emphatic opinions. For instance, he insists on the utility of the Grand Jury, and is strongly opposed to its proposed abolition. Trumpery cases in which no criminal conduct is involved are by the action of the Grand Jury prevented from coming before the public. The present writer, nearly thirty years ago, was foreman of a Grand Jury which threw out three such Bills. One was a family dispute as to the possession of a photograph valued at a shilling which one member was accused of stealing! Lord Alverstone is also strongly opposed to the publication in divorce cases of the numerous details with which the Yellow Press delights to regale its readers. He is equally opposed to the proposed fusion of barristers and solicitors. Of public events in which he participated, Lord Alverstone only excites our curiosity by slight references. We should like to have known the reason for the strong pressure which was put upon him to appear for the Government in the Parnell Commission Inquiry. It would also have been of more than ordinary interest if he could have lifted the veil from the mystery which still enshrouds the South African Commission. From the records of his early life at the Bar, the young barrister will learn many invaluable lessons. One practice we have omitted to mention which is not the least important. In any case in which technical details were involved, Lord Alverstone never failed to acquire first-hand knowledge by visiting the locus quo and making himself familiar with the place in which the events happened, with the subject of the action, or with the process in respect of which the parties were at variance. From a literary point of view we are precluded from any criticism by Lord Alverstone's own expression of feeling in the Preface. For the general reader there is no doubt much of interest. For ourselves, we have conscientiously read this volume twice from cover to cover, and have laid it down with a feeling of disappointment. We are disappointed in the first place that Lord Alverstone has failed to present the picture of his own great personality we had expected, and secondly, that he has omitted to tell us anything really interesting about the many famous lawyers and politicians with whom he was in daily contact.

The Origins of the War. By J. HOLLAND ROSE, Litt.D. Cambridge: The University Press. 1914.

This book contains the lectures delivered by Dr. Holland Rose, as Reader in Modern History at Cambridge in Michaelmas term last. In their present form they have been brought well up to date.

No one probably is better equipped than Dr. Holland Rose for dealing with the historical reasons for the present War, and, in so far as it has become a struggle between the German and British Empires, with the problem of whether the rupture might have been avoided. No War is inevitable, declares Dr. Holland Rose, and his conclusion is that it might have been avoided by Germany. In arriving at this conclusion, the evidence is martialled with his usual skill by the Author, and those who desire to arrive at the real causes of the war cannot do better than read this closely-reasoned brief for the British nation.

The Law Relating to Actionable Non-Disclosure. BOWER, K.C. London: Butterworth & Co. 1915.

By G. SPENCER

This book may be regarded in a sense as the counterpart and complement of the learned Author's former work on actionable misrepresentation. Both branches of the same juridical department, they necessarily intersect and overlap one another at many points. Consequently, Mr. Spencer Bower has been obliged to re-traverse, in the present work, ground already covered by its predecessor. In the latter work Mr. Spencer Bower was able to prefix to his Commentary on Misrepresentation a statement of the law in a codified form. Similar treatment in the present case was found impossible of attainment. "The concepts and principles involved," says the learned Author, "are too fluid and delicate to justify the pro-crustean extension or compression which would be necessary to fit them into the rigid framework of a code." Another difficulty was the choice of a title. The greater part of the work is adequately covered by the title given above, which is supplemented by the subtitle, "And Other Breaches of Duty in Relation to Confidence and Influence." Under the latter are discussed the duties of disclosure where the relation is that of trustee and cestui que trust, promoter and company, principal and agent, parent and child, solicitor and client, physician and patient, and money-lender and expectant heir.

In the Appendix Mr. Spencer Bower discusses a number of terminological questions, the comparative value of jurisprudence and ethics, the Roman law of non-disclosure, and the Scottish law of non-disclosure. These discussions are distinguished, as indeed is the text, by a literary effort of a very high order and are accompanied by a display of classical knowledge and of Common law which are very welcome. This is a masterly exposition of an extremely complex branch of the law.

The Law of Hearsay Evidence. London: Stevens & Sons.

1915.

By J. B. C. TREGARTHEN.

In this short treatise Mr. Tregarthen has made a distinct contribution to a clearer view of the Law of Evidence. His object has been two-fold, to explode the res gesta rule, and to draw a clear distinction between original and hearsay evidence. The latter he defines as "any fact, other than the testimony of a witness in the box, which is, or which amounts to, the statement by a person of a fact in issue or relevant to the issue, and which is not otherwise in itself relevant to the issue." This definition is very similar to those of modern writers, such as Taylor and Phipson. Mr. Tregarthen's quarrel with them is that they do not observe their own definitions, but treat as original evidence many kinds of statements which in truth are merely hearsay. With the novel criterion by which a statement, if made spontaneously and naturally, becomes original evidence is, says Mr. Tregarthen, "good neither as a practical proposition, as a principle, nor as an accurate reflection of the existing law." So, too, the terms "evidence" and "relevance" are loosely and improperly used. The former is used indifferently to denote both the facts of which the Court receives testimony and the testimony by which the evidence is brought to the ear of the Court. The term " testimony," contends Mr. Tregarthen, should be used to represent the statement of witnesses in the box, and the term "evidence" reserved to denote the facts which the testimony relates. Any fact admitted by the Court is said by many writers to be relevant, but, objects Mr. Tregarthen, this is a violation of the word. A hearsay statement, though admitted as evidence, cannot cease to be a hearsay statement and become a relevant fact. We have said enough to indicate the original treatment of the subject by the learned Author and the scope of the work.

