problems of economic, political, and legal history. For several reasons, among which we must count with regret the complete indifference of most English lawyers to the history of our own institutions, the progress of research has been rather one-sided for the last ten or twelve years, and the economists have perhaps had things a little too much their own way. Whereas our law-books used to treat the judicial aspect of the manor as if it were the only one that called for attention, or did not, even for lawyers, require to be elucidated by reference to the working economy of the rural community, some ingenious writers have lately gone into the other extreme, so that an inquiring stranger might without any great negligence peruse their works and fail to discover that the manor had any definite standing among legal institutions. Mr. Vinogradoff has done much to show the way to due and equitable recognition of both elements; and Mr. Andrews, though he professes to be in the first place a historian of social economy, has now achieved considerable success in holding the balance even between the formal and the practical view of the subject. His book will be profitable to students of legal as well as of economical development.

We likewise find here-perhaps for the first time in an English booka deliberate judgment on the state of the 'village community' question in the light of such recent examinations of the facts as have been made by Mr. Seebohm and Mr. Vinogradoff, and (on more or less similar ground, though not with specific reference to England) by Fustel de Coulanges. Dr. Andrews may be claimed, I think, as a supporter of the opinion which has been more than once expressed in this REVIEW. He is not by any means persuaded that the time is come to throw away Kemble and Von Maurer; he is willing to learn from all quarters, but in the main he goes with Mr. Vinogradoff and Mr. Kovalevsky rather than with Fustel de Coulanges and Mr. Seebohm. Certain exaggerations, due to the following of the masters without sufficient first-hand work and verification, have doubtless been rightly checked. The Teutonic village community can no longer be taken as a political model for English or German citizens of a constitutional monarchy, or for the republican English of America. We must believe that it was much more of a clan than we were taught some twenty years ago, and we may not believe that the commanding position of lords and chieftains was due to backsliding from primeval equality. But this, as I have pointed out myself, is really what Caesar and Tacitus have been telling us from the first, if we are content to take their words as they stand. It by no means follows that everybody who was not a lord was a slave or the next thing to a slave, or that the agricultural peculiarities of the common-field system have to do with the servile condition of the occupiers. Modern Germans have probably read more meanings into 'folc' and its compounds than ever they had in living Anglo-Saxon; for example, I believe the folk-peace' which has crept into one or two English textbooks to be wholly imaginary. But it does not follow that an Anglo-Saxon king was despotic in his kingdom, or that a lord's power within his own bounds was not effectively tempered in many things by custom. Not that an effective custom, in a society where there is little writing, not much sense of dates, and no tyranny of caste or priestly tribe, must needs be ancient. The fertility and flexibility of secular and even religious customs, in favourable conditions, has perhaps never been adequately allowed for. Something, I think, is to be learnt from schoolboys in this matter, as witness another Johns Hopkins publication on the rudimentary society of a school in Maryland, noticed here some years ago. This line of speculation, however, is hardly germane to Dr. Andrews's matter.

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Dr. Andrews hardly ever makes conjectures on his own account, and is generally a safe guide. He would have escaped one small puzzle (p. 91, note 1, on Bede's possessio bócland) if he had remembered that Teutonic law knows nothing of the Roman dominium, and that in the official Latin of Western clerks down to the Carolingian period the highest possible degree of ownership is regularly expressed by possessio or potestas and their cognate words. F. P.

The Theory and Practice of Private International Law. By L. VON Bar. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Translated by G. R. GILLESPIE. 1892. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. La. 8vo. xlvi and 1162 pp.

PROFESSOR L. VON BAR's work on Private International Law was first published in 1862, the first English translation, that by Mr. Gillespie, appearing in 1883. Dr. Bar published his second edition in 1889, and is followed by Mr. Gillespie at a much shorter interval-a demonstration of the author's repute and of the increased importance of this department of law. The present book is rather a new treatise than a new edition, One subject-international criminal law-formerly included, is now omitted, but, on the other hand, not only are upwards of half a hundred pages given to 'copyright' and 'industrial property,' before unnoticed, but the residue, and more particularly nationality,' commercial law, including maritime law, and the subjects of territorial waters and extra-territoriality are discussed with completeness of detail where before there was but little more than a bare principle.

That portion of the work which relates to copyright, patents, trademarks, designs, trade-names, and merchandise marks is peculiarly interesting as, examining the clauses of the international conventions in the light. of previous continental opinions and decisions, it will, as English cases on the construction of the statutes and Orders in Council increase, enable the curious to appreciate the practical working of such treaties, the language of which, frequently drawn to meet continental understandings of the laws comes to be interpreted by English judges with the aid of precedent, establishing what it is possible that Professor von Bar might designate as arbitrary rules with arbitrary exceptions.

