119 Reviews. [SHORT NOTICES DO NOT PRECLUDE REVIEWS AT GREATER The Lawyer in Literature. By JOHN MARSHALL GEST. Boston: The Boston Book Company. 1913. It is curious to notice the idea that the average dramatist has of the lawyer, which is intensified when depicted by the actor. We are all familiar with the judge who manages everybody's affairs with indifferent success, who generally has a pretty ward whom he bestows on the impecunious young barrister in the last act. Again, a familiar feature is the learned King's Counsel who displays lamentable manners by having a cross-examining scene with the villainess at a dinner party. Further, stage law has its peculiarities. A mortgage can be foreclosed in five minutes by the nearest villain, and the sorrowing heroine and her white-headed father are flung into the night to slow music. The hero is always arrested for murder, and handcuffed without warrant or information, only to be released upon the uncorroborated statement of the comic man, who directs the police to transfer the handcuffs to the nearest villain, which they do without demur. In the present interesting book Mr. Gest gives us the position filled by lawyers in literature. Dickens, himself brought up in a lawyer's office, gave to the world the immortal trial scene of Bardell v. Pickwick. In many of his novels Dickens depicts in caricature the lawyers of his day. The second novelist dealt with is Sir Walter Scott, and here we have a most illuminating criticism of that celebrated man. Honoré de Balzac comes next, and to the reader is presented the marked contrast between Balzac's mental attitude towards morals and women, and his conservative treatment of Law and Politics. Further, the learned Author deals with the writings of Sir Edward Coke in a way that will be much appreciated by English lawyers. A judge of the Orphan's Court, Philadelphia, the learned Author shows himself to be a man of wide culture, with a pronounced sense of humour, and we can recommend with utmost confidence the perusal of these seven lectures as interesting to lawyer and laymen alike. The Eyre of Kent, 6 & 7 Edward II, A. D. 1313-1314. Vol. III. Edited for the Selden Society by WILLIAM CRADDOCK BOLLAND. London: Bernard Quaritch. 1913. This volume completes the Year Books of the Eyre of Kent. It contains the remaining titles of Mortdancestor, Non-claim, Novel Disseisin, Nuper Obiit, Quare non admisit, Quod permittat, Quo Warranto, Replevin, Scire Facias, Variance, and a collection of Notes on various matters. The Introduction by Mr. Bolland is mainly concerned with ambiguous points in cases here reported. They are consequently of a very technical nature. Of more general interest is the discussion upon the remuneration of the Justices and their staff of clerks. From the Liberate Rolls, for the most part unedited and unpublished, Mr. Bolland has ascertained the amounts payable to the Justices sitting during the Eyre of Kent, and from the Rolls of Juries and Assizes of this Eyre those allotted to the clerks. The latter apparently did not receive anything in the nature of a fixed salary, and appear to have been paid chiefly by fees. These fees were paid out of the damages awarded to the successful parties. There seems to have been no sort of proportion between the amount of the damages and the portion allotted to the clerks. Nor is there anything to show how the latter was apportioned between the clerks. Of the total sum of £870 given in damages in 180 cases, £124, or almost exactly one-seventh, goes to the clerks. In later times the clerks in the Court of Common Pleas had established the right to one-tenth of all damages recovered, and those of the Court of King's Bench and the Exchequer to one twentieth. This practice of the clerks was apparently regarded as a grievance by the public, but it was also followed by the Justices, who, when their own salaries were in arrear, as they usually were, did not hesitate to raid the damages due to successful plaintiffs. From the case of The King v. The Abbot of Reading we find the curious fact that a hare was valued at less than half the price of a rabbit. A cony is here valued at fourpence, whilst a hare is only assessed at three half-pence. At this period a capon was worth fourpence, and a fowl of the best quality twopence. Mr. Bolland explains this inversion of prices by suggesting that it was due to the recent introduction of the rabbit into England, and its consequent scarcity. The prejudice against hares, however, as an article of food has survived to modern times. We con. gratulate Mr. Bolland upon the completion of a laborious work finely executed. Lectures on Legal History and Miscellaneous Legal Essays. By JAMES BARR AMES, with a Memoir. London: Humphrey Millford, Oxford University Press. 1913. This book, which contains all the important writings of the late Professor Ames with the exception of two articles on the Negotiable Instruments Act, published elsewhere, should make the name of Ames a household word with law students in this country. Had he not been a great teacher, Ames would have been a great writer. His life-work lay in the class-room and in preparation for the class-room. His real work was the formation of the minds of those committing themselves to his influence. His rare scholarship and research were the means he employed in this high and serious task. He realised what a social force may be in sound legal instruction. And he is justified by his works. Well might he have retorted to those who would have turned his great powers to productive work: "So that I train your lawyers. and judges, let who will write your books." It was Ames, even more than Langdell, who established the "Langdell method" of studying and teaching law. A great legal historian, Ames sought. to teach the law chiefly as a philosophical system. He used a case or a series of cases chiefly to form the basis of a Socratic discussion which should draw out the principle involved. Not that he neglected the historical method, as