other person than the payer: all these matters, amongst others, present great difficulties to people who have not had experience of these instruments. The chapter on the conflict of laws is a valuable and interesting one. But the whole volume is full of information which is generally outside the knowledge of English lawyers; and the means of acquiring this knowledge is by no means easy if, as the Author believes, "no attempt has previously been made to give this law in the form of an English text-book."

The Annual Practice 1913. By J. B. MATTHEWS, R. WHITE, and F. A. STRINGER. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Eleventh Edition. The A. B. C. Guide to the Practice of the Supreme Court 1913. By F. R. P. STRINGER. Sweet & Maxwell.

For the first time for a quarter of a century the "White Book" is issued in one volume. To revision and compression must be allotted a large share in the unification; and the omission of such parts as are safe from immediate change, with the removal of repetitions, complete the economy. As new editions of Seton's Judgments and Orders and of Chitty's Forms are ready, the references in the Annual Practice to these works accord with the paging of the new issues. The additions to procedure made by the Public Trustee rules, displacing those of 1907; and by the Supreme Court rules of February, May, and July, 1912, are all carefully defined. So many and full are the notes on the Orders and Rules that they fill the greater part of twelve hundred pages. It may be noticed that there is a lapse between page 1272 and page 1301. This may have been caused by the portion containing the forms, which was previously a separate volume, having perhaps been proceeded with simultaneously with the major portion, and on that account paged independently. It is superfluous to say that there is no declension, rather on the other hand an advance, in the remarkable accuracy and care which has always distinguished the work.

Mr. F. R. P. Stringer's able and well-known synopsis serves, not only as a direct and convenient guide to the Supreme Court practice, but as a useful auxiliary to the fuller work reviewed above.

The Yearly Supreme Court Practice 1913. By M. MUIR MACKENZIE and T. WILLES CHITTY. London: Butterworth & Co. 1913. In such a subject as Practice, highly important and ever-changing, an authoritative guide is indispensable, and it is perhaps welcomed

by the profession that there are two works of eminent authority as pilots over the intricate ways; for nothing so intensely stimulates effort towards excellence as the urgency of competition. The "Red Book" is published this time both in two volumes and in one. In a work of such immense bulk dealing with minute but essential detail, it is not possible to make anything approaching an exhaustive examination. Long-continued use can alone test where amendment, if any be thought desirable, can be suggested. But a cursory and casual search impresses one with the watchful care of the Editors in making the references complete. For instance, the appeal in Mentors Limited v. Evans which does not appear in the Law Reports till the October Number of this year-which must have been issued about the same date when the Red Book was bound and ready for delivery-has its result incorporated in two farseparated pages of the work. The Tables of Cases and Statutes referred to, fill 324 pages; and the Indexes cover 397. In the two-volume edition, the General Index is given verbatim in each volume. This, perhaps, has been done on good testimony to its convenience in practice, but it of course adds much to the bulk.

Workmen's Compensation Digest. By DOUGLAS KNOCKER. London Butterworth & Co. 1912.

:

This work, which is skilfully arranged, professes to give every reported decision of present authority in the House of Lords and in the High Courts of the United Kingdom. The Author, being a medical man as well as a member of the Bar, has a double qualification for treating of this special subject. The cases that, in the character of the claim, bear a resemblance are brought together, and arranged in parallel columns according as they were decided in favour of the workman or his representative or for the employer. This affords a ready and effective means of estimating the chances on either side of success in any similar case. The Index, though the book is a first edition only, appears to be very carefully and fully prepared.

Problems of the Roman Criminal Law. By J. L. STRACHANDAVIDSON. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

1912.

The learned Author published in 1902 a criticism of Mommsen's Römisches Strafrecht in the April number of the English Historical

Review. From this beginning has been evolved the present work in two volumes. We can only echo the historical remark of the Dominie Sampson and say, Prodigious! Again, Mr. StrachanDavidson expresses surprise at the small amount of interest aroused among jurists by the appearance of Mommsen's work. Not many jurists have the time or knowledge of German to indulge in such caviare of erudition. The system adopted in the present work is to propound a problem, and then to discuss it, giving the most modern. authorities, and then, as it were, summing up the evidence. The modern lawyer will find much to interest him in Volume II. Chapter XIV deals with Jury Trials for Extortion; Chapter XVII tells us about the Jurors themselves, and in old Roman times sitting as a Juror was considered a privilege and was much coveted, tempora mutantur. In Chapter XVIII is given the Procedure in trials before Juries, and it is curious to note the points of similarity between the system in vogue under the Roman Republic and the one at present in existence. There is much to interest in this work, which shows the sound scholarship of the learned Author. Moreover, there is a "pretty wit" running through it, which lightens some of the heavier. parts. Let us hope that the appearance of this work will excite more interest than did Mommsen's Römisches Strafrecht, the foundation rock upon which this beacon has been erected.

