The Judiciary and the People. By FREDERICK N. JUDSON. London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press.

1913.

Of late years there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the administration of justice in the United States, and this dissatisfaction has become articulate. It is proclaimed in the popular press and on the political platform. It forms a subject for discussion at every meeting of the Bar associations. The people are beginning to lose, if they have not already lost, their confidence in the impartiality of the Courts of Justice. The causes for this distrust are here investigated and the remedies suggested. Chief amongst these causes are a rigid statutory procedure, archaic rules of evidence, limitation of judicial discretion, and popular election of the States' judges. "Unless" writes the learned author, "our judges are independent and protected against popular clamour and the demands of political changes, they cannot perform their duty to the people in the administration of justice for the people." In the examination of the power of the Courts to decide questions of Constitutional law he has employed the historical and comparative methods in such a way as to be invaluable to our law students here.

The Yearly Supreme Court Practice 1914. By M. MUIR MACKENZIE and T. WILLES CHITTY. London: Butterworth & Co. This book, crowded with attested facts, will be welcomed to many a legal shelf. The well-known form and arrangement are of course both maintained, but the countless additions and amendments that must necessarily have been made can be discovered only by long and frequent use of the work. The Editor claims that "a special endeavour has been made to render the work of real use as a guide to the existing practice." There can be no doubt about the endeavour or the success of it. Although time has not sufficed to make more than a rapid examination of this volume, yet a more intimate experience of previous issues commands a ready and grateful acquiescence in the justness of the claim. But beyond this, an incursion here and there has disclosed some of the pains expended to give "practical directions as to the exact steps to be taken, and when and where and how each step should be taken." Cases reported even as late as September last have been included. The new Rules 22 to 31 of Order XVI have of course been noticed. But, as the Editor rightly says, as they "appear to require considerable modification and amendment, it may well be that a further postponement

may be necessary " before they come into operation, and therefore the notes on the old rules are still retained in the volume. Vol. 2,

as well as Vol. 1, contains the complete Index. As each Index covers 365 pages, a good deal of space is thus occupied. But there are reasons, no doubt, which make convenience a compensation. No task can be more exacting than to prepare a work that shall be an instant guide to experts who often, in hurried perplexity, must accept and depend upon its pronouncements; and it is as near probability as possible that varied, numerous and minute as the materials are, the directions given in this work have never misguided.

The Annual Practice 1914. By J. B. MATTHEWS, K.C., R. WHITE, and F. A. STRINGER. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Twelfth Edition. Supreme Court 1914.

The A. B. C. Guide to the Practice of the By F. R. P. STRINGER. Sweet & Maxwell.

The great White Book seems to mature and consolidate its wisdom steadily with each volume. That is the only sign of antiquity about it; for in this issue it assimilates with the old knowledge all the fresh. experience of the past year, and, by removing the obsolete, presents a compendium of current facts set out in the concisest form. Of subjects strictly new there are not more than usual. But one of them is the new rules to come into operation on the 1st January next, given at page 256, to secure preliminary investigation of legal claims of poor persons, and to provide professional assistance for the cause of action or defence. The assistance which is to be given by solicitor and counsel-whether on the "panel" or not-seems, as the Editor points out, to be, under Rules XXVI and XXVII, imperative on the professional persons who may be indicated by "the Court or Judge or proper officer." But a new feature in the book, if not a new subject, is that comprised under the head of Companies, at page 2182, where all the notes relating to debenture holders' actions, and to the alteration of the objects of a company, and the re-organisation or reduction of its capital under the Companies Clauses Consolidation Act, together with the forms and the new notes on the practice, have been, after revision, collected and re-arranged. This is a very judicious innovation. And another useful feature is that of having the "good form guide" of the Bar Council, not only restored to the book, but all its admonitions, including those of 1912, condensed and arranged under sections, so as to give facility. for immediate reference. Another minor feature may perhaps also

be noticed, viz., the rule of computation of time appended to Order LXIV, which is a useful one to bear in mind. Where the present dimensions of the volume render further expansion almost prohibitive, the skill that has compressed into the brevity of a telegram the strictest accuracy of information, cannot fail to strike the consultant who acts upon the indications given.

Mr. Stringer's useful pocket volume is, in accordance with established moderation, issued without a Preface. But its value is so universally appreciated that a clarion note is not needed to herald its advent.

The Yearly County Court Practice 1914. By JUDGE WOODFALL and E. H. TINDAL ATKINSON. 2 Vols. London: Butterworth & Co.

In all the practice books issued year by year, so watchful is the attention given to every point which arises during their currency, requiring revision in the issue of the next year, that the closest scrutiny would probably fail to discover any omission even of slight importance. This alert care has been unflinchingly exercised in the present volumes; and though there is no radical change in its text, such as the measure now in its Bill form will require, yet new rules and an extension of the jurisdiction of the Courts have necessitated some considerable alterations. The work is so well known that comment upon its proved value would be superfluous.

