as to what constitutes a "statutory dwelling-house." In England, Stribling v. Halse (16 Q. B. D. 246)-a case doubted but never over-ruled-has decided that a room merely used as a bedroom may be a "dwelling-house" if exclusively used by the occupier. This case, it has now been once more held, is not a binding decision in Ireland. It is not true that every bedroom is a dwelling-house. The Court must consider all the facts, and see whether, taken all together, they are consistent with the ordinary idea of the room in which the claimant sleeps being a dwelling-house. Here the rooms occupied by asylum attendants were held not to satisfy this criterion. To give the franchise as an inhabitant occupier, there must both be exclusive use, and the premises exclusively used must perform all the ordinary functions of a dwelling; sleeping is only one of these.

Meier v. Dublin Corporation ([1912], 2 Ir. R. 129) deals with a point under the Workmen's Compensation Act which, though reasonably plain, does not seem previously to have been covered by an express decision. The statutory liability, under sect. 4 of the Act of 1906, upon a contractor and a principal for compensation in case of accident to a workman, is not joint or joint and several; it is strictly alternative. Therefore the workman must elect against which of them he will proceed. When he has once made this election, as by obtaining an award against the contractor who employed him, he cannot have another chance, because, by reason of the contractor becoming bankrupt and the insuring company going into liquidation, he has been unable to realise more than a small portion of the sum awarded him. In the present case, there was also a failure to serve on the principal notice of the accident and claim within the prescribed time; but the broad proposition above stated was sufficient to dispose of the case without this.

J. S. B.

353

Reviews.

[SHORT NOTICES DO NOT PRECLUDE REVIEWS AT GREATER
LENGTH IN SUBSEQUENT ISSUES.]

Select Cases before the King's Council in the Star Chamber. Vol. II. A.D. 1509-1544. Edited for the Selden Society by I. S. LEADAM. London: Bernard Quaritch.

1911.

In the masterly Introduction with which this volume is prefaced, we are presented with the result of the learned Editor's study and examination of the cases heard and determined in the Star Chamber

during the years 1509-1544. From this study and examination Mr. Leadam has been enabled to substantiate some of the propositions propounded in his Introduction to the first volume and to clear up some of the obscurities which he was then obliged to leave unsolved. Upon the vexed question, for instance, of the position and functions of the King's justices in the Court of Star Chamber, the judgment in the case of The Mayor and Aldermen v. The Artificers of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1516, makes it abundantly clear that these judicial officers sat, not as judges, but as referees upon questions of law-in the quaint language of the Statute of 1487, for "thadnoydyng of all maner of doubtes and questiones and ambyguyties that might rise."

Mr. Leadam has already shown in Vol. I that, so far from the Star Chamber being an oppressive instrument in the hands of a despotic monarchy, it was, under the Tudors, a Court of equity to which the poor and oppressed could resort for redress and relief from the illegal practices and exactions of the landed magnates. This point is emphasised and developed in the present volume. As the offences against public order, which the Star Chamber was originally designed to repress, became fewer and less flagrant, employment for its energies were sought elsewhere. In fact, this tribunal became one of the factors in that far-sighted policy, which, recognising the value to the State of a contented and prosperous people, directed its judicial, as well as its legislative and administrative powers, in affording protection to the poor from the exploitation of the rich.

One group of cases, for instance, in this volume illustrates the mode in which Henry VIII, through the Star Chamber, sought to regulate

food supplies in times of scarcity. Speculation in food supplies and raw materials had for centuries been regarded, like usury, as a crime. Statutes against engrossing, forestalling and regrating had been passed from time to time. The famine in 1527 resulted in the appointment of commissioners to inquire into the supply of corn and to order offenders against those Statutes to appear before the Star Chamber in January of the following year.

Another group of cases illustrate the attempts of the Government, through Parliament and the Star Chamber, to control economic forces by regulating prices. The failure of these attempts was recognised by authorising the Council to mitigate or even to suspend the operation of the Statutes altogether.

Another group of cases, dealing with inclosures, forms a further proof of the popular faith in the Star Chamber and of “the assurance felt by the labouring classes that the policy of the Tudor government was favourable to their interests." As a result of protracted litigation from 1494 to 1558 against an inclosing lord of the manor, one John Mulsho, the defendant was ordered by the Star Chamber to throw his inclosures down. Of the remaining cases we have only space to refer to three. The case of The Mayor, &c., of Newcastle-on-Tyne v. The . Artificers, &c., throws a fresh light upon the struggles between the trading gilds and the craftgilds. The case of Brystowe, Sheriff of, v. Mayor, &c., of Brystowe, illustrates the decay of the towns, which had set in with the middle of the 14th century. That of the Parishioners of Redcliffe v. Mayor, &c., of Bristol, was really a struggle between free-traders and protectionists. The point at issue was the abolition or retention of the fair at Redcliff. At the fair "all thinges is custome free which is a great lose unto the shrevez, &c."

