Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 2.djvu/209

 REVIEWS. igi

REVIEWS.

The Conflict of Judicial Decisions. By William H. Bailey. Baltimore : M. Curlander. i vol. 8vo. Ixxxvii and 445 pages. 1888.

This book is based upon a good idea, namely, the endeavor to state in a compact form the views held in the different States of this country and in England upon the more important of the many undecided points of law upon which there is still conflict, with a full citation of authori- ties, arranged by States, and short notes and suggestions by the author. The subjects treated embrace such familiar topics as : Alteration of In- struments ; Comparison of Handwriting ; Sunday Contracts ; Intensity of Proof; Limitations; Separate Estate of Married Women, and Rail- way Law; with about twice the number of less important subjects. The scheme of the work indicates its field of usefulness to the prac- titioner engaged in studying one of these doubtful questions, upon which the various authorities have hitherto been widely scattered and are now for the first time collected in one volume. It is also eminently useful in looking up the law of another State upon any one of these subjects. It seems to be, what the author trusts it may prove, " a time- saver in the search for the law."

The book, being based ^ on so good an idea, is a fairly good book ; it might be better. The execution of the idea is not equal to the idea itself.

The introductory notes and comments by the author are short, sug- gestive, and to the point. The foot-notes are, we regret to say, some- what marred by such occasional specimens of quasi- wit as the following comment upon a case of Sunday contract : " This case operates as a warning to those who follow the habit of our great dead captain, in always buying their Sunday cigars the night before. The court, though, with a ' charity that passeth all understanding/ holds that an innkeeper, or, according to the fashionable American nomenclature, hotellist, may, in conjunction with his business, keep open a cigar stand on Sunday ! As a smokist we admire, as a lawyer we hold our peace." Such wit, if wit it be, is decidedly out of place in a law-book designed for the use of practitioners.

This book is designed as an eminently practical book, if anything. Two or three criticisms should therefore be made upon its construction.

First : the index is poor. An extreme example of its sometimes erratic logical subdivisions is the fact that the relations of a crew to the master of a vessel is found indexed under the heading of "Railway Law." The question as to whether various employees are fellow-ser- vants is scattered in a most confusing manner through this whole subject of " Railway Law," instead of being grouped under one sub- division of fellow-servants. Second : the arrangement of cases is sin- gularly bad. There is no pretence of following chronological order, the cases in each State being thrown together in a haphazard way, which renders it necessary Jto read through the entire note in order to find the latest case on any subject. Third : it does not seem necessary to cite every case in each State upon any given point, as the author has done, making the book unnecessarily large. A little extra care ex- pended by him in selecting the later cases which contain reference to