of Law at Cairo, Mr. Melville is peculiarly well qualified for the task he has undertaken. His exposition of the law is eminently able, and the principles are enunciated with commendable lucidity and precision. We confidently recommend this book to all students of Roman law and Roman institutions.

Railway and Canal Traffic Cases. Vol. XV. BY RALPH NEVille, LL.M., and W. A. ROBERTSON, B.A. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1914.

The cases reported in this volume are those which were heard in the latter part of 1911, 1912, 1913 and up to July, 1914. To the practitioner in this class of business these reports are, of course, indispensable. Decisions upon points of practice are both numerous and important. In National Telephone Co., Ltd., v. PostmasterGeneral, for instance, it was held by the House of Lords that an appeal lay to the Court of Appeal from the Railway and Canal Commissioners to whom questions had been referred by agreement between the parties. Another important decision is that in General Electric Co., Ltd., v. Great Western Ry. Co. upon discovery. The paucity of undue preference cases is still very marked. Whether this proves the absence of injustice on the part of the companies or the inability of traders to prosecute their complaints before the Commissioners cannot be discussed here.

Chitty's Annual Statutes, 1914. By W. H. AGGS. Sweet & Maxwell. 1915.

London:

Butterworths' Twentieth Century Statutes, 1914. Edited by H. H. KING. London: Butterworth & Co. 1915.

The first of these books forms Vol. 18, Part I of the supplementary volumes to the sixth edition of Chitty's Statutes of Practical Utility. Of the 111 Public General Statutes passed in the two recent Sessions of Parliament, 72 have been selected as within the scope and meaning of this work. Apart from those enactments termed Emergency Legislation, the most important Acts, perhaps, are the Deeds of Arrangements Act 1914 and the Bankruptcy Act 1914. The notes to both these Statutes are in the main taken from Williams' Bankruptcy Law (1915 Ed.), edited by Mr. E. W. Hansell. In addition to the Emergency Statutes, such Royal Proclamations having a statutory force and as are of practical utility

have been printed together with many statutory Rules which are essential to the proper interpretation of the Acts. References are brought up to the end of the year.

Butterworths' Annual is not confined to the Statutes of practical utility, but contains all the Public General Acts passed in 1914, excepting those only in force in Scotland and the Isle of Man. For the notes to the Merchant Shipping (Convention) Act 1914, Merchant Shipping (Certificates) Act 1914 and the Prize Courts (Procedure) Act 1914, Mr. Stuart Moore is responsible, and for the notes to the remaining Statutes, the General Editor, Mr. H. H. King. As many of the Emergency Statutes are of a temporary nature, the Editor has collected them at the end of the volume under the title of "War." Those already repealed have been printed in italics. No Statutory Rules and Orders are printed, but references to them are given throughout. These are brought down to February 1st, 1915.

A History of French Public Law. By JEAN BRISSAUD. Translated by JAMES W. GARNER. With Introductions by HAROLD D. HAZELTINE and WESTEL W. WILLOUGHBY. London John

This constitutes the fifth volume of the Continental Legal History Series published under the auspices of the Association of American Law Schools. "All history," said Maitland, "is but a seamless web; and he who endeavours to tell but a piece of it must feel that his first sentence tears the fabric." This seamless web of American legal history unites Americans inseparably to the history of Western and Southern Europe, and it is no less true of English legal history. In the creation of Western Continental Law we see two great forces struggling for predominance-Germanic custom and Roman law. In England all the racial threads--Saxon, Danish, Norman-were but extensions of the same Germanic warp and woof that was making the law in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy and Spain. And its legal culture was never and nowhere without some of the same intellectual influence of Roman law which was so thoroughly overspreading the Continental peoples.

In the development of both American and English law, the value of the comparative study of legal institutions is now generally recognised. "Jean Brissaud's Cours d'histoire générale du droit français

public et privé, published in 1904, already ranks," says Mr. Hazeltine, "as one of the masterpieces of Continental legal literature. It not only consolidates the results of researches by Viollet, Flach, Luchaise, Esmein, Fustel de Coulanges, and other scholars, but it also supplements the writings of these historians with the new learning that issued from Brissaud's own indefatigable study of the original sources themselves. Both in its substantial contribution to knowledge and in its literary charm, Brissaud's great work will always be viewed as one of the most remarkable products of the new historical school."

In tracing the origin and growth of French legal institutions and ideas, Brissaud has systematically employed both the historical and the comparative methods. "In no other work available in English," says Professor Willoughby, "is there to be found an account comparable in learning to that which Brissaud has given us of the steps by which, from the earliest times, the political institutions of France have come into being and developed until the present constitutional period is reached." In the disputes between the Germanists and Romanists, Brissaud endeavours to deal impartially. evidence for extreme conclusions is weak, he preserves an open mind; but when the evidence is incontestable, he does not hesitate to accept a conclusion regardless of whether it supports the German or the Roman School.

