Willis' Law of Negotiable Securities. Edited 1912. Third Edition. by JOSEPH HURST. These six lectures which were delivered about seventeen years ago have met with such deserved success that a third edition is now issued. The original form has been preserved. So slight indeed is the variation from the first issue, that it consists almost solely of a note by the present Editor modifying the somewhat positive statement of the lecturer that modern commercial usage cannot attach in law to mercantile documents, other than those he enumerated, the character of negotiable instruments. If another issue should be called for, it may be worth consideration whether the lecture-form should be continued. It no doubt preserves a recollection of the lecturer's exuberant vitality; but familiar addresses like these are sure to be burdened with diffusiveness and repetition. The substance is excellent, but it might be expressed in briefer compass. Fourth Edition. The Law of Mines, Quarries and Minerals. By R. F. MACSWINNEY, assisted by P. LLOYD-GREAME. London : Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. Some very important additions and alterations will be found in the present edition. Chapters XXI, XXII, and XXIII in the last edition, which dealt with Local Courts, Rights and Customs, and occupied 105 pages, have been omitted. There has been no reported decision in connection with them for nearly thirty years. The space thus gained has been utilised for the discussion of the recent decisions on the meaning of the word "minerals" and of "mines and minerals" in the Railways and Waterworks Clauses Acts. These difficult subjects have been rendered rather more simple by the recent important decisions of North British Railway Co. v. Budhill, &c. Co., Great Western Railway Co. v. Carpalla, &c. Co., and Caledonian Railway Co. v. Glenboig Union Co. All these three cases were decided by the House of Lords. The recent decisions on the all-important subject of support are also examined. Perhaps the most important of these is the decision of the House of Lords in West Leigh Colliery Co. v. Tunnicliffe. The complicated provisions of the Finance Act 1910 as to Mineral Rights Duty, and the application to minerals of the other statutory duties are set out in extenso and commented on. A very important addition is the Act is both a consolidating and Coal Mines Act 1911. This amending one, and contains a large number of new provisions which are conveniently pointed out by a line in the margin. The Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act 1912 was passed after the text of the book was printed, and is therefore inserted at the end without comment. Fifth Edition. Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes. By the late F. STROUD. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. The object of this well-known work cannot be better described than in the quotation from the Preface to the first edition. "Its object is to present in some order the leading principles which govern our Courts in the interpretation of statutes, with illustrations of their application selected as much as possible from recent decisions, and in sufficient number to explain and give precision to their meaning and scope." The result is a work which must often be of great assistance to those endeavouring to construe doubtful or reconcile contradictory statutes, and the illustrations of the manner in which the Courts have made similar attempts are full of instruction and interest, although some may think that the presumption against intending injustice or absurdity is now rather obsolete. It is interesting to note that in spite of numerous decisions "from Lord Coke's to modern times" that the title was not part of the statute, "it is now settled law that the title of a Statute is an important part of the Act, and may be referred to for the purpose of ascertaining its general scope." Some curious instances are given of laws which though obsolete are not repealed. At Common law eaves-droppers are still liable to a fine, and "a common scold seems still subject (after conviction upon indictment) to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the trebucket or cucking-stool, or ducking-stool, and, when placed therein, to be plunged in water for her punishment." By Sixth Edition. Kerr's Law and Practice of Receivers. F. C. WATMOUGH. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. The Law of Receivers and Managers. By E. RIVIERE. London: Stevens & Sons. 1912. The divisions under which the subject is treated is very much the same in both works. Mr. Watmough's volume has all the advantage which comes of a long career in which it has no doubt had the benefit of the experience and suggestions of many readers who have tested its merits by practical use; and its old-established popularity will be sustained by the present edition. Mr. Riviere in his work claims high antiquity for the appointment of Receivers. As confirming this, he refers to one of the Paston letters of 1450; but we have failed, in a rapid search, to discover the particular one in Mr. Gairdner's edition. Not unnaturally there may be now an overgrowth of ancient and inapplicable cases. Mr. Riviere's "object has been to supply a book which shall contain nothing which has become immaterial while omitting nothing that is material." This should make the volume a useful reference book to those concerned with such appointments. Eighth Edition. White and Tudor's Leading Cases in Equity. 2 Volumes. By W. J. WHITTAKER, E. W. SUTTON, P. VAUGHAN, and R. BURROWS. