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Masters of Jurisprudence for all time cannot but be increased and deepened. Any work, therefore, which shall help the student on his way, and set before him in a handy volume the pith of the labours of an eminent commentator on the Roman Law, is smoothing the road for an improved system of legal education, and this meed of praise is Dr. Mears's due for the book now before us.

In the execution of his good purpose, we think Dr. Mears has not escaped some errors. His retention of the original numbers of the paragraphs translated, which are but excerpts with gaps between, is more likely, we believe, to tonfuse than to assist the student. A candidate for honours should not content himself with an abridged translation, which, at the best, can be only the dry bones of the original. A Pass-man, on the other hand, does not need to know what paragraphs have been omitted, for there is little hope that he would refer to M. Ortolan's own luminous pages. Dr. Mears hopes, indeed, that this arrangement may enable the Index of his work to serve for the original also, but this it can only do in part. Would it not be possible for him to make a complete Index to M. Ortolan's "Explication Historique" a feature in his promised Translation of the Institutes of Justinian and Gaius? There are some occasional crudities in Dr. Mears's translation, and we do not understand why he should write André Alciat and James Cujas in the course of the same paragraph. We should recommend him, in a future Edition, to place the abstracts where a student would naturally look for them-before the Book of the Institutes to which they relate, and not after it. Even without such improvements as we have suggested, Dr. Mears' abridgement of Ortolan's Roman Law will prove a valuable aid to the student.

A Concise Treatise on the Construction of Wills. By H. S. THEOBALD, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Stevens & Sons. 1876.

There has long been need of a really good and systematic Treatise on Wills, which, while satisfying the ordinary requirements of the practitioner, should at the same time afford the student a comprehensive and yet concise exposition of Testamentary Jurisprudence. Such a Treatise would occupy, in fact, an equi-distant position between the amplitude of Jarman's learned work, and the paucity of detail inherent in the plan of Mr. Vaughan Hawkins's valuable book. Mr. Theobald fairly admits

his obligations to both these works, without the former of which, his own, he says, "would probably never have been written; while the general scheme of the latter has served in the main as the model of the book before us. We may still retain a predilection in favour of these older and tried guides; but Mr. Theobald has certainly given evidence of extensive investigation, conscientious labour, and clear exposition. His subject is one of great importance and as great intricacy. Testators often unconsciously invite litigation, and Mr. Theobald has done good service in drawing up a short chapter of "Suggestions for Preparing a Will," which deserves careful perusal. Taken as a whole, this is a more useful work for the Student than either of the older books on Wills. It is not so strictly scientific in its arrangement as Mr. Vaughan Hawkins's Treatise, but for that very reason, perhaps, is better adapted to the Student. his cases into his text, instead of laying giving the cases on which it is founded. He insists strongly on the frequently superficial character of the resemblance of one case to another, and attributes to the weariness induced by the citation of irrelevant cases the fact that Judges have "sometimes gone so far as to object to the citation of cases upon the Construction of Wills altogether." This result is hardly to be wondered at. Mr. Theobald appears to wish for the solution of the problem how Wills are to be construed when questions arise, by the adoption of a golden mean between the assumption. of a "hard and fast Rule of Construction" (such, e.g., as has arisen out of Lord Romilly's Rules in Edwards v. Edwards), and the leaving of the Construction of a Will entirely to the discretion of an individual Judge, "unfettered by precedent or authority."

Mr. Theobald works down a Rule, and then

The somewhat large list of Corrigenda in Mr. Theobald's book, though containing the serious erratum of "illegitimate " for "legitimate," does not comprise another equally serious one on page 4, where the author, in reciting a portion of the Wills Act, 1837, printed correctly in his Appendix, makes his quotation unintelligible through an important omission. There is a very full table of cases, which adds to the practical utility of Mr. Theobald's book.

A Treatise on the Statute of Frauds. By WILLIAM FISCHER AGNEW, of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-law. Wildy and Sons. 1876.

Awaiting the settlement of the vexed and difficult question as to the possibility of reducing our vast and complicated mass of

statutes and legal decisions into a simple and intelligible form, by either Code or Digest, the race of text books continues to multiply exceedingly, and, like the Egyptian locusts of old, gradually to cover and appropriate the whole territory of legal principle and practice. We congratulate Mr. Agnew on having discovered a little nook of virgin soil, luxuriant with a most tangled growth of legal decisions.

Of course the Statute of Frauds has frequently been referred to and treated of in numerous legal works, and the decisions interpreting its various sections have been incidentally examined as they bore upon the particular class of questions treated of in each work; but it is remarkable, having regard to its importance and wide application, that this Statute should not hitherto, so far as we know, have been selected as the subject matter of a separate treatise.

Mr. Agnew's treatise has considerable merit. He has evidently expended much industry and care in collecting and examining the numerous decisions bearing upon his subject; he has not contented himself with stringing together a number of headings or marginal notes, but he gives the effect of the cases he cites in a clear and intelligible manner, and he appears to us generally to state the principles he wishes to deduce therefrom with accuracy and discernment. The insertion of fresh cases has been continued to a late period before publication, so that "he who runs may read" in this book the latest state of the law upon the subject.

