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students and justices of the peace has not led him to admit a greater proportion of technicality than most intelligent laymen will care for; they are not bound, however, to read all the quotations. In substance the exposition appears to be sound and accurate. If we must find something to criticize, we do not like the application of the word 'authority' to the works of living writers on the law.

Oxford B. H. Blackwell.

Dante as a Jurist. By JAMES WILLIAMS. London Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. 1906. 8vo. Four leaves unnumbered and 72 pp.-A learned and pleasing monograph, in which Dr. Williams not only enumerates the legal passages and allusions in Dante's great poem, and the names of the lawyers and legislators whose various fates are described, but analyses the argument of the De Monarchia, a book which has comparatively few readers but is most interesting to students of medieval thought. Dr. Williams is far too good a scholar to maintain any paradoxical thesis, or to see a miracle in the fact that Dante, being an exceptionally studious and accomplished layman, knew a good deal of law. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century it would have been strange if such a layman, in Italy of all countries, had known less. The legal point of view, however, is rare among Dante commentators and will be novel to most readers even if they are lawyers, and the learned writer appears to have left no relevant source of information unexamined. One unlucky misprint makes him say in the note on p. 4 that with Virgil 'justice [7. injustice] was a contempt of heaven. As a rule, considering the number of Latin quotations and foreign words, the printing is creditable.

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Self-governing Colonies: a lecture delivered before the Tasmania University Union on May 1st, 1906. By D. G. MCDOUGALL, Professor of Law and Modern History in the University of Tasmania. Hobart, Tasmania : J. Walch & Sons. 1906. 8vo. 22 pp. This interesting tract comes only just in time for notice. Mr. McDougall's conclusion is that Great Britain and her self-governing colonies form a group of independent kingdoms under a common ruler-the tie of common allegiance being further cemented by a defensive but not necessarily offensive alliance. But the alliance at present existing depends on understandings only, and it is rapidly becoming a serious question whether these should not be transmuted into clear, written, hard and fast conditions.' It seems to us that the first thing is to secure full information and effective discussion of matters touching the common interest; at present the states of the British Empire have not adequate means of communication and co-operation. When that is done we shall be better able to see whether written covenants are wanted, or peradventure the future constitution of the Empire, like the present one of the United Kingdom, may be better founded on understandings ripened into custom than on any formulated rules.

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Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation. Edited for the Society by Sir JOHN MACDONELL, C.B. and EDWARD MANSON. New Series. No. XV. London: John Murray. 1906. (58. net.)-This number contains A Biographical Notice (with portrait) of Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court, U.S., by R. Newton Crane, and articles on Imperial Conference-or Council?' by Sir Thomas Raleigh, K.C.S.I.; Corps de Droit Ottoman,' by Sir Roland Wilson, Bart.; The Passport System, by N. W. Sibley; RomanDutch Law, by Frederic Mackarness, M.P.; Divorce and Public Order in Italy, by Torquato C. Giannini; Law and Taxation in Northern Nigeria, by Albert Gray, K.C.; a Review of Legislation, 1904, and some twenty pages of notes. Bb

VOL. XXII.

The Law of Aliens and Naturalization, including the text of the Aliens Act, 1905. By H. S. Q. HENRIQUES. London: Butterworth & Co. 1906. La. 8vo. xviii, 230, and 12 pp. This treatise contains an admirable exposition of the history and present state of the law as to the rights and disabilities of aliens, as to naturalization and denization, and as to the legal position of naturalized subjects; the operation of the Aliens Act, 1905, is also fully described. The book is written in a very attractive and readable style, and will be found useful by persons interested in the political aspects of the questions which it discusses, as well as by practical lawyers.

Traité de la Location des Coffres-Forts. Par M. JULES VALERY. Paris: Albert Fontemoing. 1905. 8vo. 151 pp.- This book discusses-from the point of view of French law-the nature and effect of the agreement usually entered upon between a Safe Deposit Company or a similar establishment and a customer who hires a safe remaining in the custody of such establishment, but of which the key is delivered to the hirer.

Kelly's Draftsman, containing a Collection of Concise Precedents and Forms in Conveyancing. Fifth Edition. By LEONARD H. WEST and S. B. SCOTT. London Butterworth & Co. 1906. 8vo. xxiii, 640 and 30 pp. (158.)-The Preface states that this edition has been brought up to date by the embodiment of the alterations made by the Land Transfer Rules of December, 1903, and by the addition of new Forms and Notes, while some Forms given in previous editions are now omitted. Practitioners will find in this work a number of useful miscellaneous precedents, many of them not accessible elsewhere.

The Law Association of Philadelphia: addresses delivered March 13, 1902, and papers prepared or republished to commemorate the centennial celebration of the Law Association of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia [1906]. La. 8vo. vii and 462 pp. [Many portraits.]-This book is carefully, indeed beautifully produced, and gives pleasing glimpses of Pennsylvanian life in the colonial and early revolutionary days. Its interest is too local and personal to admit of detailed review in a journal occupied with the science of the law in general; nor would it be easy to find a competent reviewer on this side of the Atlantic.