For purposes of the application of law in England, the perusal of the Seventh Book-the Law of Obligations-will afford the most instruction. Here the author comes nearer to English principles than elsewhere, and also treats, at a length by no means disproportionate to the value of the matter, some questions as to which English authority is scarce. It is to be remarked that Professor von Bar maintains that, in certain circumstances, compliance with the law which governs its substance ought to be sufficient for the form of a contract. English law has gone much further than that as to the execution of testamentary instruments, and if, in matters of contract, we adhere too strictly to the maxim 'locus regit actum,' there may arise, when much business is done hurriedly, much by travellers, much by telegram and telephone, a danger of the sacrifice of substantial justice to a rule useful as a general rule, but not of convenient application to all facts, and difficult to defend on principle apart from authority.

A paragraph and note at page 1068 suggest the reflection that if the ingenuity of mechanical engineers solves the problem of making aerial navigation practicable, lawyers may have to exercise themselves with some pretty points.

Mr. Gillespie's translation of the earlier edition is the best comment on the like difficult and laborious task which he has performed in respect of the present issue. The notes, appended in square brackets, in the same place and type as the text, are primarily intended for Scottish lawyers, but will be found of considerable use in England, notwithstanding a tendency to omit recent cases.

It is suggested to the editor that he might, perhaps, devise a more convenient plan for separating the text of the author from his own comment, in five places (pp. 290, 336, 771, 1125 and 1129), besides a sixth noted in the errata, there is a bracket omitted either at the beginning or end of a note, or entirely, and there may be more. Apart from accidents of that sort, it would be difficult for one consulting the book casually, and under pressure as to time, to ascertain what was text and what note.

If the learned reader buys this book he will have his reward when he has read it. H. N.

The Scottish Poor Laws. By R. P. LAMOND. Glasgow: Wm. Hodge & Co. 1892. 8vo. xvi and 398 pp.

THIS is something more than a mere law-book. It contains indeed sufficient information upon the various points with which the Courts have had to deal in relation to the poor; but the author further enters fully into the whole subject of the administration of the poor-laws, and brings much information to bear upon the discussion of questions of legislation.

To those familiar only with the English Poor Laws, it will perhaps be a surprise to learn that it is still the law in Scotland-a point of law not long ago settled by the highest authority on appeal to the House of Lords— that the able-bodied pcor with their families have no right to relief out of the rates; and further that the persons who administer the funds under the poor-laws have no discretion to apply any part of the funds to the relief of the able-bodied. This was a principle of which the authorities of a now past generation-notably Dr. Chalmers were very tenacious. Whether it can be long maintained under modern conditions, and perhaps less sturdy modern sentiments, is a question to which the author contributes some interesting suggestions.

In two concluding chapters, which will well repay the perusal, the author adverts to the problem of the limits of State interference, discusses various modern schemes for State-aided pensions and the like, and considers the true functions of charity in relation to the poor law.

R. C.

A Treatise on the Principles of the Law of Compensation. By C. H. CRIPPS, Q.C. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. 1892. Third Edition. 8vo. lxiii and 532 pp. (208.)

SINCE the second edition of this work was issued in 1884, three important legal events in connection with its subject have happened. The Arbitration Act (1889) has been passed; the Stockport case, 33 L. J., Q. B. 251, has been affirmed by the House of Lords in Cowper Essex v. Acton Local Board, 14 App. Cas. 153; and the Parliamentary Deposits and Bonds Act (1892) has been passed. The Arbitration Act has been remarkably well worked in, but Mr. Cripps has unhappily refrained from commenting generally on sect. 24, which applies the provision of that Act except so far as they are

inconsistent with the Lands Clauses Act, though he lays down, and we think correctly, on a particular point, that the Court or a Judge would probably not apply the 12th section of the Act in any case in which there is a bona fide question raised either as to the right to claim compensation, or as to the title of the claimant. The Cowper Essex case is also treated very well, our author merely stating its effect with becoming brevity, and sparing us any dissertations upon the curious conflict of judicial opinion as to the correctness of the Stockport case, which lasted for nearly thirty years.

On the Parliamentary Bonds and Deposits Act, 1892, we have not a word. This is of course excusable, as the date of the Act synchronizes with that of Mr. Cripps' preface. But though it may not have been worth while to keep back the book in order to include the Act, we think the omission to notice the long existing Parliamentary Standing Orders which it has turned into statute law is somewhat of a defect. The next chapter, treating of 'modifications of the Lands Clauses Acts,' by the Allotments and other Acts-including the Small Holdings Act, 1892 (wrongly cited as the Small Agricultural Holdings Act) would have been just the place for a notice of the Standing Orders on which the Parliamentary Bonds and Deposits Act is founded.