Reports of Rating Appeals, 1909-12. By C. M. KONSTAM and H. R. WARD. London: Butterworth & Co. 1912.

This is a continuation of the reports of Rating Appeals begun by Mr. W. C. Ryde, who published in 1890 a selection of the appeals decided in 1886-90. The next series, also edited by Mr. Ryde, contained the appeals for 1891-4. In the next series of reports for 1894-1904 Mr. Ryde was assisted by Mr. Konstam, who edited the next series for 1904-8 alone; and now Mr. Konstam has had the assistance of Mr. Harold Ward in editing the present series. Of the value of the reports and the competency of the Editors there can be no doubt, and the reports are indispensable to all connected with the subject of rating. This is of increasing importance and increasing difficulty, as fresh forms of industry are brought under the notice of the rating authorities. The present series deals with a great diversity of interests, from "sewers," which are discussed in the important judgment in West Kent Main Sewerage Board v. Dartford Union, to "the occupation of the foreshore for bathing purposes" in

Margate Corporation v. Pittman. The decisions, of course, vary very much in value from a considered judgment of the House of Lords on a question of principle to the decision of a Quarter Sessions given without reasons on a question of fact. We have noticed two slips which rather surprise us in such careful Editors. In the valuation given in Bullen v. Camberwell Union, 5 per cent. interest on £300 is given as £45; and in Westminster Electric Supply Corporation, Ltd. v. Westminster Assessment Committee (No. 2), the headnote states that "the Court affirmed the rateable value appealed against and allowed the appeal with costs," whereas the appeal was of course dismissed with costs. Attention may be particularly called to the learned and elaborate judgment delivered by Sir Robert Romer in Great Eastern Railway Co. v. Bishop's Stortford Union. The Hertford Quarter Sessions were fortunate, when having to decide that case, that they had so learned and able a chairman.

The Plutus of Aristophanes, translated into English verse by the Right Hon. Sir WILLIAM RANN KENNEDY. London: John Murray. 1912.

In the life of a Judge of Appeal there are happily some spaces of release from professional toil; and a great scholar may well find "the pleasant work of leisure hours" in rendering into verse of his native tongue verse of an ancient language in which he is almost as proficient as in the speech of his birthplace. No doubt "translation from verse to verse must in some degree transform," but the slight angle of deviation here mars neither substance nor spirit of the original, and is well compensated by the sprightly rendering which puts into the hands of his lordship's contemporaries, whose scholarship, never so eminent as his, has suffered the rust of time and disuse, a version as humorous and entertaining as the masterpiece which delighted an Athenian audience 2,300 years ago.

Third Edition. National Insurance. By A. S. COмYNS Carr. London: Macmillan & Co. 1912.

Questions and Answers on National Insurance. By GILBERT STONE. London: Butterworth & Co. 1912.

The first named is another contribution (which has rapidly reached a third edition) to the considerable number of publications designed to unravel some of the complications of the Act for those who sub

scribe to the purposes, and to conciliate those who rebel against its adhesive obligations. It has three Authors, who have "attempted to describe simply and broadly the machinery of the Act, and to bring together in a connected form matter which can be gathered only from a careful comparison of the various sections." It has, moreover, the distinction of a preface from Mr. Lloyd George himself, who vouches that they "have made a minute study of the Act and are well acquainted with all its details and ramifications," and who bestows upon the treatise his hearty commendation. The commendation seems to be well earned by the discrimination with which the notes and the care with which the Index have been prepared.

The second work named is a very handy guide to the same complex Act, and deserves to meet with success.

Third Edition. The Law of Torts. By JOHN W. SALMOND. A Summary of the Law of Torts. By the same Author. London : Stevens & Haynes. 1912.

Though on so ancient a subject as the law of Torts, it is not possible to suggest much addition to the established doctrines, yet as the Author is the Attorney-General of New Zealand, his work has the advantage of antipodean views and experience. His division of the principles is very much on the lines of the treatises prepared in England, but in one or two cases a modification has, not without advantage, been adopted. The Chapter on Trespass and Case, and that on Conversion are very good ones, and should afford to students assistance of value. The writer does not hesitate to express his own views on decisions, as for instance on the case of Jolly v. Kine (L. R. [1907], A. C. 1), in which the House of Lords was equally divided. In the Table of Cases the references are to the page of the book to which the case is discussed, and there the report reference is given. This does not seem so convenient as giving both references in the Table.

Why the Summary should have been published is not quite apparent, for it is nearly a verbatim copy of the larger work after some minor points and the discussion of cases have been blue-pencilled. Against the Author's reason that, "one believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak eateth herbs," it might be thought that anyone who could digest the vegetarian diet of the smaller volume might easily assimilate the whole banquet of the larger.