The Overseer's Handbook . . . By WILLIAM W. MACKENZIE and HENRY J. COMYNS. Sixth Edition. London: Shaw & Son; Butterworth & Co. 1906. 8vo. xxxi, 502 and 113 pp. (58. net.)—This is a cheap and comprehensive guide to the duties of overseers, rate-collectors and other parish officers. Several chapters in this edition have been re-written, and the work is generally brought up to date.

The Elements of Jurisprudence. By THOMAS ERSKINE HOLLAND, K.C. Tenth Edition. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press; London and New York : Henry Frowde. 1906. 8vo. xxv and 443 pp. (10s. 6d.)

The Law of Banking, with an Appendix on the Law of Stock Exchange Transactions. By HEBER HART. Second Edition. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. 1906. La. 8vo. cvii and 1119 pp. (30s.)-Review will follow.

The Agricultural Holdings Acts, 1883-1890, with Explanatory Notes and General Forms. By AUBREY JOHN SPENCER. Third Edition. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. 1906. 8vo. xix and 180 pp. (78. 6d. net.)

Tudor's Charitable Trusts. Fourth Edition.

By L. S. BRISTOWE,

a Judge of the High Court of the Transvaal, CECIL A. HUNT and HALFORD G. BURDETT. London Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. La. 8vo. Ixxiv and 1339 pp. (£2 58. net.)-Review will follow.

Manual of Licensing Applications. By DAVID LIVESEY. Butterworth & Co.; Shaw & Sons. 1906. 8vo. xiii and 114 pp.

London:

A Practical Guide to the Death Duties and to the Preparation of Death Duty Accounts. By CHARLES BEATTY. London Effingham Wilson. 1906. 8vo. xii and 170 pp. (48. net.)

The Practitioner's Guide to the duties of Executors and Administrators. Third Edition. Revised and corrected by J. F. C. BENNETT and E. J. EADES. London Waterlow, Bros., and Layton, Lim. 1906. La. 8vo. XXXV, 367 and cccxlii pp. (158. net.)

The Trade Marks Act, 1905, with notes, cross-references, and a commentary, and the Rules, Forms, &c. By D. M. KERLY and F. G. UNDERHAY. London Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. 1906. La. 8vo. XV and 255 pp. (68. net.)

The Outlines of Evidence and Procedure in an action in the King's Bench Division. For the use of Students. By A. M. WILSHERE. London: Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. 1906. 8vo. xvi and 167 pp. (68.)

A Guide to Criminal Law and Procedure, intended for the use of Students for the Bar Final and for the Solicitors' Final Examinations. By CHARLES THWAITES. Seventh Edition. London George Barber. 1906. 8vo. xii and 208 pp. (108.)

POLLOCK, assisted by 0. A.
Vol. LXXXII. 1848-1850.

Rates and Taxes: a Practical Guide. By E. M. KONSTAM. London: Butterworth & Co. 1906. 8vo. xxiv, 168 and 42 pp. (58. net.) The Revised Reports. Edited by Sir F. SAUNDERS, J. G. PEASE, and A. B. CANE. (7 Hare; 9 Common Bench; 5 Exchequer; 7 Dowling & Lowndes; 1 and 2 Bail Court Reports.) London Sweet & Maxwell, Lim.; Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown & Co. 1906. La. 8vo. xv and 988 pp.

Best's Principles of Evidence. Tenth Edition. By J. M. LELY. London: Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. 1906. La. 8vo. xxvi and 623 pp. (258.)—

Review will follow.

The Institutes of Justinian, translated into English with an index, by J. B. MOYLE, D.C.L. Fourth Edition. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.

1906. 8vo. viii and 220 pp.

The Editor cannot undertake the return or safe custody of MSS.
sent to him without previous communication.

His address is 13 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, not Oxford.

LAW QUARTERLY

REVIEW.

No. LXXXVIII. October, 1906.

IN

NOTES.

THE LATE PROFESSOR LANGDELL.

N common with our American brethren we deplore the loss of Prof. Christopher Columbus Langdell, who died at Cambridge, Mass., on the 6th of July, at the age of eighty. We take the following account of his work and method from an article signed by Prof. Wambaugh of Harvard in the New York Nation of July 12:

'It was not until 1870, when he had reached the age of fortyfour, that he found his great opportunity. In that year he became Dane Professor of Law and Dean of the Law Faculty of Harvard University; and from that time until now there has been a Langdell system of study, and to describe or attack or defend that system has been one of the most frequent undertakings of law students and of law teachers. For a generation, no professor's name has been more widely known. Lately the discussions have been less heated, and perhaps less numerous than formerly; but even now the question most often and most pressingly asked as to any law school is whether it uses the Langdell system. Professor Langdell himself spent no time in disputation. He simply devised the system, used it, and was content to let results test the correctness of his theory.

'To introduce a new system of study at the Harvard Law School in 1870 was an act of great bravery. The school had been in existence for half a century. It was in great repute. Its professors had produced treatises which had held, and still hold, a high place in the esteem of the profession. Even laymen have heard of the works of Story, Greenleaf, Parsons and Washburn. Their productions have been largely the fruit of class-room lectures. By the method of instruction then current the student listened to lectures and read treatises; and in order that the task might not be merely the memorizing of generalizations made by the lecturer

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