The Yearly County Court Practice 1915. and E. H. TINDAL ATKINSON. 2 Vols.

& Co.

By Judge WOODFALL London: Butterworth

The Annual County Courts Practice 1915. By Judge SMYLY and W. J. BROOKS. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

In

In both these hardy annuals the war is naturally reflected. the former this reflection finds greater expression than in the latter. In the Yearly Practice a special chapter, entitled The Moratorium, contains such of the Emergency Acts and Rules as are likely to be of assistance to the County Court practitioner. In this chapter are

included all the Proclamations issued under the Postponement of Payments Act 1914 and the final County Court Rules, and under the Courts Emergency Power Act 1914. On the other hand, the Editors of the Annual Practice have been content to include only the two Statutes above mentioned with their respective County Court Rules.

In neither Practice are the changes in other directions drastic or important. Apart from the war, no alteration in the practice of the County Courts has this year been effected by the Legislature. In July last, the County Court Rules 1914 (No. 3) were issued, consisting of a consolidation of fourteen out of the seventeen sets of Rules published since the Rules of 1903. The latter, with the Rules of 1914 with Forms, and with three other sets of Rules, viz.: Orders XL, XLIB, and XLIIA are included in both Practices.

In the Yearly Practice, Mr. E. Aylmer Digby is again responsible for the revision of the Admiralty Chapter. Since this revision, he has rejoined H.M. Navy as Lieutenant-Commander. Mr. Harry Cousins, Registrar of the Cardiff County Court, has revised the Chapter on Costs; and Mr. J. Errington, Registrar of the Carlisle County Court, the Time and Practice Table and Table of Fees.

The Editors of the Annual Practice have again followed this practice of entrusting special subjects to experts. Messrs. W. H. Whitelock and Arthur L. Lowe, Registrars of the Birmingham County Court, are again responsible for the Chapters on Costs and Court Fees; Mr. H. H. Sanderson is responsible for Admiralty and Merchant Shipping; and Mr. Gilbert Stone, for Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation. The continued publication of this Practice in one volume will be highly appreciated by practitioners. In both works the decisions of the Courts are duly brought up to date. The position of both is so assured that commendation is unnecessary.

Contingent and Executory Interests in Land in English Law. By E. W. SHAW FLETCHER, LL.B. London: Wildy & Sons. 1915.

This historical essay upon the most complex branch of our intricate system of alienation of land is a notable contribution in the history of our law relating to land. To have traced the history of contingent remainders three centuries before the earliest case reported by Williams; to have exposed errors in the definitions given by Fearne, and to have substituted definitions at once more legal

and more logical; to have summarised the history of the power of alienating land since the days of Alfred, and to have thrown a flood of light upon the complexities of future interests in land, is indeed a remarkable achievement. It is deserving of something more than a passing notice. It was said by Professor Maitland that no one could be a sound conveyancer who was unacquainted with the law of the Year-Books. The truth of this observation is enforced by a perusal of Mr. Fletcher's essay. Apart from the Statutes and such early text-books as Glanvil, Britton and Fleta, the Author's theories and conclusions upon the origin and development of future interests in land are based upon the law gathered from cases relating to his subject to be found in the Year-Books. This is building on sure foundations, with the usual result of rendering a subject, otherwise repulsive, full of live interest. As Dr. H. Mansfield Robinson, who contributes a eulogistic Preface, rightly says, the law-student "will find all those legal phantasmagoria of springing and shifting uses, double and naked possibilities, scintilla juris, the cy-près doctrine and when the seisin to serve contingent uses was in nullibus or in gremio legis and the like, which proved such nightmares to his predecessors, resolved into plain and simple devices to meet the various needs of different stages in the evolution of the law of future interests in land."

Income Tax and Super-Tax Practice. By W. E. SNelling. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.

With this book at his hand no one would have any excuse for making an incorrect return of his income for income tax purposes. At the present moment there are probably few who desire to escape their responsibilities; but at the same time, in the great majority of cases, incomes have been very considerably reduced and difficult questions arise as to the amounts upon which persons should be assessed. After stating concisely the general rules which should be followed in the preparation and adjustment of accounts for income tax purposes, the Author deals with the average system and the circumstances in which it may be departed from, the preparation of returns (including those of single traders, firms and companies), assessments on lands and houses, repayment claims and super-tax returns and assessments. As the book went to press before the war (dates are omitted both on the title-page and in the Preface), a supplement has been added dealing with the emergency