Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/406

 396 Reviews of Books no adequate abstract of the trials nor even of the charges made. The history of the law authorizing actions for injuries causing death would have been better had it contained a citation of the English decisions hold- ing that no such action could be maintained at common law, with an abstract of the technical reasoning upon which they were supported. The notes upon the section of the constitution disqualifying members of the legislature from election to the position of United States senator fail to cite the case of Lyman Trumbull, where the Senate of the United States held that a law of the state of Illinois, which disqualified certain persons from eligibility to that house, should not be followed (Senate Election Cases, lySp-ipo^, 58 Cong., Spec. Sess., Sen. Doc. 11, p. 232). No reference is made to the action of the legislature in 1799 in reference to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, when it was re- solved by each house " that they deemed it a duty explicitly to declare their incompetency as a branch of the legislature of this State, to super- vise the acts of the general government." The decisions upon the power of the legislature over local officers are not analyzed nor explained sufficiently to make the book of much use to a person interested upon this question, which is constantly arising. There is no reference to an article upon this point in the Albany Lav.' Journal for 1894 (vol. 50, pp. 349-359) ; nor, so far as the present writer can discover, to any article in any periodical upon any subject. And there are many upon points affecting the New York constitution. The controversy over the Metropolitan Police act, giving the governor power to appoint the police in New York City and some adjoining counties, is not mentioned ; nor the fact that the decision which by a divided court upheld that law (People ex rel. Wood v. Draper, 15 N. Y. 532) has been severely criticized (e. g., Bolton v. Alberson, 65 N. Y. 50, 54). There is no description of the causes and author of the amendments to Article III., sec. 18, subdivision 15, recommended by the convention of 1867 and the commission of 1872, adopted in 1874; which forbids the construction of a street railroad without the consent of local author- ities and that of one-half the frontagers, or, in case of the refusal of the latter, the consent of the Appellate Division, formerly the General Term, of the Supreme Court. There is no account of the legislation, and a very inadequate citation of the decisions upon this important section which affects so many million dollars of investments. The collection of authorities on what constitutes a private or local bill is insufficient. It omits Matter of Church, 92 N. Y. I. and People ex rel. N. Y. Electric Lines Co. i'. Squire, 107 N. Y. 593, in which the court of appeals nullified the constitutional inhibition of passing local bills in certain cases ; although those decisions are cited upon other points. The author should not perhaps be criticized for his exercise of tiie usual law-book writer's license in citing in his notes obiter dicta as decisions. Attention should however be called to the erroneous state-