the Lectures on Legal History abundantly show. In the essay entitled The Vocation of a Law Professor, Ames gives a hint of the force which inspired his own work. It was the belief that, through the students who sat under him, he might leave his impress for good upon the legal system of his country. His ideal was to make the law school a seat of legal influence. His social conscience, his lofty conception of personal obligation, his legal ideals, have become the living creed of hundreds of strong men who have gone out from his instruction to become members and leaders of the Bar, judges and teachers of law in all parts of the land. And although his direct influence upon legislation was comparatively small, through his disciples he had a predominating influence in the work of the Commission on Uniformity of Legislation, which is destined to be the foundation of the commercial law of the United States. The present volume only makes the regret keener that Ames did not live after his retirement from Harvard to produce the works on legal history which he had projected. We know of no work which would be more fruitful of results in the hands of the young law student than these Lectures on Legal History. Ames believed that a real and fundamental knowledge of present law could not be gained without a knowledge of the past. These lectures demonstrate the value of applied history in present-day affairs. Other lawyers have made the Year Books of the fourteenth century useful for the solution of some particular case: Ames made them the source of the most practical knowledge of current legal principles. Federal Incorporation. By R. C. HEISLER. Boston: The Boston Book Company. 1913. This book forms the third volume of the publications of The School of Law of the University of Pennsylvania. The publication of each volume of this series requires the sanction of the Law Faculty, and the Authors must be connected with the school as members of the teaching force, fellows, or graduate students. The Author of this treatise, a graduate of the Law School and a member of the Philadelphia Bar, held the position of Gowen Memorial Fellow in the Law School for two years, during which he studied the constitutional questions which he here analyses and discusses. These questions are for the most part those arising under the power over inter-state commerce vested in Congress by the Constitution. It was not till 1887, when the Inter-state Commerce Act was passed, that Congress began to enact affirmative measures in the exercise of this power. Since this date the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and numerous other statutes have followed. "The decisions of the Supreme Court," writes Mr. Heisler, "clearly demonstrate that the limit of Congressional action has been by no means reached. The precise extent of the federal power has yet to be determined. The increasing power of industrial corporations renders more efficient control imperative." One method suggested is that Congress should itself incorporate companies to engage in inter-state commerce. Bill with this object was introduced in the House of Representatives in 1910. It is the purpose of this treatise to examine the constitutional questions which would be involved as a result of such legislation. A International Arbitration amongst the Greeks. By M. N. Tod. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1913. Now that the Temple of Peace is a substantial and stately edifice, the subject of International arbitration may possibly attain an increased influence in the policy of civilised States. Historical precedents would naturally form a prominent feature in the abstract principle of a reference of disputes to an independent tribunal. And if history can be interpreted by the evidence of material remains in ancient Greece, as supplemental to the records of literature, then this volume will assume an appropriate value. For it supplies many instances of important inscriptions on slabs of marble or stone, and on fragments of wall which excavations have brought under inspection, and these instances relate to the nature of differences submitted to arbitration in distant ages, the tribunals appointed, the procedure adopted, and the evidence submitted. The learning which the book displays commands the greatest respect. Third Edition. Trade Union Law. By H. COHEN. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1913. Trade disputes pursued as they are just now, with bitter antagonism, are not only of disastrous effect on commercial prosperity and the progress of manufacture, but are also the causes of lamentable deprivation and distress. So that a statement of the law on the subject, brought down to within the last four months, must be of wide interest. The book traces the growth of restraint on trade from Plantagenet times, and follows it in detail through the Trade Union Act of 1871 to that of the present year, and supplies the notes and rules established under the Acts. In addition, there are chapters on the Criminal law involved and on the limits on the expulsion of its members which the Unions may exercise. Fourth Edition. Jurisprudence. By J. W. SALMOND. London: Stevens & Haynes. 1913. The third edition of this work was reviewed by us in 1910, and there are two facts that should be noticed concerning the fourth edition, (a) It is substantially a reprint of the third edition; (b) The learned Author is still Solicitor-General for New Zealand. These facts demonstrate that the reading public appreciate Mr. Salmond's work as a writer, and also that ministries may change in New Zealand, but the Solicitor-General remains, a great testimony to the popularity of that official with his fellow-citizens in that remote part of our Oversea Dominions. We see no reason for dissenting from the good opinion held by the reading public. We like very much the contents of Appendix V, which gives not only a list of authorities, but also short explanatory notes concerning the writers themselves. |