Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/415

399 LEADING ARTICLES IN EXCHANGES. 399 . REVIEWS. Forms in Conveyancing, and General Legal Forms, comprising Precedents for Ordinary Use, and Clauses adapted to Special and Un- usual Cases, with Practical Notes. Second Edition, Revised. By Leonard A. Jones. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Cambridge, Mass. 1891. 8vo. 940 pages. The name of this well-known writer is of itself a sufficient guaranty of accurate, painstaking discrimination, and the obligation appears to be as amply discharged in this as in his other works. The first edition of this particular book, which appeared five years ago, seemed a very unique undertaking ; but the favor with which it has been received by the profession everywhere has shown that the author is not wrong in the opinion which he thus expresses in the prefatory note to the present edition : "I am assured that a Book of Forms may be national in char- acter and use, though in this country such a book has commonly been regarded as a local one." The selection of forms seems excellent in every way ; their language is at once brief and comprehensive, leaving but few loopholes for dis- cussion. The topics of the present edition are : Acknowledgments, Agreements, Appointments, Apprenticeship, Arbitration, Assignments, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors, Powers of Attorney, Auction Sale of Real Estate, Bills of Sale, Bonds, Building Contracts, Charter Party, Composition with Creditors, Declarations of Trust,* Deeds, Guaranty, Leases, Mortgages, Mortgages of Railroads, Notices, Partner- ship, Party-Wall Agreements, Patents, Pledges and Collateral Securities, Protests,'* Railroad Car Trust Agreements,"* Railroad Consolidation, Re- leases, Separation Deeds between Husband and Wife, Settlements, Trade-Marks, Wills. The starred topics are new with this edition, as are also notes, adapted to the several States, upon the subjects of Witnesses to Deeds, Seals, Dower and Curtesy, Homestead Exemptions, Dower and Homestead Releases, Competency of Testators as to Age, and Witnesses to Wills. What is most to be regretted is that the author has not devised some means of indicating, at not too great an expense of space, what forms have run the gauntlet of judicial opinion, and what ones still remain unadjudicated expedients. It is believed that this might be done to advantage by the addition of brief notes, or the citation of a few leading cases here and there upon questions of construction. The latter feature is entirely absent, the references being exclusively to statutes. But, after all, this handy compilation fills so admirably what was before such a serious want, especially among younger lawyers, that one cannot find the heart to quarrel with Mr. Jones as to the best method of execution. W. B. LEADING ARTICLES IN EXCHANGES. The Green Bag. Vol. 3. Boston Book Co. No. 2. David Dudley Field, with portrait (Irving Browne). Curiosities of Bracton (W. W. Edwards). The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, II. (Owen Wister). Henry Billings Brown. The Courts of Love. Witchcraft in the Nine- teenth Century.