Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/114

98 98 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. sion of principles. A vast number of cases are cited to support the text, and they are well arranged in connection with the propositions. The laborious research of the author in this direction is shown by the fact that his table of cases cited covers in itself one hundred and eighty-seven pages. The book will be of less value to students than to the profession. The great scope of the work, treating as it does on chattel mortgages, involuntary and judicial sales, auction sales, sales by agents and personal representatives, and the rights of bona fide purchasers, besides the usual matters, shows that there is no room for a thorough discussion of prin- ciples. It is distinctly a book for the profession, and fills a want that has for some time been growing more noticeable. It will not compete with the work of Benjamin, nor render that able treatise less necessary, when a careful examination of principles is required. It is rather an addition to the whole subject, and valuable because it throws light on the law of sales in this country. D. T. D. Documents Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution. By Wil- liam Houston, M.A. Carswell & Co. Toronto. 1891. 8vo. Pages 338- This is a collection in one volume of the documents which contain the Constitution of the Dominion of Canada, and illustrate its historical de- velopment. If to reprint a number of these old Acts and Conventions, and accompany them with historical information and references in the form of notes, appears either no very difficult thing to do, or a thing of uncertain value when done, it must be said that the result is a book which a person who studies or teaches Canadian constitutional history cannot afford to neglect. French documents are given little place, for it is the editor's belief that one following the true line of development of the Cana- dian constitution is led back, not to the French regime in Canada, but to the colonial government of what is now the United States. The needs of students of political and legal science in universities and law schools are held primarily in view in the scheme of this work ; but it also presents facts which men who are not specialists, but who care for history, wish to have at command. Especially noteworthy groups of trea- ties are those relating to extradition and to the fisheries stipulations with France and the United States. W. F. P. Wills and Intestate Succession. By James Williams. London : Adam & Charles Black. 1891. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. i2mo. pp. xii and 284. Cloth. Price $1.50. This little volume is the first of a series of similar text-books upon other branches of the law, to be edited by well-known members of the English bar. The aim is to present in a compendious form the history, devel- opment, and practical bearing of modern principles of law. As a neatly condensed summary of the law of wills and intestate succession, this little book will doubtless ably fulfill its mission. The space allotted to the work does not permit of that exhaustive treatment for which the practising lawyer naturally prefers the larger text-books ; but as a handy little reference- book, it may be found useful even by the profession. It is intended, how- ever, more particularly for students and laymen. J. G. K.