Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/682

 672 Reviews of Books libel, consisting of a series of articles published in El Araucano of Santi- ago (January 24 to July 4, 1834, nos. 176-199) by Don Manuel Jose Gandarillas, goes to make up volume XIV. of the series. Many origi- nal documents exceedingly valuable to the historian were inserted in these articles. Each volume in the series is provided only with a brief introduc- tion and an occasional foot-note, but the aim of the publishers is simply to make accessible in convenient form the scattered historical material for the period, and for this every student will be grateful. The volumes are well printed, but they are not supplied with alphabetical indexes. The editors however will no iloubt at the close print a complete alpha- betical index to all the volumes, without which half the usefulness of the collection will be lost to students. Luis M. Perez. Lincoln the Lazvycr. By Frederick Trevor Hill. (New York: The Century Company. 1906. Pp. xviii, 332.) This is a book which would be interesting to any one; to a lawyer its interest is absorbing. In a manner and to a degree not attempted by any other biographer of Lincoln, Mr. Hill undertakes to determine and estimate Lincoln's character as a lawyer, and especially to point out, if not to emphasize, the extent to which his career as President was influenced by his experience and training at the bar. In the first direction Mr. Hill has undoubtedly rendered a conspicuous and im- portant service. In a picturesque and graphic manner he portrays the social and economic conditions of the country, and the character of the bench an(} bar of Illinois, when Lincoln was admitted to the ranks of the profession in 1836. From that time Mr. Hill, with a sympathy and an insight inspired by his own professional experience, traces Lincoln's progress as a lawyer through a period of twenty-three years until, by the loyal and untiring support of his professional associates, " the leader of the Illinois bar and the idol of the Eighth Circuit " was declared the choice of the Republican convention at Chicago. When we take into consideration the nature of Mr. Lincoln's legal training and the circumstances and conditions under which he prac- tised; when we have made allowances for his numerous digressions into the field of politics, we cannot fail to be impressed with the conviction that his career as a lawyer was not only a creditable but a remarkable one. Thus in 1845 — "i"^ years after his admission to the bar — Lincoln appeared in twenty-three cases before the Supreme Court of Illinois. In the same year, for example, Lyman Trumbull — who, however, was admitted one year later than Lincoln — had nine cases. " In his twenty- three years at the bar," says Mr. Hill (pp. 248-250), "Lincoln had no less than one hundred and seventy-two cases before the highest court of Illinois, a record unsurpassed by his contemporaries; he ap- peared before the United States circuit and district courts with great frequency; he was the most indefatigable attendant on the Eighth