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196 196 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. Marketable Title to Real Estate. Being also a Treatise on the Rights and Remedies of Vendors and Purchasers of Defective Titles, including the Law of Covenants for Title, the Doctrine of Specific Performance, and other Kindred Subjects. By Chapman W. Maupin, of the Washington, D. C, Bar. New York : Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1896. 8vo, pp. Ixvii, 850. This is a book with a novel title, largely made up of matter usually found under the heading of Vendor and Purchaser. The special merit claimed for the work is that it treats completely of " the law of title to real property, as that law is applied between vendor and purchaser," containing matter heretofore found scattered under the different heads of Convenants for Title, Specific Performance, Equity Jurisprudence, Deeds, Titles to Real Estate, Real Property, Abstracts of Title, Judicial Sales, Subrogation, etc. The value of such a book, intended solely for refer- ence purposes, depends chiefly on its being constructed on a good sys- tem, thoroughly carried out. Mr. Maupin is systematic in detail as well as in general plan, from the analysis preceding the table of contents to the ample index at the end of the volume. The book is written carefully and clearly, and ought to save the profession considerable work in cases concerning defective titles. r. g. Handbook on the Law of Real Property. By Earl P. Hopkins, A. B., LL. M. St. Paul: West Publishing Co. 1896. (Hornbook Series.) pp. xiv, 652. The author has certainly undertaken a great deal in the attempt to deal with the law of real property so briefly. He says : " This volume is the result of an attempt to put the fundamental rules governing the law of real property into a form as easy of comprehension as possible, and so arranged that investigation of any part may be made with ease, promptness, and certainty." His clear style certainly makes the propo- sitions of law laid down easy of comprehension. The necessary lim- itations of the work are illustrated, however, in the one paragraph devoted to equitable conversion. The text merely serves as a guide to the cases cited in the notes and for further information the reader is referred to several works on equity. The value of this " Hornbook " would seem to lie in the fact that here the busy practitioner may quickly verify his own idea of the law on a matter of ordinary occurrence, or may find his way to the authorities. It seems strange, therefore, that the author should have set himself the additional task of explaining by the historical method what appear to be mere technicalities in the modern law. E. s. Kent's Commentaries on American Law. Fourteenth Edition* Edited by John M. Gould, Ph. D. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1896. This new edition of Kent's Commentaries embodies in full the notes of Mr. Justice Holmes to the twelfth edition, and many of those supplied by Mr. Barnes to the thirteenth. Each set is carefully distinguished from the others. The editor has been most painstaking in bringing the work up to date. To the twenty-four thousand cases cited in the last edition he has added nearly nine thousand. Notwithstanding this, the convenient size of the volumes is not appreciably increased. R. G. d.