Beyond doubt, however, we have here a good book, well edited. We learn from the preface that some chapters have been to a great extent re-written, and that Mr. W. F. Craies has helped the author throughout in the preparation of the present edition. There is a full table of cases with references to all the reports, and a good collection of forms, which are as many as sixty in number. The Lands Clauses Acts, together with selections from the Housing of the Working Classes Act, are printed in the Appendix, and we are glad to observe that the preamble to the parent Act of 1845, so senselessly repealed for Statute Law Revision purposes, has been retained.

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The Law of Horses. By D. Ross STEWART. Edinburgh: W. Green & Sons. 1892. 8vo. xx and 280 pp. WHEN Dr. Johnson defined oats as the food of men in Scotland and horses in England, Lord Elibank added, And where will you find finer men and finer horses?' Scotland, like Ithaca, is more famous for its men than its horses, yet we have only to glance through Mr. Stewart's work to see how large a body of law even in Scotland may grow up around a useful quadruped that like the horse figures in so many relations of life—that may be bought and sold, and hired and hypothecated, and sent by sea and land, and insured, and vivisected, and finally eaten under statutory conditions. In treating these matters Mr. Stewart has produced a really model textbook, well arranged, exact, exhaustive, concise, and clear, improved by all the mechanical aids of good paper, clear type, and conspicuous catch-words. Last, not least, all the cases are dated. Allowing for technical terms of Scotch law there is little difference between the substantive law in Scotland and England. A hirer of a horse in Scotland, however, had better remember that if the horse is injured while in his possession the burden is on him to prove that it was not his fault; also that if he hires a horse for a ride on the road he must not take it for a gallop in a grass field (Seton v. Paterson, 1880, 8 R. 236).

Travellers should note that a Scotch smith is not bound like an English smith to shoe a horse which is brought to him. A buyer too must beware of buying a stolen horse in Scotland: for in such a case the 'vitium reale'

follows the horse into the hands of even a purchaser for value in market overt in fact the buyer cannot be too wide awake, for whatever else the countries may differ in they are alike in the frailty that attends, horse bargains. It is to be feared that this was an early as it certainly is a later British characteristic, for do we not find Cicero writing 'Tu qui caeteris cavere didicisti, in Britannia ne ab essedariis decipiaris caveto?' The horse, it must be admitted, himself encourages frauds by his susceptibility to all sorts of complaints, latent and patent-complaints which the enterprising horse-dealer is obliged to disguise by gingering' and 'plugging and pegging' and 'bishoping,' and other questionable arts. It is here we come upon the most material difference between the English and Scotch law. In England a warranty is a collateral contract, in Scotland it is an essential condition forming part of the contract for sale. Hence the Scotch buyer with a warranty of soundness cannot keep the horse with an abatement of the price. His only remedy is return.

The veterinary slang incident to this topic (and no blame to Mr. Stewart) is at times puzzling, especially when mixed with racy Scotticisms. We know, for instance, what is a roup, from recollections of Guy Mannering, but what is a 'slump price' and a 'white bonnet,' unless it is a puffer at an auction? Perhaps in a second edition of his excellent book Mr. Stewart will give us a glossary.

The Contract of Sale in the Civil Law with references to the Laws of England, Scotland and France. By J. B. MOYLE. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1892. 8vo. xiii and 271 pp. (108. 6d.)

The Roman Law of Sale with modern illustrations. Digest XVIII. 1 and XIX. I translated with notes and references to Cases and the Sale of Goods Bill. By JAMES MACKINTOSH. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1892. 8vo. xv and 272 pp.

THE first of these books is written by the learned editor of the Institutes of Justinian. The 'experiment,' as he modestly calls it, is a very successful attempt to expound the law of Sale as laid down in the Corpus Iuris for the benefit of English lawyers. The general scheme of the book is to discuss the civil law in the text, and to point out the analogies with, and the differences from, English, Scotch and French law in the notes. The author is evidently a well-read and accomplished lawyer; his style is charming and his statement of the law is accurate.

The notes in the second of these books are intended to obviate the want of logical sequence in the discussion of topics in the Digest, and contain not only explanations adapted to the use of students of the Civil Law but useful comparisons of the Civil with the English and Scotch Law. We may safely congratulate the author on the accuracy and skill with which he has performed his task.

Students in the Inns of Court are compelled to pass an examination in Civil Law. To many of them this is most distasteful; the time that they spend in learning Civil Law seems to them to be lost; they do not see the connection between Civil and English Law. The student, however, who reads either of these books will find that while he learns Civil Law he also learns English Law.

These books bring out very clearly one of the fundamental differences between English and Civil Law, namely, that there are comparatively few technical terms in English Law. We distinguish between Emptio generis,'