When the

By his premature death in 1904, writes Mr. Paul Thomas, his successor in the Chair of Legal History in the University of Toulouse, "science has lost one of its most devoted apostles ; France one of its noblest reputations; and the University of Toulouse an eminent professor who has powerfully contributed to spread its influence and its fame."

Third Edition. A Text-Book of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. By JOHN GLAISTER, M.D., D. Ph. (Camb.), F.R.S.E. Edinburgh E. & S. Livingstone. 1915. :

This work was originally concerned with Medical Jurisprudence, Toxicology and Public Health. In the second edition, which appeared in 1910, the last subject was omitted and dealt with in a separate volume in order to allow further treatment for the former subjects. In the present edition some chapters have been rearranged, others abbreviated and some extended. A short sketch of the General Medical Council, its duties and statutory power, together with a full account of its final resolutions has been added. The

index has been much improved by additional detail, and the book as a whole brought up to date. As Professor of Forensic Medicine and Public Health in the University of Glasgow, and Senior MedicoLegal Examiner in Crown Cases for Glasgow and Lanarkshire, Dr. Glaister is peculiarly qualified to write on the subjects here discussed. He writes, not only with the authority of a professor, but with that of a specialist, who has been constantly engaged to assist in the detection of crime. Throughout this work Dr. Glaister gives, wherever relevant, the results of his own varied experience. The numerous plates illustrating cases of special interest add much to the value of the book. We are not surprised to hear that this edition has been called for by students and practitioners of both law and medicine at home and abroad.

By

Fourth Edition. The Law of Carriage by Railway. HENRY W. DISNEY, B.A. London: Stevens & Sons. 1915. Since the publication of the third edition of this book in 1912 there has been little change in the law. The work was originally intended for the use of railway men, being the result of the learned Author's lectures delivered at the London School of Economics and Political Science, to students, almost all of whom are in the employment of the great railway companies. In the interests of this class, legal technicalities have been avoided as far as possible. Finding, however, a certain demand for the book from the legal profession, Mr. Disney has tried to make the present edition more useful for legal practitioners by citing a number of additional cases. Short chapters on "Facilities" and "Preference" have been added. These are models of precision and lucidity.

Fifth Edition. Archbold's Lunacy and Mental Deficiency. By J. W. GREIG, K.C., and W. H. GATTIE. London: Butterworth & Co. 1915.

It is just twenty years since the fourth edition of this standard work, edited by the late Mr. S. G. Lushington, appeared. Since 1895 the law relating to lunacy and cognate matters has very naturally undergone a considerable change. New Statutes have been not only numerous but voluminous, and consequently the bulk of the book has been increased. The new Statutes are the Lunacy Acts of 1908 and 1911, the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, the

Asylums Officers' Superannuation Act 1909, and the Lancashire County (Lunatic Asylums) Act 1902. Additional Lord Chancellor's and Commissioners' Rules have been prescribed, and some of the old Rules annulled or modified. The former arrangement of the work has, as far as possible, been maintained. Part I deals with the Lunacy Acts as before. References to the repealed Acts have generally been deleted. Part II is devoted to Criminal Lunacy. With the exception of bringing this portion of the work up to date, it is practically untouched. Part III, which deals with the Mental Deficiency Act, together with the Rules of the Home Secretary and other regulations under the Act, is of course quite new. All the statutory forms, registers, &c., have been revised, and together with the Rules brought up to date, and by a careful examination of recent decisions many doubtful points of construction in the various Statutes have been cleared up. Additional extracts from the Commissioners in Lunacy have been incorporated in the text, and, in some instances, these extracts are accompanied by the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown upon points of law. Above all, the Index has been recast in such a way as to secure more accuracy and rapidity of reference. In short, no pains have been spared either by the Editors or by the Publishers to render this book the most authoritative treatise upon a highly technical branch of the law.

Eleventh Edition. Williams' Bankruptcy. By E. W. HANSELL and M. E. HANSELL. London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1915.

The appearance of a new edition of this standard work within twelve months of the publication of the preceding edition is due to the subsequent passing of the Bankruptcy Act 1914 and the Deeds of Arrangement Act 1914. The former statute, a purely consolidating measure, incorporates the provisions of the Acts of 1883, 1890 and 1913. Some sections, however, of these Acts, relating to disqualifications, executions and administration orders in County Courts, which are not strictly bankruptcy matters, are left unaltered. These, for convenience of reference, are printed at the end of the volume. This Statute, abundantly annotated, together with the Bankruptcy Rules 1915, Bankruptcy Forms, Orders and Regulations, constitutes the major portion of the text. In the Appendix will be found the Debtors Act 1869, as amended, annotated, the Debtors Act 1878, the Bankruptcy Disqualification Act 1871, the Deeds of