of the type and general "get-up," reflects great credit on the Clarendon Press.

The space at our command does not enable us to deal now with the problems suggested by a perusal of this interesting collection of laws; but we desire to point out that, though it presents features in the main similar to those possessed by the other leges barbarorum of Western Europe, the rules and customs it contains are of special significance, since some of them form points of contact between the more primitive Brehon laws on the one hand and of the more advanced Anglo-Saxon and other Teutonic laws on the other, and are therefore of great importance to the student of Comparative law and the history of legal conceptions.

IX. CURRENT NOTES ON INTERNATIONAL LAW.

International Maritime Law Congress at Bremen.

THE

HE Ninth Conference of the International Maritime Law Committee, whose head-quarters are in Antwerp, was held at Bremen from September 22nd to 25th, under the Presidency of the eminent jurist Dr. Sieveking, President of the Court of Appeal at Hamburg. Nearly all the maritime nations of the world sent representatives. The English lawyers present were, Lord Justice Kennedy, Mr. R. B. D. Acland, K.C., and Mr. J. E. R. Stephens, besides several