As will be gathered from this brief summary, the present volume is exceptionally valuable, not only to the legal historian and constitionalist, but to the student of economics.

The Oak Book of Southampton, of c. A.D. 1300. Vols. I and II. Transcribed and Edited from the Unique MS. by P. STUDER, M.A. Southampton Cox & Sharland. 1910-11.

This is one of those books which are indispensable to the student of municipal institutions. It may be compared with the Liber Albus of London, the Liber Rubeus of Bristol, and the Domesday of Ipswich. It is one of those Costumaries which, as Sir Travers Twiss says, “not merely threw light upon the early history of the English

municipal institutions, and shewed how the boroughs, as they were constituted during the Anglo-Norman period, were the nurseries of that spirit of liberty and equal justice, which undermined and ultimately subverted the feudal system, but they exhibited the boroughs as, in many instances, playing an important part in maintaining the traditions of a general law in matters of international commerce and maritime navigation." The Oak Book, for instance, contains a fourteenth-century version of the Rolls of Oleron. The texts already published belong to so early a period, and nowhere perhaps, says Mr. Studer, has the original been preserved so faithfully as here. Moreover, the Oak Book contains a twenty-fifth article which is peculiar to the Southampton version. Another important institution upon which the Oak Book sheds fresh light is the Gild Merchant. The Gild Ordnances in the Oak Book confirm, in Mr. Studer's opinion, Dr. Gross's conclusion of the origin and growth of the Gild Merchant. Amongst other documents of general interest may be mentioned an exemplification of the original charter conferred upon the Knights Hospitallers by Henry III in 1253. This Order possessed property of considerable value in Southampton, and as differences might arise between this powerful body and the town, it was only natural for the civic authorities to keep a full record of the Order's rights and privileges. Upon these and many other questions the Oak Book supplies information of the highest value. That small portions only have hitherto appeared in print is due, partly to the defects of the MS., and partly to the difficulties of the language. It was as a philologist rather than as an historian that Mr. Studer undertook the task, which in this double capacity he has so successfully accomplished.

This book is identical, says Mr. Studer, with the "Pax breade," to which continual references are made in the city records. "Bred," here, means "board" or "tablet," referring to the oak covers with which the Oak Book is bound; and "Pax," according to Dr. Hearnshaw, the general Editor of the publications of the Southampton Record Society, responsible for those volumes, means "Easter," the annual meeting of the Court Leet being held soon after that date.

The Law of Actionable Misrepresentation. By G. SPENCER BOWER, K.C. London: Butterworth & Co. 1911.

Mr. Bower has followed to a considerable extent the arrangement of his last work, A Code of the Law of Actionable Defamation. This,

like the last treatise, consists of a Code, a Commentary, and Appendices, only in the former one the Commentary took the form of foot-notes of great length, and the Appendices, which were very numerous, contained much that might have been put in the Commentary. In the present work the Code, which consists of 43 articles, covers just over 25 pages, the Commentary about 350 pages, and the Appendices nearly 60 pages. The Commentary is not, strictly speaking, all a Commentary on the Code, as the last three chapters deal with the following matters, which are not included in the Code, namely, Statutory Proceedings; Misrepresentation as a ground of remedy, &c., at the instance of persons other than Representees; Jurisdiction and Procedure. In this Commentary the Code is commented on in an exhaustive manner, and the cases are cited and many of them acutely criticised. We hope Mr. Bower will excuse us if we suggest that the treatment is sometimes rather too diffuse, though we quite approve of the full treatment he accords to misrepresentation in connection with Companies. We notice that the mass of illustrations from decided cases is pleasantly varied with illustrations from Mr. Eden Phillpot's novel, Dagger Farm, and from Othello. The four Appendices deal respectively with (A) History and Criticism of the Place and Treatment of Deceit and Fraud in English Jurisprudence. In sect. 5 the learned Author criticises the use of the words "fraud" and "false" in the terminology of the Law of Misrepresentation; (B) Comparison between English Juridical and Ethical treatment of Misrepresentation and Fraud; (c) The Roman Law of Dolus and Misrepresentation; (D) The Scottish Law of Misrepresentation. We are sorry the Author has alluded to Lord Bramwell as 66 a great slave of language."

Insurance Law relating to all Risks other than Marine. By E. J. MACGILLIVRAY, LL.B. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912.

This work, extending to over eleven hundred pages, deals with the general principles of the law relating to Insurance, other than marine risks, and their application to life, fire, accident, guarantee, burglary, third-party risks, and employers' liability. A special chapter is devoted to stamp duties, and another to the usual claims and conditions in contracts of insurance, with a discussion upon the general rules governing their construction. The Appendix contains the text of the Assurance Companies Act 1909 and the Statutory Rules of