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. The second volume just issued of this treasury of equity lore completes, with the volume issued in 1910, the eighth edition. With such clear perception were the cases chosen originally to illustrate the foundations of some of the primary doctrines of equity, and so truly leading were they, that, comparing this edition with the fourth (the earliest available at the moment) published in 1872, there are, in that considerable span of forty years, but three of the cases then printed that are now excluded. It is not less surprising that of new cases the number demanding admission is only five. But these small displacements and additions amongst the leading cases, can give no insight into the labour exacted and the learning enlisted for furnishing new or amended notes, as fresh decisions impinged upon the old ones or extended their range. Indeed, not less than 1,800 new cases and half that number of rejected ones have, since the preceding edition, required amendment of the Editor's comments in this. A reference to a few of these convincingly shows with what condensed precision the apposite point of the judgment is rendered. The book is in itself a library, and as near as is possible, it is closely up-to-date, for the second volume is dated July of the present year. Tenth Edition. Wright's Court-hand Restored. MARTIN. London: Stevens & Sons. 1912. By C. T. The learning of this abstruse art is confined to a limited number of persons, but Mr. Trice Martin is one who is well known to possess a complete knowledge of it; and his book is the best exponent of the caligraphic mysteries that we have seen. The exquisite clearness of the plates of the alphabets, and of the abbreviations by which the monks and lawyers of distant days shortened the labour of the transcriptions, deserves every praise. Anyone who has had occasion to consult the works of medieval writers must have been occasionally brought to a pause by post-classic words and terms; and to such searchers, unaccustomed to archaic documents, the long list which Mr. Martin gives of Latin words compounded and introduced in those times (which a classic dictionary of course disdains) will be a great relief. Not less useful is the list of names bestowed upon English towns and settlements by the Romans during the 370 years of their occupation. The book is of the highest character from its first page to its last. Twelfth Edition. Harris's Principles of the Criminal Law. By C. L. ATTENBOROUGH. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1912. A number of important statutes connected with the Criminal law have been passed since the last edition of this work was published in 1908, and are included in the present edition. Among these are the Costs in Criminal Cases Act 1908; the Incest Act, creating a new offence and already the subject of an Appeal from the Court of Criminal Appeal to the House of Lords; the Prevention of Crime Act 1908, part of which, relating to the preventive detention of the habitual criminal, has been the subject of several decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeal. The Post Office Acts have been consolidated by the Post Office Act 1908, and the statutes relating to children and young persons have been consolidated and amended by what is sometimes called the "Children's Charter," namely, the Children Act 1908. The law on the subject of perjury has also been consolidated and amended by the Perjury Act 1911. All these statutes Mr. Attenborough has had to consider and incorporate in his work, and also to revise it generally and bring the cases up to date. This has been done carefully and well. As a good specimen of useful work we may call attention to the excellent treatment of the difficult subject of "restitution." Mr. Attenborough calls attention to the remarkable provision in the Habeas Corpus Act, that an offender cannot be pardoned when he is guilty of the offence of committing a man to prison out of the realm. Fourteenth Edition. Chitty's King's Bench Forms. By T. WILLES CHITTY, E. H. CHAPMAN, and PHILIP CLARK. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. This work includes a complete collection of Forms required by the practitioner in civil proceedings in the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. In addition are comprised the Forms necessary when appealing either to the Court of Appeal or to the House of Lords. As many of the forms have been printed by the Inland Revenue Department and are on sale, in each case the official distinguishing number or letter and number has been placed at the beginning. References and notes have been inserted to the Rules of the Supreme Court when necessary. When it is stated that the volume includes seventeen Parts, the colossal amount of work and detail involved will be obvious. Each Part deals either with some step in the action or relative to the progress of an action. Part XVI treats of proceedings relating to Foreign and other Tribunals abroad. Part XVII deals with Reference and Arbitration. The Index has been placed under revision by Mr. Philip Clark, who has done his work well. If we might venture a suggestion, it would be that the headings in the Index might be printed in larger or heavier type than that of the sub-heads, it would lend itself to additional ease of reference. As one would expect, the name of Master Willes Chitty stands as a guarantee of careful and erudite editorship, an expectation which is fully realised in the present edition. All engaged have given of their best, and the past high standard has not only been maintained, but, if possible, a higher one has been set, enabling the practitioner to rest assured that he can find between the two covers every conceivable Form that he may require. Sixteenth Edition. Chitty on Contracts. By WYATT PAINE. Sixth Edition. Clerk & Lindsell on Torts. By the same Author. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1912. As these two works are avowedly published as companion volumes, and are intended to cover the ground of obligations arising ex delicto and ex contractu, it seems as well to comprise them in the same notice. The present editions are both prepared by the master hand of Mr. Wyatt Paine, and he is to be congratulated upon the appearance of his twin offspring. Mr. J. R. McIlraith has also in each instance done yeoman service in compiling the Index, Tables of |