The Law relating to Secret Commissions and Bribes. CREW. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. 1913.

By ALBERT

It seems to be a growing practice in modern times for authors of books dealing with special subjects to print at the beginning a few lines on the subject, written by some great recognised authority. These few lines may have little or nothing to do with the book itself, and are dignified by the name "Introduction" or, as in the present case, “Foreword." The name of the great authority is printed large on the front page, and the unwary, not unnaturally, jump to the conclusion that he has something to do with the preparation of the text. Mr. Crew's book possesses quite sufficient merits without this artificial support. He deals with a subject which is of great importance, not to the commercial community alone, in a comprehensive and business-like manner. The text is divided into three Parts and an Introduction. In the last named we have an excellent

sketch of the relation of Principal and Agent. This forms a stable foundation upon which to erect Part I, which gives the Civil law relating to secret commissions and bribes; Part II, the Criminal law relating to secret commissions and bribes; and lastly, in Part III, we have treated the question of bribery of Public Officials. In Chapter XIX, which might more appropriately have been termed the Appendix, the reader finds the Statutes in several Colonies and the Isle of Man, relating to secret commissions and bribes, together with a Draft Bill which Mr. P. A. Silburn introduced into the Union of South Africa House of Assembly, and optimistically hopes to make the law. The Index, prepared by Mr. J. B. Welson, is not up to the standard set by the text, and is somewhat confused and confusing.

The Law of Contract in Scotland. By W. F. TROTTER, M.A., LL.M. Edinburgh and London: W. Hodge & Co. 1913.

Mr. Trotter is both a Scottish Advocate and an English Barrister, a fact which qualifies him for the task of contrasting the two systems of law. According to the Preface this appears to be the first book in Scottish legal literature dealing exclusively with general principles of contract. The text is divided into fourteen chapters, each one of which deals with an important branch of the subject. We do not feel ourselves qualified to pass an opinion upon the quality of the writing, but one thing does strike us as being excellent, and that is the scheme of arrangement. By its simplicity and completeness it makes for ease of reference. Mr. Trotter possesses an easy flowing style of diction, and has evidently expended much time and trouble in making his General Index a reliable key to the contents.

Forty years in the Old Bailey. By FREDERICK LAMB. London : Stevens & Sons. 1913.

Mr. Lamb, who has for forty years reported at the Central Criminal Court, gives here a summary of the proceedings and evidence and points of law and practice in a number of the cases which were tried during his long acquaintance with the Courts. They are all more fully dealt with in the Sessions Papers, but the present volume is intended to be a hand-book for the Bench and Bar. A great deal of useful information about cases is given, but we cannot think the arrangement a good one. So far as we can understand, the cases taken from trials during each Mayoralty are grouped

together in alphabetical order according to subject; so to find the cases on one point the reader has to hunt gradually through the book with the aid of rather a meagre Index. The cases are of very unequal authority, and we think some are absolutely valueless. For instance, what is the use of a report like this, "Upon Mr. Torr's opening, the Common Serjeant considered that the issue upon which the perjury was charged was an immaterial one, and directed a verdict of Not Guilty." The reports also want some editing. For instance, there are several cases dealing with the right of reply by the law officers, but there are no notes to the earlier cases referring to the later decisions, and it is only in a passage of Mr. Baron Huddleston's decision in R. v. Wather and others that we find that a rule on the matter had been made by a resolution of the judges, and even then we are not told of the date of the resolution, which was in December 1884. Neither are we told, in the case of R. v. Simon, that the very important ruling of Mr. Justice Wills was confirmed by the Court for Crown Cases Reserved.

Commentary on the Commercial Code of Japan. 3 Vols. By J. E. DE BECKER. London: Butterworth & Co. 1913.

Japanese specialists on law have, it seems, written exhaustively on the subject of the commercial code of their country, but as their treatises are printed in the Chinese character, and expressed in a language not yet extensively known in England, their labours have been hitherto barred from the knowledge of more than a very select few of our lawyers and merchants. But trade between Britain and Japan, considerable at present, will undoubtedly increase in the future. The learned and accomplished Author of these remarkable volumes has therefore afforded by them a valuable support to the relations between the two empires. He laments the difficulty of translating into English the technical terms of the original, but, assuming that he has been successful in overcoming the difficulty, his version is perfectly clear. And this is important, for the code, especially as it would seem as regards bills of exchange, is absolutely rigid; and therefore it is necessary for persons dealing with such instruments to be familiar with the rules governing them. Not less necessary to persons having business interests in Japan is an acquaintance with the law relating to Shipping and Bankruptcy, which forms the subject of the third volume.