But one thing which we must complain of is that we have to "run" to and fro if we wish to read. If it be asked what is Mr. Agnew's method of arrangement, we are tempted to say he has no method of arrangement. The titles of his different chapters might have been written on folded slips of paper and put into a hat, and, after being shuffled, arranged in the order in which they were drawn out. Chapter VIII. treats of the general rules of law with regard to the execution and attestation of wills; Chapter X. treats of exceptional modes of execution and attestation recognised as valid in the case of soldiers and sailors. Why are they separated by Chapter IX. on revocation of wills? And why is another chapter relating to wills separated from its brethren by the intervention of four other chapters on totally different subjects? We venture to think that this is a serious defect, and one which detracts much from the value of the book for purposes of study, and somewhat also from its usefulness to the practitioner. We also think that this book

might have been improved by a more careful final revision before sending it to the press, whereby several noticeable. instances of want of completeness and clearness of explanation might have been omitted. For instance, the statement of the effect of the Real Property Amendment Act, 1845, at the top of p. 13, is to us utterly unintelligible. Again, there is apparent inconsistency between the words of Vaughan, C.J., cited at p. 7, and Mr. Agnew's statement at p. 9, "that a simple license, in order to be binding on the licensor, must be under seal." We will not refer to other instances of incompleteness of revision; they are, indeed, only occasional, but they would have been better avoided.

On the whole, however, the book before us shows much learning and industry, and is likely to be a useful addition to a Lawyer's library.

SMALLER BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

The Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy in the University of Oxford, Dr. T. Erskine Holland, in his Lecture on the Brussels Conference of 1874 (Oxford and London, James Parker & Co., 1876), treats within a very small compass a subject which the existing position of the European Commonwealth renders peculiarly interesting. It was a matter of complaint during the late Servo-Turkish campaigns that the Geneva Convention was not properly observed by the Ottoman troops, and even that its symbol, probably owing to its religious connotation, was disregarded and insulted. This is only one of the many points connected with Diplomatic and quasiDiplomatic attempts to mitigate the rigour of warfare, on which Dr. Holland's suggestive pamphlet may be consulted with advantage. The author of England's Maritime Rights (Hardwicke & Bogue), Mr. Ross of Bladensburg, is a military officer, zealous for what he conceives to be his country's good, in case of a European conflict, and that is, in his opinion, the formal withdrawal of Great Britain from the Declaration of Paris, 1856. Mr. Ross argues his case with great vigour, and it will not be his fault if Parliament should not, in some Session yet to come, sanction the reversal of the Acts of 1856, and thus restore that "balance of power" between the maritime and military Powers which was then, in his view, unduly disturbed.-Dr. James Bryce, who modestly hides all his titular distinctions, save those

of Barrister-at-Law and Fellow of Oriel, has brought out, as a Supplement to Ludlow and Jenkyns on the Law of Trade Marks, a useful edition of the Trade Marks Registration Acts, 1875-6 (William Maxwell & Son, 1877), with the pertinent Rules and Instructions, prefaced by an Introduction, and accompanied by a running Commentary of notes. But would it not have

been an improvement if the learned Professor had printed the portions of the Act of 1875 which were repealed by that of 1876, within square brackets, and had intercalated the Amendment Act, which is very short, in the principal Act? Still, it would be difficult to go wrong in the process of registering a Trade Mark with Dr. Bryce's book at one's elbow.-In the Articled Clerks Hand-Book (Stevens & Sons, 1877), Messrs. Rubinstein and Ward have accomplished a work which must prove a boon to the class interested. All that it is necessary to learn respecting the Law regulating the status of a clerk under articles, and regarding the various Examinations, seems to be brought together by the authors within a convenient compass and in clear language.-In Observations on the Object and Effect of Section 38 of the Companies Act, 1867 (Stevens & Sons, 1877), the author, a Solicitor of long practice in cases under the Act, draws attention to various questions which have recently derived additional importance from Twycross v. Grant, and other cases of less note.—In Lithotomy, its Successes and its Dangers (Melbourne, F. & F. Bailliere, 1876), attention is drawn to points of interest in connection with Medical Jurisprudence, and it would seem that Coroners' Inquests require some reform at the Antipodes no less than in England.-From a different quarter of the globe, there reaches us a reflux of International Legal Literature, in the shape of a Series of Essays on Legal Topics (Philadelphia, Rees Welsh, 1876), by Jas. Parsons, Esq., Professor in the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, most of which appeared in the pages of the "Law Magazine and Review" at various periods between 1863 and 1871; while the last in the Series, which, under the title of "The Ancient Commonwealth," enters vividly into the world of the "Cité Antique" of M. Fustel de Coulanges, is reprinted from the American Law Register.-Mr. Guernsey, of the New York Bar, whose Key to Equity Jurisprudence we have already noticed, has reprinted (New York, McDivitt, Campbell & Co.), from the "Archives of Electrology and Neurology" for 1874, a Paper on "Municipal Law and its Relations to the Constitution of Man," in which he appears to hold the view that it is

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